Peanuts (I apologize now if this offends anyone)

I found myself celebrating New Year’s Day with the Sisters of Assumption, the nuns I teach English and Spanish to. They invited me to lunch with them after mass, a 3 hour and 42 minute new year’s day mass! And I would like to mention here that on Sunday, New Year’s Eve day, I already sat through a 2 hour and 56-minute mass.
I have decided to begin logging the minutes I sit in mass, there must be number that eventually elevates me on the track to junior sainthood!! OK, so I am not Mother Theresa, but we are both short and worked in underdeveloped countries. Of course, Mother Theresa deserves sainthood just for wearing white in India, white is so hard to keep clean anywhere, but almost impossible in an underdeveloped world with the dust, dirt, heat, and lack of water. Believe me I know, I’ve tried.
But back to the nuns, I enter the large dining hall at the convent and am humbled as I realize I am the only guest and I have a seat of honor next to the mother superior. They begin with a prayer giving thanks but instead of the usual spoken prayer they begin to sing, accompanied by an African drum that one of the sisters plays beautifully. The music brings up that deep earthy beat that breaks open the heart and brings a tear to your eye. As they sing, the postulates and two younger nuns bring in the food, raising the large platters up high above their heads singing and swaying to the music. They encircle the entire table two times and then set the food in front of me and the mother superior.
They are gracious hostesses, making me feel at home, serving me first, and keeping up a light conversation in both Malagasy and English. The first course is what they call “compose” I believe it is French, it is always a cold dish of potatoes or pasta, with carrots and a few green vegetables in a mayonnaise type dressing. They also bring out several large bowls of peanuts in the shell. Peanuts are served at many meals, they are a good source of protein and fairly inexpensive. I had peanuts and rice for breakfast almost daily when I was in training. Everyone shells a few peanuts to eat and mix them with their compose.
Then Sister Pascaline holds up one of her peanuts and ask “Tamara, what means this in English”. “That is a peanut.” I reply  Ohh she repeats, yes peanuts! But she cannot roll the “uts” off of her tongue and does not pronounce the “T”. It comes out a very distinct “is” at the end.
I freeze and stop chewing. Did she just say what I think she said? So, I say it again, gently correcting her and say “it is pronounced peanUTS “– then I spell it p-e-a-n-u-t-s and I emphasize that it has a “T” that must be pronounced very clearly. But she just cannot get the “UTS” to roll off her tongue and she repeats it the same. Then all the sisters start repeating the word, without the “T” and I choke on the peanut I have in my mouth. 9 nuns and 2 postulates all smiling and saying peanuts without the “T”.
I quickly think “if” or “how” I should tell them that what they are saying is not the thing we are eating. I know peanut is voanjo in Malagasy. I look up the “other word” in my Malagasy dictionary and it is not there. I consider spelling both words, showing how the “A” is silent in peanuts and how the “IS” and the “UTS” are very different. In class sometimes I resort to drawing a picture of what they are learning.  But I quickly decide this is not the time or place for THAT kind of lesson.
Then much to my shock they start using the word in a sentence. This is how I teach them English, when they learn a new word they must use it in as many sentences as possible. They hold up their peanuts and Sister Augustine says “I have a big peanut”. Sister Madeline shoots back “I have a small peanut.” Sister Ordiline says with a smile and pride at her sentence “I like to eat peanuts” – but they are saying this with a distinct “IS” and not a “UTS”.
As I continue to listen to them use the word, without the “T” I don’t know whether to burst out laughing, burst into tears or simply crawl under the table in complete embarrassment. This is going downhill so fast, I don’t know how to stop it. You can only imagine!!
I can feel my face warming and turning red. I take a deep breath and say to myself “Get a grip, they think they are saying peanuts and you are the only one in the room that knows that they are not saying peanuts.” Then I quickly scoop up a spoon full of compose and say “potatoes” p-o-t-a-t-o-e-s, in hopes they will pronounce that correctly and move on. Please Lord bring on the next course!!!

Curiosity only does one thing, and that is to give. What it gives are clues to an incredible scavenger hunt of your life.        E. Gilbert

Sisters Of Assumption

First cows in my yard, then flooding – I can’t get to my outhouse!!! 😦

Lions Club – they  helped the little girl in the photo with glasses