but then there is the colloquial understanding of the "roller coaster of emotions"...the up and down, ebb and tide of joy and sadness in quick succession...in this metaphor the free falling down the hill is equivocated to sadness - not necessarily the same as the actually experience of a roller coaster, for me at least, but I digress. The point is, there are some seasons in life in which emotions change drastically, frequently and in quick succession.
Language learning is one of those seasons.
Tuesday I was sky high with the joy of having communicated even just a single unrehearsed thought in Juba Arabic to a couple women I was sitting with in the market. They asked me "Larissa kadoo?" which means "Larissa is good?" in Moru. My ears perked up and I realized this was a great opportunity to expand a bit on my usual one or two word responses...I might actually be able to say something about what Larissa is doing today! It happens to be that Larissa was anticipating possibly starting to teach English at the Theological College that day but she wasn't sure if all the students had shown up yet...but it also just happens to be that I've learned some vocabulary about teaching and learning and school and such and had also just learned the words for yesterday, today and tomorrow in Arabic...perfect...so I muddled through something like this..."Ai, huwo kweis. Huwo... gi....derisu....('hm, can I actually say that, is that the right form of the verb, or does that one mean to learn...shoot, oh well, give it a whirl')... inglisi fi...('hm, I wonder what local people who are not ECS staff call BNTC? well I'll just call it what I think I've heard it called by who knows who and maybe that will work even though it's the english words...') ...Theological College.... aleela wala bokura." All that work for "Yes, Larissa is good. She is going to teach English at the Theological College today or tomorrow."
"Aiwa. Kadoo" Wilma answered. "Ok (Moru), good (Arabic)." And then I think the lady next to her asked what I said and she repeated it for her, so I think she really did get it.
WUH HOO!!!!!!!! Happy dance in my head :) I strung the right-ish words together in a way that was not a rehearsed line from one of my lessons but created all by myself, albeit very simple, and in a way that actually communicated meaning...it felt so good!
The next day I was back in the market sitting with Wilma and a couple other ladies again and she was kind and asked me another very simple question. "Agila wen?" which means 'where is the bicycle?' 'Oooh, oooh, oooh,' I thought again. I also learned some directional words and how to describe where things are located...maybe I can actually tell her that it's next to the shop of the Arabic men...but I struggled to remember the word for "next to"...I knew it ended in "ib" and that it had a "g" in it, but that's all....5 minutes I grimaced and groaned out loud as I probed the depths of the recesses of my mind for the word, trying a couple things I thought it might be, but it didn't really ever come...communication fail. They laughed and chuckled and I really thought one of them said something about "ita...jama Larissa..." which means 'you...university Larissa' according to what I'd learned...which I thought was pretty cleaver, essentially "you need to go to Larissa's school." :) maybe she said something totally different and I was just hearing things I knew into things people are saying...also a habit I have picked up along my language learning way. They asked me a couple other things, other people stopped by and asked me things, none of which I could understand or come up with a response to. There was a lot of silence. Probably only bothered me, but, alas, I left way discouraged.
Today I went in for my language lesson and it turned out that not only had I missed a call from my language helper who would have told me he had a meeting and couldn't do a lesson today, but he had also been waiting for me at our allotted time yesterday when I had in fact assumed (based on my past experience in Bundibugyo) that the morning's rain would have delayed him and so I didn't call until later when in fact he had been prompt and waiting for me. Sooooooo, one small victory followed by 2 days of fails...
notes to self: S. Sudanese people are more timely than Ugandans, use their own phone airtime more readily than Ugandans, I need to develop a thicker skin re. language fails and courage in continuing to pursue using it, and all the fails are I think worth the few victories :)
most funny language goof up thus far (that I know of ): "Ita deru ashrubu shunuu?" - the question posed to me. "Ana deru ashrubu Senke." Translations: What do you want to drink? I want to drink motorcycle. Explanation: ashrubu = to drink, arkabu = to ride...clearly I misunderstood and thought I was being asked what did I want to ride? The "b" totally threw me off :) Laughed out loud. Thank God for comic relief :)
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