DSL

Now when you see a title like that, you probably think I am talking about our computer connection. And most of the time you would be right, but this time it means something different. If I had titled the blog ESL you would guess that I meant, “English as a Second Language.” Well, DSL means “Dhivehi as a Second Language.“ We have made some tiny steps in learning the local language, like learning hello, how are you, thank you, and a few other essentials but since everyone around us spoke English, it has been difficult to learn the language. So, we are starting DSL class this week. We have some materials that will aid us in learning a language and we found a language coach that is going to come to the house 3 -5 times a week for class. We have decided to make DSL part of our curriculum for the kids and mom and dad will sit in on the lessons as well. It should be a lot of fun. The first 100 hours of lessons are mostly us listening, learning new sounds and vocabulary by identifying objects by sight and touch.

We have found that when we make an attempt to speak their language, the locals who might not of spoken to us because of their lack of English automatically feel more free to try communication with us. We also have found that locals who look away because they dont know how to speak to us smile when we greet them in their language. There are some many benefits that we think it is something we should do.

Kyndal made a new friend this week and spent some time at her house this morning. As it turns out, Kyndal’s new friend has a brother the same age as Braden. The boy came to our house and played Monopoly and computer games with Braden.

I’m not sure if I blogged about this or not, but I thought I would go ahead and let you know…. we had some major sewer smell in our house that we have been living with since September. We have been kindly letting the landlord know every could of weeks. Also the AC in our bedroom quit working about 2 months ago and we have been letting the landlord know about this as well. This last month when I paid the rent, I felt like it was time to take it up a notch. I informed him that I would not be paying anymore rent until both issues were corrected. If this meant I had to move, then that would be what we would do. Can you believe it? With three days our sewer issue was fixed and progress towards fixing the AC was on its way. I can proudly say that as of this evening, all issues have been rectified and apparently the landlord likes to receive rent money. Money talks.

We had a great weekend and are looking forward to the week. I shot a few more pics and have uploaded them in another album. Click here to see them.