National Orientation Program

For two weeks at the cluster office, we're halting (most) all usual work and having two weeks of training for all the translators (and the lone literacy worker, partnership officer, and head guard).  The training is called "National Orientation Program" and it's a very fun and valuable mix of exploring cross-cultural issues, biblical teaching, looking at different worldviews, team-building games (have YOU ever built a pyramid of plastic cups using four strings and a rubber band?!), understanding more about the SIL and Wycliffe organizations, and other related topics like funding and conflict resolution.

Yesterday I co-taught a session on "Why Language Development and Bible Translation in Uganda and Tanzania" (see picture above - and no, we did not intentionally dress alike!).  People have legitimate questions like, "These languages are just little local languages used at home; what practical value can come of bothering to learn to read and write in them?" and "Won't promoting local languages cause tribalism and disunity?" and "Aren't there bigger needs out there, like clean water and good health care, where this money could be better spent?"  My co-teacher Alison and I helped the group come up with responses to these sorts of questions and I think people not only learned a bit, but had an enjoyable time doing so.

Tomorrow I'm teaching again, this time all by myself, and the topic is "Money Matters".  Yikes!  Yes, most Tanzanians view money differently than folks from North America, Australia, and other such places do, and it'll be a challenge to present how and why both sides have these different opinions of what is "normal" and "right"!

Easter snapshots

This morning for Easter Sunday, we went to Kibubwa Mennonite Church.  It's a village church in the Zanaki language area.  We visited it once before, back in November when we took our two guests from the States (Bill and Dave) there.  We had such a good time that we wanted to return to spend our Easter there!  The choirs are great, the drumming even better, the teaching solid, and the people friendly.  It's about 50 minutes away from our house, so we can't go there every week, but we sure have enjoyed our two visits there! 

Today was special because we took along some Zanaki books to sell.  There is nothing quite as fun as literally putting mother-tongue Scripture in someone's hands for the first time!  It's not really okay to take a camera to church, but if we had taken ours along with us today, we would have taken some pictures.  Three of our favorite snapshots would have been of the following:

Picture #1:  During the announcement time in the service we told everyone that we had brought Zanaki Luke, Ruth, Jonah, and an evangelistic story tract to sell after the service.  When the closing prayer was said, a group of people immediately surrounded me (Michelle), and I only had one copy of each book with me to show as an example.  Andrew volunteered to go to our truck to get the other copies for me.  He unlocked it and pulled out the box, then turned to close it up and bring me the books, but he couldn't move!  He'd been swarmed!  Fifteen people were crowded around him so tightly, desperately eager to see the books, that he didn't even have space to shut the car door!  He came pretty close to selling out of books before he made it back to me.

Picture #2:  The church has two choirs, an adult/teenage choir and a little girls choir, which has seven girls ranging in age from about 10-13.  The choir girls were some of the first to approach me when the sales time began.  Being kids, of course they had no money to buy books, but they were eager to see them.  One girl politely requested to look at a book, even though she wasn't going to buy it.  I gave her the copy I had of Ruth, and much to my surprise, she started reading it aloud!  She took turns with two other girls reading it aloud, while the others listened.  When we'd sold most of the books we'd brought and were heading back into the church for sodas with the pastor before leaving, they were still reading.  We made a deal with the girls - if they promised to share the book among all seven choir members and to write a song in Zanaki based on Ruth and sing it at church next Sunday, we'd give them the book for free.  They burst into huge smiles, solemnly promised, shook our hands and ran away giggling with their copy of Ruth in their own language.  I think next week Kibubwa Mennonite Church is going to have some mother-tongue music for the first time!

Picture #3:  When we re-entered the church after the greetings and sales time, there was a woman sitting by herself on a pew reading her newly-purchased copy of Zanaki Luke.  We chatted with the pastor for a while, drank some Coca-cola, and after 20 or 30 minutes, said our good-byes and walked out to our truck to go home.  When we left the church, the woman was still sitting there reading, completely immersed in the book, her feet propped up on the bench in front of her, looking rather comfortable and like she just might stay there for a while longer.

Praise the Lord - He is risen!

Making yogurt

Milk (unpasteurized)

Powdered milk, yogurt (to use as starter)

"Cooking" for 8 hours

Voila!

I really like yogurt and miss good Yoplait, Yami, Tillamook, and Darigold products here in Tanzania.  Plain, vanilla, strawberry, lemon, huckleberry - pretty much all flavors are good.  When friends here started making their own yogurt from scratch, I imagined it would be a lot of work and didn't even bother asking about the process.  But when I found out it takes about 5 minutes of work and eight hours of nothing, well, I gave it a go!

I can buy milk in town fairly cheaply, so that is where my yogurt journey starts.  I take my own container to put it in, buy 1.5 liters, and then boil it when I'm ready to make the yogurt.  After bringing it to a boil, I let it simmer away for a few minutes, then turn off the stove and put a lit on the pot and let it sit a while.  When it's cool enough to dip my finger in it for five seconds, I pull the skin off the top (milk forms a nasty skin when heated, as anyone who has ever made pudding or cream of chicken soup knows), mix in a bit of powdered milk and some yogurt leftover from my last batch, whisk it all up, and put it in a stay-warm pot.  The leftover yogurt is necessary for the cultures it contains - you have to have bacteria to grow the next batch!  Then I wrap the pot up in towels to help it stay warm, look at the clock and check back with my yogurt in about eight hours.

I take the lid off, and there it is - yogurt!  At this point it is still a bit nasty looking, but I pour off the water whey to make it thicker, whisk it up, put it in a Tupperware, and after a few hours in the fridge, it looks like stuff you could get at a store.  Homemade yogurt, folks!

Genesis consultant check

This week and next the Ikizu and Zanaki translators and I (Misha) are involved in a consultant check of Genesis 17-36.  It's probably the most enjoyable consultant check in which I've ever been a part, thanks in large part to the knowledgeable and lively translation consultant who is running it, Enoch.  He is Ugandan, and so a good part of the fun is that his Swahili isn't so good (it makes me feel better about mine), but being a mother-tongue speaker of a language that is related to Ikizu and Zanaki, he's got a good advantage that most consultants don't in knowing cultural and linguistic things first-hand.

The other reason that this check is quite enjoyable is that Rukia (Ikizu translator) and Shem and Futakamba (Zanaki translators) are pretty great folks themselves.  They are now experienced enough after translating for several years that they are willing to argue (cheerfully) with each other, me, and the consultant if they feel that they have a different opinion about the best way to phrase something to make it clear and accurate.  There has been a lot of noise coming out of the office where we are meeting!  Five extroverts who feel the need to raise their voices over one another to make a point can get loud, and then the inevitable laughter at the end of every discussion carries well throughout the whole building, too.

For example... A friendly argument was ensuing between the Zanaki translators and Enoch about a certain verse.  Rukia was sitting there listening, but not involved.  The Zanaki were trying to convince Enoch that the way they had put something in the verse was natural language (it looked suspicious).  When a pause came about, Rukia quietly said something in a bit of a snooty tone to the Zanaki in Ikizu (they understand one another's languages), not wanting to make a big deal of it in front of the consultant, but wanting them to know that she had gotten it right in her translation and knew that they were wrong.  Enoch, however, also happened to understand enough Ikizu to know what she had said an immediately turned to the Zanaki and said, "Yes, just like what she has done!  Listen to Rukia!"  I think this was a bit of a wake-up call to the translators that they couldn't whisper in front of Enoch like they can in front of other consultants!

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.