Hello everyone,
How are things? Jaide and I are doing good. Last Sunday, we had our full sign language meeting. There was 55 in attendance, 25 deaf. We only managed to get 3 deaf from our side of the river to go. As usual, we hired a private bus to take us. This time we hired Rafeek, aka tall boy ( He is the Muslim man who knows 5 deaf that he is supposed to help us meet). After we picked up everyone that were going, there was still empty seats. Rafeek looks at me, shakes his head ands says, "Graems, next time tell me what this is for and I will fill this bus with deaf and blind!" I appreciate his zeal. Man, can he talk. Oh, my favorite moment was when he told us, "white people don't cook, all you eat are sandwiches." We explained that we like to cook, in fact we even cook Guyanese food. That was the funniest concept in the world to him, he just kept laughing at us cooking curry and roti. He said he was going to come by our house and teach us how to cook Guyanese.
How do you explain the issue of Universal Sovereignty to some one with a very limited sign language vocabulary? That was the the dilemma we faced on Ramzan's study this week. The hardest part was explaining what a challenge is. To illustrate what a challenge is I drew a picture of a woman cooking, and a boy. I explained that the woman is a very good cook, but the small boy comes up and tells the woman she is a bad cook and that he is a excellent cook. What does the woman do? Slap the kid? No, she says, "okay, you go ahead and cook some food and I will cook some food, give it to people and see what they say. Then, we will know who is a good cook." Both cook, once finished they give their food to people. The woman's food everyone loves. The boys is disgusting, it makes people sick. Proof, the woman was right. After, drawing and explaining that, I drew the same picture but with Jehovah and Satan. Not cooking, but ruling the world. Then I showed a picture of what Satan world looks like. Followed by a picture of what the earth will look like under Jehovah's Kingdom. I think he is starting to understand. Next week we will work on it some more.
The cutest thing is trying to watch Mukesh do the sign for Jehovah. You see, he can't make the handshape to sign a J. To sign the letter J, you make a fist, and leave your pinky sticking up, than draw a shape of the letter J. Mukesh has to take his other hand and hold down all his fingers except his pinky finger, than draw the J. The H he has no problem with.Guyanese word of the day: Plait. You don't braid your hair, you plait your hair.
Love,
G&J
