Two Truths and a LIe

Look at those bean plants grow.

We had our first English Club this past week.  This is a club for high level English speakers.  They come to our house one evening a week to practice their English.  For an hour and a half we may play games, have discussions, listen to songs, watch videos, or do something else which will help these
English speakers keep their English strong.  Now our only condition for coming to the English club is that people have enough English that they can follow and participate in whatever we may be doing.  Some weeks the group is all very advanced speakers, other times it can go down to low-intermediate. We try to plan activities that can be flexible depending on the group, sometimes we’re surprised by how well the group catches on, other times we’re surprised by how they don’t catch on….

This week we played the ice-breaker game of “Two Truths and a Lie”.  It’s fairly simple: players take turn making three statements—two of which are true and one which is a lie.  The other players then try to guess which statement is a lie. For example:

    1. We live on a tropical island.
    2. The beaches here are white, sandy, and pristine.
    3. We usually walk by the ocean on our way to the market.

Which statement is false?  (The second one. The beaches here are often black sand, rocky and covered in garbage.)

So the idea is for students to get to know something interesting about one another while playing a fun game, but somewhere along the line there was an understanding gap.  They didn’t seem to get the point of the game. It became clear with the first student.

“Okay, I’ll go,” he said. “Number 1: I am an English student. Number 2: I am the president of the country.  Number 3: I live on Clove island.”  Everyone laughed! 

“Number 2!” said the students.  “With a big smile the first contestant said, “You are right.  I’m not the president.”  At this point I thought it wise to step in and explain the game more carefully.

“So, we want to say things that will make it difficult for people to figure out which one is the lie.”  Everyone nodded their heads.  I gave an example to show them what I meant.  It was not an easy one.  They were not sure which was the right answer.  Many people guessed wrong.  “Okay,”  I thought.  “Now they’re catching on.” 

The black sand trashy beach by our house

“I’ll go.” said another student. “Number 1: When I was a boy I went hunting.”  He began.
“Okay, ‘when you were a boy you went hunting,” we repeated, “Good! And your next statement?” I asked.
“I’m not finished.  Number 1:  When I was a boy I went hunting with my father.  I shoot [sic] a guinea fowl.  (We had to pause here to explain to the class what a guinea fowl is since we don’t have them on Clove Island.)  “When I was a boy I go hunting with my father.  I shoot a guinea fowl but when it falls—a rabbit.  When it falls—it’s a rabbit.  Okay. I shoot a guinea fowl.  When it falls—it’s a rabbit.  Okay!  Now, number 2: I am from Clove Island.  Number 3: I’m not married.”

“The first one!  The first one!”  Everyone responded with big smiles and laughter.  “Yes!” said the story teller.  “I shoot a guinea fowl and —a rabbit falls!  This cannot happen!  It is not true!”  His apparent pride was obvious.  Apparently, this was a really good lie.  Very tricky!

“Okay, me next.” says another student with excitement.  Everyone is really enjoying the game now.  “Number 1:  When I was a baby I could fly like a bird…”

Another student, “When I was first learning English, I talked to the trees and they answered me.”

We could only shake our heads at these ridiculous answers, but according to the other participants, these were some of the best answers!  So did the game fail?  In a sense maybe. From our perspective, they never really got the point.  But reflecting on it later, we’ve come to see that the problem was not one of language but one of culture.  Creativity is rarely taught in island schools.  Thinking creatively is not a highly valued island skill.  Yet, when given the opportunity, islanders appreciate creativity.  They like a good story or a good joke.  So when we gave them an opportunity to think creatively—they ran with it!  No one cared much about tricking the others or saying something that would be hard to guess.  It was much more fun to say something fantastic—something creative.  Everyone will appreciate that.  And so they did!

Tomorrow night we will have club again.  When holidays are near we usually try to talk about them.  Will our discussion of Easter go well?  It may not go as we plan it, but I’m sure it will be interesting.  It nearly always is!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The kids started local school yesterday.  Our daughter was excited but our son was very nervous to go back.  There were tears and a lot of prayers said, but in the end, the first day went pretty well.    Since having a good day, good teachers, and kind classmates is not a given here, we see it as a real answer to prayer.  We hope our son will see it that way too.  Tom’s first classes have gone well and it seems like a good schedule.  He is happy to be teaching again and the great interactions he gets with students.  Tom is also happy for the opportunity he had this past week to share with a family, to read the book together and to encourage their family gatherings.  The language work and the training of the new language worker is going well.  We are also thankful for how well our newest teammate is transitioning to life and the spirit she brings to our team.


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Keep praying for the kids school days as they have many days ahead— pray especially for our son who is still really anxious about being in local school.  We are still in search of a proper office space.  Pray that the language project and training would continue to go well.  Pray for all our new classes and relationships with students and administrators.  Pray for our relationships with neighbors and for more families to gather together to study.  Pray for our future teammates who are in the process of raising the necessary support and those who may not know yet that they are meant to join our team.  We are hoping that 4 more members will join us in the next year!