Hobbies

When I visited Benin in 2003, the missionary translator I stayed with told me that singles on the mission field have a lot of spare time, and so they should make sure they think about how they enjoy spending time and bring necessary equipment with them. She loved knitting - and of course knitting needles are easily transportable!

Parents of young children may not have as much spare time, but I do think it is good for us and our children to have hobbies or projects. I was impressed by all the different sports and other activities our children were able to try at school in France last year, and decided that one thing we could do here was to learn the recorder. I learned as a child (descant and tenor) so with a good book I am capable of teaching, and I thought it would at least be good for them to learn to read music. If they could enjoy it as well, and perhaps go on to learn another instrument later, all the better!

The boys, therefore, have been having recorder lessons (and practice sessions) since September. So that they could see that I was also setting myself a challenge, and so that we will be able to play duets in due course, I have set myself to learning to play the treble recorder. Learning new fingering is a little like learning to speak a new language, but it is coming!



I have also been carrying on with crochet, and made this doll for Eve's birthday:

Advent

Last year in France we had Christmas lights, decorations in shops, adverts and various Christmas events to let us know that Christmas was coming. This year ... not so much! Christmas in the heat is not a novelty any more, but this year we have started a new tradition to help us think about the coming celebration. Marc suggested lighting Advent candles, and so I put together this Advent ring, and he read the first devotion on Sunday evening.

Help!

In one of the villages which the translators visited to test part of our
translation, the people didn't know the word "sobi". When it was
explained to them, they said, "oh no, we say 'bua', we don't use 'sobi'".

The translators explained to me that in their own variation of the
Monkolé language, both "sobi" and "bua" are used to express the concept
of "help". But "sobi" is used when one person helps another and the two
collaborate to get something done. "Bua" is used when someone offers to
help and the other gives the task over to them.

However, a variation of the language seems to exist where "bua" covers
both meanings. Despite the danger of those people not understanding at
first, or feeling that it isn't quite their version of the language, I
think we'll keep the nuance. My team certainly seem to feel that it's
important (and not to do so could lead to misunderstandings for those to
whom "bua" has a more restricted semantic field).

It is interesting to me that a language with relatively few speakers in
a fairly small geographical space can still have considerable variation
among different speakers.

More electricity, please!

Managing to juggle enough electricity for our house and the translation office has been one of our on-going struggles. The small building where we've done the translation work is situated about 30 metres from our house, and it doesn't have its own supply of electricity. Thin cables run to it from our house, unfortunately losing rather a lot of power as they go. It has always been difficult, particularly in the afternoon, to run both the office and the house from our solar panels.

Marc had the idea of swapping the office with the schoolroom, which is situated in a small house, also on the mission property. This house has its own solar panels. School only happens in the mornings, so our house would no longer have to provide electricity for another building in the afternoons.

So last month we moved the school into the independent building, and our translation office into the small house. We had help from some of the kids' friends and Pastor Samuel's eldest son, Caleb.



Then we had to make sure the solar panels on the little house weren't too over-shadowed, which meant cutting down some of the trees behind it. Philémon, Caleb and another young man took up that job, and despite a lot of climbing and dodging falling trees, managed it without any injuries! (Can you spot Caleb up in the tree in this next photo?)





I am happy to report that after a few hiccups the new arrangement is now working well!