PART 1 Summary

Trevor was raised in a world run by women, which was a typical case of children living in the ghettos under apartheid. A devout faith in God ran in the family and in their community. They prayed all the year round and regarded it as a sacred ritual. Trevor was often leaned on to communicate better with God by praying in English.

Those women's loyalty to God sometimes bordered on superstition. Case in point: Trevor's mother once founded a turd in the rubbish bin and suspected that a demon had insinuated itself into her house. In order to dispel the demon, she assembled the family and the neighbors and called upon them to pray. Trevor, the real source of the commotion, was afraid of being berated and thus played dumb. Throughout the process of praying, he dreaded being punished by God.

PART 2 Expressions

1. So if you had a beef with the guy who got killed, someone will accuse you of murder and the police will come knocking.

beef: (n.) informal, a complaint

OK, so what's the beef this time?

(v.) beef about sth: complain a lot about sth

They are always beefing about something.

2. The only semi-regular male figure in my life was my grandfather, my mother’s father, who was a force to be reckoned with.

sb/ sth to be reckoned with :  sb or sth that is powerful and must be regarded seriously as a possible opponent, competitor, danger etc

Barcelona will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

not reckon with sb/ sth: to not consider a possible problem when you are making plans

I had not reckoned with the excitement in the popular press.

have sb/ sth to reckon with: to have to deal with sb or sth powerful

Any invade would have the military might of NATO to reckon with.

3. He was boisterous and loud.

[ˈbɔɪstərəs] making a lot of noise and has a lot of energy

a class of boisterous five-year-olds

4. Sibongile was a powerhouse, a strong woman in every sense, big-chested, the mother hen.

这里指的是sb who is very strong or has a lot of energy. 

经济学人里有一句话说： It wasn't that long ago that Intel was a powerhouse of Silicon Valley.

此处指的是”强大的组织“， an organization or place where they is a lot of activity or where a lot of things are produced

5. She’s barely five feet tall, hunched over from years in the factory, but rock hard and still to this day very active and very much alive.

hunch over: (v.) 弯腰驼背， 后文出现的"stoop" 是一个意思。

hunched: (a.) a hunched figure sitting by the fire

hunch (n.) 直觉，预感  I had a hunch that something like this would happen.

6. Their fathers were in exile, fighting for the cause.

cause: an aim, belief, principle or movement that a group pf people support or fight for

her lifelong devotion to the cause of women's rights

He has championed the cause of independence.

7. My aunt and cousins would be there whenever she was on the outs with Dinky.

on the outs with sb: informal, arguing or not agreeing with sb

Wilson is on the outs with his family because of his relationship with that woman.

8. I was dreading going outside to use the toilet, getting drenched running out there.

用法: dread (doing) sth, / dread that ... 不是dread to do sth!

I'm dreading going back to work.

He dreaded the prospect of being all alone in that house.

I'm dreading that I'll be asked to make a speech.

特例： I dread to think (= I think it very bad) what will happen if they get elected.

9. It was all hands on deck, time for action.

all hands on deck/ all hands  to the pump: informal, used to say that everyone is needed to help in a particular situation

With only half an hour to get everything ready, it was all hands on deck.

10. The commotion didn’t stop there because when there’s a demon around, the whole community has to join together to drive it out.

commotion: 骚动；喧闹

Everyone looked to see what was causing the commotion.

PART 3 Reflections

Our toilet was in a corrugated-iron outhouse shared among the adjoining houses. Inside, there was a concrete slab with a hole in it and a plastic toilet seat on top; there had been a lid at some point, but it had broken and disappeared long ago. We couldn't afford toilet paper, so on the wall next to the seat was a wire hanger with old newspaper on it for you to wipe. The newspaper was uncomfortable, but at least I stayed informed while I handled my business.

之前Eric分享的一段 Ellen Show的视频里Trevor有提到这个室外厕所，他说自己小时候并不因此觉得过得穷或苦，因为身边的人都是如此，用他的原话说“ I think I grow up normally. It's a normal thing. I think because everyone is poor, you don't feel as poor... Everyone is laughing. Everyone is having a great time. " 心理学上有一个”相对不幸(relative deficiency)“的概念，很多时候我们感觉自己物质上的溃泛或精神上的不满足其实来源于我们与他人的比较，我们把比我们更富有或成功的人的生活设定为快乐和成功的标准，所以我们会觉得自己的人生是不快乐的、不成功的。虽然道理都明白，但是我还是会时常不自觉地将自己与他人进行比较，因而会给自己增添不必要的压力。一个支教回来的朋友对我说，大山里的孩子远比城市里的孩子更快乐，反而是她们这些支教者一直错误地用一种同情不幸者的眼光去看待他们，让她觉得很惭愧。有一句话说：”世上本无事，庸人自扰之。“ 确实很多时候不快乐和烦恼不是外界而是我们自己给自己的。