Hidden Fun in France

Posted on November 9, 2009 by David

Tour EiffelAfter traveling to Versailles and then up to Montmarte and then back to the Tour Eiffel (aka the Eiffel tower) on Saturday I can safely say that the highlight of the boys day was not in the attractions that are listed in the tour guide books. They did enjoy the light show to celebrate the 120th birthday of the tower which kept us in Paris later then we normally stay, but this allowed us to see several hidden attractions!

We started our day walking around the chateau at Versailles that is way bigger than anyone really needs and we found out that the French security guards at this location were very fearful of a child on their father’s shoulders. But it gave me another chance to practice my French when the guards came up and asked if I spoke French I could say yes and then they would say “Il ne peut pas être là-haut” so I would take Jonah off my shoulders.  The boys were not overly impressed with the immensely large chateau at Versailles but they were very excited that there was a yellow M across the street from the RER stop where we stopped for a quick snack after our visit to the chateau.

On our way to Montmarte we were able to watch a FREE puppet show underground on the Metro and then when we hopped trains we were able to listen to a rendition of “La Bamba” in English, I gave this guy a euro because the boys enjoyed dancing along with his singing. But the guy that took his picture didn’t give him any money so the singer expressed his dissatisfaction with him in French and also in English, so my lesson for the day is if you take a picture of a performer on the train be prepared to put some money in his change purse. After we left Montmarte to head to the show at the Eiffel Tower we heard another rendition of “La Bamba” this time in French, I would have to say that the first singer had a better performance. After the light show we were able to witness what I thought was the breaking of a World Record on the train, I watched a man solve the Rubik’s cube in less than 15 seconds 3 times in a row. I looked it up and the 15 second mark was broke back in 2003, so I guess that’s why he was still practicing on the train.

 

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Waiting at La Poste

Posted on November 5, 2009 by David

I had a few letters that needed mailed out so I headed to La Poste. I didn’t put my watch on before leaving because I wanted to practice asking the time, if for some reason I needed to know what time it was between when I left the house and when I got back, normally only 5 minutes there and 5 minutes back.

I made it to the post office and there was a man waiting by the door for the post office to open, so I practiced asking him the time and he didn’t have a watch either. He also forgot his cigarettes because he asked me if I had any and I couldn’t help him with that or the time. Je ne fume pas, I think that means I don’t smoke or I’m not on fire; but that’s what I said and he stopped talking to me. But the sign on the door said 8h30 and I didn’t leave the house until 8h20 so I knew if couldn’t be that long of a wait. Another few people arrived at La Poste and I could understand that they were telling each other it was after 8h30.

After standing there for 10-15 minutes one of the other patient potential La Poste customers shared with one of the other gentleman that his zipper was down. He waited to share this information until the woman that was waiting for the Poste to open finally left. The man with his zipper down did an about face to the wall and zipped up his pants, then everyone there checked to ensure they were fully zipped. A few of the men chuckled so I’m not really sure if I learned the proper way to address this situation in the future in France. Do you wait until only men are present, and is it OK to laugh? Finally the post office opened 30 minutes after the time posted on the door and I was able to get my stamps without further incident.

La Poste in Massy France

 

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Lost in translation

Posted on October 29, 2009 by David

Today at lunch we were asking the boys different questions in French and waiting for them to come up with a response. We were just asking them if they would like different types of food that we had on the table, practice for them and for us. Jonah did not think this was a fun exercise. If you haven’t heard, Jonah who is a strong willed four year old, has made it his goal to ensure his entire pre-school class can speak English since according to him they are not talking right. Since he is the only non francophone in his class I asked him what he said when he didn’t know the answer to a question his teacher asked him or one of the other students in the classroom and he said he would say “Jonah say pah.”

That phrase is very close to one of our most frequently used phrases and I’m not sure if he picked it up from us or if he was taught this at school and this is the phrase he got from it. The actual phrase is “Je ne sais pas” which sounds very very very close to “Jonah say pah”, especially for our English tuned ears. Either way he was saying that he didn’t know and got down from the table not knowing why mommy was laughing so hard. So next time I hear someone say “Je ne sais pas” and I begin to laugh you will know why.

jonahsaypah

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Our Friend Clem

Posted on October 28, 2009 by David

Clem_BirkmeyerLast night a dear friend of ours went home to Heaven. Clem was special to our family in so many ways. He was one of the very first people that we met when we first start attending Deerbrook, we sat in front of Clem and Ginny almost every week before having children. Clem was in one of the first small groups that I attended at Deerbrook and I was able to study Wild at Heart with him, it was with this group of men that I first shared the battle my mother was fighting with Cancer. Every week he prayed with me and DeAnna for God’s will to be done, not an easy prayer to pray.  Clem was one of the first people to see Joshua after he was born and brought him a blanket that he had knitted just for him, 2 weeks later my mom went home to be with Jesus.

Clem’s passion for prayer and for praying for others was contagious and he was a prayer warrior that understood where the war was raging and he was fighting every day. When we first were considering serving with Wycliffe I went to the prayer room where Clem was and shared with him the call that God was placing on our lives, he prayed with me and then he anointed me with oil. Clem and Ginny were the first partners that we had and have continued to be great encouragers and supporters every step of the way, when I was visiting Clem in the hospital before we left Ginny even shared with the nurse what we were getting ready to do.

Monday morning I was awakened early and I felt that I needed to pray for Clem and I picked up my Bible and the book under it was A Handbook of Basics for Christian Soldiers by Clem Birkmeyer, he gave me this shortly before we left the states and I finally finished reading it on Monday. There were many insights in this book, but I thought I would share one thought as a reminder to myself.

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love – I Corinthians 6:13.

I guess it finally comes down to just one thing; every individual person, whether he is involved in the government, the church, or in his personal life, must decide in his own heart to give his first allegiance to his Lord Jesus Christ in preference to any other cause or party. When you look at the big picture, and realize that God Almighty is greater and more powerful than any other organization or purpose that mankind can imagine, the bottom line is that God is going to have the last word. He is going to win the final battle.

We will miss Clem and our prayers go out to the Birkmeyer family. Heaven has a new resident that truly understood the big picture and I’m thankful that I was blessed by him while he was with us.

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Trusted Frenchman

Posted on October 25, 2009 by David

child-licking-shopping-cart-handleI must have mastered the correct look for a trusted person in France. Yesterday while I was standing in line at the grocery store, sometimes these waits can be 10-20 minutes, the woman behind me began speaking to me about her fromage (cheese) and after I politely nodded and agreed with what she was saying she asked me to watch her cart, no big deal but the cart also came with her enfant (child).

So as I slowly advanced in the line I pushed my cart forward and pulled hers behind me. I smiled and said hello to the little girl but she didn’t seem to interested in carrying on a conversation with this weird guy that her mom just left her with. I was pretty surprised that this person was so trusting with her child or was it that she really didn’t want to lose her place in the line? Thankfully the woman came back and after we exchanged a few words about the correct cheese she thanked me for watching her child. Yet another lesson I needed to learn about the French – children are not permitted to speak or make noise in a store but they may be used for saving your spot in the check-out line.

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Study break

Posted on October 25, 2009 by David

finalsWe just finished up a week of testing and now we have a week and a half off from school. It felt like a week of finals but we kept having tests on the same subject, either oral, written or grammar – and for some reason that I haven’t figured out yet, spelling counts. No points for correctly spelling words just missing points for incorrectly spelling a word.

We are glad to be able to have a break to put into practice the French that we have spent the last two months learning. I know the boys are excited to not have to go to school for a whole week! We are planning on doing some short day trips to see some of the sights that we have not seen yet in Paris and revisiting one or two of the places that the boys really enjoyed.

The boys are doing well in school and Jonah was finally sent home with some of the work that he has been doing for the last 2 months, we were curious what they did all day since he never came home with any papers and Jonah just said that he didn’t do anything except take a nap or celebrate someone’s birthday.

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Scripture Celebration

Posted on October 18, 2009 by David

Oct 9 Wycliffe Scripture Celebration manI wanted to share one of the amazing stories from the fall Scripture Celebration in Orlando Florida, where they celebrated the dedication of 17 New Testaments last week.

Andy had just finished the New Testament in the Lelemi language in Ghana after 17 years of working on it. He realized that at that rate it would take over 1000 years to complete the remaining 79 known languages in Ghana and while he was at the dedication of the Lelemi New Testament  a man came up to him and asked “We are so happy to see this dedication for the Lelemi, but what about us?” He was speaking from a neighboring village for the Tuwuli language. “Will you come and help us write the Bible in our language.”

Andy and his colleagues realized traditional methods would delay getting the scriptures to the people so they decided to try a new method – A multi-language approach. Andy would spend more time teaching and training local translators and less time doing the translation work himself.

By using a common trade language and a common meeting place he would coach several mother tongue translators all at the same time which allowed the teams to feed off of each other’s energy and expertise and 4 different language communities pulled together – Tuwuli, Selee, Siwu, Sekpele. They used specialized computer software called CARLA (Computer Aided Related Language Adaption) that allowed them to complete 4 New Testaments in 1/3 of the time that it would have taken Andy to complete one.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 (New International Version)

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Bus Stop Advertisement

Posted on October 14, 2009 by David

The following picture was displayed around town on most of the bus stops and as I glanced at it I thought, I must have finally switched to thinking in French, and then I realized I was only reading in English . . .

There's no better way to fly (or advertise in France in English)

There's no better way to fly (or advertise in France then in English)

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Walking to School

Posted on October 14, 2009 by David

We have adjusted to the walk to and from school but besides the additional exercise that we are all now getting we are also getting a little over an hour every day for the kids to ask us questions and tell us about their days, sometimes they are quiet and don’t have much to say but other days the questions don’t seem to stop. I’ve decided to share a few of the questions that they have been asking us lately.

  1. Why does everyone speak French?
  2. What happened to our car?
  3. Where do our bones go when we go to heaven?
  4. How do you say “stop peeking off my paper” in French?
  5. Why can’t we walk in the grass?
  6. How many people do you know?
  7. Does Santa know we moved to France?
  8. When is Christmas?
  9. Do we have to go to school tomorrow?
  10. Why don’t we ride the bus to school?
  11. How is _____? (fill in the name of every family member or acquaintance they can think of, including all the students in their Kindergarten and pre-school classes from Missouri)
  12. Why did you say Bonjour to that person, do you know them?
  13. Are we going to drive or take a plane to Cameroon? How many planes? How long will it take? When are we leaving? (this is normally one question)
  14. How many days until my birthday?
  15. What is for lunch/supper?
  16. Can we watch Kung Fu Panda when we get home?
  17. Can we go to the playground on the way home?
  18. Where did we get the umbrellas?
  19. How come you are not wearing rain boots?
  20. Can we stop and buy some candy?
  21. How come Jonah gets to ride in the stroller?
  22. Why doesn’t Joshua have to stay as school as long as me?
  23. What’s that person’s name? Do you know them?
  24. How come we have to walk so far?
  25. Can we pray for my friend they got hurt in class today?

Although some of the questions seem very typical for a four and six year old some of them bring tears to my eyes when I see the love that they are developing for others that they don’t know very well and normally are making fun of them.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Deuteronomy 6:5-7

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Treasure Hunt

Posted on October 7, 2009 by David

Today was the weekly trip to the Massy library, really the bibliothèque because the library is where you go to buy the books and we were just in a borrowing kind of mood. The entire walk there Joshua was insistent that all libraries have Dr. Seuss books or they are not really a library. I assured him that we would look extra hard today to try and find one. As the boys were looking around the children’s section I noticed there was a computer in between some of the shelves that was sitting there without any warnings about not touching it ,so I deduced that this must be where people search for the books in the library, also known as the card catalog in other parts of the world.

Having had years of computer experience and recently learning some new verbs on how to find things I was sure that if there was a Dr. Seuss book to be found, the computer would be able to guide me to the exact location. I have also used several French web sites and have found that the user interface is different from what I have grown accustomed to in the United States; so, what I would think to click on, I look for the opposite place on the page and click there and volià exactly what you need. So there was a big box in the middle of the page but I knew that was too obvious so I found another small box towards the top of the page on the right and typed Seuss and clicked the enter button, and volià 3 results were shown on the screen of French Dr. Seuss books.

Now began the fun part, how do the French order the books on the shelf? I knew they were not using the dewey decimal system which I know very well, because every shelf has the books sorted from A-Z with no numbers. But, I was able to figure out that one of the books was in the jeune (younger) section in the premier document section filled under R (still haven’t figured out why under R). So we went from shelf to shelf looking at the R books but we were not making any progress until I saw a sign hanging from the ceiling that said 1st documents – (that’s the same as premier) and there in between all the other R’s was Comment le Grinch a vole Noël. I don’t know if all the words rhyme as well in this version but I do know that they changed Whoville to Chouville. Treasure found and 2 boys are very happy!

Comment le Grinch a vole Noel

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