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| photo by our little friend Frey |
Zambians have a rough time with Heather’s name. Every once
in a while, we meet someone who watched a movie staring a Heather or perhaps
once met another Heather, and so can
recognize and pronounce her name. More often than not, we’re met with
blank stares anytime Heather is introduced.
Sometimes when folks come to the door, in the course of
conversation I ask if they know Heather… again, blank stares. They’re not sure
if I’m talking about an object, an idea, or perhaps just another English word
not yet in their vocabularies. “We stay here together… She works at Central
Office and with Compassionate Ministries…” I begin explaining.
I asked Heather’s permission to share with you her list of
names she’s collected that people have used when referring to her throughout
the past six months. Most common pronunciations sound a bit like “Hee-tha” or
“Heatha.” It’s extremely rare to hear a true “R” at the end of her name.
- Heatha
- Heitha
- Heither
- Heatheur
- Heether
- Heza
Heather was quite un-flattered to read our church’s annual
council minutes, only to discover her name listed as “Heater.”
Our most recent funny with Heather’s name happened in town one Saturday when Heather purchased some talk-time for her phone and
requested a receipt. As the fellow wrote the receipt, he asked her name.
“Heather. H-E-A-T-H-E-R” she spelled out each letter as he wrote. Everything
went great, until he swapped a “P” for the “T” in the middle of her name!
We managed to make it out the door and up the sidewalk
before bursting into laughter at yet another name to add to Heather’s
ever-growing list…
Well, at least so far they are not calling her Heathen!:-)
ReplyDelete~ Betsy
Welcome home Heather. Is it too late to pick a Zambian nickname?
ReplyDelete