*Disclaimer: the errors in this post were caused by human nature and technology. Blogger needs a mobile app and I need to sleep!
So I decided to attend a midweek service recently, I've been feeling bad about being a Sunday-Sunday Christian but it’s all because my boss won't let me close at 4pm. So I always end up getting there after the last amen, usually between the announcements and people's retreat to their cars.
I was out of town visiting my family recently and I decided to go to church - their church. Now I've always known the service schedule but I wasn't aware things had changed a little, so off I went and ended up in the 'indigenous service', well that's not exactly the name but the deal was, different services were held simultaneously using the 3 major Nigerian languages – Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba and one pidgin session.
At the entrance the ushers helped me choose the right auditorium; apparently the essence was to teach people to read the bible and pray in their mother tongue. So with my English bible, I settled in, ready to prove to myself my B in the language at WAEC was well earned.
All was going well with my note taking until the preacher asked us to turn to Jacob Chapter 3! I know all the books of the bible off script and there’s definitely no Jacob on the list or so I thought.
I waited for him to correct the slip but he said it again and again; I quickly looked around and when no one was looking worried, peeping into their neighbour's bible or murmuring, I knew the exact reason why that B wasn't an A grade!
Officially, I was stranded. I quietly recited the bible books to be sure Jacob had not sneaked into the midst of the 66 other books while I wasn’t in church! After almost ripping my bible looking for Isaac’s favourite son, I heard him read what translated to “Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing...” in English. At that point I knew the book of James was where I should have been all the while! *whew*
How couldn't I have known all this that? Anyway, I've decided this would never happen again so I'm taking time out to get friendly with a Yoruba bible. BTW if you know any apps for bibles in Nigerian local dialect, do share. Thanks.
Finally the preacher said we think in our first language / mother tongue and the brain translates into the lingua franca for the mouth to deliver, I found that funny but then it’s probably why you hear things like 'who open the door down?', what's doing you?
Shout out to everyone who is not ashamed of their mother tongue!
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| Source: http://www.mothertongueblogs.com/ |
