Day 8 Koorete Word Collection Nov. 19 - details

The fact that four word-collection groups are being as productive in this workshop as six have been in some of the other workshops I have been involved in is surprising to me. Since we have only four groups collecting words, I expected that we would not get more than seven of the nine sections of the questionnaire completed. Now it looks pretty likely that we will finish the eighth one tomorrow. We have already decided that we won’t attempt the ninth section, as it has to do primarily with grammar, and it really needs to be done by people with some linguistic background.

When we have finished the eight section, we will ask the word-collection groups to help with the task of glossing, which we are way behind on. We had decided to have the same individuals who are typing the data into the computer also do the glossing into Amharic, but that slows down the data-entry process. So for the last day and a half of the workshop, we hope to have lots of people working on adding the Amharic meanings to the Koorete words on paper, so that those typing can then simply enter the data without having to think about what the equivalents might be in Amharic.

I demonstrated to my group of trainees how one exports dictionary data from FLEx in order to print it. That process is not as simple as clicking a “print” option on a menu and requires special instruction. So today was the day that I refreshed my own memory as to how to do it, and then I showed the others the steps that one has to follow.

Lydia Hoeft also asked me to write a letter to the local administration with an explanation of what all needs to be done as a follow-up to this workshop in order to be able to publish a dictionary. So I began drafting that today and will need to complete it by Friday. I need to somehow impress upon them the magnitude of the task still remaining even after the “raw materials” for a dictionary have been gathered.

We had electricity for most of the day today; we were very thankful for that. Yesterday it was off almost all day, so I had insufficient battery power in my computer to write a blog entry. Now all of our devices (laptops, cell phones, etc.) are charged up, so we can use them for at least a couple of hours of time. The electricity is off again as I write this at 7:30 in the evening. There’s no knowing when it will come back. We just rejoice when we have it and put up with the lack when we do not.

Healthwise, I am doing well. I am getting some variety in my diet, though not as much as I am used to normally. Still I am getting what I need and am glad that I can find options that are palatable, even though I have difficulty using that adjective for everything that is available here.

Kevin Warfel