First, the children. We arrived at Snuwil Presbyterian Church, the congregation that hosted us and the adults gathered at the church to talk and share tea (Scott will tell you more about that). While we were listening to the laughter and
conversation in a foreign language we noticed a few girls peeking around the corner at us. They started with peeking, then laughing, then sitting at the end of the couch Scott was on. It didn't take long for Scott to start playing with them. Through sign language they let us know they thought Scott's big blue eyes were very funny. They ran back out and each time they came in again there were more children, first 4, then 6, and by the time we were outside again we were swarmed by about 20 kids. Scott and I know three words of Chinese right now - How are you?, thank you and goodbye (Scott is working on "Where is the bathroom?" (there is a lot of tea)) The children knew about the same number of words in English - hello, my name is, goodbye. They each had to try out their English on us and laugh when we talked. Scott had soon taught them the song and actions for dum dum dadda. We had so much fun trying to communicate.
The next day we were away sight seeing and when we got back Sidney and Sheri started laughing because they could hear some of the kids calling for the other kids to come "The Americans are back!" We soon corrected them - we are Canadians!
When we were getting ready to leave today we were walking up a large hill to the place we were staying and there was a gang of kids at the top who yelled out, "Hello" - and started singing dum dum dadda as loud as they could. We have left our mark!
The other person I wanted to write about is a young lady I met on Saturday night, again visiting with the adults at the church. She came in and sat at the other side of the room and after about 15 minutes she made her way over to me and said "I am so nervous, I am a university student majoring in English and I never get the chance to talk to foreigners. Can we talk?" She was nervous about making mistakes but her English was very good. She is around Laura's age, so I told her I had a daughter her age, graduating from University as well. I heard about her studies, her struggles, her hopes of becoming a teacher. She would like to go to an English speaking country, but that is far too expensive for her. She also told me that last spring she donated a kidney to her sister, and how difficult that was and her reasons for doing it. Her sister has a young son and she wanted to do all she could so her sister would be healthy to raise her son. That was an amazing connection for me and I was so thankful that she was brave enough to talk to me, even though she was so nervous.
The aboriginal congregations embraced us and welcomed us. They wanted to share their faith, their history, the stories of their congregations. We visited 4 churches and were lucky enough to be honoured guests at an induction service 2 hours from where we were staying, where many churches came together for the service, all offering their wonderful music. Even though all the talking was in a different language, we enjoyed all of it. Scott participated in the induction service as much as he could as it is pretty much the same as an induction in Canada. He understood the questions, the timing, and, of course, the Right Hand of Fellowship. And of course there was a feast after the service...they are all so generous.
My impression of the aboriginal congregations...they are rich - spiritually and culturally. I know they have alot of struggles financially and I am sure there are alot of health issues they are dealing with, but they are vibrant and happy.
To end, they wanted Scotto (their name for him) to bless them in English, so many times Scott gathered with the elders and deacons and said a prayer and blessing for them. Sometimes Sidney translated, sometimes he didn't, it didn't matter. In some ways we all spoke the same language.
Anne
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