Last week, I waited for my language teacher to show up at the usual 9:30 am. (Well, actually I am usually scrambling to be ready for him by then as I have a number of things to do before he arrives.)
He showed up a few minutes late (after having missed the previous day). I asked him where he was yesterday. A wedding. That explained a lot including the yawning mid sentence. Weddings are a several day affair and involve walking the bride to her husband’s village at the end of the party. This can be many miles.
We proceeded with our language time (which is self directed since there has never been a formal Gumuz language acquisition class nor a person trained to teach foreigners to learn language). He was obviously struggling to stay awake. I gave him water. I gave him tea. I even gave him water to wash his face. We started with some Gumuz songs that I have had him translate to use with preschool children (and for language lesson time for our kids). While we practiced the songs, his eyes would roll back but he did try singing.
As I would ask him a question, his eyes would close and he would answer albeit very slowly. I would ask another question and his head would nod forward. Still he answered. But I wondered, how accurate are the answers he is giving me? Finally I decided to end the lesson and try again the next day.
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