Languages

So my French is coming along -- slower than I'd like -- but it's coming. I can understand a lot more than I can speak, and most of my vocabulary is from working at the hospital. I'm sure it sounds awful, but most of the time, patients can still understand me.

Sometimes I can hardly wait to study and learn more so I can communicate. But other times it just seems useless. French is their second language also, so only those who are educated speak it. Most of the women speak just their tribal language. So far I can greet people in Arabic, Nangere, & Gumbi, and ask if their baby has been vomiting :) But there are a multitude of more languages that I can't even recognize when they speak, like Lai Lai, Mafa, and Sara.

Then we get short-term missionaries and people visiting from countries all over the world that add to it all, Danish, Portuguese, Australian English (it's a lang. of its own), and my personal favorite, Spanish. I still find myself answering in Spanish when I mean for French to come out. Sometimes they actually understand, though, because of the similarity. So my motto is --- when in doubt, speak Spanish!

In the end, there's nothing better than just speaking good old English. I've never appreciated my native language more.