Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Troolin email update: 11 May 2010
Dear friends and family,
We hope you are all doing well. We had a great time in the village! Below is a short description of what happened in the village, both expected and unexpected, and then what we are doing now up at Ukarumpa.
Village Visit:
While in the village, we had a few goals that we knew about, such as holding a two-week dictionary workshop, which actually happened like we expected! :) So much in the village can change often and in unexpected ways. :) Although two weeks wasn't long enough for our situation, we were able to get about 6,500 words and phrases in various semantic domains, and probably at least 4,000 of those will be new words we've never heard before! That would push the Sam dictionary up to about 7,000 words! We also wanted to work on figuring out more aspects of the Sam grammar, and we were able to make progress in that.
Also in the village some things happened that we didn't expect, such as working on the back translation (that is, translating the rough draft translation BACK into English to check it) of some Old Testament portions instead of actually moving beyond that and CHECKING it with the translators like I had expected (that could be seen as a step backward). We were able to start adult literacy classes and train two teachers, and when we left the classes had about 10 to 14 adults (mostly ladies) who were learning to read! (That is a step forward; I wish you could have seen their faces when they sounded out words for the first time!) Sarah trained three pre-school teachers from another village in how to teach using only their vernacular language, and they were going back to do more training under the teacher that is currently teaching in Songum. (That makes four Songum pre-school teachers, which should help to keep that pre-school going; a good step forward!)
We also expected to have some time with our friends at the end of our village stay to give some time to reflect on what God has done with us and in us in the last four years, and eat together. This did happen, and probably about 200 people gathered, one Monday afternoon, sitting around pots of rice, tin fish, sweet potato of various types, pumpkin, and greens! What a special time, and a bit strange to think we won't see them for about a year. Four years! It has gone really fast, as I'm sure you'll agree. God has been faithful in our situation, as I am sure he has been for you!
Now up at Ukarumpa:
Presently, we have invited two Sam men up to work on refining the dictionary words we wrote down at the workshop in the village and also get some grammar insights. In a week, these two men will have gone down and five more will come up; this second group will work on checking the Old Testament portions we had planned to check in the village.
We're busy, busy, busy, but all the time mindful of how God knows what is happening, and is in control!
Blessings,
Dave and Sarah
We hope you are all doing well. We had a great time in the village! Below is a short description of what happened in the village, both expected and unexpected, and then what we are doing now up at Ukarumpa.
Village Visit:
While in the village, we had a few goals that we knew about, such as holding a two-week dictionary workshop, which actually happened like we expected! :) So much in the village can change often and in unexpected ways. :) Although two weeks wasn't long enough for our situation, we were able to get about 6,500 words and phrases in various semantic domains, and probably at least 4,000 of those will be new words we've never heard before! That would push the Sam dictionary up to about 7,000 words! We also wanted to work on figuring out more aspects of the Sam grammar, and we were able to make progress in that.
Also in the village some things happened that we didn't expect, such as working on the back translation (that is, translating the rough draft translation BACK into English to check it) of some Old Testament portions instead of actually moving beyond that and CHECKING it with the translators like I had expected (that could be seen as a step backward). We were able to start adult literacy classes and train two teachers, and when we left the classes had about 10 to 14 adults (mostly ladies) who were learning to read! (That is a step forward; I wish you could have seen their faces when they sounded out words for the first time!) Sarah trained three pre-school teachers from another village in how to teach using only their vernacular language, and they were going back to do more training under the teacher that is currently teaching in Songum. (That makes four Songum pre-school teachers, which should help to keep that pre-school going; a good step forward!)
We also expected to have some time with our friends at the end of our village stay to give some time to reflect on what God has done with us and in us in the last four years, and eat together. This did happen, and probably about 200 people gathered, one Monday afternoon, sitting around pots of rice, tin fish, sweet potato of various types, pumpkin, and greens! What a special time, and a bit strange to think we won't see them for about a year. Four years! It has gone really fast, as I'm sure you'll agree. God has been faithful in our situation, as I am sure he has been for you!
Now up at Ukarumpa:
Presently, we have invited two Sam men up to work on refining the dictionary words we wrote down at the workshop in the village and also get some grammar insights. In a week, these two men will have gone down and five more will come up; this second group will work on checking the Old Testament portions we had planned to check in the village.
We're busy, busy, busy, but all the time mindful of how God knows what is happening, and is in control!
Blessings,
Dave and Sarah
