We Westerners realize that we are in Africa, and we know that
throughout much of this continent, people view time very differently than we
do. So when we say that an event is to start at a certain time, we don’t really
expect everyone (or even anyone) to be there then. However, David and Ibrahima,
who have worked hard for the past six months to organize this workshop, found
it frustrating when only a handful of the 25 or so individuals who were
expected to attend this week’s training session were present at the announced
starting time of 9:00. Even more frustrating was the fact that by 10:00, only
about half of them had shown up. In the end, we began the training with less
than 100% attendance because David and Ibrahima felt we could wait no longer to
begin.
Kevin teaching the workshop group leaders and other roles
This group is no different than the 6 or 7 others I’ve trained using
the same materials. They enjoyed the presentation of my Warfel family tree but
of course wondered what that had to do with collecting words. Then when I
transitioned to explaining how words are related to each other in ways that are
similar to the relationships between people, they were able to follow my line
of reasoning and seemed quite enthusiastic to put into practice what they were
hearing from me.
This first day of training is a lot of theory—what semantic domains
are, how they are related to each other, how words fit into one or another
domain, and so on. For people who, in some cases at least, have never attended
school, it’s a lot to absorb. But most of the people attending the training
sessions this week are educated, bilingual in French, and able to follow the
presentation.
Kevin Warfel
Note: While there are usually six groups, Kevin trained more than six people in the roles of group leader and scribe in order to have substitutes in case of absences. There are nine major categories or semantic domains, and these have several sub categories. The chart goes down several levels resulting in about 1800 total categories to consider for their cultural terms. Practice is given to find terms in their language Gusiilaay for a couple of the categories, in order to be prepared for the word collection next week where they will be joined by more speakers of the language.
Anita Warfel
Tuesday morning, February 7 Daily routine without a mirror
The most “interesting” part of preparing for my first day in front of
this group was figuring out how to shave in the morning without a mirror. The
bathroom is equipped with a toilet and a shower stall (complete with the
fixtures), but there is no sink—though the pipes are in place to connect one.
There is no running water either; the room was designed with the future in
mind—a future when there will be water pumped from a well or distributed by the
town—but that is not the current reality. I’m not sure why the shower has fixtures
(even though they serve no useful purpose at this point in time), but there is
no sink in place; nevertheless, that is the reality of my living situation.
Please understand, the house where I’m staying is a very nice house. I
enjoy having a full-sized bedroom, where the bed has a full-sized mattress that
is nice and firm, enabling me to sleep very well. I enjoy having a little table
where I can work on my computer—to write these entries for my blog, for
example. I appreciate the fact that there is a sink in the kitchen where dishes
can be washed and the water just goes down the drain and is disposed of
properly without any effort on my part. I am delighted to have a refrigerator,
allowing me to enjoy a glass of cool water at the end of a long day of
teaching. I am glad for a gas stove, on which I can heat water for tea, for
sterilizing dishes after washing them, for my bucket baths, etc. However, I do
miss having a sink in the bathroom. I’m still getting used to the idea that I
need to brush my teeth and shave in the kitchen sink instead of in the
bathroom.
What I miss more than the sink in the bathroom, though, is a mirror. I
have not yet found a mirror anywhere in this house. So my challenge this
morning—my first morning in Thionck-Essyl—was devising a way to shave without
the benefit of a mirror. (Finding solutions to challenges of this nature is
nowhere in my job description that I’ve ever noticed, yet here I am faced with
a reality I need to deal with.)
So what did I do? First of all, shaving works best
with warm water and some sort of soap. Since I was able to bring my can of
shaving cream with me, I was set with the “soap.” Warm water was pretty easy to
come by, given that there is a gas stove in the house. I use a large plastic
cup, about the size of a two-cup measure, filled with warm water. I splash some
of that on my stubble to soften it up a bit, then begin to apply the shaving
cream. This is a bit challenging without the aid of a mirror, but I found that
I could see a bit of a reflection of my face in the kitchen window as the sun
was beginning to come up and the overhead bulb in the kitchen was lit. So with
the hint of a reflection and a bit of guesswork, aided by the communications
sent to my brain, I was able to do it, with more careful strokes so as not to cut myself.
The task was a challenge, but in the end I was
clean-shaven once again and ready for the day. I did add “mirror” to my
shopping list, though. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in my search for one
in the shops and at the little market at the end of the day. Tomorrow I’ll try
to go to the market area a bit earlier; most of their wares had already been
packed away by the time I got there today.
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