I drove Pastor Michael Kandela home from our discipleship group meeting this evening. When we got to his house, he was telling me to "pass his greetings to Kerri and the children," but he was saying it in Nyanja. Over the past couple of months, Kerri and I have been trying to learn Nyanja. So, I asked him to repeat what he said. As he repeated, I tried to mimic the words, but without much success. After fumbling over the words one more time, I said "I have a long way to go."
Immediately, Pastor Kandela got out of the car and said goodbye. It took me a minute to figure out what had happened. When I did figure it out, I rolled down my window and asked him to come back. I had to explain to him that when I said "I had a long way to go," I meant that I had a long way to go in learning Nyanja. Pastor Kandela said that he thought I was trying to cut the conversation short, because I had a long way to travel back home. We then laughed at what had happened.
Later that evening, he called and told me that his wife Monica laughed when she heard about our misunderstanding. I'm quickly learning that some of the things that I am used to saying in English, have to be fully explained when speaking with Zambians.
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