Mom takes pictures I don't think of

One of the nice things about having a visitor is that they get to be a tourist! They take pictures that I don't think of taking and notice things that have long since become a "normal" for me.

For instance:

The new bunch of avocados growing in my yard.

Children carrying various objects on their heads.

Riding a motorcycle - after walking, this is my primary mode of transportation.

There are lots of weaver birds in the area, and they build cool houses.

A dilapidated and oddly placed pump station - it is out in the almost farm area where I go running.

Lake Victoria and the large boulders that are scattered all over this area.

The fun of visiting some local friends.

It was a stupendous visit with my mom and I think she really enjoyed herself!

Mom is here!!!

I went up to Nairobi this past weekend to escort my mom down to Musoma. So, a 14 hour trip up followed immediately by a 12 hour trip back down initiated the Week of Mom for me. We got in last night and I'll post some more pictures from our adventures during the week but for now here are a few from our bus ride:

The ubiquitous selfie:

Kenyan countryside: 

Business of a Kenyan town:

Window shopping - we even bought some bananas from the bus window: 

Rapid Word Collection

For the last week we’ve been collecting words for a dictionary of the Kabwa language! We’ll continue the collection this week as well.

A system has been developed called Rapid Word Collection in which groups look at a certain domain (like ‘kitchen’, ‘person’, ‘cow’, etc.) and write down all the words that they can think of that relate to that domain. They are also given some questions to help them think of different types of words within that domain.

There are over 1700 domains…and about 1000 pages of questions!

(as a side note, a challenging and fun job that I’ve had over the past several weeks is translating these questions from English into Swahili!)

We have 6 groups who spend about 10 minutes per domain (each group is looking at different domains). These words then get translated into Swahili and entered into a database. We are hoping to collect close to 10,000 words – a great start to a Kabwa dictionary!

At the end of each day each group presents their favorite 2 words that they came up with from that day. There has been much laughter and joy during this part of the workshop as they marvel at the different and interesting words that they have in their language. There are specific words for the house that a boy will build when he is ready to marry, and what a child is called before they have cut their first tooth.

The words on the left are Kabwa, and the right side is the Swahili translation.

As always, another fun part about being out in the village for two weeks is the chance to bring books and the Word of God to people who probably have never owned a book written in Kabwa. Adults and children alike have loved buying these books throughout the workshop. We even sold one book for 4 mangos, when our asking price was only 3 mangos : ).

Pascaria Listens

Sometimes printed Scripture isn’t quite enough. What do you do when someone has never been taught to read?

Audio Scripture! “That by any means necessary we might save some.”

A few weeks ago Sarah and I gave our friend Pascaria* a MegaVoice player that had the audio of the Swahili** New Testament. After showing her how to use it, she put in the headphones and listened…and listened…and listened. During the HOUR that she listened to the book of Matthew (The Sermon on the Mount) we made her some tea and bread, I worked on a puzzle, Sarah did some work around the house, and we also just sat on the couch and waited. She didn’t touch the tea or bread. She just listened, nodding her head, repeating the portions that were familiar to her.

In lieu of a photograph, Sarah painted this picture of Pascaria listening to Scripture.

At one point she said, “he preaches really well” and asked if he was an Anglican pastor. We explained that indeed he is a really good preacher, but his words are for all people of all denominations, because these are the words of Jesus.

I had several questions that day, here are just a few of them:

How often do those without their own Bible or the ability to read it know that there is a difference between the Word of God and the words of church tradition (like sermons, catechisms, liturgies and other traditional church readings)?

How often do we, who have a wealth of translations and Bibles at our fingertips, listen with utter rapture to the Word of God, to the point of ignoring our daily bread?

This is a truly ASTOUNDING book. How often does our familiarity with the words breed contempt, or more likely, boredom?

Oh, how we need ears to hear, not ears dulled by familiarity and boredom.

*You may remember Pascaria from when she taught us how to cook a duck, and from our Christmas luncheon in December.

**We have some work going on in recording Scripture in the local languages as well, but the complete audio New Testament in those languages will have to wait until the completion of translation.

Color Everywhere

Tanzania and Tanzanians can't help but be colorful. I've seen sharper colors in nature here than I remember seeing in the States, but it isn't just the natural colors that stand out around here.

It's the chairs.

It's the clothes market.

It is a crowd of people.

It's the side of the road.

It's the food market as well.

These pictures truly do not do justice to the colors that pour out of every area of life.