Ebola Fundraiser

I have spontaneously decided to do a fundraiser swim for Ebola this Saturday. Other than the occasional splash in a lake or ocean, I haven't swam in about 5 years-- so this should be fun!

The event is being organized by a local women's group to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders. You've probably read about them in the news recently because they are on the front line fighting Ebola.

So what have I signed myself up for? I have 15 minutes to swim as many laps as I can. I am guessing, based on the satellite image on Google maps, that this is a 25 yard pool. It may be 25 meters, but it doesn't really look that long. And it's warm. I swam in it once a couple of years ago and I remember it feeling like a bathtub. I've signed up to swim at 9 AM, so hopefully it will be a bit cooler this time (it's an outdoor pool).

Back when I was in shape I could swim 20+ laps in 15 minutes. Now I'm out of shape, wearing a baggy pair of swim shorts, and hoping my goggles will hold together with string. How many laps do you think I can do?

If you would like to unofficially sponsor me, just decide now how much money per lap you would like to give. I'll write a post next week saying how far I got, and based on that you can go to the website yourself and donate online. Here's the site:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/our-work/medical-issues/ebola

If you would prefer to donate to an explicitly Christian organization, here are links to three missions which are doing specific Ebola work:

SIM

Catholic Relief Services

Samaritan's Purse

Of course you don't have to wait for me to swim in order to give; please feel free to donate to any these groups at any time.

And please don't forget to keep praying for the countries which are struggling with Ebola!

Fixed Greetings

Today was a long day at work. As I walked home I met one of my local friends and we launched into the standard set of greetings. He asked me how I was, how my wife was, and then how work was. Each of these questions has an expected answer, or at least an expected type of answer. You are required to say that the you are doing well, that your wife is doing well, and that work is going well.

The correct response to the question, "How is work?" literally means "I'm on top of it." But tonight when my friend asked about work, I changed one of the vowels in the phrase in order to say "It's on top of me." My friend didn't notice, or else assumed that I had made a simple beginner's mistake, and continued with the greetings. Then he asked again how work was and I replied, "I'm tired." He rebuked me sternly (but with a smile on his face) and listed for me the possible correct responses to his question: "I'm on top of it", "it's going okay", or "I'm working hard."

He then added, as if he had to pull it out of his distant memory, another possible response to the question: "I'm praising God," followed by "It will be good." Okay, I could go with that. So I repeated it back to him. He had me repeat it a couple of times to make sure that I got it right. Then he asked me no less than half a dozen times if I was "at peace." When at last he had been sufficiently assured that I was at peace, he bid me farewell.

The moral of the story: don't deviate from the standard greetings!

Polyglot in the making

Yesterday as I was walking home from work a guy greeted me with the often-used "Hey, foreigner!" I responded with "Peace to you" in the local language. He then began asking me the normal greeting questions in the normal language to see how much of it I actually knew. When I succeeded in responding appropriately, he asked me where I was from. I said America.

He told me he had a brother in Miami (I was surprised he didn't say New York; everybody has a brother in New York). He continued by saying, in impressively clear English, that he didn't speak very good English. I asked him basically the same questions in English that he had asked me in the local language and he answered them with moderate success.

This whole exchange took place as we walked about 50 yards. We were coming to a T and it was evident that I was turning right and he was going to turn left. So as we started to split off in our separate directions he said to me, "You are quite impressive. You speak English, French, and the local language. But you know, you really need to learn to speak Tubar*."

Well, it just so happens that my wife and I were in a Tubar-speaking village two weeks ago. So I greeted him in Tubar. At that he stopped dead in his tracks and his jaw just about hit the sand. He asked me another question or two in Tubar and I tried my best to answer correctly even though I wasn't really sure what he said. "Where did you learn that?!" he demanded. I gave him the name of the village, which he obviously had never heard of, and then gave the name of a larger town nearby. "Oh," said. "Well, I'm from up North. We speak the real Tubar up there." There are three different dialects of Tubar spoken in the country and they are each quite proud of their language.

He then said that he worked just down the road, so hopefully we would see each other again. We said farewell and went our separate ways.

Believe it or not, this interaction was not unusual for me. As soon as I step out the door, I never know who I'm going to end up chatting with.

*name changed