We’ve settled into a bit of a routine here in Niger and I feel like we have a rhythm. For now, my main focus is on learning French and being a mom. Being a mom here looks a lot like being a mom in the States, though the details of it can be a bit different. Much more of my time is spent feeding them and suggesting ways to keep busy with simple things like books, games, and outside activities. My kids tend to fight a lot more in Africa, and I think it’s because they have less opportunities to get out and about as well as fewer interactions with other. We are hopeful that beginning school soon will help to alleviate that. Much less of my time here is spent juggling social activities and taking my kids out for trips to the park, museums, etc. In fact, our calendar can be exceedingly boring. We know that with time here, things will pick up and our plates and schedules will be full again.
We have had the opportunity to meet a few of the families that the kids will go to school with. However, many families left soon after we arrived to spend the summer in their passport country. We’ve seen them begin to return over the last few days and the kids are hopeful they will all find friends once school starts. I think they are hopeful that next summer won’t be quite as quiet as this summer has been. I am hopeful that my formal French study will be completed by then so that we can have more play time and less study time.
Of course, life with kids always leaves room for adventure. “Ordinary” days often offer unexpected diversions. So far this summer, we’ve rescued a tiny emaciated kitten who we nursed back to health and passed onto another family. Currently, we have a pigeon with a broken leg that the kids are trying to get keep alive until his leg mends, so that he can go back to the wild. We think he likely got into a trap and managed to get out and then make it as far as our yard with his injuries. The kids found him in rough shape and made it their mission to save him. Our house helper assured me that they make good food, but I explained to him, in my limited French, that the kids wouldn’t be keen on that idea.
Here is the pigeon the kids rescued in an old cage we found in a storage building. The vet friend we have here explained a small cage is best for him while he's healing. They don't sell bird food here, so we've made a mixture with things we found in town...barley, chick peas, oats, and sunflower seeds. He seems to like it well enough.
French study is progressing. By God’s grace, I had some weird fascination with French in high school that continued into college. According to my university, I managed to take enough classes to have a French minor. However, in 7 years of French study (20+ years ago) I had one conversation class. One. Which means that even when I graduated from college, I had lots of vocabulary in my head, and almost none on my tongue. As pathetic as my conversational skills were, I am finding that there are lots of words in my rusty old brain just dying to come out. So, though French study is slow, I know it’s not nearly as slow as it would be without that head start. French is certainly coming much, much faster than my Hausa did. I feel like I’m speaking as well after 8 weeks of French study as I did after 15 months of Hausa study. And my reading and writing skills definitely exceed my highest point of Hausa study.
To learn French, we are using the same GPA approach we used for Hausa. We’ve hired a Nigerien who has good French and he understands the grammar pretty well so when we have questions, he can generally explain why something needs to be said in a certain way. He is from the city we live in, but we actually developed a friendship with him during our time in Accra, as he had come there for university. He moved home a week after we arrived to help us with our French study. He comes to my house for about 4 hours a day- two with Ryan and two with me. We do very advanced things like move pieces of dollhouse furniture around and I say increasingly difficult things like...”The cat is on the dresser in the bedroom on the second floor.” Or I lay various items on a picture of the city and produce sentences like, “The sad man is at the post office.” Similarly, he speaks highly advanced phrases to me such as, “I am hungry, I want some bread.” Then I respond with witty responses like, “Go to the bakery.” I know...you are so jealous!
Each afternoon, I review the vocabulary I’ve added for the day and do some grammar work on my own. At least one day each week, Ryan and I spend a few hours out in town trying to meet folks and apply the language we’re learning. One thing that is very different for us here is that we actually need the language for everyday life here. In our previous African cities, which had been colonized by the British, the vast majority of folks spoke English. Our efforts to learn language there were primarily ministry related, not necessary to life. So, when we would try to practice our language, people would quickly grow impatient and switch the conversation to English. Here, that’s not an option. Folks may still find our French exceedingly painful, but we can’t switch to English. That makes language learning much more accelerated. I have to say, my house helper and I have had some good laughs at my expense, but we are increasingly understanding one another. Yesterday, he even told me a story about something that happened to him and I think I understood nearly all of it.
Ryan has started his “day job” even though he still has lots of language study ahead. He works 1/2 time doing French study and 1/2 time with the work we came to do. Once the kids start school, I will work several hours a week helping him with job related stuff as he can be spread pretty thin some days.
Another “special joy” this summer has been math catch-up. Though we worked hard during our time in the States to stay on course with our studies, math just had to come back with us. One by one, the kids have been finishing their curriculums. However, I still have two that are still hanging on. One will finish in just a couple more days. The other, well, she’ll finish in time for the first day of school. I honestly don’t know who will be more excited when Algebra II is done...she or I!
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