It was almost midnight and we were having a prayer meeting on the roof of the youth hostel in Senegal. while in deep worship, lead by the Spirit, Abel started to play a Afrikaans song on his guitar.

Now you need to understand the background; Afrikaans has been a bit of an issue for our team. Six of our seven team members are Afrikaans speaking and Kagiso who is from Botswana is the only one who does not speak or understand it. We used to regularly stare into Kagiso's unresponsive face, wondering why she does not reply to our questions or engage in conversation. This has not served Kagiso very well and after realizing how much we have hurt and excluded her, we are very sensitive not to speak Afrikaans.

So, when Abel started playing the song, I cringed, opened one eye to check Kagiso's reaction and to give Abel the 'I-cant-believe-you're-playing-Afrikaans' look. The rest of the team were probably thinking the same thoughts.

Kagiso looked up once the song ended and to everyone's surprise said "Abel, Abel, play that Afrikaans song again!" Then she started to sing along heartily in a heavenly language and I am almost sure I even heard some Afrikaans. Kagiso's Afrikaans tongue has kept us amused ever since and she has not lived that one down yet!

In EA we have developed a quite rich and colourful language of our own that all team members can understand. We learned from missionaries living in countries very closed to the Gospel of Jesus, where christians are persecuted for their faith, to use alternative words for our regular christainese phrases like:

The Big Orange =  God

Oranges                = Christians

The J Man          =  Jesus

M&M's     & nbsp;           = muslims

mountaineers   = missionaries

Orange trees      = churches

We have also made up a few other phrases just for fun!

Lekker Cheese = meaning fun, good, lekker, awkward, happy, or the fromage(french for cheese) is yummy.

Tomato sauce= Stoffel's affectionate little name for toilet paper- a precious commodity in  our team.

Bon soir conveyer belt = a phrase us ladies use to greet a arabic man that wants to make you part of his harem. It is french for 'Good evening but please move right along please'

Pickle Jar = this one I borrowed from my very wise friend Melissa's 'let him open the pickle jar' analogy. It means that ladies must allow the boys to do things for us (like opening the door and pickle jar) if they insist, even though we know we can do it ourselves.

The bread with the avo = we learned the opposite of pickle jar from our  friend from Togo. I offered him a avocado sandwich and when I took to long to make it according to his taste, he said in a very demanding voice "Sister! The bread with the avo!" So, it refers to a demanding and impatient person.

Hanoot = our word for a arabic toilet. It is basicly just a ceramic hole in the ground and requires the user to have good balance. We found a 'hanoot a la douce' in Mauritania which is a hanoot with a shower, only for the experienced hanoot user who can multitask.

"your bum is on my lip" = meaning: You are in my personal space, you are annoying me or in an overcrowded african bus quite literally "Excuse me, madam, but your bum is on my lip!"

African butterflies = In South Africa it is known as the common house fly but in africa it is everywhere: on the bread in the bakery, in the bus and especially the hanoot.

How! = Stoffel's expression of shock, disbelief or sheer amusement like when we waited 4 hours for the bus this morning.. HOW! Then the bus broke down half way to our destination.. HOW! HOW!

These are only a few of our favourites but watch this space because the journey is still young and Explore Africa is a bunch of crazy oddballs so fun is bound to happen and add itself to our dictionary!!!