I'll beat you with a brick!!

There's a little saying the kids throw around here. Often they can be heard chasing after one another, saying "I'll beat you with a brick". Violent, yes, I understand that, but still pretty funny. So, one day (a month ago) I decided to adopt this little saying. I would say it to the kids and they would laugh and I would say it again, and they would laugh some more and I would laugh. Then as I was saying it, I'd do the universal Africa "I'll beat you" hand symbol (which is that snapping-of-the-fingers-chew-tin-packing thing. And then they would really laugh. So I'm enjoying myself using this expression.
Until last week.
One of the rules in the classroom is that the students have to speak English.

Khulumani Silungu

And at first when we implemented this rule, I felt a little shaky on it. This being because I understand what happened in residential schools and I understand that language is an important and VITAL part of being and knowing and learning. BUT these students are living in their community and in their homes and speaking their language all the time, so if they want to master English as a functioning language, they need to practice speaking it. Ahem. There's my excuse. I really had to develop this reasoning to feel okay about it.

SO.

The students are always speaking Siswati in the class, so on the board I write:

Khulumani Silungu
(Or I'll beat you with a brick)

And the students thought it was hilarious.

But later on in the day, Sesinyana was joking around asking me why I wanted to steal Patricia's boyfriend. I said I didn't want to. She tells me I've been saying it all day.

Oh yes.

"I'll beat you with a brick" ACTUALLY means "I'm going to steal your boyfriend"

Sort of awkward considering I've been saying it for the last month to kids age 10-20.

On a different note, I've been reading "Into the Wild". I haven't watched the movie and figured the book would probably be better anyway. I was hugely inspired and challenged by this passage of the book:

"So many people live within happy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism al of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

And on ANOTHER note, I've been blown away by this passage in the Bible:

"But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.'
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me." (Isaiah 49:14-16)

I love that imagery
ENGRAVED on the palms of His hands.