Learning Two Languages

Time is going by very quickly for us because we are staying so busy.  Seth and I have been going with BJ to the Deaf school when he teaches, and it has been good for me to begin learning KSL (Kenyan Sign Language).

Here is Seth with Henry, one of the deaf boys.

I had been a little concerned about having to learn two languages at the same time—Swahili and Kenyan Sign Language.  I wondered if it would be too hard and confusing for me.  But I have been very encouraged to realize that KSL is going to be a lot simpler than Swahili.  In fact, within just a few visits to the school, I can communicate fairly well, and I learn their more of their signs each time that I go.  It does not take a whole lot of effort when you already know the signs, structure, and even the culture of American Sign Language.  The structure and culture are very similar if not the same as ASL, and about 10-15% of the signs are exactly the same as ASL.  Another 10% of the signs are the same, but have different meanings.  And then the rest of the signs are completely different from ASL.  But we are able to communicate fairly easily with the Deaf here.  Also, I have found this to be interesting:  My greatest challenge in Sign Language has always been being able to comprehend quickly what a deaf person is signing to me.  But for some reason, Kenyan Deaf are easier for me to understand than American Deaf.  I have not quite figured out why this is so, except maybe for the fact that Kenyans have long, slender fingers.  Maybe the signs appear clearer to me.  Anyway, this is quite an advantage for me!

Swahili, as well, is beginning to make a lot of sense to us.  Things are starting to fall into place as far as the language is concerned.  As we communicate around town to people in their own language, not only are they appreciative that we care enough to learn their language, but they ask us how many years we have been in the country.  When we tell them “three months”, they are shocked!  The reason is not smart “wazungu” (white people), but the fact that we are taking three hours of Swahili a day, five days a week.  Things progress very quickly at that pace!  My goal, and BJ’s too, is to one day be able to speak this language like they do and to sound just like them.

BJ and I often talk about our dreams, desires, and goals for our ministry with the Deaf here and their hearing families.  He brought up an interesting point to me yesterday that I had not thought about.  Most hearing parents of deaf children here do not know sign language and do not want to go to the trouble of learning it.  How in the world parents can have a child and have no desire to communicate with that child is beyond me.  BJ told me that one of the main reasons why he wants to learn Swahili well is to later be able to tell these hearing parents of deaf children, “If I cared enough about you to learn your language, why do you not care enough about your own child to learn his/her language?”  From what we have seen in talking about the Deaf even to our Swahili teachers, most hearing Kenyans do not even view sign language as a  language.  Ndelegua and Patrick, our Swahili teachers, like to get BJ talking about this subject because he gets very animated trying to get them to understand!  It forces him to branch out in Swahili to get his point across!  They are smart teachers, and they know exactly what they are doing!

Seven of the students at the Deaf school have graduated and gone back home, several of them back to Muslim families in Mombasa.  These students desperately want more education, but unfortunately, Kenya does not offer college or university education for the Deaf.  And even if it did, there are almost no interpreters for the Deaf here.  We have had precious little time with these students, and BJ longs to teach them more from the Word of God that they might come to know Christ.  But that takes time, especially with the Deaf.  They were like sponges soaking up everything that was taught to them.  BJ taught for two and a half hours straight with no breaks, and they sat there never tiring of it, asking questions, literally starving for knowledge and truth.  And now they are gone after just three weeks.  We will be starting a Deaf Bible College down the road, but we are not in a position to be able to do that right now while we are in language school.  Yet our hearts are burdened for them.

Our Container Arrives!

Things have been very busy around here the last several days.  Our container made it to Nairobi about a week and a half ago.  BJ and Bro. Mickey, the missionary whom we shared the container with, went down there so that the officials could inspect it and clear it for us.  Normally, it is a big hassle as they usually have to open all of the boxes and inspect everything.  Once again the Lord worked for us, and our container was cleared with no trouble at all.  They opened it and went through a couple of boxes.  Bro. Mickey had shipped a lot of boxes of Bibles in the container, so when they saw just personal stuff and Bibles, they left us alone.  I think it also helped that BEAMS (a ministry that ships Bibles around the world) had helped us pack that container.  They had palletized everything, and wrapped the boxes in plastic.  It was too much work and too overwhelming for the customs officials to want to go through every single box! 

Monday, the container arrived at our house on the back of a big, flat-bed truck.

It was a bustle of activity around here as BJ, Bro. Mickey, and his men unloaded that container in just one hour!  Most of it went into the shed, including most of the boxes of Bibles that Bro. Mickey couldn’t fit on his truck.  By the way, Bro. Mickey has already given away some of those Bibles to the customs officials and even the truck driver.  They were actually asking him for Bibles!

I have been quite busy the last few days unpacking boxes, and putting things where I want them, especially in my kitchen.  I am very glad that I brought a lot of Tupperware.  I had collected it at garage sales and thrift stores for four years so that now I had a whole suitcase full!  It sure comes in handy over here.  The plush couches (Craig’s list) and pillowtop mattress (Big Lots) that we bought Stateside are probably our biggest blessings right now.  After the hard, temporary mattress with two permanent dents in it where we slept, we feel extremely spoiled now.  

My oven is working now all of a sudden so I am back in business with being able to bake again.  My neighbor/landlady is letting me borrow her stove until we can get our own.  The first time I tried to bake something in the oven, the whole house filled with smoke!  I quickly turned it off and have just used the stove top for the past two and a half months.  Come to find out, (don’t get grossed out), the problem was cockroaches!  To be honest, I was so happy that that was the only problem and not something electrical because now the cockroaches are gone and I have an oven!  

The Deaf "Hear"

BJ’s class at the Deaf school is going well.  He’s been teaching there for about three weeks now, and the students are learning about the Bible.

He is trying to lay a foundation first on how we know that the Bible is true.  They seem to be grasping it.  The students give BJ a lot of feedback during class.  The only sad thing is that the six 12th graders are about to graduate and leave in another week or two.  BJ is disappointed that he is only getting to teach them for a few weeks.  One of the boys from Mombasa on the coast asked BJ if he could come to teach in Mombasa too.  Mombasa is six hours away!  It breaks our hearts as there is such a vast need among the Deaf in this country, and no laborers.  BJ is trying to figure out if that is even a possibility.  How can you tell them “No” when they are hungry for the Word of God? 

Here are a couple of examples of the hearing mindset toward the Deaf in this country.  A mother of one of the deaf girls in the school who is soon to graduate has asked the headmaster, “What am I supposed to do with her now?  Can’t you figure out something for her to do there?”  She doesn’t want her own daughter to come home.  They try to hide the Deaf away, so that people do not know that they have that kind of child.  It is so so sad.  Another mother told them that her daughter can just quit school for all she cares because she is not going to “waste” any more money on her. 

BJ and I can see so much potential in these students.  Yesterday, during Swahili class, we were talking with our teacher in Swahili (or trying to anyway!)  The topic turned to what BJ is doing in the Deaf school.  The hearing teacher, of course, had the same idea that most hearing people have that the Deaf are “handicapped” and are not normal.  So to emphasize our point, we told him of our Deaf friend, Chris, who went to the same hearing Bible college that we did, and made straight A’s all the way through.  That was new to him!  In halting Swahili, BJ tried to tell him of our heart and vision for the Deaf in this country.  Talk about frustrating!!!  Trying to speak about something that is very dear to your heart, and not having the vocabulary to do it!  Having to talk slowly and haltingly when you long to spill out the words!  But I think we did manage to give him a different perspective--that the Deaf CAN.  If given the same opportunities to learn as the hearing children, these Deaf children can do practically anything they put their mind to do.  And how greatly they could be used of God in this country!  Our vision is that they might be saved, and then live their lives to serve Jesus Christ to help us reach the Deaf in Kenya for Christ. 

Today, BJ got back from his class, and told me all about it!  It thrills my heart to hear it, and to see my husband’s excitement in doing what God has called him to do.  Today, he was teaching them about the Scriptural proofs that the Bible is true.  He explained to them that the 66 books of the Bible were written by 40 different men over the course of 1,500 years, and how the main theme of all their writings was the same—Jesus, and God’s plan of redemption.  Well, when he mentioned the 1,500 years, one of the boys looked puzzled and opened the Bible on his desk, a Good News for Modern Man version.  He showed BJ that it was copyrighted in 1976, and asked how then could it have been written 1,500 years ago?  Well, BJ hadn’t planned to get into the different versions of the Bible yet, but that is the way the lesson was heading, and he needed to answer the boy’s question.  So, briefly, he told how the Bible used to be only in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  Then the German Bible was written, and a few others.  Then the King James Bible was written in English, but never copyrighted.  He explained that the Bible doesn’t need a copyright because it is God’s Word, not man’s.  Well, by the 1800’s people wanted to rewrite the Bible to make money, and in order to get their version copyrighted, they had to make some changes in it.  That got these Deaf kids’ attention!!!  They sat up straight in their chairs and looked shocked that man would try to change God’s Word!  And then they were even more appalled when they found out what some of those changes were—like how it says that Jesus was born of a “woman”, instead of a “virgin”.  One of the boys signed to BJ, “Then the King James Bible is the best, right?”   Why is it so easy for them to get it when many scholars around the world cannot seem to grasp it?