美語情景對話 第465期:Life in Africa 非洲生活

Todd: So Carla, you lived in Africa.

託德：卡拉，你曾在非洲生活過。

Carla: We got married in Africa.

卡拉：我們是在非洲結的婚。

Todd: Wow.

託德：哇。

Carla: And we moved to Nigeria. As I told you before, we got married in Ghana, and we moved to Nigeria. And our kids were born in Nigeria. But I wanna tell you a little bit about before our kids were born, because we lived in a place, a small small village that had no running water, no electricity, we could buy fresh food once a week. That means there were no toilettes, so the people used the rocks and the bushes around the village. Maybe that's too graphic, is that too graphic?

卡拉：然後我們搬到了尼日利亞。就像我之前跟你說的，我們是在加納結的婚，之後搬去了尼日利亞。我們的孩子是在尼日利亞出生的。不過我想談談我孩子出生之前的事情，因爲我們住在一個小鄉村，那裏沒有自來水、沒有電，我們一週可以買一次新鮮的食物。這意味着那裏也沒有衛生間，所以人們就去鄉村裏的岩石和灌木叢裏解決。也許太形象了，你會覺得過於形象嗎？

Todd: No no no no.

託德：不，沒有，不會，不會。

Carla: And, we had to pump our water out of a well. And at night we would pump one bucket full of water, and it would be half full of silt by the next morning the kind of muddy silt would have sunk to the bottom. And then we would pour off the clear water off the top. And it was a bad drought year in 1976. And we had to, we would cook our vegetables and then drain off the water and then use the water, reuse the water to wash the dishes and even to wash our clothes. And we had just enough water to... Fresh water we kept for drinking. Washing ourselves, washing our vegetables, cooking, washing the dishes, we used, reused vegetable water. And I had, we had no electricity so I cooked a stew once a week. And twice or three times a day I had to, we had to heat the stew up again, boil it to kill all the germs. Otherwise, it would've poisoned us.

卡拉：我們要從井裏打水。晚上我們會打滿一桶水，而第二天早上可能就會有半桶的淤積，這些淤積都沉到了桶底。之後我們要倒出上面的乾淨水。1976年是旱災特別嚴重的一年。我們炒菜的時候會把水分排出去，然後再利用這些水洗碗，甚至是洗衣服。我們要留出足夠的水清水用來飲用。而洗澡、洗衣服、做飯、洗碗，我們就會重新利用蔬菜的水分。那裏沒有電，所以我一週做一次燉菜。一天有兩三次我們都必須把燉菜熱一熱，讓燉菜煮沸以殺死細菌。不然的話，這些細菌會讓我們中毒。

Todd: Man.

託德：天啊。

Carla: But in that year that we lived there, I think we were healthier than we had ever been before, or since.

卡拉：不過那年我們生活在那裏的時候，我覺得我比以任何時候都健康。

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[qh]

重點講解：
1. be full of
有大量…的；滿是…的；
eg. The puddle is full of water.
水坑裏充滿了水。
eg. His heart is full of misgivings.
他心中疑慮重重。
2. drain off
把（某地的水）排幹；使流出；使流向別處；
eg. Drain off any remaining water.
把剩下的水排幹。
eg. The ridged design of the pan allows excess fat to drain off.
平底鍋的凸紋設計使多餘的油能夠控出。
3. heat up
（尤指將已經冷掉的熟食）加熱；
eg. You'd better heat up the tomato soup.
你最好把蕃茄湯熱一下。
eg. Please heat up the cold meat for supper.
請把冷肉熱一下，吃晚飯用。