thanks.steve
I taught them how to say the word in my language and the group began laughing uniformly. I too, out of confusion, began laughing. I pronounced the word a few more times, listening to them imitating me; the laughter continued. As I lay in my cot that night, I replayed the scene in my head thinking of how the men and women and children loved to hear me speak. We shared a moment of communication and joy, regardless of the fact that my language was a language utterly foreign to them. As I recalled the translator telling me they thought the word "sounded funny," I laughed by myself under the canopy of magnificent trees.