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Elephant Land Blog
December 17, 2009
A BLOG FROM ELEPHANT LAND
Greetings to you in the Name of the Wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ! Thanks to Lori Sluder’s help, I now can begin my blog from East Africa. Of course, we send regular newsletters, but there’s limited space. So, I will be sending you more details about our life here. Many of you know that we served seven years in West Africa (Liberia). There are many similarities here, but also some differences.
The culture here is more similar than different, like the great African courtesy. Unlike many Americans, here you don’t go up to someone and jump right into what you want to say. First, you have to shake hands with everyone, and do a friendly greeting. Language here is both similar and different from Liberia. The similarity is that for most folks, English is their second language. Also, they use a lot of British terms, more so than American ones. A diaper is a nappy, and a large truck is a lorry. Also, they really roll their r’s, much like Spanish speakers.
In Liberia, the people speak Liberian English, as their universally understood language. They’ve had 180 years to develop it. It has its own pronunciations and syntax. However, here in Elephant Land (to be safe, we don’t write the name of our country—please remember that in your emails J), there are THREE LANGUAGES in use! The local tribes speak Bari, so in the villages, that’s most often used. Due to the history of this land, there is a universally understood and spoken language: Juba Arabic. It is NOT classical Arabic—it uses English letters. It is similar to Liberian English, in that it has its own syntax, etc. But then, there is a THIRD LANGUAGE: English—which is taught, read and written. When we go to the market, only the younger ones understand spoken English. We use Juba Arabic. I have learned the Juba Arabic term for a morning greeting, saba el quer? And the response: saba noor. I also understand a lot of the words in church in JA, from my study of Hebrew in seminary. I hope to begin studying JA soon with one of our church leaders. I am also going to get a Gospel in that language from one of the ministries here. There is also a fourth language: Dinka. When we took Bibles to the soldiers, they requested Bari, Dinka and English.
Another difference here is in the height of the people. Most Liberians are pretty short, by American standards. But here, there are many very tall people. The Nuer and Dinka people tend to be very tall—both men and women, and very slender. Pastor Thomas (our Nuer pastor from Upper Nile) said that there are about 1000 Nuers here in our town. Besides the national people, there are also a large number of Ugandans and Kenyans. So it really is a fulfillment of Col. Moses’ vision (the Commissioner) of a new kind of Africa, where people from all over live with one another in peace, brought only by the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Pray for him and all of the government leaders, that God will give them His wisdom to govern righteously and well.
In our Sunday PM fellowship, we have Americans, English, Germans, Swedes, Dutch, Kenyans and Ugandans. It’s like a little United Nations, and it’s wonderful. Sunday a.m. we attend our local UMC, and in the evening, we have our UN praise and worship. It’s a good balance for us, spiritually. Well, that’s enough for this first edition. I will add more for the next one.
Grace and Peace, Phyllis Hankins (and Boo)
