Learning Lingala

How is it that at my age, I'm once again learning a new language?  Each morning, for the last 2 weeks, I've been memorizing vocabulary and trying to get my tongue around a brand new language - Lingala - one of the official languages spoken here in the Congo, and in particular, in Kinshasa.  It's true, many do speak French and that is the language we are getting by in, thankfully.  But you should see the smiles on faces when I make even my bumbling attempts to say "mbote" (hello) or "Ozali malamu?" (how are you?)   We know that if we want to touch hearts and become really part of life here, we need to be learning Lingala.  So, Lord, help me please.  There's something so humbling about it.  The other day as I looked up words in my French-Lingala dictionary, I felt like it was an absolutely impossible task. I was suddenly struck with the thought that there was a time that I had felt the same way about all those French words.  Maybe with God's enabling, there is hope ....