Our language helper, Charles, is in Kenya at a training course geared toward helping people like him know how to properly evaluate the language skills of people like us...yikes! I can speak and understand Toposa just fine to do the "normal" day-to-day stuff, but if I were going to be officially evaluated I would probably fail! This course will hopefully help Charles be a more effective teacher when he helps other members of the Toposa team who will move here in a few months.
Since he's been gone, Alyssa and I have had more time in the afternoons. We took a little walking trip a couple of days ago. Napeyo (who is a believer!) wanted us to come with her to her grandmother's village. We shocked everyone by walking (gasp!) instead of going in the car. Most Toposa seem to have extremely low expectations when it comes to what us white girls are physically capable of doing.
First stop, dry riverbed.
Tanning, South Sudan style...
It took about 45 minutes of fairly fast walking to get there. The area is up on a hill so the view was really great!
Her grandmother didn't end up being there, but we took a picture anyway. We walked back with Napeyo and two other friends the next day and found her working in her garden.
This is the one random pretty tree that we saw on the way. Napeyo didn't know the name of the tree so I told her it was called the Mindy Tree because it was beautiful. HA!
We got stuck walking in the rain on the way back both times! Dry season is here for the most part but every now and then there is a random shower that makes everything nice and humid.
wow. how am I not surprised that it is called the mindy tree. :)
ReplyDelete