Language

Xhosa. Portuguese. Afrikaans. Shona. Zulu. English. What about Spanish, German, Romanian? Unfortunately for us, not so much. It has been absolutely incredible to listen and attempt (and in Sara’s case, fail repeatedly) to speak different languages. In Mozambique the boys that were living at the orphanage, Maforga, spoke often three languages fluently. They were our translators when we went to villages. The two missionaries that we spent time with, Caas and Sara, had two kids who spoke nearly four languages with ease (Dutch, English, Portuguese, and understood Afrikaans). That is incredible! We’re so jealous and think it would be so cool to raise kids like that.

It is so humbling to admit you only speak English and struggle to repeat even the simplest of words. Sarah was able to use some of her Spanish, which is similar to Portuguese. Sara just stumbled repeatedly and tried to keep a smile and nod handy at all times. She did conquer the morning greeting, “Bon Dia!” for her morning runs.

Getting back to the centre we forgot momentarily that Xhosa was spoken so often. Being immersed in an English-speaking team for the two weeks was a relief in many ways, but we’ll miss being exposed to so many languages (and beautiful ones at that!) when we go back.