Yoruba at rehab hospital. Tue, May 3, 2011.

05/03/2011. 1281. I was visiting an elderly friend in a rehabilitation hospital/nursing home, after he had a mild stroke. I hung out with him while a nurse took him to the workout room to do some exercises. I accompanied him back to his room to free up the nurse/technician to take care of others. But when he got back to his room, he needed a couple of nurses to help him from the wheelchair into bed. There is a science to getting people into and out of bed, and I haven't been trained on it, so he called for a couple nurses to help him.

One of the nurses spoke with an accent and had a foreign name on his name-tag, so I asked him where he was from. He said Nigeria. I asked if he was Yoruba or Igbo, and he said Yoruba. I offered him a free church book in Yoruba, but he said he never learned ot read it, just English. I ended up giving him one of my custom pass-along cards.

The writing systems used for most African languages are phonetic, so if he wanted to take the time, he could teach himself to read Yoruba with a pair of copies of the Book of Mormon in Yoruba and English.

If my friend is still there the next time I'm over at that side of town, I'll take in a Yoruba copy just to show the guy.