June news

How does one start to learn a new language without the benefits of language classes?

This is the problem we are learning to solve. Of course, we do not have it as tough as the pioneers missionaries who had to sometimes even create a written language for the people they were with.
David told a lady working at Telekom that he was trying to learn the language.

She said “No problem, just get an Oshiwambo girlfriend.” Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not an option, but one can see how practical it could be! A 24 hour a day language helper!

The first missionary to Namibia, Heinrich Schmelen, did just that. He built a little mission station when he came to Namibia c.1812.but the Nama were nomads and he kept ‘losing’ his flock when they went off to better grazing. So he married a Nama woman and became a Nomad with them for 12 years. This is truly what some people call the “incarnational model”. It is so named after the “incarnation”: Jesus, very God, becoming flesh and living amongst the people he was trying to reach, and becoming like them in every way.

So here are some ways we are tackling language learning:

1. With Amalia coming in 2-3 mornings a week. We have bought Kwanyama primary school books and translate them, but this is a bit hard in that we do not understand many constructions because we don't yet have a grammatical foundation. As Amalia did not finish high school, and the education system did not give her a good grammatical grounding, she is often not able to answer our questions.

2. We use a useful grammar book but it does not have exercises.

3. There is also an interesting book written by a Finnish missionary at the turn of the century. There is a danger that we will learn some archaic words (!) but at least he includes exercises (‘call the servants and wake the hunters’, ‘light the fire and cook the porridge’, ‘take the cattle to the herdsmen’).

4. We have a Kwanyama-English dictionary but no English-Kwanyama. So I am slowly compiling one for us as I type words into a flash card programme we downloaded off the internet. I am up to 4,300 words. It is a laborious process but I am sure other people will also benefit from it, too.
David has almost finished the Oshiwambo gospel tract he is designing. He will take it down to the market next time he goes for fine-tuning … checking with the people that the words used are current and appropriate.

5. Going out and talking to people in shops, markets etc is VERY useful, but they speak so FAST that it can be discouraging at times. Listening to the local news on the radio sounds like a 33 record on 45! But we know that, word by word, it is slowly seeping in! The fact that it is tonal, too, is hard. There are many words that are written the same but are pronounced differently and mean totally different things!

6. David goes to an Oshiwambo church on Sunday mornings (and stays on to do a TEE workshop there). He is labouring through a translation (into English) of the order of service at the moment.

The fact that there are three main languages spoken in Ongwediva alone and people tend to speak a blend, means that we learn a word for something, but then hear a totally new word but are assured ‘but it is the same’!

And sometimes we do not understand their English! I think it is a general thing with Bantu languages that they do not have the letter ‘r’. But they know English does so ‘l’ and ‘r’ is often used indiscriminately.
We were watching the Jesus movie in Kwanyama recently. (Good job we had read the book and were able to follow the gist of it!) This is the 'leech' man, we were told by Amalia! (‘An ‘i’ is pronounced ‘e’ = rich!)
When I was in Malawi they had the same problem and one chap told me he was late for work because of problems with his ‘crutch’.
Here you can eat 'lice'. I also saw the sign for (but none to be had) 'jerry beans'!
And we also have a Calis in the family now!
There are looms to lent.
People tell us we have got a phrase in Kwanyama 'collect'.
If a mistake is made; ‘solly’.
Things can be done ‘tomollow’.
(Hmm – now I am wondering how they pronounce ‘girl’!)
Sometimes, it is a simple mispronunciation. I met a woman at the market last week who said she worked in a hair saloon. I tried to explain the difference between saloon and salon.
Having said that, although we meet quite a few people who can’t speak English, everyone has at least 3 languages to their credit – puts us to shame!

David was at the market today and saw a woman selling what he thought were dried cow pats (he has seen the same thing for sale elsewhere and presumed they were for cooking fuel). The woman spoke no English and David was trying to ask her what it was. Eventually she picked up one of the bits of brown stuff and popped it into her mouth. David’s eyes nearly fell out of his head! ‘But it is dirty cow things’ he said, in broken Kwanyama. Everyone roared with laughter … it was dried spinach, a local specialty!

We live 700 km from the nearest cinema, and the few video lending shops have Chinese pirated DVDs (mainly for adults of questionable content). However, a friend in UK has sent us Home Alone 1 & 2, and another friend is sending us The Chronicles of Narnia. We invite some of the local children once a week to watch a DVD with us. WHEN our stuff arrives (!!! – note the optimism!) we will have some good Christian videos to show them. I have also sent over in our stuff two end rolls of printer paper so that will be useful. Hopefully, I can start a Saturday club for the children when the resources arrive. St Mary’s, West Armidale, gave us some LOVELY flannel graph boards and characters.
When a baby is born, the baby is given a nickname. The mother and baby do not leave the birth-room for two weeks. When the time is up there is a celebration and a naming ceremony for the baby when it gets its official name. So everyone has two names and a surname. We asked friends for Oshiwambo names.
David they called Simaneka (Ndonga) or Fimaneka (Kwanyama) which means ‘respected one’.
Me they named Magana (Maana); ‘gift’.
Étienne – very appropriately – is Kandeshi; ‘happy about that’.
Caris was given a name which is the diminutive of the girl naming us. Her name is Pandu, which means ‘thanks’ (to God). She named Caris Kapandu (‘little thanks’). Oka or ka makes something small. A bird is odila. A small bird is okadila.

Talking of names, in Oshiwambo men are addressed as Tate* (my/our father) or Meme* (my/our mother) in much the same way as we would say Mr or Mrs.
David is addressed as Tate David and I am Meme Alisan or Tate Alisan (acknowledging me being David’s wife).
*Xo is your father, xe is his/her/their father, nyoko is your mother, ina is his/her/their mother, meekulu means grandmother and is the term of respect for the elderly, meetate is grandfather.

Don’t forget, in Africa, whenever you meet someone (whether for the first time or
It is a good friend), you always greet with a handshake – usually the three-handshake.

We are quite busy at the moment. Today, David has a meeting with a guy he met that is a Rastafarian. Then after that we meet with a Jehovah’s Witness couple. We have been spending time with a Jehovah’s Witness lady, and David went along to one of their meetings, and discovered a number of other people we know there, whom we did not know belonged to that group.
Next week a CESA (Church of England In South Africa) team is coming up from SA. 27 people! More about that when they have been and gone.

The news at the moment is the government’s decision to close shebeens (informal pubs, often little more than a shack) unless they can produce building permission, liquor licence and have toilet facilities (for BOTH men and women). A majority cannot supply any and are threatened with closure and thus the loss of their livelihood. Many have gone to Windhoek and are protesting by camping outside parliament. The headlines today: ‘Parliament gets a roasting’ and ‘Having a cow’ because the shebeeners have skinned and roasted a cow outside parliament. Imagine THAT in Canberra!
The other news is the national campaign to immunise Namibians against polio which has already affected 118 people and killed 14 since the first case was reported May 10th. Until this year, Namibia has been polio-free for 10 years. We had a swag of injections before we left and are grateful for that.

I am grateful to God to be able to say that we are all well. Étienne has just written Afrikaans tests at school with his class mates so we wait to see how he did. When looking for something in our house, here are the two basic rules: If it can be read, Étienne has it. If it can be drawn on in or with, Caris has it!