Thursday, September 16, 2010

Funny Things Our Students Said

Hi everybody....this is tedd. this is my "come-back-post," marking my first writing on the blog since i happily handed over the blogging reigns to my more talented other half.  Emily's pregnancy + heavier rains + deeper mud on the trails has made it so that I'm often out teaching solo in Likia.  I've gathered a few interesting and funny dialogues that I thought worthy of sharing:

Bernardo: "Brother, when you fly in a plane, what happens with the clouds?
Me: "The plane just flies right through them.....they're just made of water vapor that collects together."
Bernardo: (laughing) "Oh, see I always thought that they were firm and that you would bounce off them if you hit them"  
Bernardo & I

Me: (talking to literacy class in Likia the day we taught them the numbers/math lesson) "How many of you know how to add and subtract?" (they all look around shyly)
literacy student finally says: "Nobody here knows how to add or subtract." (and they all start laughing)
Me: (pulling a bunch of leaves off a nearby tree) "Don't worry, it's simple. For example let's say Omar has 2 leaves, and Darling has 3 leaves.  If Omar gives 2 leaves to Darling, how many does Darling now have?"
Almost in unison they say: "Five"
(I do 5 or 6 more difficult addition and subtraction scenarios and they answer correctly each time)
Me: "Guess what, you guys already knew how to add and subtract"
Literacy student: "It's just that we didn't know that we knew!"


Me: "Brother Bernardo, can you ask your daughter to come to the church so I can show her how to teach these new Bible story lessons?"
Bernardo: (yelling across the valley where his house is) "Tell Iris to come to the church because the brother wants to explain something to her!"
Bernardo's wife: "She's ironing clothes right now..."
Bernardo: "Brother Tedd, she's not going to be able to come because she's ironing clothes, and you know how the woman's body heats up when she's ironing clothes.....then if she goes outside right after, a cool wind could catch her and she could get sick.." (keep in mind it's like 90 degrees out right now)
Me: (puzzled) "Oh, ok."

Modesto pronouncing the word "los"

Me: "This word is Uruguay....what is this word?"
Modesto: (slowly) "U-r-u-guay.....is that a little animal or the name of a person?
Me: "No, Uruguay is the name of a country in South America"

5 comments:

  1. Great stuff....I loved the one with Bernardo yelling to his home for Iris. So true!!!

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  2. I love it!! I laughed out loud at these. Such precious people.

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  3. What a great idea to include these! It's a great glimpse into how illiteracy can make your world so small. When you can't just look up the unknown, you have to guess. We love the one about the clouds. Bernardo is so sweet.

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  4. Great stuff...I love it!

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