"Mo MO mo!" Joshua's worried voice carries from out of their bedroom. Upon arriving, I see the reason for his distress. A little gecko has managed to get on the inside of his mosquito net, thus almost becoming Joshua's bed partner! (Sorry, I didn't run grab the camera. If I would have, you could have seen Joshua's mo mo mo). Well, we shoo the little gecko outside and Joshua settles down to sleep.
Momomo (pronounced with all long vowel sounds for the O and the stress on the second sylable) is the baby word here for bug. I can't really say "momomo" is Portuguese or Yao, it is local baby language and Joshua has picked it up. Thus any bug is a moMOmo..... and the word is also used to scare a small child or warn him from going somewhere. All you need to say is "MoMOmo" and the child stops in his tracks (or runs to see if you are pointing at something and curiosity beats out fear!)
Joshua is speaking more words these days and it is fun to hear his little commentaries. He also takes his turn to pray at meal times. His prayers are mostly unintelligeable, but the AMEN is clear!
Our children are growing up multi-lingual. It is intentional. We had wanted them to know English and Swahili (one of Victor's languages.) And of course they have picked up Portuguese here as well as some ChiYao.Most of Joshua's words are English, but he prefers using "agua" for water and "aviao" for airplane (we live in the landing path to the airport so the airplanes fly over regularly!)
Victoria just ran in to tell me that the neighbor children who are here playing, who generally speak Yao are speaking Portuguese with them, so they are getting along together just fine. Although, I'm sure they would have figured out how to understand each other anyways.
I was reminded how much the children have learned Portuguese when we had a visitor for lunch last Friday who spoke primarily Chiyao. Victor and I managed to follow the conversation in Yao, but Clara kept asking "What did she say, Mom?" "What did she say?" That reminded me that a year ago, the girls were doing the same thing when I talked with Maria, the lady helping in our home, in Portuguese. They wanted a translation of EVERYTHING we said. But now they rarely ask for translation as they generally follow the conversation.
I insist that when the children start a sentence in one language, that they finish in the same language. But then I find myself slipping in a nice Portuguese word into an English sentence. Oops! I need to practice what I preach!
Anyways, sorry for the long delay in adding a new blog post. Our life went from the rigorous pace of DTS to a daily routine, but somehow that daily routine keeps me busy too. I'll try to steal minutes here and there to continue to give you glimpes into our life here.
