Highs and Lows

There are highs and lows in language all the time.  It's a joy to communicate and be understood, but when I can't, it's a bit frustrating.  I can obviously understand more than I can say, so even listening to conversations and being able to pick up things is a plus.  

One of my friends here turned 40 in February, and she invited me along with 7 other ladies for a night of food, fun, and dancing.

All of us either had a shirt made with "She is 40," on it, or we made a sign and taped it to our shirt.  She, in turn, had a sign on her shirt that said, "They're lying."

Her co-workers made t-shirts.

 

This is her and me.

 The food was amazing.

We danced and visited in this room.




We danced to three different languages of music.  During the local songs, we danced to three or four different step combinations.  And then the two ladies who had grown up in different cultures taught us the steps to their birth country's music.  It was pretty fascinating.

We took pictures and posed in here.



We were all told to wear nice black dresses and a change of clothes if we were going to switch to T-shirts for the pictures.  Also a first for me, she handed us baby wipes when we walked in her door to wipe off our shoes.  She wanted us to wear our shoes inside since heels were part of our fancy outfits.

During dinner, it made me smile that she put on a playlist of "happy music" from America.

All countries were represented during the night :)

When we were ending the night with tea, the birthday girl decided we should play "Truth" (not "Truth or Dare").

 
Now, let me stop here and say that only the birthday girl and one other girl could speak English.

The other girl couldn't even speak the local language, of which I understand only a little and speak only a little.

So, when I first arrived and after introductions and answering their questions, we engaged in some small talk which I understood.  But most of the night was me working up a sentence in my head, and then when I was finally ready to say something, the topic had changed :)

During tea, I just listened to the "Truth" questions and answers.  I understood enough.  It got rather serious with questions like, "What was it like to be married at 15 to man 15 years your senior whom you did not love?"   

"After you got your certificate, how did it feel to be constantly turned down for jobs because you are a woman?"  "What are the bad things that people say about me at work?"  "After your husband was kidnapped 15 years ago, did you ever find out what happened to him?"

Granted, my friends who work in the refugee camps hear MUCH worse than these stories.  The stories in the camps will make you cry yourself to sleep and even stop eating for a while.

Everyone here has a story.

Even my birthday friend remembers her mother carrying her into the mountains on foot to get away from the encroaching army coming into their city when she was a child.  She is so thankful because some children were left on the side of the road when they got too heavy for their parents to carry.

Heartbreaking!!!

Needless to say, this night was a high and low.

The high was I was invited to a party where another language was spoken all night, and I managed to get by without any translation.  The low was the heartbreak I felt for some of these beautiful ladies.

Another high that same week was playing Catan with our language helper, and speaking for two hours completely in the language I'm learning.  Granted, the vocabulary is limited in a game, but still...

The first time our family played this in May of 2017 with our language nurturer, it sounded a lot worse.

OH...And I won :)

Here's a low.

Within the last two month, REAL milk has been coming into our region from a neighboring country. 

I haven't had a glass of milk in this region for two years because I don't like box milk (but I do LOVE milk)!  When I had real milk here for the first time, I felt such joy, and I was so glad I had bought 5 bottles of it.

Fast-forward to the next week.  I saw similar shaped bottles in the store again, and thinking they were the same thing, I wanted to stock up before they sold out.

I didn't even look at the label, I just loaded 6 of them in my basket.  

I got home and poured a big glass, and it was....

Yogurt water.

That's the literal translation.  

It's written right there on the bottle, and I know how to read the script, but in failing to do so, I had 6 bottles of it in my fridge, and none of us are huge fans.

 I poured out the bottle I had opened, and the other 5 were a gift for my language helper.

Yep...highs and lows everyday!