Deep Thoughts? Maybe Not.

A friend sits in our office doorway between sessions of correcting Nate’s mangled speech

To say the one but mean the other…

There is that certain tone of voice that we can use (in American) that basically says: take the meaning of my words… and do the opposite. Why should I be surprised then, to hear a friend tell another friend “it wouldn’t be good to go look for him”, when him is a 5 year old who had run off to find his mom in the bush. When they both jumped up and hurried in the direction that the young boy was last seen, they had a very excited tag-along.

Eager to understand this new feature of the language (You know you would hate to be the only one in a large group who didn’t get the sarcasm every time too…), I pestered my friends with ways to use the language, here are some things that I found out:

·         “It wouldn’t be good if you ate with me.” =  Come on buddy, grab some grub.

·         “It wouldn’t be good if you played soccer with us.” = Dude, jump in, you are on our team.

·         “It wouldn’t be good if you fell down.” = Don’t fall down.

·         “It wouldn’t be good if you had a battery to give me.”  = My flashlight is dead and it is a long walk home in the dark, kick down with the juice man.

·         “It wouldn’t be good if you cut yourself.”  = You throw that bush knife around like an inebriated monkey, sit right there and talk to us while we take care of business.

Ah, one step closer to real communication with our Pal friends.

The trail home from a garden… nice, green, and uphill...

Shut your trap

“He knows about other kinds of things.” – Elizabeth (doing her best at) explaining away a major flaw in my character – the lack of hunting experience back at home in the U.S.A. 

One of the things that I have been working on understanding here is the area of obtaining meat. Turns out that a major portion of the rating system for manhood (besides facial hair and more than three children…) is scored in the number and size of game animals that one brings home for his family to consume. So, when Elizabeth was innocently showing pictures of whitetail deer and elk and talking about how my folk’s small acreage is nearly overrun by such creatures, it was not easy for our friends to imagine that I am not the expert in termination and consumption of said beasts.

So, I have been working on things. I now know how to set traps for emu, pig, and bush rats. I know that it is not okay to check the traps within the first four days. I’ve even found out which parts of the game become inedible the quickest. I have also almost convinced Elizabeth to let me practice my snares on the boys… okay, maybe almost is a little optimistic.

Praying

·         You can thank the Lord with us for rain and good water supply.

·         You can thank Him for good health for us and the boys.

·         You can ask for multiplied time as we work on straightening out our thinking and speaking while still trying to maintain the household and care for three small boys.

Thanks so much!

Nate for us 5

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