Challenge 852

A Whole in Two Parts

In Cheryl Wood Ruggiero’s Words to Bless the Day in Moshi:
1. English sees “day” and “night” as two separate things. What point of view do the Kiswahili words siku and usiku seem to take?
2. Another little memoir shows how learning a second language can be fun as well as practical. How does Cheryl’s memoir make the experience beautiful?
In Maurice Humphrey’s A Week at the Beach: At what point might readers begin to suspect that the children and Mr. Blodgett might be not real but simulacra, e.g. androids or holograms?
In Edward Ahern’s Pest Hag:
1. Ingvill Berntsen dips her hand into a holy water fonts and blesses herself. Such a practice is more commonly associated with the Roman Catholic denomination, not the Lutheran. Why must Ingvil be Norwegian?
2. Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is most commonly caused by Group-A Streptococcus, although Staphylococcus and other bacteria can also cause it. Can NF be propagated simply by touch? What other factors are needed to provoke it? How does Judy illustrate factors contributing to the course of the disease?
3. How might Dr. Norberg react if he understood the phrase “Stakkars lille menneske”? At what previous point might the reader suspect that Runa is the “pest hag”?
4. Nellie Norberg says that Runa has hugged her and the children. What should Dr. Norberg tell his family to do immediately: go to the hospital or take a bath?