Words Part III

T and one of his many beloved cars that he likes to sing about

Wow, I never would have thought it would take three posts to list T's Sidamic words that we came to understand. He must have taught us more than I realized. There were many more things he said or sang that I never quite figured out. Like when he would stand in the street and say three commands and then take off. Clearly his words for 'on your mark, get set, GO!'. He doesn't remember any more, and I was never clear on what he was saying. Unfortunately if we ever asked him to repeat so we could understand, he would just get angry and clam up, so we had to be good at hearing clearly the first time through, and then being able to repeat it without butchering it.

Enni: or ahenny -- he said it both ways: Look! Probably Sidamic. I didn't hear this at first -- he was probably home three weeks before he started using this word. He probably didn't care at first if I was proud of him, but eventually he wanted to show me everything. Everything. So the use of this word was a good sign of his developing attachment to me. He would draw two lines intersecting each other and want to show me the great air-puh-lani. (airplane) And then five seconds later another air-puh-lani. They tell you to respond to your child within 15 seconds. This made making dinner very difficult to do when he was drawing during dinner prep time. Enni in combination with 'ma' was interesting. He wanted me to look at the latest and greatest thing he was doing and in his excitement, didn't want to spend the time to add the second syllable to 'mommy'. Ergo -- I heard 'enni-ma' quite a bit. Fortunately not a lot out in public!

Baca: Enough or no more. Might be Amharic. All the kids at HH knew this word, as did the staff. The kids used it to indicate that they were done eating, and the staff would ask before they removed a plate from in front of a child. I've also used it to show T that he was getting the last of whatever food I was giving him, or to indicate he was not getting any more, even if there was more, in the case of things like candy or cookies. He'd happily munch through an entire package of cookies if I let him. I'd let him have two, then say "baca" and if he then asked for more, I'd remind him that I'd said "baca" and offer him some fruit, which was generally refused. I also used it in non-food situations, such as in communicating that bath time was over, as in "baca bath." I did make a concerted effort in the first months to always use the English word when using the Amharic or Sidamic word. So "Baca? All done?" or "Baca. All gone." We tried sign language, but he was not at all interested. We now play a game where I say "baca" as I give him the last of whatever food he's getting. I know he knows "that's it" or "all gone" but it's our inside joke. "Ichimari," he'll reply, laughing, playing with my head. Which brings us to the next word.

Ichimari More. Pronounced e-chimaree. Again, probably Amharic, as the staff used it as well. If he wanted more, he would say "ichimari." If we were asking him if he wanted more, we would just say, "Chimari?" I remember the early days, when we were first home and my little boy had so much eating to catch up with. "Ichimari," he would say while finishing his third bowl of cheerios, or fourth scrambled egg, or third granola bar. We were advised not to withhold food, but to allow our child to eat as much healthy food as he wanted. Man, he could pack it away. His record was six eggs, and on another occasion, five bowls of cheerios. And there was the time he ate almost an entire bunch of grapes. I feared the results of that one. We were lucky that he never ate himself sick. His inch a month growth spurt from March - June was probably due in part to how much food he was finally taking in.

Ishi: Understand? or OK? I'm fairly certain this was Amharic, as it was used by all the staff at HH. Typically this was used in the context of "No you cannot climb the ladder to the top of the Range Rover. Ishi?" Or "You have to wear your seatbelt on the plane. Ishi?" Surprisingly we never got a "yes" response.

Amo: Come here. Not sure whether this is Amharic or Sidamic. It might be Sidamic, because we picked it up from other families who were at HH with us, and all our kids were from Sidama. Generally it didn't evoke the desired response. He'd be tearing off through the park trying to ditch me and I'd be yelling "Amo!" as I sprinted off after him. "Amo!" never slowed him down. People would actually be unsure that I was going to catch him, that's how fast he runs. Thankfully I have wheels too, and can still pull out a pretty good 100 or 200 when necessary. Which was lot with him early on.

The last single word for this post: Izoo: Pronounced eye-zoo. Probably Amharic.This was not a word he ever said himself, but was a word we were given to say to him to assure him that he was going to be ok. It means 'You're ok." or "Don't be scared." I'm not sure he ever believed us, or maybe he didn't understand it, because it never seemed to reassure him. I wouldn't say it to him when he was in situations where he was about to get four vaccinations or have blood drawn, because I wanted him to feel like when I said it, he was truly going to be ok, and truly had nothing to be scared about.

Andi, finadi, serti: One, two, three. This has to be Sidamic, as he was actually able to count to twenty, and I doubt he learned to do that in his month in Addis. I learned the first four, but don't remember four now. He lisped at first, so 'serti' came out as "thirty" but I think it was supposed to be pronounced with an 's'. I used to try to count with him, but he'd just get mad. I don't know if it's because I wasn't saying the words right or if he felt like I was mocking him. How to make him understand that I'm a student of languages and just interested in learning his too? I learned how to count to ten from a Brazilian employee -- I think I only remember nine and ten now -- and to three in one of the Chinese dialects from an employee from Singapore.

And to conclude, a song: Andendina, sehfahlehkatina, enni, enni, boofay. It goes on from there, but that's the best I've been able to understand and repeat. I have no idea what it means. He sang many songs when he first arrived; this is the only one that remains. We tried to videotape when he was singing, but he would get angry and stop singing, so his songs are largely gone forever. The first time I heard this andendina song was in Dulles waiting to board our plane for home and fervently praying that we'd get on and get out before it started snowing again. We'd had to spend an unanticipated extra day in DC due to a weather delay, and we knew the area was due to be slammed again and that the airport would be closing before long. Teshale was just excited he was going to be able to get on another plane. "Andendina, we're getting the heck out of DC'dina" was my song. This child needed to be home, and he needed to home that day -- not three days from then. Teshale sang so many little tunes throughout the day early on that I originally thought he had learned and remembered many cultural songs. But now I hear him making songs up in English and realize that a lot of what he sang was probably just being made up on the fly. He likes to sing about what he's doing or things that are making him happy. "Mommy" and "car' probably make it into the lyrics on an equal basis. That's good. Very very good. Because I know how much he loves his cars.