The Joys of Family

This week I have had the joy of learning how to introduce our families to people here in Moru. Will and I both brought photo albums of our families here for language learning. I was able to visit a friend of Larissa's on Monday and she told me how to introduce every person in my family using Moru phrases. It has been by far, my favorite Moru lesson yet! I learned how to say, "I will tell you about my family" and "This is my mother, her name is Nancy", "These is the children of my sister, their names are...", "This is my brother-in-law", etc.

I went into the market today for a lesson and was able to show the album to some of my new friends. While I was talking through each picture with my friend, Joy, several other people gathered around to "see my family" as well :). They kept giggling at my Moru attempts and saying, "leyin jekye"(beautiful!) to each of the pictures. My mother-in-law, Gloria is holding their dog Buddy in one of the pictures in the book and they all giggle when I point to him and say, "kokye" (dog). They think it is really funny that she is holding a dog and that the dog has a name. One person even exclaimed, "What are they feeding this dog? He is so fat!" haha. The concept of feeding animals here and having them as pets is very foreign.

Talking about our families to people here has brought me so much joy this week! I guess it has been a tangible way of sharing more about myself with the people I am meeting here. It was so exciting to hear them repeat the names of each of our family members and hear their attempts at our American names. When I was finished telling Joy (pictured above) about my family, she exclaimed, "Now I know everyone in your family!!". I know that she isn't even close to "knowing" them, but it made me feel special knowing that she felt more connected to me by hearing about my family.

So, to my family, I have felt close to all of you this week by having the joy of telling my new friends about each of you. You are all "leyin jekye" and we miss you all very much. Next time we chat, I can tell you how I introduce you to others in Moru :).