The word-collection phase of the Lotud workshop came to a close Thursday evening, with nearly 5000 raw entries collected from about 400 of the 1800 semantic domains. This is a very positive result for this situation. As I mentioned previously, the group was able to gather for only one week of word collection, instead of the two that are normally prescribed. And there were only enough people available to form three word-collection groups, instead of the normal six. Essentially, this group covered 1/4 of the ground that needs to be covered, and they will either need three more sessions like this or one that is longer in time or that involves more people, in order to finish the work begun.
There was a time of great celebration after the work came to a close. Speeches were made, donors were thanked, those of us who came from elsewhere were given a gift, and a tender young lamb from Australia gave its life to serve as the centerpiece of the grand finale--food!
Frankly, I did not expect such good progress in the time we had available. But the Lotud worked late into the night each day in order to maximize their output. Verna came here with a slot on the webonary.org website already prepared for Lotud data, so she was able to demonstrate early on that everything that got typed into the computer could be made to appear on the internet shortly afterward. That really got the Lotud people excited!! They now have an official presence on the internet, even though there are only a few thousand individuals in their ethnic group.
The only downside in all of this seems to be that there are still quite a few words that were collected that need to be glossed (translated into English and Malay) and then typed into the computer. We'll be working on that in the three days that remain to us here in Sabah, Malaysia. Hopefully, by the end of that time, it will all be done, or at least there will be only a little to do yet.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Wednesday (Day 4 of the word-collection phase) came to an end here in Malaysia about 7 hours ago. I didn't stay up to see how late people worked, however. All I know is that the Lotud participants in this workshop have been going back to work after the evening meal each evening, so as to maximize the benefits of getting together as a group. That alone makes me feel good about having come here to help point them in the right direction.
When I said 'good night' to everyone at 8:00pm, more than 3000 words had been logged in the record-keeping spreadsheet. (That's where we keep track of which group did which categories (semantic domains) and how many words were collected. Entering the actual words in the lexical database is a separate, and later, stage.) At first blush, having collected 3000 words with only one day of word collection remaining seems like an underachievement, since we usually talk about a minimum of 10,000 words as a result of one of these workshops. But upon further reflection, that result is quite encouraging.
First of all, a normal RWC workshop involves two weeks of word collection, which amounts to about 9 full days of work. This workshop is only for one week (or 4 days of actual word collection, due to the initial day of training), so equates to approximately half of the normal time that we expect the work to go on. That means that our normal expectation of 10,000 words should be reduced to half, or 5000 words. Furthermore, we normally have 6 groups collecting words, and this week we've had only three. So that cuts expectations in half again--to about 2500 words. In that light, having collected more than 3000 words already, with most of another day of work still ahead (the closing ceremony will shorten the work day today), is a very positive accomplishment. So I'm encouraged by that, as well as by the determination of the participants here to do as much as they can during the time they are here.
The only discouraging thing remaining is the fact that there are many words that have been collected that are still being processed (adding one-word translations in both English and Malay, and entering the words and their meanings into the computer). This probably means that we will use at least some of the three days allocated for cleaning up the data we've collected to continue the translation and the data entry. But that's not so bad. When Verna and I leave here, I think we'll be able to look back on the time we've spent here in a positive light, having left the Lotud people with a good start on the dictionary they've been wanting to create.
When I said 'good night' to everyone at 8:00pm, more than 3000 words had been logged in the record-keeping spreadsheet. (That's where we keep track of which group did which categories (semantic domains) and how many words were collected. Entering the actual words in the lexical database is a separate, and later, stage.) At first blush, having collected 3000 words with only one day of word collection remaining seems like an underachievement, since we usually talk about a minimum of 10,000 words as a result of one of these workshops. But upon further reflection, that result is quite encouraging.
First of all, a normal RWC workshop involves two weeks of word collection, which amounts to about 9 full days of work. This workshop is only for one week (or 4 days of actual word collection, due to the initial day of training), so equates to approximately half of the normal time that we expect the work to go on. That means that our normal expectation of 10,000 words should be reduced to half, or 5000 words. Furthermore, we normally have 6 groups collecting words, and this week we've had only three. So that cuts expectations in half again--to about 2500 words. In that light, having collected more than 3000 words already, with most of another day of work still ahead (the closing ceremony will shorten the work day today), is a very positive accomplishment. So I'm encouraged by that, as well as by the determination of the participants here to do as much as they can during the time they are here.
The only discouraging thing remaining is the fact that there are many words that have been collected that are still being processed (adding one-word translations in both English and Malay, and entering the words and their meanings into the computer). This probably means that we will use at least some of the three days allocated for cleaning up the data we've collected to continue the translation and the data entry. But that's not so bad. When Verna and I leave here, I think we'll be able to look back on the time we've spent here in a positive light, having left the Lotud people with a good start on the dictionary they've been wanting to create.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
It's been a challenge to maintain a positive attitude the past two days as I've seen the quality of this workshop degrade over time, with no apparent solution. Due to minimal funds available from the Lotud Language Association, and due to the less-than-ideal timing of this workshop, the individuals involved are unable to devote themselves exclusively to their workshop responsibilities. They need to go home and attend to other things for part of the day, or they need to help with meal preparation, or ... I don't know what all of the "distractions" are. What I do know is that I only see two teams collecting words at some points in time and that various members of the administrative team (record-keeper, glossers/translators, and typists) disappear at times for varying lengths of time. This is something I've never had to deal with before, so I talked to the coordinator (Sylvia, the Lotud speaker who feels called by God to be the catalyst for the project of making the Lotud dictionary a reality) about it and she said that, because these people are all working as volunteers, she can't tell them what to do. Also, in the Lotud culture, it is nigh impossible for one individual to tell another what he or she must do. And so we limp along, in a sense, doing what we can, often with a single glosser, and that is what is holding up the process.
In just over two days of collecting words, we have just over 2000 of them. That's quite good, actually, considering that we have only two or three groups doing the word collection! At that pace, we'd have 9000 words by the end of a workshop of normal length. Of course, this workshop will only go for two more days, so I expect that we'll end up with 3000-4000 words by the time we're done. The problem is that only about 500 of the words collected so far have gotten typed into the computer. The bottleneck is the addition of the English and Malay meanings. Unfortunately, I can't help with that process, nor can any of the rest of us non-speakers of Lotud who were sitting around yesterday with little to do. To redeem the time, we've been working at completing the dictionary entries that we do have, correcting typographical errors,adding the part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) and refining the English glosses. This is some of what we had planned to do during the last three days of our time here (Friday-Sunday), but now it appears that we'll be using that time to gloss and type additional words into the computer.
In light of how things have evolved, my attitude shift that took place last Friday (early Saturday morning here) as a result of chatting with Anita is the most important thing that has happened for me during this workshop. Because I am no longer focusing on how many words we collect or what we have to show in some other tangible way for our time here, but am concentrating on providing whatever support I can to this group of people, I am able to avoid being completely discouraged. However, it is still disappointing to me to realize that a group of people like this, with all of the zeal and enthusiasm that they have, could be doing so much more than they are at present. It's hard to see potential in someone and then to see them not live up to that potential. But I recognize that my presence here is simply the first step in a divine process that will continue long after I have returned to North Carolina. And so I continue to do what I can--the real reason I came here in the first place, though it took me a few days to realize that.
In just over two days of collecting words, we have just over 2000 of them. That's quite good, actually, considering that we have only two or three groups doing the word collection! At that pace, we'd have 9000 words by the end of a workshop of normal length. Of course, this workshop will only go for two more days, so I expect that we'll end up with 3000-4000 words by the time we're done. The problem is that only about 500 of the words collected so far have gotten typed into the computer. The bottleneck is the addition of the English and Malay meanings. Unfortunately, I can't help with that process, nor can any of the rest of us non-speakers of Lotud who were sitting around yesterday with little to do. To redeem the time, we've been working at completing the dictionary entries that we do have, correcting typographical errors,adding the part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) and refining the English glosses. This is some of what we had planned to do during the last three days of our time here (Friday-Sunday), but now it appears that we'll be using that time to gloss and type additional words into the computer.
In light of how things have evolved, my attitude shift that took place last Friday (early Saturday morning here) as a result of chatting with Anita is the most important thing that has happened for me during this workshop. Because I am no longer focusing on how many words we collect or what we have to show in some other tangible way for our time here, but am concentrating on providing whatever support I can to this group of people, I am able to avoid being completely discouraged. However, it is still disappointing to me to realize that a group of people like this, with all of the zeal and enthusiasm that they have, could be doing so much more than they are at present. It's hard to see potential in someone and then to see them not live up to that potential. But I recognize that my presence here is simply the first step in a divine process that will continue long after I have returned to North Carolina. And so I continue to do what I can--the real reason I came here in the first place, though it took me a few days to realize that.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday was Day 1 of the word-collection phase of the Lotud workshop. Not all of those who were scheduled to arrive on Saturday actually showed up, so we are now down to three word-collection groups for this week, since one of the no-shows was one of the team leaders.
This first day always consists of a great deal of training, and this workshop was no exception. The morning consisted of presentation of some housekeeping items, ground rules, and the theory of what we're here to do. Then in the afternoon, we assigned activities for the participants to work on in small groups, after which we compared the results from the different groups.
There are three primary "pitfalls" that we want the word-collection groups to avoid as they work.
1) misspellings
2) non-adherence to the standard form of the word (e.g., "running" instead of "run)
3) miscategorization
The first two of these pitfalls affect the dictionary directly, while the last affects the usability of the thesaurus component of the results. If a word is misspelled when it is entered into the database, it will create an incorrect entry and the computer will not recognize that it is the same word as the correct form, entered from another semantic category. The same is true if the word is entered into the database in a non-standard form. Either of these scenarios creates a lot of work for someone later on in order to make everything correct and consistent. If a word is entered in the incorrect semantic domain (or category), searching for synonyms of words will yield inconsistent or useless results.
After three days of training for the individuals in key positions and one day of training for the entire group, I can see that we have succeeded with regard to the first two of these three areas, but we still have a ways to go on the third one. So in Day 2, before we continue with the word collection, we'll need to look back at the results of the last exercise of Day 1 and help everyone better understand how to properly categorize the words they're collecting.
This first day always consists of a great deal of training, and this workshop was no exception. The morning consisted of presentation of some housekeeping items, ground rules, and the theory of what we're here to do. Then in the afternoon, we assigned activities for the participants to work on in small groups, after which we compared the results from the different groups.
There are three primary "pitfalls" that we want the word-collection groups to avoid as they work.
1) misspellings
2) non-adherence to the standard form of the word (e.g., "running" instead of "run)
3) miscategorization
The first two of these pitfalls affect the dictionary directly, while the last affects the usability of the thesaurus component of the results. If a word is misspelled when it is entered into the database, it will create an incorrect entry and the computer will not recognize that it is the same word as the correct form, entered from another semantic category. The same is true if the word is entered into the database in a non-standard form. Either of these scenarios creates a lot of work for someone later on in order to make everything correct and consistent. If a word is entered in the incorrect semantic domain (or category), searching for synonyms of words will yield inconsistent or useless results.
After three days of training for the individuals in key positions and one day of training for the entire group, I can see that we have succeeded with regard to the first two of these three areas, but we still have a ways to go on the third one. So in Day 2, before we continue with the word collection, we'll need to look back at the results of the last exercise of Day 1 and help everyone better understand how to properly categorize the words they're collecting.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Day 3 of the Training phase of the Lotud workshop in Malaysia was rather discouraging for me at first. I made my plans about what I was going to do for the day, then learned when the group gathered that a number of people who were essential to my plans were not present, due to other obligations. I had to improvise, and I don't do that very well. Also, I was unable to do certain things that I had hoped to do because there was insufficient time once all of the necessary people were finally there in the afternoon. Nevertheless, I did what I could.
After talking with Anita via Skype the next morning, however, I realized that I needed to change my perspective a bit. I realized that I had come to Malaysia with the hope of proving to the world through this workshop that the best-practice formula that our team had devised really was the key to collecting lots and lots of words, as well as to having a highly usable database at the end. Day 3 of the Training phase was discouraging primarily because I could see that things were not in place to achieve the goal that I had—consciously or unconsciously—set for this workshop. Instead of 6 word-collection groups, enough people were available for only four groups. And because of limited funds, a cook couldn't be hired to prepare meals; instead, the workshop participants themselves are doing the cooking, so that means that people disappear from time to time, leaving some of the key roles empty.
After talking about my discouragement with Anita, though, I realized that this workshop is different than most that we will be organizing. This is a language community that is so motivated to move forward in the development of their language that they are paying for the workshop themselves, instead of waiting for outside funding to come through to help them. I believe they got some help with the purchase of my airfare, but otherwise, it is my understanding that they are paying the expenses involved in holding the workshop, including the rental of a facility at $200/day.
Some time ago, a delegation of Lotud contacted the local SIL office and asked for help to produce a dictionary in their language. One of the SIL members here then contacted Verna (my supervisor), who then told me about the possibility of coming here to lead a RWC workshop. Now it's really happening, but not at the ideal time of year for the Lotud people. It had to be held now or not at all, because of the schedule of the SIL member who is involved. He and his family will be leaving for a year in the U.S. in just another month or so. So the Lotud Language Association decided that they should move ahead with this workshop at this time, even though it would mean that many interested people would not be able to participate because of work commitments. Even those who could come would only be able to come for one week of word collection, instead of the usual two.
All of that means that I needed to revise my goal for this workshop from the collection of lots and lots of words to the training of the Lotud people in the RWC technique, so that they will be able to do this on their own when they schedule the necessary follow-up word-collection session(s). And when I look at what has happened during the three days of training I have given them, I realize that the participants who've been here have really caught on well to what this is all about. As we go through the actual word-collection process these next five days, they will understand more clearly how to apply what they have learned, and then they'll have an opportunity to see what problems occurred in the process as we look at the data in the computer and fix mistakes that were made. That will help them to do an even better job the next time around. So, with that new perspective and revised goal, I am able to say that the training phase has been a great success.
After talking with Anita via Skype the next morning, however, I realized that I needed to change my perspective a bit. I realized that I had come to Malaysia with the hope of proving to the world through this workshop that the best-practice formula that our team had devised really was the key to collecting lots and lots of words, as well as to having a highly usable database at the end. Day 3 of the Training phase was discouraging primarily because I could see that things were not in place to achieve the goal that I had—consciously or unconsciously—set for this workshop. Instead of 6 word-collection groups, enough people were available for only four groups. And because of limited funds, a cook couldn't be hired to prepare meals; instead, the workshop participants themselves are doing the cooking, so that means that people disappear from time to time, leaving some of the key roles empty.
After talking about my discouragement with Anita, though, I realized that this workshop is different than most that we will be organizing. This is a language community that is so motivated to move forward in the development of their language that they are paying for the workshop themselves, instead of waiting for outside funding to come through to help them. I believe they got some help with the purchase of my airfare, but otherwise, it is my understanding that they are paying the expenses involved in holding the workshop, including the rental of a facility at $200/day.
Some time ago, a delegation of Lotud contacted the local SIL office and asked for help to produce a dictionary in their language. One of the SIL members here then contacted Verna (my supervisor), who then told me about the possibility of coming here to lead a RWC workshop. Now it's really happening, but not at the ideal time of year for the Lotud people. It had to be held now or not at all, because of the schedule of the SIL member who is involved. He and his family will be leaving for a year in the U.S. in just another month or so. So the Lotud Language Association decided that they should move ahead with this workshop at this time, even though it would mean that many interested people would not be able to participate because of work commitments. Even those who could come would only be able to come for one week of word collection, instead of the usual two.
All of that means that I needed to revise my goal for this workshop from the collection of lots and lots of words to the training of the Lotud people in the RWC technique, so that they will be able to do this on their own when they schedule the necessary follow-up word-collection session(s). And when I look at what has happened during the three days of training I have given them, I realize that the participants who've been here have really caught on well to what this is all about. As we go through the actual word-collection process these next five days, they will understand more clearly how to apply what they have learned, and then they'll have an opportunity to see what problems occurred in the process as we look at the data in the computer and fix mistakes that were made. That will help them to do an even better job the next time around. So, with that new perspective and revised goal, I am able to say that the training phase has been a great success.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Day 2 of the pre-workshop training went well, in spite of a fairly strong case of "jet lag" on my part. Enthusiasm is still running high and the individuals are learning what is expected of them in their particular roles. The translation of the 1,792 semantic domain titles into Lotud (the language in focus for this workshop) was completed today, though they still need to be typed into the computer so we can print out copies for the word-collection teams to use. Those working on this project of translating these terms were so energized by the task that, when given the choice between stopping their work in order to have their coffee break, or skipping their coffee break, they opted to skip it! Talk about motivation to make this workshop a success!!
Day 2 was the day where I outlined orally the procedure that we will follow as words are collected, in order to ensure that nothing is overlooked. In Day 3 (which is actually due to start in just a few minutes, because I didn't get time to write this in the evening before sleep became necessary), we will do some actual word collection and see how the process works in practice.
I also spent time training the word-collection team leaders and the record-keeper. As it turns out, we will have only four word-collection groups. Though we normally like to have six groups, not enough available people were able to be found to have that many. There were supposed to be five, but one person had to cancel at the last minute. So we'll be working with four groups.
And now on to Day 3 ...
Day 2 was the day where I outlined orally the procedure that we will follow as words are collected, in order to ensure that nothing is overlooked. In Day 3 (which is actually due to start in just a few minutes, because I didn't get time to write this in the evening before sleep became necessary), we will do some actual word collection and see how the process works in practice.
I also spent time training the word-collection team leaders and the record-keeper. As it turns out, we will have only four word-collection groups. Though we normally like to have six groups, not enough available people were able to be found to have that many. There were supposed to be five, but one person had to cancel at the last minute. So we'll be working with four groups.
And now on to Day 3 ...
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The first day of the Lotud RWC workshop (Wednesday, September 19) was a success. The start of the workshop was delayed by the disappearance of a document that had been edited Tuesday evening without (apparently) having been saved to the computer's hard disk, meaning that it needed to be redone Wednesday morning. Our first session, then, ran from 11:00 to 1:00, instead of 10:30 to 12:00, as had been planned.
The afternoon session, scheduled to begin at 1:00, following a one-hour break for lunch, was also delayed because the meal-preparation was behind schedule. So instead of two 2-hour sessions in the afternoon, we had only one--from 3:00 to 5:30.
Despite these unplanned (yet seemingly inevitable) delays and the resultant shortening of actual workshop time, the day was a success, at least in the eyes of the workshop participants. Those of us responsible for achieving the range of instruction necessary to ensure the success of the word-collection phase which will begin on Sunday are perhaps slightly less quick to label it a complete success, but since I believe that three full days are not needed to accomplish all of the training, I'm not too concerned at this point. If our day is shortened again on Thursday, I will begin to become more concerned.
One of the big reasons for the feeling of success this first day is the presentation that I opened with, which uses the illustration of family relationships to communicate how semantic domains are related to one another. I knew that familial relationships are very important in this part of the world (as in many others), but I didn't anticipate quite the level of enthusiasm that that presentation generated. The participants caught on very quickly to what I was trying to communicate--so much so that I was able to omit some of the iterative detail that I had prepared in order to help them understand.
One of the things I am still struggling with a bit as I try to plan the sequence of events during this training session is the fact that I need to spend a significant amount of time training small groups of individuals in the details of their particular responsibilities next week during the word-collection phase. While I'm doing that, I need to have useful things for the rest of the participants to do, and someone to oversee their work on those tasks. I have a number of ideas, but this is the first time that I'm doing this pre-workshop training phase, so I'm piecing things together as I go to a certain extent. Flying by the seat of my pants is not how I am most comfortable operating, so it's stretching (and stressing) me a bit.
The Lotud are a great group of people to work with, though. They have come a long way from the days of their ancestors when the Lotud people were some of the most-feared headhunters on the island of Borneo. (The SIL member who arranged for me to come here waited until I got here to let me know that piece of their history!) The 15-20 Lotud who are here for this phase of the workshop are some of the most enthusiastic and motivated learners you'll ever find. My challenge is to channel their enthusiasm in the right direction so that we achieve the objectives that have been set for this workshop.
The afternoon session, scheduled to begin at 1:00, following a one-hour break for lunch, was also delayed because the meal-preparation was behind schedule. So instead of two 2-hour sessions in the afternoon, we had only one--from 3:00 to 5:30.
Despite these unplanned (yet seemingly inevitable) delays and the resultant shortening of actual workshop time, the day was a success, at least in the eyes of the workshop participants. Those of us responsible for achieving the range of instruction necessary to ensure the success of the word-collection phase which will begin on Sunday are perhaps slightly less quick to label it a complete success, but since I believe that three full days are not needed to accomplish all of the training, I'm not too concerned at this point. If our day is shortened again on Thursday, I will begin to become more concerned.
One of the big reasons for the feeling of success this first day is the presentation that I opened with, which uses the illustration of family relationships to communicate how semantic domains are related to one another. I knew that familial relationships are very important in this part of the world (as in many others), but I didn't anticipate quite the level of enthusiasm that that presentation generated. The participants caught on very quickly to what I was trying to communicate--so much so that I was able to omit some of the iterative detail that I had prepared in order to help them understand.
One of the things I am still struggling with a bit as I try to plan the sequence of events during this training session is the fact that I need to spend a significant amount of time training small groups of individuals in the details of their particular responsibilities next week during the word-collection phase. While I'm doing that, I need to have useful things for the rest of the participants to do, and someone to oversee their work on those tasks. I have a number of ideas, but this is the first time that I'm doing this pre-workshop training phase, so I'm piecing things together as I go to a certain extent. Flying by the seat of my pants is not how I am most comfortable operating, so it's stretching (and stressing) me a bit.
The Lotud are a great group of people to work with, though. They have come a long way from the days of their ancestors when the Lotud people were some of the most-feared headhunters on the island of Borneo. (The SIL member who arranged for me to come here waited until I got here to let me know that piece of their history!) The 15-20 Lotud who are here for this phase of the workshop are some of the most enthusiastic and motivated learners you'll ever find. My challenge is to channel their enthusiasm in the right direction so that we achieve the objectives that have been set for this workshop.
Monday, September 16, 2013
I arrived safely in Kota Kinabalu (or "KK" as I've learned that many refer to it here), capital of the Malaysian province of Sabah, right on time, after 42 hours of travel from my home in North Carolina to the KK airport. More than 24 of those hours were spent inside a plane! And no, there were no delays. Everything went just as it was scheduled--which came as a major surprise to me, since that has frequently not been the case in my international travel experiences over the years.
On the two longest legs of my journey (Los Angeles - Tokyo and Tokyo - Kuala Lumpur), I was assigned a seat at the very front of a section of the airplane, next to the window. I had all the legroom I needed and I was able to lean my pillow against the wall of the plane, so I got quite a few hours of quality sleep. That is a huge help as I'm adjusting to the time difference between here and back home. I think that may actually have been a game-changer, and one I did not request. Rather, it was divinely orchestrated so that I would be able to function only a day after arriving here!
My supervisor and I have been warmly welcomed at the retreat center where the RWC workshop will take place. It's a very nice place just on the outskirts of KK. The workshop participants will be arriving later today and we'll begin training tomorrow morning.
On the two longest legs of my journey (Los Angeles - Tokyo and Tokyo - Kuala Lumpur), I was assigned a seat at the very front of a section of the airplane, next to the window. I had all the legroom I needed and I was able to lean my pillow against the wall of the plane, so I got quite a few hours of quality sleep. That is a huge help as I'm adjusting to the time difference between here and back home. I think that may actually have been a game-changer, and one I did not request. Rather, it was divinely orchestrated so that I would be able to function only a day after arriving here!
My supervisor and I have been warmly welcomed at the retreat center where the RWC workshop will take place. It's a very nice place just on the outskirts of KK. The workshop participants will be arriving later today and we'll begin training tomorrow morning.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Less than 24 hours now until I leave for Malaysia. Excited and anxious, all at the same time.
Most of the month of August was spent communicating with people in a variety of locations around the world about the possibility of helping particular language communities organize a RWC workshop. Anita and I spent many, many hours putting together a budget for each context, based on input from the contact person at each location. The result of all that work (a combined budget for 22 RWC workshops from Burkina Faso to the Philippines) was submitted to Wycliffe USA, who are currently working on finding a donor interested in funding all or part of what we're requesting money to do.
The past two weeks, I've been focusing on preparations for the RWC workshop coming up in Malaysia. Here's the schedule:
Sunday, September 15
4:30am EDT leave for the airport
8:50am EDT first flight leaves Charlotte for Dallas/Fort Worth
12:20pm EDT second flight leaves Dallas/Fort Worth for Los Angeles Int'l (LAX)
7:45pm EDT third flight leaves LAX for Tokyo
Monday, September 16
9:05am EDT (10:05pm local time) fourth flight leaves Tokyo for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7:30pm EDT (7:30am Tuesday local time) fifth flight leaves KL for Kota Kinabalu, my destination
10:05pm EDT (10:05am Tuesday local time) scheduled arrival in Kota Kinabalu
Notice that Malaysia time is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Saving time, so anything happening in the morning in Malaysia is happening at that same hour the previous evening/night on the East Coast of the U.S. (i.e., 8:00am Friday in Malaysia is simultaneous with 8:00pm Thursday in EDT zone.) All unspecified times posted from here on are Malaysia time.
Wednesday, September 18
8:00am RWC workshop training phase begins (note that this is less than 24 hours after I am scheduled to arrive in Kota Kinabalu)
Thursday and Friday, September 19 and 20
workshop training phase continues
Saturday, September 21
I get the day off, as this day is designated as "arrival time" for the participants of the main phase of the workshop. This will probably be my only opportunity to buy souvenirs for my family members, who are all wishing they could travel with me to this part of the world, where none of us has ever yet been.
Sunday, September 22 - Thursday, September 26
Word-collection phase of the workshop. I will provide training during the first day, then be available to answer questions and solve problems that arise throughout the remainder of the workshop.
Friday, September 27 - Sunday, September 29
Clean-up phase of the workshop. This will be my first time to be involved in this aspect of the workshop, so I'll be relying heavily on advice I've received from colleagues who have had experience in this area.
Monday, September 30
7:20am (7:20pm Sunday EDT) first flight leaves Kota Kinabalu for Kuala Lumpur
10:50am (10:50pm Sunday EDT) second flight leaves Kuala Lumpur for Tokyo
8:30pm (7:30am EDT) third flight leaves Tokyo for Los Angeles
5:40pm (8:40pm EDT) fourth flight leaves Los Angeles for Dallas/Fort Worth
10:35pm (11:35pm EDT) arrive in Dallas/Fort Worth; spend the night in a hotel
Tuesday, October 1
7:25am (8:25am EDT) fifth flight leaves Dallas/Fort Worth for Charlotte
10:50am EDT scheduled arrival in Charlotte
noon EDT estimated arrival back home in Waxhaw
I expect that my body is going to be very confused much of this trip as to when it should be sleeping and when it should be alert. It's going to be an interesting--and perhaps wild--ride!
Most of the month of August was spent communicating with people in a variety of locations around the world about the possibility of helping particular language communities organize a RWC workshop. Anita and I spent many, many hours putting together a budget for each context, based on input from the contact person at each location. The result of all that work (a combined budget for 22 RWC workshops from Burkina Faso to the Philippines) was submitted to Wycliffe USA, who are currently working on finding a donor interested in funding all or part of what we're requesting money to do.
The past two weeks, I've been focusing on preparations for the RWC workshop coming up in Malaysia. Here's the schedule:
Sunday, September 15
4:30am EDT leave for the airport
8:50am EDT first flight leaves Charlotte for Dallas/Fort Worth
12:20pm EDT second flight leaves Dallas/Fort Worth for Los Angeles Int'l (LAX)
7:45pm EDT third flight leaves LAX for Tokyo
Monday, September 16
9:05am EDT (10:05pm local time) fourth flight leaves Tokyo for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7:30pm EDT (7:30am Tuesday local time) fifth flight leaves KL for Kota Kinabalu, my destination
10:05pm EDT (10:05am Tuesday local time) scheduled arrival in Kota Kinabalu
Notice that Malaysia time is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Saving time, so anything happening in the morning in Malaysia is happening at that same hour the previous evening/night on the East Coast of the U.S. (i.e., 8:00am Friday in Malaysia is simultaneous with 8:00pm Thursday in EDT zone.) All unspecified times posted from here on are Malaysia time.
Wednesday, September 18
8:00am RWC workshop training phase begins (note that this is less than 24 hours after I am scheduled to arrive in Kota Kinabalu)
Thursday and Friday, September 19 and 20
workshop training phase continues
Saturday, September 21
I get the day off, as this day is designated as "arrival time" for the participants of the main phase of the workshop. This will probably be my only opportunity to buy souvenirs for my family members, who are all wishing they could travel with me to this part of the world, where none of us has ever yet been.
Sunday, September 22 - Thursday, September 26
Word-collection phase of the workshop. I will provide training during the first day, then be available to answer questions and solve problems that arise throughout the remainder of the workshop.
Friday, September 27 - Sunday, September 29
Clean-up phase of the workshop. This will be my first time to be involved in this aspect of the workshop, so I'll be relying heavily on advice I've received from colleagues who have had experience in this area.
Monday, September 30
7:20am (7:20pm Sunday EDT) first flight leaves Kota Kinabalu for Kuala Lumpur
10:50am (10:50pm Sunday EDT) second flight leaves Kuala Lumpur for Tokyo
8:30pm (7:30am EDT) third flight leaves Tokyo for Los Angeles
5:40pm (8:40pm EDT) fourth flight leaves Los Angeles for Dallas/Fort Worth
10:35pm (11:35pm EDT) arrive in Dallas/Fort Worth; spend the night in a hotel
Tuesday, October 1
7:25am (8:25am EDT) fifth flight leaves Dallas/Fort Worth for Charlotte
10:50am EDT scheduled arrival in Charlotte
noon EDT estimated arrival back home in Waxhaw
I expect that my body is going to be very confused much of this trip as to when it should be sleeping and when it should be alert. It's going to be an interesting--and perhaps wild--ride!
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