“Che fanmi,
Apparently I’m allowed to write at any time at the MTC.
(Note from Nancy: Not correct. He clarified in an email last week.) When I am
in FL-FTL, I will be able to write only on my P-day. In the MTC, my P-day is Monday. So far my experience with the MTC is that
days feel like weeks, even though each individual activity seems really short. I am having trouble thinking and retaining
all of the information that I have been cramming into my head. As they say in Haitian Creole, “tet
chaje”—literally “mind full”. For the
same reason, I’m having trouble getting to sleep at night, which is only compounding
the problem.
A couple of
tips for future MTC-goers:
1. Don’t trust
Google Translate. At all. It’s wrong.
2. Speak as much of
your language as you can, don’t attach words and phrases to English words and
phrases, attach them to meanings. For
example, when I interpret “nan non Jezikri, amen’” I don’t have to consciously
translate Jezikri any more, because I know what it means, instead of knowing
that it translates as “Jesus Christ”.
3. The juice gives
you gas. Avoid at all costs.
4. If you are
assigned to room M16-137, don’t bother messing with the AC. It doesn’t work.
Although
I feel overwhelmed, I have to admit that I have been extremely
lucky/blessed. Haitian Creole is just
about the most awesome language ever, and it is ridiculously simple. Give it another few days, and I’ll have
learned more Haitian Creole than I ever did Spanish. Besides that, it sounds amazing, and I can’t
wait to learn it. One of the best parts
about the language is how much you can say using a limited vocabulary. For example, the verb “ule” means “to
want”, the verb “di” means “to
say”. But the verb “uledi” means “to
mean” or “want to say”. There are all
kinds of clever constructs in the language that I really enjoy finding.
You mentioned
that Andrew gave a talk on his third day –so did I, with my companions (more on
them below”, after only 1 ½ hours of language study. It was terrible, as you can imagine. We taught him again today. It went better, thanks for asking! But still it wasn’t exactly a conversation.
There are only
five people in my district. Elders Ashby
and Casper are companions, and I am part of triple companionship—me, Elder
Trockel, and Elder Halling. We all are
speaking Haitian Creole, but we’re all going to different missions. They will be at the MTC foe six weeks, I will
be here for seven. I don’t know what I’m
going to have to do for that last week (as far as companions are concerned).
(note from Nancy: See previous blog post) The reason that I stick around for an
extra week is because the FL-FTL mission’s transfers are a week behind the MTC
schedule. So I come t the MTC the 18th so that I learn the language with others
who are learning it, but I stay for a week longer because otherwise I would
arrive in between transfers and they wouldn’t know what to do with me.
I hope you’re
all ok. I’m out of time (and paper) for
now.
Elder Slade
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