Back yard/porch animals

Mongoose

 In our yard we have an abandoned chicken house in which a  little herd (troop? pack?) of about 20 mongooses lives.  They spend hours each day prowling through every leaf and blade of grass in our yard searching for termites, snakes, and other tasty morsels.  Unfortunately, they do tend to root around and dig a bit, so they mess things up in the garden and make holes under the fence, but they are pretty adorable when they are scampering around and periodically go up on their hind legs for a better look around the yard!  There are at least two other varieties of mongooses around our yard, too - little brown ones and bigger gray ones with bushy tails.

Stick bug

This is a bug.  We call it a stick bug, but it might have a different (i.e. more official) name.  If you would like to see a video of it moving around, you can go to: http://youtu.be/XCBh38hL8CA

Bridal Shower

It has been a while since I posted on the blog, a fact for which I apologize.  Between computer problems and Internet problems, it's been a bit tricky.  But something fun that happened a week ago is now going to kick-start me (hopefully) posting regularly once again!

One of the Jita translators, Neema (the one with the cloth on her head in this picture) got married last weekend, and so two weekends ago we had a bridal shower for her with all the ladies who who work at the office.  We all dressed alike (Tanzanian tradition) and played games like "dress the bride" (in TP), "find the paperclips in the bowl of rice while blindfolded", and a variation on Taboo (American tradition).  We also gave her gifts (traditional in both cultures) and had a "how to be a good wife" teaching time (Tanzanian tradition).  I have to say, that last one was interesting... let's just say that it was a bit more direct and bedroom-oriented than any advice I've ever heard at an American bridal shower!

The whole party was a fun mix of languages and cultures and we all laughed a lot and had a great time.  Neema is now married and we wish her all the best in this new stage of life!

Solar-powered

Since the electricity goes out somewhat often at our house, we have a solar-powered light that we love.  It's like a very bright flashlight that just has to have its solar panel in the sun for a few hours every now and then to keep going strong.  We also have a solar-powered cat around our place.  Betsy requires approximately two hours of daily charging in full sunlight (best accomplished over 2-3 charging sessions spread throughout the day) in order to function properly.  On the rare days when it's cloudy and/or rainy all day, she huddles in a tiny ball and shivers and can't function properly until the sun comes out.  I suppose when a cat has enjoyed sunny weather in the 80s (Fahrenheit) for her entire life, it's hard to keep warm when you're only six pounds of bones and silky, thin fur.  Not to mention the fact that you can't recharge your batteries and are running on empty with the warning light for disaster on, blinking wildly in your little brain.

Africa is a continent

As you can see in the picture above, Africa is a continent.  I know you all know that, but do you really understand that fact?

Today a friend posted something on Facebook that referred to the temperature in Africa.  It was an innocent post about her concern for her dad having a rough time in hot weather.  I read her post that it was 100 degrees in Africa today, and got slightly worked up.  I admit I was in the wrong to put something snippy on her wall asking what the weather is in North America today, since it's a small continent and probably has just one temperature for the whole thing.  After all, Yukon Territory/Yucatan Peninsula sound similar, so are probably about the same temperature, right?

I find it to be a sad commentary on the American education system (I'll let my European, Aussie, and Canadian friends off the hook on this one, as these problems happen a lot more often with American friends) that I'm often asked things like, "So you're translating the Bible into African?" and "What do Africans eat?"  Do they not teach people in school that Africa is a continent and has more countries in it than any other continent in the world?!  And even in the media, I'll see things like, "Many places around the world have been involved in this (random something), such as Russia, Germany, Malaysia, Canada, and Africa."  Come again?  Since when do people say "Europe" like it's all one blob of a personality-less country with just one culture and language?  I think it comes down to things like that in history classes we learn about all the countries in Europe, we read historical fiction set in various countries there, we know that our ancestors spoke one of the languages from there.  When it comes to Africa, not a whole lot appears in textbooks (excepting Ancient Egypt).

So, please excuse me if I get a little annoyed the next time someone says something like, "Oh, you're in Africa - my cousin is going to Africa next month!  Do you think you'll see her?" or "It must be so hot and dry there - I saw a picture of Africa in National Geographic and that desert looked miserable!"  If someone shows a small sign of awareness by asking me something more like, "I heard there is some unrest in Nigeria; does that affect Tanzania?" then I'll be a lot more polite and will explain that Nigeria is further away from me than Chicago is from Seattle and four countries are between the two.

It's okay if you're unsure of some details about things here.  It's not all that easy to find good information, and I understand that it's probably not one of your primary interests in life.  But I will take this moment to teach you one easy thing that will you put you in good stead: Africa is a continent.  It has ~54 countries and over 2000 people groups.  The next time you meet someone who has lived on this beautiful continent, I advise you to not ask him/her, "So, how's Africa?"

Re-education campaign for the grammar police

I (Misha) can cheerfully admit that I'm a bit of a grammar and punctuation police.  I definitely mess things up sometimes, but I like to speak and write correctly when possible.  Things like spelling, commas, paragraph breaks, and proper use of quotation marks are very important to me.

As the adviser for three translation teams, I do a lot of editing.  One thing that I've had to learn is that the proper way to punctuate in these languages is sometimes different than how it ought to be done in English.  For example, the following is the English translation of a sentence from Ikoma Acts: "They begged me that, I should condemn him."  Ouch!  Yikes!  How do you feel about that comma?  It pains me, but that's how it is in Ikoma - there is a need to pause after the "that" and without a comma there, people reading aloud will stumble and have to start the sentence over again to say it correctly.

Another example comes from Zanaki Genesis: "Although Joseph knew his older brothers, but they didn't know him."  Aaaah!  Pain!  Agony!  There is no way that can sound like a proper sentence in Zanaki!  But oh yes, it most certainly is perfectly good Zanaki.  I wince at the idea of having "although" and "but" in the same sentence, but it is not a problem for Zanaki speakers, so I have had to learn to put my English terror aside and accept such sentences as grammatical.

What might be even more amazing than the fact I have adjusted (somewhat) to Ikoma and Zanaki grammar and punctuation is that I like the Tim McGraw song that has the verb "cain't" in it...