On Friday we finished out the third session at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. Here we are with our Yoruba language consultant, Abi. We’ve been meeting with Abi three times a week for the last two months, learning about his language and culture. For our final Yoruba test we had to do language demonstrations which required us to comprehend and speak Yoruba for ten minutes. To fill the time in our individual tests Emily and I both acted out a meal invitation, rejection and eventual acceptance. I used part of my time to tell the story of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8.

While we both ended up receiving A’s, Abi remarked that Emily had a perfect Yoruba accent and would be understood by any Yoruba person. As for me, I guess I had a little bit too much West Virginian twang coming through in my Yoruba!

With the completion of Second Language and Culture Acquisition, the class in which we learned Yoruba, Emily is now finished with classes–at least until next year when we’ll start French school. I’m  so proud of my wife: she has not only withstood a move to America, a move to Texas, nursing school, birth of one child, but also three introductory linguistics classes in the midst of the birth of our second child! What a woman! I love you, Peanut.

I now have a short break before session four starts up. Starting on Wednesday I’ll begin my final three classes, after which I’ll only have one more qualification to meet before being fully qualified to serve with Wycliffe as a linguist/translator. The remaining qualification? French school. Since we’ve taken an assignment in Cameroon, we need to hit the ground speaking the national languages fluently. Cameroon has two languages of wider communication, French and English. We’re continuing to brush up on our English–Texas isn’t helping any–but we need some help getting to fluency in French. That’s why in January we’re beginning French school in France.

As if parenting and classes weren’t stressful enough, for the last several months we’ve been making preparations to move to France in January. We booked our flights this past week and will leave from Pittsburgh on December 29 after spending Christmas with my family. French school starts on January 3. It’s amazing to see everything come together as we move on to the next stage. Thank you for your continued love and support!