August 13: Second (and Final) Day of Training

Thursday’s highlights:
A full week of good health (except for the backache on Tuesday); I seem to always get sick at the beginning of these RWC workshop trips, but not this time. We completed the teaching by mid-morning today, then spent the remainder of the day giving the participants practice at what they will be doing for the next two weeks. There was some shuffling of people from one role to another, some feeling uncomfortable with the responsibilities of the role they had been assigned. We dismissed everyone a bit before 5:00, to come back on Monday morning; then a group of SIL colleagues heading off to a nice hotel restaurant here in Juba allowed me to join them. The outing was on the occasion of the departure of a young woman who had been here for a month to help with and observe some of SIL’s activities in the area of mother-tongue literacy. Read on for more details.

Christine instructing the scribes regarding their responsibilities

In the first session of the morning today, Christine trained the scribes in the responsibilities of their role, then Twong introduced the group to the idea of idiomatic expressions, giving examples of Shilluk expressions that can have either a literal or a figurative meaning. For example, in English, the sentence, “He kicked the bucket” can mean literally that he kicked a bucket (and sent it flying) or it can mean that he died (figurative/idiomatic). We want the Shilluk people to include expressions like this in their word-collection efforts.

The remainder of the day was spent doing group exercises—the whole group together at first, then with the large group divided up into four small groups for the later ones. This gave them practice at what they will be expected to do next week and the week after, so hopefully they will feel prepared and at ease when they come back.

Scribes posting the results of their respective groups' work for everyone to see

Lunch today was somewhat reminiscent of both Ethiopian and Burkinabè foods, being something of a hybrid of the two. The starch was made of corn and was sort of like the “toh” that is made in Burkina Faso, but instead of it being in the form of a “blob,” it was made into flat “pancakes” like the injera that I had in Ethiopia last year. Unlike injera, however, these “pancakes” were not made from fermented grain. These corn pancakes (or crepes, since they’re really thin) are called “kissera” (or something like that). Today they were served with an okra sauce, which is kind of gooey or slimy (and therefore somewhat repulsive to me), with chunks of beef mixed in. I took what I considered to be a pretty large helping, determined not to disappoint the cook; and to my surprise, I enjoyed it and ate it all, leaving just enough on my plate to convince anyone else that I didn’t want any more. (A completely empty plate implies that you’re still hungry and want more in some cultures in this part of the world.) Sorry I didn’t take any pictures of it to share with you.

In the afternoon, while Leoma and Christine guided most of the participants through their practice exercises, I took those who will be doing the typing for the workshop off into another room and introduced them to the program they will be using, teaching them how to do the data entry. We completed that training about 30 minutes before quitting time, so we were all able to rejoin the main group in time for the dismissal until Monday.

As I was exploring options for supper this evening, I learned at 5:17pm that there was a group leaving at 5:15—good they were running a few minutes late or I’d have missed out—to go to what is reportedly the nicest hotel restaurant in Juba. I’ve already forgotten the name of it, or I’d give it to you. But I had a very nice meal there, and some of the things ordered by others in the group looked pretty appetizing, as well. Here are some pictures:

an Ethiopian variety platter with white (corn?) injera

roasted goat, with vegetables and

Nile perch fillet, with fries