Last Thursday Ryan called our friends from Congo and made plans to have them over for dinner the coming Saturday. According to his conversation with them, we went to their house at 6pm on Saturday to pick them up...only to find that only their mother (who doesn't speak any English), and 7-month old Vital were there! The mother (Mary) didn't know where the others were, or when they'd be home...but she was insistent that we stay and wait for them. So, about an hour went by of us trying to communicate with Mary in English, and Mary replying in Swahili...a bit unproductive, but at least we shared some laughs. At 7pm Joseph called the house and talked with Ryan and said he was at a music rehearsal and wouldn't be done until 8pm, and that he also did not know where the others were or when they'd be home. We decided to leave our phone number with them and have them call us when they got home and we could either pick them up then and bring them over for dinner or have them over a different day. We went home to the feast we had prepared, feeling sad that language barriers had once again over powered us, and decided to eat since at that point we had no idea whether or not they'd be coming over. Just as we finished eating, about 8:15pm, Benjamin calls and says they are all home and ready for us to come and pick them up! We are learning that in Africa, it's almost as if time doesn't exist...a bit of a freeing experience I'm sure, although we aren't quite there yet as far as being able to embrace it for ourselves.
So, we drove over to their house, gathered everyone up, and headed back to our place to feast on tacos, beans and rice!
After dinner, a spontaneous jam session with singing and dance took place in our living room...such beautiful music, beautiful people, and a beautiful culture!
This afternoon Melissa and I went over to their house to bring them some photos that we had gotten developed for them. I haven't seen anyone so excited to see photos before! I think they looked through the stack about 7 times before they put them back in the folder they came in.
1 comment:
Wow, Abby and Ryan you are really amazing how welcoming you can be! This sounds like a great evening creating community! God Bless!
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