Every line of work has mundane parts and things that are intriguing. For instance, when I worked at a factory, it got old to do the same thing all day without needing to exercise my brain much. The interesting part was seeing how ingots and silver scrap turned into silver coins.
In cross-cultural church planting, each phase has its boring and interesting parts. When you spend your days listening to the same words and phrases, it isn’t something to write home about. But sometimes, as you discover new things in the language, you might randomly burst into laughter (or at least I do). One of the first such things I discovered was the seemingly uncoincidental similarity between batsawah (wife) and batsawaho (to cook). Somehow, I don’t think it has a negative connotation in their culture. So if you want to stir up a little controversy at home, at lunchtime say, “Hey honey, what are you going to wife up for lunch today?”
But don’t be fooled into thinking that Maki women are weak. I have witnessed them on the soccer field. What they lack in skills, they make up for in courage. Playing soccer in Felicity (the community where we will live) is relaxing and fun. Both men and women play, so Rachel and I will both have opportunities to play with them.
During group activities, you often hear the same phrases repeated various times and can begin to recognize them. Sometimes you hear a string of unintelligible words with one word in the middle that you studied and recognize, like a body part. The names for the body parts are built in an interesting way. i-ba (1ps-hand) “my hand”, i-ba-kom (1ps-hand-digit) “my finger”, a-ba-ki (3ps-hand-joint) “his wrist”, no-ba-kom-ki (2ps-hand-digit-joint) “your knuckle”. It is different, but it makes sense. For the most part. Figure this one out: no-ba-kom-kirak (2ps-hand-digit-nail) “your fingernail”, no-am (2ps-leg) “your leg”, no-am-ki (2ps-leg-joint) “your knee”, no-am-ki-kirak (2ps-leg-joint-nail) “your skull”. What? I don’t know how they get skull out of that! To me, it looks like knee-nail.
Some things make me chuckle, but they make sense. Takara wah (chicken grandma) “female chicken”, takara paiko (chicken grandpa) “rooster”. One of the more daunting things I have run into so far is kinship terms. To us, an uncle is an uncle, but to them, the term is different depending on if he is your mom’s or dad’s brother. Your dad’s brother is called mom. No, not “mom” as in, “Hey mom, are you going to wife dinner tonight?” It’s just coincidentally the way they spell it. Really, it is pronounced like “mong” with more of a long “o”.
So I learned a new phrase yesterday that someone in this situation could say: tsuku nimwu wapam dirim (die want hunger much) “dying of hunger” or “so hungry I want to die”. It is sad to watch people suffer for their choices, but we can’t do things that create a dependency on us. If you give something to one person, 30 people will show up wanting the same thing. Literally. Our friends invited two little Maki girls to their daughter’s birthday party and 30 Maki showed up for free cake and finger foods.
Now you know how to pray for us more specifically. We need wisdom for each situation, and the Maki need to learn some practical things as well. But most of all, they need to trust in Christ alone for salvation. Unfortunately, they seem to think that being a Christian is simply a change in behavior. Some call themselves Christian because they don’t drink or party, or because they claim they stopped doing witchcraft. May God give us the grace to one day communicate the freeness of the salvation He offers and that it absolutely cannot depend on man’s works or anything else.
So how would I say, “Uncle mom’s knee-nail”? Here’s my guess: atsa mom na`amkikirak (my uncle 3ps-skull) "my dad's brother's skull".