Twalumba

Mwayusa buti! Good afternoon!

Okay. Not really. As I sit to write, the sky is painted with the colors of the setting sun.  From looking at my "basic greeting" Tongan cheat sheet I see that  Kwasiya buti would be the appropriate expression for this time of day. I'm really a dork when it comes to learning language. I'm sure if I was forced to survive on my language skills I'd get it figured out, but hearing and repeating the different sounds does not come easily to me. My father is quite adept at interacting with language.  My husband's engineering brain sorts and retrieves sounds accurately. My 4 year old just likes to talk about booty. On the way home from the airport Sunday we started talking about Valley Tongan, the main language spoken in the Sinazongwe ADP. I recited the 3-4 phrases I had mastered in my 10 days in Zambia. (Yeah, 3-4 phrases. Embarrassing.) Mwayusa buti is one of them. My boys were delighted!! My use a booty!!! My big fat booty! Hahahaha Okay, they're 4 and 8 years old. That was the end of the conversation.

Until tonight when Ethan, the 4 year old, started up again.... Mwayusa buti! Mwayusa buti!!! Remarkably, he still knew what it meant. Maybe more remarkably, I did too.

The cheat sheet says the proper response to that greeting is Kubotu. I never did get the hang of that. I just mumbled on through like the Tongan illiterate that I am.

Whenever we'd show up at a village we were met with exuberant joy. Lots of hand shaking and greeting. Often the kids were eager to try their English, with much more gusto and courage than I had. And skill, of course.

Most of the time they got it exactly right, but once in awhile...."Hi!" I would say. "Fine, thank you!" I heard in return. I loved it! Such open, generous people.

Those moments of interaction were absolutely full of grace. There I was, completely inept at communicating in their language, yet the Zambian villagers welcomed me with open arms. And looked right on past my inabilities, apparently just glad to be there with us (or at least that's the way it felt). And I was glad to be there too.

It was in these moments that I learned to  fluently speak and understand... Twalumba!

Thank you.