Tuesday, May 21, 2013

A few details

Africans are super loud and funny.. when I can understand them..

They have really strong accents and they only say half the word.

There are a few countries represented here in the MTC. Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and C'tivior.

Nigerians are THE loudest people I have ever met. But also some of the most caring.

They speak a bunch of languages and they can switch through them effortlessly. English to Igbo to Pidgen to English. Its hard enough understanding their English!

Because of the language situation, I have begun to learn some. I know some key phrases in Twi, Igbo and French. There are two french speaking districts of about 15 people. They don't speak any English at all hardly. With my backround in Spanish I can kind of get my point accross sometimes. But mostly our conversations are just "Ce Bon!" It's good! and "Mon Ami!" My friend! and a whole lot of "Ques ca ce...?" How do you say...?

There are 2 other white Elders here and they are both really cool guys. Elder Judy and Elder Moffit. They are nice to have around so I can speak American to them.

Anything that they see they haven't seen before, they have to have and will just take it. Missionaries or not. Somethings that have caused a mad frenzy that they have never seen before are, Post it notes, Balloon animals, Flossing tooth picks, shampoo, stationary and Elder Judy's cookies. If I give something to someone it spreads to everyone and their grandma comes and is insulted I didn't give them one too.


Before I left I learned how to do Balloon animals because I thought the kids would like it. I was wrong. They ALL like them. I made a hat for one person and they WENT CRAZY. They played with them for like 2 straight hours. About half way through is when I wanted to be going -- which proved to be impossible.

This is our balloon hat party we had. They played with them for literally 2 hours. 
I wanted to go to bed after one.
(Left to right. Elder Ma'afo (Tonga), Me, Elder Graham-Douglas (Nigeria) Elder Ike (Nigeria) Elder Buba (Congo))
The food comprises of a base food, usually rice but sometimes plantains or white yams, with some kind of greasy "stew" which is just a mysterious slop. For breakfast, they try to make us Americans comfurtable by making hot dogs.. Thanks guys...

My companion is Elder Chimechefulam from Nigeria. He is a great guy with a great testimony and it is really nice to have him. He has my back when people are trying to steal my money.


Basically life is crazy and good and it is humbling to have so much to learn. From my experiences here I can see how this can be the best 2 years.

1 comment:

  1. Elder Riehle, I have never been so happy that I bequeathed that little balloon pump and clown balloons to you. Little did I know that I'd be fostering such amazing missionary work! Keep up the good work. Love the people, work hard, and yeah...you know the rest! You are awesome, my friend! AWE-SOME! :)

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