Tell us about your mother!

I occasional throw informal America days. Basically this means nothing significant is going on at my school so I take advantage of the time to go hang out with my students. We pass the time with rapid-fire questions. They ask me about America and I reciprocate with questions about Lesotho. The only problem is they are not great as asking me questions, instead they usually say “tell me about ________.” This makes it difficult for me as they usually pick broad topics leaving me pick a sub-topic. Plus our language barrier requires me to brainstorm an explanation basic enough for them to understand me.

Today it was tell us about your mother. Coincidentally as I was walking to school today I thought about how much my mom would love this country because there are absolutely no birds flying obnoxiously around. I proceeded to tell them about my moms hatred of birds and my conclusion she would is going to love Lesotho. They insisted there are birds here (like I had offended them). I apologized profusely and explained I had not seen any. Then it all came out. “Oh madame, you can’t see them. They are in our stomachs.” Baffled, I was unsure how to respond. They proceeded to explain (and instruct) if I ever see one I am supposed to call them (oh that will be easy since we all have phones!). Apparently they stone and eat the birds they see. Not apparently, a few days later I had a dead bird (we are talking about sparrow type birds) waiting for me on my desk thanks to my students. In class they apologized for the delay and told me when requesting a “deck-dancy (delicacy)” I need to be patient. I never requested anything, especially a dead bird and I am confident I offended them when I refused to take part in the feast. Being the clever students they are they flipped it on me. Clearly I talk about nutrition too much in math seeing that they insisted I should eat the bird for protein. Riiiiiiight, I think I will stick to my eggs and safer subjects too.