Sunny-Side-Up Saturdays

Saturday is upon us once again!  Therefore, it is time for some “Sunny-Side-Up” stories.

For the past two years, our children have attended a Ghanaian school started by another missionary.  They use the A Beka DVDs, which is the same thing we were using at home.  There are about 250 students in the school (Nursery – 6^th grade).  Our three children are the only white children in the school.  They were intimidated a little at first, but they fit right in now.  If you listen to our children talk when they are around Ghanaian children, they all sound just like the Ghanaian children, especially Bonnie, our youngest.  Each classroom has two “teachers,” but they are more like classroom monitors since the DVD teacher does the teaching.  Gilbert, our oldest boy who is in second grade, was talking about something that his teacher said.  I asked him if it was the DVD teacher or one of the other teachers.  He said, “It was my teacher on Earth, Mom.”  In his mind, the DVD teacher is not on Earth, I guess.

A couple weeks ago, the children had a day off from school due to a water shortage at the school.  That day just happened to be my husband’s birthday.  Our children were just positive that they had the day off for Dad’s birthday!  We went to the ocean that day.  Someone gave us a boogie board.  Danny, our middle child, has no fear when it comes to water.  He loves to take the boogie board out and ride back in on the waves.  Joe has to stay right close to Danny so that he does not venture out too far.  As Joe and Danny were out riding the waves, a wave pulled Danny’s swimming trunks down.  Before he could get them pulled back up, another wave came along and took the swimming trunks out to sea.  He said, “Dad, I think my shorts are gone forever!” For some reason, Danny had kept his underwear on that morning when he was putting his swimming clothes on.  He was very glad about that fact!  He was a bit embarrassed that they happened to be holey underwear. 

When we first arrived in Ivory Coast, we worked with some other missionaries.  Joe was put in charge of the Sunday School department.  We were working on translating some lessons from English into French.  When we finished each lesson, we would have the national pastor read it to check for errors.  One of the lessons that we did was about an idle man.  We looked in the dictionary, and the word for an idle man was “lacheur.”  So, we wrote a whole lesson about the “lacheur.”  When Joe took the lesson to have the national pastor read it, he started laughing.  He could not stop laughing; he showed the lesson to a couple of the men in the Bible Institute.  They were all laughing.  He explained that although the dictionary definition for “lacheur” is “an idle man,” in West Africa, “lacheur” means “one who passes gas.” 

If you have a language blooper or some other funny story that you would like to share with us, please e-mail it to me at loconsford@gmail.com.

Until next week, keep your sunny side up!