Don't worry, I am doing fine. I am hoping to go back
to Chinese before I head back, but there's still time.
For instance,
while contacting a person around my age on the street last week, we
asked him what he was interested in, trying to make conversation. He
said he was learning about computers, so we asked him what he wanted to
go into. He said criminal hacking...typical career choice.
Or
another investigator we invited to church and started to give him
directions how to get there. He recognized the street and said it was
right by his aunt's house.
Or used to be.
She used to live over there
until she was caught selling fake IDs. He, personally, had been
caught selling guns to an FBI agent, although there hadn't been enough
evidence to convict him.
He's pretty sincere about learning and changing
though.
You meet a lot of different situations here and, although it
can be difficult to deal with, sometimes when you're trying to find
people to teach and baptize, it also keeps things from becoming rote or
routine. It still is a pretty safe area, so long as you not outside
past midnight.
Regardless of time of day, it seems like there are always
people outside.
Like I said last time, it can be pretty noisy. Having a
lesson outside is always a little difficult.
You have the noise of
a plane flying by every few minutes, people yelling, ghetto birds flying
by overhead, loud music being played a few houses down, and the drone
of cars who constantly pass by honking their horns.
Sometimes they honk
because the person in front is too slow, or did something illegal, or
because they see someone they know, or maybe because another car honked,
and even occasionally just for fun honk out rhythms with their horns.
and add the random sound of an explosion, which is usually a firework,
and go off periodically throughout the day and into the night.
And of
course tons of dogs barking, ice cream trucks jingle's and street
peddlers honking their horns or yelling out Tamale's! and that's just
the normal noise.
On occasion, we have also had the disruptive sound of a
noisy rooster. And, if you are near the tracks, add the noise and
rattling of the Metro going by every 15 minutes.
The noise can be a
little distracting when you're trying to teach, but for the most part
everyone is used to ignoring it and just pausing mid-sentence until the
plane or ghetto bird has passed by.
It's an interesting area.
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