Skits & Sketches

Ready to watch some sketches!

“Are you knowing that the man you came here with is married?” The waiter asks the pretty young woman when her date goes to the bathroom.  She makes a face of great surprise and shock.  Meanwhile, her date is in the bathroom talking to himself.

“Aye! I didn’t bring my money.  I must be going home right now!  She cannot see me leaving.”

The man sneaks out and races home only to find his wife waiting, very suspicious and very angry, “My husband, where have you been?” She asks.

“Oh, my wife.  Do not ask me these questions.  Where is my money?” He snaps.

“I spent the money.” She spits back.

“Aye! You have done a very bad thing.” He grabs his head in despair.

“Me! It’s you who did the bad thing!” She yells as his phone starts to ring.  She grabs it from him and answers it.  “Who are you, and why are you calling my husband?”

A classic restaurant scene!

Sound exciting?  Maybe a bit overly dramatic with a few grammatical mistakes thrown in? Welcome to our English Sketch Exams.  Students completing their third level of classes are required to write and perform original skits.  The results are usually an interesting mix of moral teaching, cultural insights, and soap opera.

Mostly, the students do great.  They practice hard and come up with original ideas that show off their English and leaves them feeling proud and empowered with their language learning.  But having seen many of these sketches now, it is interesting to note some of the cultural themes that appear again and again:

• The unfaithful husband
• The powerful boss/teacher taking advantage of his position with young women
• The perils of being lazy and the importance of education
• Stealing and its consequences
• The desperate search for money and the wonderful perfect life of the rich
• Being cheated because you don’t know the language
• Finding a better life comes from traveling abroad

What does it say about island culture that these themes are so often repeated?

As I watched some sketches this week I suddenly had the thought, maybe this is more soap opera than real life.  Maybe this doesn’t reflect worldview and cultural norms.  Maybe it just makes good drama.  So I leaned over to one of the teachers and asked him about it.  “This story about a man cheating on his wife and then not having the money to pay for his date.  Could that really happen here?”  The teacher smiled at me knowingly and said.  “Oh yes.  Do you know Salim Ibrahim—the one with the shop downtown? This happened to him.”  So, there you go.

The after-skit group photos

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The old friend who has been coming by consistently to watch parts of a important film has finished watching the film.  Some good conversation ensued and he is interested in watching it again more closely and really thinking about it.  We are encouraged that he seems eager to do this.  Other meetings continue to go well.  A number of classes have recently finished and we are happy to be able to connect with so many students and to see so many of them doing so well.  Megan made an open ocean swim this week for the first time.  She has been exploring this exercise option for awhile and it was awesome to see it work so well.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We just learned that our good friend Ma Imani (who now lives on the big island) was rushed to the ER with difficulty breathing. She is only in her early 30’s and it is not clear at the moment why she is having trouble breathing. Pray for healing and clarity about what the problem is.  The kids will start school this week.  Pray for good transitions and happy reunions with friends and teachers.  Pray for their year ahead to go smoothly and well.  We are still searching for future teammates for our 2020 team.  Some of the people who showed interest have chosen to go in other directions.  Pray that God would send the right people in our direction soon so that they can start the process of preparation to come to the islands.