Market Trip

Friday was another day off. I decided I was up for more adventure, so I headed to the local market with my roommate. We wandered the market for a few hours looking at all the interesting items. We had gone in search of more fabric and a watch for my roommate. My roommate had stopped to look at some items and I was standing next to her when an African man, holding his infant girl, started talking to me. He was making small talk and the next thing I new was his baby girl was in my arms. I did not ask to hold the baby, he just dropped her in my arms. I was shocked, but held the little girl. I held her for about 5 mins and talked to the gentleman. He told me the baby's name was Blessing, a common name here. I told him she was beautiful. I was expecting him to take her back, but he didn't reach for her, so I finally said thanks for letting me hold her, but I need to go. He took his daughter back and then proceeded to tell me I needed to pay him. I was confused. I then understood, he wanted me to pay him because he let me hold his baby. Can you imagine? Someone needing money so bad, the try to collect money from letting people hold their children. I didn't know how I was going to get out of this one without offending him. I decided to just tell him the truth. I told him, "you put her in my arms, I am not paying for that, I did not ask to hold her, thank you, good-bye." I walked away and that was the end of that. Interesting. I am learning many other things about the culture here and the culture of those I live with. My roommate from Sweden is so much fun. Her English is excellent, but she is still learning. Each day we pick a "word for the day." She is expanding her vocabulary in incredible ways. The other day, we were walking and came across some lizards. I asked her if she saw them. She did not know what I was talking about. Then we found another one and I said, "that is a lizard". She was trying to spell it out loud so she new how to say it. She came up with blizzard. I corrected her and told her what a blizzard is and what a lizard is. We laughed so hard. Dinner conversations with various crew are also interesting. Someone asked me to explain baseball to them. A girl from Norway had no idea what baseball was. So with my fork, spoon, knife, and glass I made bases and tried to explain America's game to her. The best conversation by far was yesterday when my buddies and I discovered animals make different sounds in different countries. Did you know that? An American rooster says, " cock-a-doodle-do" but European roosters say, "cooc-ah-le-coo". Also Swedish pigs say "nuff, nuff" not "oink, oink". It was so funny hearing all the different animal sounds. One girl said that horses say, " eee-eee" whereas ours say "neigh- neigh". Horses in her country cannot say "neigh" because that means "no" in her language. May your weekend go well. I love all of you. A verse I found this week was Job 6:8. It is very good. Check it out. May God grant you what you hope for. Love ya!