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...

Bananas

Here in Tanzania we are very blessed with wonderful bananas!  I (Misha) have always loved bananas and was excited when I arrived in Tanzania to discovered that there are two different kinds of bananas here - little sweet ones and big sweet ones.  There are also green cooking bananas (not pictured) that are sort of like potatoes when you cook them.

The little bananas are very white inside and have a pretty strong flavor.  They are extremely sweet and have a fairly thin peel.  The "big" bananas are quite a bit smaller than the American "big" (i.e. only) bananas, as you can see by the pen I used for size comparison.  They are softer than their American (okay, Ecuadorian) counterparts and are sweeter, since they are tree-ripened.

I recall returning to the States after spending a year in Tanzania and having a banana with my breakfast my very first morning back.  I nearly spit it out!  It tasted like cardboard!  After having luscious, sweet, Tanzanian bananas for a year, I just couldn't do the huge, beautiful, but tasteless American ones anymore.

Dallying with an ex

Several months ago we suspected the young man who worked in our yard one day a week might have caused a small problem at our house, so we had to let him go.  We didn't accuse him of anything, since we had no proof whatsoever, but we couldn't have him hanging around our house anymore, just in case.  (Side note: he also "trimmed" (i.e. butchered) our hedge nearly beyond repair, so there were also some other reasons for letting him go.)  So then Andrew took over all the yard work (he was already doing most of it) and periodically we've hired someone just for one morning to cut the grass.

Last week Andrew had the stomach flu and so his grand plans of getting lots done in the yard on the weekend were dashed.  Then to make things worse, Saturday evening we had a giant windstorm and after it one could hardly see the grass underneath all the leaves!  Andrew wasn't up for doing the work and I was hardly going to go "mow" (i.e. whack at things with a scythe/knife sort of thing) and sweep up all those leaves since I had the flu a few days before Andrew got it and wasn't feeling well myself (oh yes, and I hate yard work...).

Then our ex-worker showed up Sunday midday, looking very nervous.  I went to go talk to him and the situation was much as I expected.  He needed money and had, rather ashamedly and nervously, come to us in desperation.  His wife was pregnant but had had a miscarriage and needed surgery to remove the fetus.  He had gotten a job as a day laborer since we had let him go, but didn't have quite enough saved to cover the whole cost of the operation.

Andrew and I discussed the matter and decided we could help him a bit, and also could offer him a day's work in our disastrous yard.  He pondered it for a moment and accepted, and proceeded to spend several hours cutting our grass and sweeping up giant piles of grass clippings and leaves and carrying them to the refuse pit.  It wasn't easy work!

So in the end, he was paid very well for just one day's work, we got our whole yard cleaned up (we didn't let him touch the hedge, though!), and his wife was able to have her surgery.  And, to make matters much better in the end, we passed him on the road this morning and were able to give him a smile and wave and he smiled and waved back.  It's not everyday that an ex-employee is happy to see the folks who let him go months before!

Translating accurately

A slightly-ridiculous picture of Stephen being stoned

Making sure a translation is accurate is tricky work.  Does "accurate" mean following the words of the Greek New Testament and using those same words, except in a different language?  Or does "accurate" mean trying to ensure that readers of the translated New Testaments understand the same thing that original readers of the Greek NT understood?  It's quite complicated!

One recent example of this comes from the Ikoma language translation of Acts.  On a recent village trip to test their translation draft, the Ikoma translators realized something was amiss.  In Acts 22:20, the NIV reads, "And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him."  The Ikoma people listening to the translators read were confused if Stephen actually died or not while Paul was looking on.  They thought it sounded like people were trying to kill Stephen and he was wounded somehow so he lost some blood.  It just didn't make sense.

So was this translation accurate?  The draft translation was similar to how it is in the NIV, and it didn't add or subtract anything from the Greek.  All the right words were there, and the sentence structure was correct in Ikoma.

As you might have already guessed, we decided that if the translation is not communicating the right message, it is not accurate.  The Ikoma translators are in the process of changing this right now so that it is clear that Saul was standing there while Stephen was stoned to death.  To DEATH.

Maulid Day

Will this be a three-day weekend?  Should I (Misha) plan for the translators I supervise to take a trip to the village next week or will a holiday mess up that schedule?  Do I need to wash my dishes on Sunday or not?

Thanks to Maulid Day, the above are some of the questions I was asking myself last week and over the weekend.  Maulid Day is the celebration of Muhammad's birth and is a national holiday in Tanzania, a country which is very fair in celebrating both Christian and Muslim holidays (which means we have a LOT of holidays to celebrate!).  The problem with Muslim holidays is that the dates are not known until the evening before the holiday since they are according to the Islamic calendar, which is based on the moon.  If the moon is sighted, then the next day is the holiday.  If it's still dark in the sky and no moon is visible, then there's no holiday the next day.  So we usually know within a three-day range or so when a holiday might be happening, but it's impossible to know until the night before when it's actually going to happen.

There is not really a proper system in place for announcing if the head Muslim guy for the country saw the moon or not, unfortunately.  After making plans and if-there-is-a-holiday-on-Monday-or-Tuesday back up plans for the translators going out to villages, I settled into my weekend wondering whether or not it would be a long weekend.  There is a woman who comes to do some housework for me on Mondays, but she doesn't come on holidays.  So on Sunday, having no news of any holiday, I set about washing lots of dishes.  It took a good portion of my day, but I couldn't let them keep piling up!  Then in the evening, it was about 8:00pm when Andrew and I realized that if there was a moon, it should be up by then, and we should have some news about whether or not Monday was a holiday.  We tried online searches, we tried calling people, but to not much avail.  We finally heard that some people thought it had been that day (Sunday).  Well!  All those dishes washed for naught!  Nothing like hearing on Monday morning that Sunday had been a holiday and I hadn't even known.  Well, so be it.  At least it didn't end up messing up any village trips!

Road Transportation

 I considered calling this post "The Mighty African Bicycle", because let me tell you, Tanzanians (and people from other countries around here seem equally able) can really pack things on their bikes!  But it's not just bicycles that can carry amazing amounts of things, it's also motorcycles and vehicles, so really this post is a tribute to Tanzanians who can balance large loads for transport!  I did not take these pictures myself; I have co-workers to thank for snapping these on their cameras.

Firewood for cooking at home

Live chickens being taken to the market

A new mattress being taken home (it's folded in half)

All sorts of things being taken somewhere!

People.  Lots and lots of people... there is ALWAYS room for one more!

And sometimes there is room for 20 more!