Pictures from the Ikizu-Sizaki survey

My job during the survey was to work with small groups and ask them about a list of 200 Swahili words.  I recorded what they thought the Ikizu word or phrase was for each and compared results between villages.

A typical Ikizu home

Traffic!

Two of the villages to which we went had no road to them, so things got a bit bumpy, to say the least...

Rukia, one of the Ikizu translators, taught each group how to read with the seven Ikizu vowels

The first part of our work in each village comprised of a big group interview, during which we asked  people about their language use and gathered their opinions about their people group

Gimme!

Kambubu adults who participated in the survey research

Kambubu kids and adults, one with an Ikizu calendar

I (Misha) recently went on a language survey with a team of three others.  All in all, it was a great trip.  In fact, I have only good memories of our work and interactions with people, with the exception of some of the folks in Kambubu village.  So while I usually like to write blog posts about cheerful things and positive encounters, I thought that since what happened in Kambubu isn't terribly uncommon, I should write a bit about it to give you all a picture of what sort of thing sometimes happens here.

We were coming from working at another village and the timing was such that we were a bit early, so we parked under the shade of a tree.  Very quickly, a group of about twenty kids assembled and stood no more than five feet away from our vehicle.  They stared at us, whispering among themselves, for over 45 minutes.  The bolder ones frequently called out to us, "White people, give me money!  Give me candy!"  No less than three times various adults from the village came by and yelled at the kids to disperse, one of them going so far as to throw sticks at them, but every time they came back within minutes.

When 2:00 finally arrived, we got out of the vehicle and happened to meet up with a group of young people who were walking by just then.  They looked to be in their 20s and all were fairly well-dressed, like they were coming or going from some meeting.  I smiled at them and greeted the group.  They did not answer my greeting or even acknowledge it, but the four walking in front simultaneously stuck out their hands and demanded, "Give us money, white lady!  Give us cell phones!"

An elderly man with a cane came up to me just then and led me away from the group of young people to walk with me to where we were meeting the survey participants.  At first I was grateful for him arriving, but then he proceeded to say, "I see that you have Ikizu calendars for sale.  Please give me one.  I can't afford to buy one, but I really want one."  I gently explained why I couldn't simply give calendars away, trying to be respectful but still firm.  Finally, seeing that I was not going to give in, he sighed and pulled the money for purchasing a calendar from his pocket and bought one.

The survey participants, a group of twenty adults, had been told ahead of time that the only tangible item they would be given for their help was a bottle of soda as a little afternoon refreshment, but that their work would help further language development and Bible translation in Ikizu.  Nevertheless, that did not stop them from spending the first ten minutes of our meeting demanding that we pay them for their time.  When it became clear that we would not be paying any money, they settled down and cheerfully helped with no hard feelings.  It was like they reasoned that the worst that could happen was that we'd say, "No, we are not paying anything," and they wouldn't be any worse off than before, so had nothing to lose by asking.  Of course, after the meeting as we were saying our good-byes and thank-yous, at least four people drew me aside to request phones, money, or free books.  Maybe they thought that although we couldn't help the whole group, maybe there was something available for just one person!

Interactions like this are very tiring for me, as well as very frustrating.  I don't like people begging me for stuff, and even worse is people demanding stuff.  However, the people of Kambubu village were all kind and helpful in the survey work and nobody got offended when I turned them down.  They were all smiling when we left and gave us friendly waves good-bye.  I had to remind myself that although their behavior seemed rude to me, that perhaps it was okay in their culture and that I needed to give them the benefit of the doubt.  Cross-cultural interactions are always tricky!

It's time to go to America!

I think it is time Andrew and I went on a trip.  You see, that little chocolate chip in the picture is all by itself because it was the very last piece of chocolate in the house.  Yes, you read that right: when this picture was taken, we were down to our very, very last chocolate chip, and there was no baking cocoa, no chocolate bars, no chocolate bunnies, nothing else chocolate in the entire house!  And then after taking this picture I promptly ate that little chip so it wouldn't be sad and lonely any longer, so now we're officially out of all chocolate products.  Mind you, we don't even have hot cocoa mix in the cupboard!

Some people time their trips to their home countries by more complex methods, but we just go by when we run out of chocolate...(just kidding... sort of).  We leave East Africa on July 10, so we just have to make it a few more weeks!

It's all in the details

Sometimes I (Misha) feel like my job is one of constant nit-picking details.  Fortunately, my brain tends to naturally tend towards details - "Forest?  What forest?  All I can see is lots of bark and leaves - I think there must be some trees over there!"  Occasionally I find a major exegetical error in a translation draft and we have a lively discussion about what the verse means, but most of my work focuses on finer points.

A few minutes ago I came across a great example in the initial draft of Ikizu Genesis 9 (the chapter where God makes the covenant with Noah about not flooding the earth again).  The NIV says: "Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood."  The Ikizu draft said something like, "Never again will I kill an animal by way of the waters of a flood."  Now, the exegetical part comes in with comparing how the Ikizu have made it explicit that God is killing animals, versus stating that "life will be cut off" without really saying who is cutting it off.  The mistake in the verse (well, 1/3 of a verse - I've trimmed a bit out of Genesis 9:11 here) is more subtle: "all life" versus "an animal".  I'm pretty sure a few animals have died in floods over the years, so the Ikizu doesn't seem quite right!  Changing a singular to plural quite dramatically affects the meaning of God's covenant here.  In Ikizu, it is "ikityɨnyi" for one animal and "ibityɨnyi" for more than one.  When a 'k' accidentally becomes a 'b', the accuracy of a verse can be ruined.

So in case you're wondering what do I really do all day, here's your summary: I examine the patterns in leaves and bark and hope that once in a while I recognize that there is actually a forest.  Or, in more literal terms, I check to make sure no 'k's have turned into 'b's and try to remember that we're actually working on the Word of God and not just proofreading some document!

P.S. I love details, spell-checking, and proofreading, so I'm not complaining here, just explaining.  :-)

Theft and septic tanks

Our lovely little side yard isn't so lovely these days.  It all started two weeks ago when Andrew went outside one Saturday morning and noticed that three of our iron access hole covers had been stolen during the night.  We were quite alarmed that someone had come over our fence (granted, it's a measly little fence and not to hard to get over, but still!) during the night and pried off several heavy pieces of iron.  The thief is likely selling them for their value in metal.  We immediately called our landlord to let him know, and he had replacement concrete covers made.

At the time, we also mentioned to him that we'd noticed a sewer-ish smell sometimes in our guest bathroom.  We were concerned that our septic tank was filling up and needed to be emptied.

The following week, two more drain covers were stolen.  This time the access holes were informative - the repairmen who came to look at where the theft had occurred realized that all three of our septic tanks were completely empty!  So while we do certainly have a problem with drainage from our guest bathroom, a full septic tank is not the issue.  No waste is even making it to the tank, but is draining somewhere between the bathroom and the tanks, and likely has been for years and years.  Yuck.

So, thanks to the thief who took away the covers and helped us figure out that we have a rather serious problem, we now have workers coming into our yard regularly.  Since the area in which they are working is a rectangular hole about ten feet long by three feet wide that has nicely squared corners, it looks a whole lot more like a rather deep grave than anything else.  Hopefully this is part of their plan to fix things and not a graveyard for the tenants who are creating all this work!  Or maybe they plan to catch the thief...

Why limit a good thing?

This is not the man in the story, but the closest picture I have to what he might have looked like.

When the two Ikizu Bible translators went on a trip to an Ikizu village to test the draft translation of Genesis chapter one, a small group of people gathered to give their opinions about the work.  Usually on such village trips, Christians are the ones who form the listening panel, because they are interested in furthering the work of Bible translation in their mother tongue.  But in this village, an elderly Muslim man who was a respected local religious leader joined the group.  He said, “I am an Ikizu and am interested in hearing what is being translated into my language, even if it is not my religious book.”

After listening to the translators read the chapter aloud and ask the group questions about the use of language and clarity of the content, all the members of the group affirmed that the creation story was well-told and that they understood it well.  The Muslim man stood up and said, “This chapter about God creating the world is one that is a very good story for both Muslims and Christians to hear and learn.  Why can’t Ikizu children learn excellent things like this in school instead of only using Swahili there?  For many years I have thought and argued with government officials that our children should learn to read and write in their own language.  However, I had never seen anything written in Ikizu, so I didn’t know if it was even possible.  But now your Bible translation proves that Ikizu can be written, and that there is a very good book available that all Ikizu people should read!”