dimanche 25 janvier 2015

Come over to my house...

Simon's birthday was in December, and Benjy's was Sunday (25th January). This time we decided to try something we'd never done here before, and hold a (joint) birthday party for them. It was a bit of an experiment, as kids here know what parties are, but they don't have a tradition of birthday parties like we do. Simon's best friend Benja (not to be confused with our Benjy!) was excited about the idea, and agreed to invite the kids on the list that we drew up together.

We had fixed the party for 3 o'clock on Saturday, but I wasn't sure what time to expect them. When they finally turned up at 4.15 we were very relieved to see them ... but I can't really blame them for being late. In the UK it would be the parents who would organise them and drop them off at the venue, but here it was up to them to sort themselves out and get here. And they had all made a real effort to get dressed up for the party (unlike our kids!).

We played some "traditional" birthday party games like musical statues and pass-the-parcel, and some team games including a kind of obstacle course. Then we had some crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks, and finally some chocolate buns - two of them arriving with candles on so that we could sing "happy birthday" to Simon and Benjy.

It certainly seemed to be a success, and as he left, one of the friends said to Simon, "Let's do it again next year!" (sadly for him, we will actually be in France this time next year).




mercredi 14 janvier 2015

It's all in the tone

Monkolé is a tonal language, which means that someone's tone of voice rising, staying the same, or lowering on one syllable of a word can change the whole meaning of the word. A simple example is the following word pair:

aj(with rising tone on the final "a") means "dog"
aj(with low tone on the final "a") means "market"

The tones are not crucial most of the time in Monkolé. Someone who heard me say, "I went to dog to buy some tomatoes" would pretty easily figure out what I meant, though they might have a bit of a laugh at my expense. For this reason, the majority of tones don't need to be marked when Monkolé is written – and it's a good thing too, as the page would look very messy!

Sometimes, though, we can get tripped up.

In Isaiah 30:13, the Lord is speaking to the people of Judah who are seeking Egyptian help rather than relying on Him. He says to them:

"this sin will become for you
like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
that collapses suddenly, in an instant." (Isaiah 30:13, NIV)

Our draft Monkolé translation says:

Kurara iyi bɛ á yɛi bi tu ŋɛ
bɛi bindi kugboka iyi í la,
nɔ í cuku anu akã.

When I first read this, I understood it as "this sin will be to you like a high wall which is big, and which falls all of a sudden". 'í la' is a common construction meaning 'it is/was big', and although the 'la' is said with a rising tone, it is unnecessary to mark the tone.

So I said to the translators, "I think we need the idea of the wall being cracked already."

Pastor Samuel said, "But we do!" and I suddenly remembered another use of 'í la' (with low tone) and said, "Oh, that's what this 'í la' means, isn't it?"

I was feeling a bit silly for not realising, until Philémon said, "Oh, but that's how I read it too!"

So we decided we needed to write this 'í la' with a low tone, ie. 'í là', to prevent other readers reading the most common meaning of 'í la'.

This shows how we sometimes have to spend three or four minutes just discussing one tiny mark over a letter! Yet that mark can change the meaning significantly.

lundi 12 janvier 2015

Dusty dry season

To say that the dust gets everywhere would be an understatement! The first photo was taken by our weekend visitors, the Phillips family, of the field behind our house. As you can see, the dust in the air looks like mist. The second I took in our living room.




mercredi 7 janvier 2015

Oops!

Last week a cotton lorry which was driving past on the main road didn't quite notice how low the branches of the big tree opposite our house were. And as he went past he started to lose his tarp, and part of his load of cotton. Suddenly it looked as if there were snow drifts along the road in front of our house!




mardi 6 janvier 2015

Other work...

We sometimes find ourselves doing work we never expected to end up doing. Marc more than me, probably! In this case, he is clearing the dead leaves and branches on the mission property next to our house. We could pay someone to do this ... if it weren't that everyone is busy in their own fields at this time of year! But we can't really leave it, as the piles of dead vegetation make a great hiding-place for snakes and create a fire hazard (and we have had bush fires around the property in past years). But the kids get stuck in and enjoy working with Papa!