Listen for the Click

A unique part of this culture is a sound that everyone here makes to show approval and agreement. It is a clicking sound, made by clicking the back of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. I usually hear women doing it, especially during prayer when they agree with something someone just prayed. But it has been a real help as I have taught my class to Sunday school teachers. When I am explaining something and I hear a click, I know that they got it! If I don't hear a click and see confused looks, I know to re-explain it. It makes it very helpful to know if the students understand. Unfortunately, if you here a whole bunch of clicks together, it means disapproval. Thankfully, I haven't heard that in my class!

An Gama- It's Finished

I have been teaching a twelve week course for African Sunday school teachers, which has kept me very busy, hence not posting very much on this blog lately. But it is finally coming to an end, a fact that makes my weary brain very happy. I have spent the last several weeks demonstrating Bible lessons, visual aids, and evangelism techniques to my class which has been helpful for them, since now they must demonstrate in class. But it has been a lot of work for me to prepare. Now that I can sit back and watch them demonstrate, it is a relief, although it makes me nervous to watch my students and wonder, “Did I teach them correctly?” I will be very happy when we finish, both to see my students use the material in their own teaching (hopefully) and to take a much needed break!

Hausa phrase for the day: An gama (it's finished)

Flight of the Mosquito

Rainy season ended here a few months ago, but it seems that now all the mosquitos have suddenly multiplied. I always thought when the weather got dry, they would go away, but now they are here in droves! They usually come out in the evening, and no matter what I do, I can't seem to keep them out of the house. Being a country where malaria is a big health risk, I am very cautious about mosquitos. Friday evenings, our “movie night” in the mission community (which only consists of three of us) now provides two types of entertainment: a movie and a rousing game of “catch the mosquito”! It happens like this. We will be watching a movie quietly and one of us will see a mosquito fly by. With a sudden movement, that person will fly out of their seat and lung at the mosquito, try to smash the mosquito between their hands. Unsuccessful, they will sink back into the chair, while the next person who sees the mosquito repeats the same actions until one of us catches it (which is a rare occurrence). We try to be conservative in this game when watching a movie so that we don't disturb the others or interrupt the movie too much. But after the movie, if we see a mosquito, chaos is likely to break out with each of us lunging across the room, flailing our arms, swinging hand towels, and leaping over furniture all in an effort to catch one tiny little bug. A possibly malaria-carrying bug, mind you. We end up laughing so hard at one another that it has become more entertaining than the movie itself! I think sometimes we just try to out-do each other in our great lengths to end the flight of the mosquito!