Sunday, July 30 - Return Home

I began to wonder just how my trip back to the US was going to go when it started off on a startlingly unsettled note: As we were leaving the SIL center in Abidjan, my taxi driver said something to the effect of “You know the way to the airport, right?” When I told him that I had no idea how to get there, he then informed me that he had not been driving a taxi in Abidjan very long and he had never yet gone to the airport. That was an inauspicious beginning to what turned out to be an “eventful” trip. (I much prefer my trips, especially international ones, to be uneventful!)

The taxi driver returned to SIL and got directions from the guard, then we were off. I still got there in plenty of time, as I actually had to wait until the check-in counter for my flight opened up. All of the pre-boarding formalities took quite a while, though, so I was glad I had come to the airport early. As it was, I had only about 10 minutes to sit down before we were told that our flight was ready to board. Then we stood there for a while before we were actually processed through the gate. And once on the plane, we waited quite a while again. The flight, schedule for a 10:25 departure, finally took off an hour late.

Given the fact that I had only an hour layover scheduled in Lomé, where I was to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Newark in the US, that delay of an hour in our departure time from Abidjan had me wondering if I might miss my connection. I tried not to stress about it too much, reminding myself of Matthew 6:27 (Who of you by worrying can add an hour to his life?), recognizing that I could do nothing except figure out how to minimize my chances of missing the flight. With that perspective in mind, I asked one of the flight crew what I should do, and he recommended that I deplane with those going to Douala or Bangui, since everyone else was being asked to stay seated and allow these passengers to get off first.

I got off the plane as quickly as I could, followed directions given me by various airport staff who had apparently been alerted to the existence of passengers arriving late and bound for Newark, eventually had an already-printed-and-waiting boarding passed pressed into my palm, and was hustled on my way to the gate, where passengers were still straggling in. I was relieved that it was not God’s plan for me to stay in Togo, though I had resigned myself to accepting that outcome if for some reason He wanted me to do that.

The flight from Togo to Newark was about 10 and a half hours long, but we arrived right on schedule in spite of the fact that our departure had been delayed. I had two and a half hours scheduled between flights at Newark, which I thought would be ample time to make my connection. Boy, was I wrong!!

First of all, I needed to go through immigration. This step officially recorded my re-entry to the US and went very quickly once I got my turn. The problem was the fact that the line of those waiting to be processed was very, very long. (I did a calculated estimate of 7 x 75 yards, or 525 yards in length. I don’t know how many people that works out to be, but it is hundreds!) I didn’t time my stay in that line, but looking back, I estimate it to have been more than an hour.

The next step was to collect my checked bags so that I could go through customs, before rechecking them for the final leg of my journey. But when I got to the baggage claim, my two bags were nowhere to be seen. I was surprised to learn that, even after all the time I had spent waiting in the long line at immigration, not all of the bags from our flight had arrived yet. I watched and waited, the minutes ticking by and the departure time for my next flight growing steadily closer. When I finally got my bags, the time until my flight was very short.

I followed the signs to Customs, where there was a line(!). I had to wait once again. However, the wait was not overly long, and I was soon done with that formality. Next I had to find the place to recheck my bags. I had a little trouble with that, so stopped and inquired of someone who looked like he might know. Sure enough, he pointed to a sign I had not noticed, which pointed to the left.

I left my two bags in the care of the person assigned to forward them on to my final destination. He was very kind to indicate to me which terminal I needed to go to in order to catch my flight; he even told me exactly which gate it would leave from. That certainly saved me precious time later on.

From there, I had to go up a set of stairs (or was it down?) to the check-in area. That was where I needed to get a boarding pass for my final flight. As I looked toward the United Airlines ticket counter, however, my heart sank. There were at least five people in line already. I would not be able to get a boarding pass very quickly there. As I looked around for another solution, I spotted a little kiosk with two airport staff and no customers. Most importantly, it had the name “United” on it. I headed in that direction, and a few minutes later, I had my boarding pass.

I still had one more hurdle to clear before I could go to the gate where my plane was certainly boarding by that time—I needed to go through security. Again, there was a line, this one consisting of about 20 people ahead of me. Matthew 5:27 came to mind again, and instead of worrying, I sought ways to minimize the time it would take me to get through. I removed my shoes and my belt. I emptied my pockets, putting everything into my computer bag. I removed the computer and my ziplock bag of toiletries. By the time I reached the conveyor belt running through the x-ray machine, I had done everything possible to expedite my passage through security. Nevertheless, it still took time for me put my shoes and belt back on, my computer back in its bag, and so on.

It was by then very close to the scheduled departure time for my flight. I hoped that the fact that I had been issued a boarding pass would somehow increase my chances of them holding the plane for me, especially considering that I was jumping over the hurdles as quickly as I could. And so it was that, after running as far as my endurance would allow and then walking fast from there on, I arrived at the gate before the door was closed, and I was allowed to board the plane.

About two hours later, I was still in that same plane but on the ground in Charlotte. We had to wait a while to receive a gate assignment, and then we were finally allowed to disembark. I collected my bags—no long wait this time—and walked to the curb outside, where the JAARS Shuttle Service driver picked me up and drove me home. Thus, my adventure which began with a trip to the Abidjan airport at about 4:00 am on Sunday (Eastern time) ended with my arrival at my home in Waxhaw around 1:30 am on Monday. It’s not often that I’ve managed such a trip in less than 24 hours. (But then maybe that’s why my other trips have been less “eventful” than this one was.)

In any case, I am very glad to be back home.

Saturday, July 29 - Final Details Before Departure

A portion of the day today was spent with colleagues Phil & Cathy Davison, whom I had not seen in quite some time. Another colleague, Laurel Miller, who is based here in Abidjan, drove us to various places to do the shopping we needed to do. We also enjoyed lunch together at a restaurant and ice cream for dessert. I bought the final things on my kids' shopping lists, then tagged along as the others got what they needed from grocery stores.

For supper I was invited to the apartment of some other colleagues, where I enjoyed rice with an American-style gravy as opposed to the African-style sauces I've had this past month. I am very grateful for the hospitality of my colleagues here, one of whom will help me get a taxi in the morning to go to the airport to catch my flight out.

This will be my last post to this blog until I am back on home soil. I am scheduled to arrive in Charlotte very early Monday morning.

Friday, July 28 - Return to Abidjan

Today I traveled from Dabakala to Abidjan, where I will catch my flight out of the country on Sunday morning. I had expected to make this trip by bus, but God arranged a different way for me to get to my destination.

Before getting into the details of my trip, I’d like to highlight the fact that God arranged for me to have a traveling companion. I had been mentally prepared to travel solo from Abidjan to Dabakala and back, but God saw to it that I had someone to accompany me in each direction. On today’s trip to Abidjan, my companion was Salomon—and yes, that’s the correct spelling of the name in French—a young man who is in training with the Catholic Church. His internship in Dabakala overlapped with my stay there at the Catholic mission, so we got to know each other over meals that we ate together. Since Salomon was traveling to Abidjan the same day I was, we made plans to travel together. Originally, our plans called for us to take the early-morning bus out of Dabakala, which would get us into Abidjan sometime around 4:00 pm. After getting off the bus, I would stay with our bags, while Salomon went in search of a taxi to take me to the SIL center. But as I already mentioned, God had a different plan for getting us where we were going.

Last evening Salomon learned that one of the Catholic priests from Dabakala was planning to travel by private vehicle to Yamoussoukro today, so we accepted his gracious offer of a ride for that portion of our journey (about 2/3 of the total distance in terms of time under normal circumstances). Our driver was one who is apparently a lover of speed, as I saw the speedometer indicate speeds that I normally only ever experience when airborne. Thus, even with a half-hour stop in Bouaké to greet the priest in residence at one of the centers there, we made the trip to “Yakro”—the short form for Yamoussoukro—in only three hours and ten minutes, arriving at 11:40 am.

Salomon and I were planning to get a bus from there to go the rest of the way, but upon arrival at the Catholic center in Yakro, we learned that another priest was coming down from the north, on his way to Abidjan. Salomon knew him, so he called his cell phone to find out where he was and if he would have room for us. At that point, he and his driver were in Bouaké, an hour or so north of Yakro and expected to arrive around 1:00. Salomon wasn’t sure he wanted to wait that long, and I was happy to pay for a bus to get us on the road sooner than that, so we headed off to the various bus stations to see when the next buses would leave. After inquiring at a couple of places, we learned that we had just missed the noon bus run, and the next ones wouldn’t be leaving until 1:45 or 2:00. So we went back to the Catholic center to await the arrival of the other priest coming down from the north.

1:00 came and went, as did 1:15. Salomon tried to call the priest we were waiting for but got a message saying he was “unavailable.” That might mean that his phone battery had died, he had turned off his phone, or he was in a location where there was no cell service. We didn’t know if he and his driver had decided to stop somewhere to eat, if they had had a breakdown, or what. Meanwhile, the resident priest in Yamoussoukro came up with some boiled yams and a tomato-based paste to go with them, and we had lunch while we continued to wait.

At 2:00, still with no news from the ride we were waiting for, we decided it was time to head off to the bus station and pay our way to Abidjan after all, since we had no idea how much longer we might have to wait for the person who had agreed to pick us up. For reasons unknown to me, it was close to 2:30 by the time we actually left to go to the bus station, but we were still unable to get through to our potential ride to find out where they were. We unloaded our bags at the bus station around 2:40, but before we bought tickets for the 3:30 bus to Abidjan, Salomon tried once more to contact the priest who was on the road. This time he got through and learned that they had just arrived at the Catholic center in Yamoussoukro, but no one was there! Salomon explained that we were now at the bus station, so they agreed to come by there to pick us up. Long story short, they didn’t know where the bus station was, and it took them another half-hour to meet up with us. So it was 3:15 when we finally got underway to Abidjan, having had a 3-hour layover in Yakro!

The second leg of the trip was a bit less harrowing as a passenger, since we topped out at only 80mph and there were fewer potholes in the road that we had to swerve around than was the case between Dabakala and Yakro. We had only one stop along the way—to buy some smoked agouti, which I understand is a large wild rodent of some kind.

When we got into Abidjan, we were dropped off at a location agreed upon by Salomon and our host, and from there we would travel by taxi to our respective destinations. I stayed with my bags, while Salomon struck off in search of a taxi that would take me to the SIL center. That process took 15 minutes or so, but he was eventually successful, so I threw my bags in the trunk and got into the taxi after expressing my thanks to Salomon for all of his help in getting me to where I needed to go and bidding him good-bye.

Once in the taxi, I learned that the landmark near SIL that “every taxi driver was sure to know” was unknown to mine. But he knew the section of town I was referring to and said that, once there, he would ask where the “big mosque” (the well-known landmark) was. It turned out that, by the time he asked, we had already passed it, so we had to do a u-turn in Friday evening rush-hour traffic. (Some things are possible for taxi drivers that are impossible for us mere mortals.) After getting more specific directions from another person or two, we found ourselves in front of the “big mosque” but still unsure of where SIL was. I knew the way to SIL from a particular traffic circle, but we weren’t sure where that traffic circle was. But after a few minutes of more interesting driving, where we once again stared down traffic coming toward us from the opposite direction and drove over curbs to get out of their way, we found the dirt road that leads to SIL.

All in all, it was a very interesting, but very exhausting day. I was ready for a meal, a warm shower, and a bed. The meal came in the form of a pizza shared with an SIL colleague at a nearby restaurant. My taste buds were quite happy about this variation from the local cuisine I enjoyed up north, though I remain very thankful for the very diverse menu offered to me during my stay in Djimini country. The warm shower turned out to be a mirage, as the gas water heater pilot light was not lit and I don’t know how to light it. I’ll get some help with that tomorrow. The bed, however, is no figment of my imagination, and I plan to spend a significant amount of time recovering from the fatigue of these past few weeks of intense and very-focused work on the Djimini dictionary.

I am glad to have had the opportunity to help the Djimini people, but I am also glad to be back in Abidjan, looking forward to being back home with my family again.

Thursday, July 27 - Closing Ceremony

Today was a day to celebrate what has been achieved thus far in the process of producing a Djimini-French dictionary. This celebration took place in the form of a formal closing ceremony to which government, religious, and traditional leaders from the Djimini community were invited. The ceremony involved prayers, songs, speeches, a presentation of a rough draft of the dictionary, and a gift to me from those who organized the workshop. Afterward, refreshments were offered to those in attendance.

My thanks to each one who prayed for me as I prepared my speech and delivered it. I was able to highlight the significance of the word-collection workshop as history in the making for the Djimini people and led the audience in celebrating the achievement of having collected 13,702 pieces of language data in two short weeks. It was a very enjoyable experience to be together once again with this group of Christians who, three weeks ago, were unknown to me and who are now my friends.

Delivering my speech

Dressed in the traditional Djimini outfit given to me as a gift by the organizers of the workshop

Wednesday, July 26 - Merging Duplicate Entries

Today’s task was to deal with the multiple entries and senses for each word in the dictionary. We did not get through the entire database, of course, but the team members each got lots of practice merging multiples senses into one (when the French gloss was similar but not identical), merging multiple entries into one (when one had been misspelled so it didn’t get put together with the correct one), separating different meanings into separate entries (for words that are spelled the same but mean different things), etc.

Of course, preparations for tomorrow morning’s closing ceremony needed attention, as well, so there were times when one or another of the team members needed to focus on that. I’ve been asked to prepare a speech describing what we did during the workshop and what the results were.

Tuesday, July 25 - Correcting Spelling Mistakes

First thing in the morning, we checked the four folders where words had been collected a second time because we felt that there were many words missed the first time around. Then we quickly entered these additional words into the database, wrapping up the data entry just before 10 o’clock. Our revised and final word count for the workshop now stands at 13,702.

Once those words were in the database, I exported the data to a document that could be printed. This was in the form of a double-column list of Djimini words and expressions, each with one or more French meanings associated with it. There were 131 pages of data to be printed out.

When we had the printed pages in hand, Justin, Moïse and Bamoussa each took a section of the rough draft of the dictionary and, page by page, began looking for spelling mistakes in either the Djimini or the French, but focusing primarily on the Djimini. As pages were completed, Pastor Lamissa and I edited the database, making the corrections that had been marked on the pages. After working from 11:00 to 5:00 on this task, we found ourselves about halfway through the stack of printed pages.

We then held a brief meeting to decide how we would use the rest of the time that I am planning to be here in Dabakala. They took some pages home with them to continue the correction process, but tomorrow I will show them how to deal with duplicate entries in the database. Then, while they are busy edited the database to eliminate the duplicates, I will work making the corrections that they’ve found and marked overnight. We’ll see how far we get on this by noon tomorrow, then decide together how best to use our time the rest of the day.

Monday, July 24 - The Challenge of Printing our Data

The amount of work remaining to be done as we started the day today seemed small, but it took us until about 4:00 in the afternoon to get the last sheet of words entered into the database. This was due in large part to the fact that there were several other things vying for our attention. I needed to get my computer set up to be able to print out the data from the database so it could be checked for spelling mistakes and so on; at the same time, the Djimini-speaking part of our work force was making preparations for an official closing ceremony on Thursday. As part of the latter, Justin and I made visits to government leaders in town, while Bamoussa drew up two letters—one asking the mayor to emcee the ceremony and another requesting the use of the town hall meeting room for the occasion.

Getting all of the pieces in place to be able to print data from the dictionary database was no small task for me, and it took me most of the morning to get everything just right. Either I had misplaced some of the instructions I had been given or they were incomplete, leaving me to guess how to fill in the gaps. On my first attempt to install the necessary programs, my computer hung. Th installation progress bar showed that the process had stalled. I finally aborted the process and as I began my second attempt, I was given insight into the possible cause for that and noticed the checkbox I needed to tick during the installation process in order to avoid that scenario. On that attempt, however, I got a cryptic error message whose real meaning took me a while to decipher, but again God got my mental wheels turning in a helpful direction and I was able to make an educated guess as to how to achieve my desired outcome.

When I finally got all of the pieces/programs installed that are necessary for the exporting of data from the database and into a printable document, the document that was produced was devoid of data! I had no idea why that was, so I set about writing an email to a technical expert back in the US who might be able to provide some insight. Unfortunately, waiting for his response would delay our ability to print out the data. It was as I was writing up the details of what I had done and the results I had obtained that I again received a flash of insight, motivating me to attempt the export once more, this time providing a different answer to one of the enigmatic questions that had popped up in the process. Sure enough, answering “yes” to that question instead of “no” made the difference, and I suddenly had pages and pages of Djimini words, along with their French meanings in a form that could be printed out. Praise God for all of those helpful nudges to my thinking process as I worked through this challenge today!

Sunday, July 23 - Of Yams and Peanuts

This is a busy season for the Djimini people, as the harvest of the peanuts and early yams is in full swing. In this post, I share some pictures on this topic.

This is my second post of the day. Make sure you also see my other post for this eventful day.

Yams, a partial sack of peanuts and a rooster were among the gifts given to us by the Christians in Diengousso

The yams are peeled, cut into chunks, and placed in pots like these to boil

The boiled yam is mashed in a wooden mortar, then formed into balls known as foutou

Each Christian household contributed a dish for our meal; each elected to serve foutou with some sort of sauce

And here’s what was left when we were all done eating

Peanuts are shelled using this contraption that grates the shells off

The result is winnowed, with the animals picking through the trash for stray peanuts

The final bits of shell are picked out by hand, leaving dishpans full of shell-less nuts

(See also the story from Sunday, July 23 below)

Sunday, July 23 - My Soul Magnifies the LORD

Wow! What a day I had today! I feel like celebrating as Mary did after Gabriel informed her that she would be the mother of the Messiah, only I’m not nearly as poetic as she was. I feel more like Moses—thick of tongue and slow of speech—but here’s my attempt to relate to you the awe and worship I feel in my heart toward God after what I experienced today.

This being the cook’s day off, my breakfast was less than the high point of my day, consisting of tea and rather stale bread. I supplemented that with some trail mix that I brought along from home, and that was enough to provide the sustenance I needed to make it through the morning. Moïse and the Christian brother he enlisted to take us to his home village, Dienguesso, in his vehicle, a Peugeot hatchback, picked me up around 8:00 am. We made two more stops to pick up a couple of other passengers, one of whom was Moïse’s wife, I found out later; the other was the wife of Bamoussa, another member of the Djimini translation team. Then we were on our way out of town to the north.

It took us about an hour to reach Dienguesso. Most of the route was paved, but the last 20 minutes or so was on dirt roads that were, for the most part, in decent shape, last night’s rain notwithstanding. Upon reaching the village, we drove directly to Moïse’s house, which is very close to the church. After observing the Djimini custom of providing water for the guests and exchanging news between residents and visitors, we were offered a breakfast of tea and bread. I had only a small amount of the bread so that I wouldn’t still be full when the midday meal was served later on. After breakfast, we made our way to the church, where we were seated at the front of the church.

By the time we joined the service, it was already pretty far along. We caught the last song or two, then it was time for announcements. During that time I was introduced and given the opportunity to say a few words. After the offering and another song, it was already time for the morning message, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had been asked to preach the same sermon I had shared at Kengenmougousso two weeks ago.

My message is based on the passage in Luke 18:35-43, where Jesus healed a blind beggar near the end of his ministry. I entitle this message “Hope when there is no Hope” or “Hope Beyond Hope”. The gist of the message, for those of you who haven’t heard it in one of the many churches where I’ve given it over the past year and a half, is this: The blind man begging by the road was caught in a hopeless rut, looking only for a way to survive from one day to the next. He had no hope for anything more than that—until the day that he heard that Jesus was passing by on the road where he was begging. Hope was born in him that day, and he called out in faith, asking to be given back the gift of sight that he had lost. He was healed and forgiven because of his faith. Though many of the bystanders felt he was unworthy of Jesus’ time and attention, Jesus himself had time for him. In the same way—because Jesus is the same today as He was back then, nor will His nature ever change—Jesus, in spite of the fact that He is the greatest of the great, the ruler of all those who are of noble birth, has time for each one of us, even if we’re the lowliest of the ignoble, the marginalized, those the world considers of little value. Jesus wants to hear us articulate what it is that we desire, and He wants to give us the desires of our heart. He wants to give us hope when, in human and natural terms, there is absolutely none. He wants to do the impossible in our lives so that we, like the blind beggar, will thereafter be part of His following, glorifying God for what He has done in us.

After the church service was over, we gathered at Moïse’s house again, where a meal would be served to us in due time. As we were sitting there and the people around me were chattering away in Djimini, Bamoussa’s wife turned to me and said, “That message really slapped us!” Apparently they had been discussing the message, and she brought me into the conversation at that point. What she meant was that the message had really struck home for them. They were familiar with the story, but for them it was just a story, ancient history, and didn’t really impact their lives in the here and now. The way I related the story to the present was like a lightning bolt from heaven. Suddenly this story took on new meaning for them, giving them something in the Bible that they could recall when difficult times came their way. They could find hope in the midst of desperate situations by calling to mind the plight of the blind beggar and how his life had been forever changed by Jesus’ power.

The next 30 minutes were spent talking about the message and how it related to various experiences that one or the other had had or were currently dealing with. This was a gift from God for me, because I always wonder what I’ve communicated in my limited French through an interpreter into yet another language, or if I’ve communicated anything at all. To hear four different people talk about how the message had significantly impacted them gave me a real boost.

The conversation eventually switched back into Djimini, leaving me to allow my own thoughts to wander. I reflected on the wonder of what had happened at that church this morning. How was it possible that someone as introverted as I am by nature can stand up in front of a crowd of 100 people and deliver a message in a foreign language, using no notes and having only an English Bible to refer to? How is it that I, a person who struggles to find the right words to express my thoughts and feelings, could speak in front of this group without feeling nervous, speaking relatively comfortably and confidently? “How is that even possible?,” I asked myself! There is simply no other explanation other than that God Himself did it through me. He is the One who arranged for me to be in Dienguesso today; He is the One who enabled me to learn to speak French well enough to communicate. And though I often have to search for the words I want in French, He got His message through in spite of my stumblings. Truly, it is through our weakness that His strength is shown most clearly. That was very much the case today.

As we continued to wait while the women prepared mashed yam for us for lunch, various people came by to say hello. I smiled and nodded a lot, shaking lots of hands, while understanding very little of all that was said, since it was virtually all in Djimini. But at one point, one of the pastors present said to me, “The woman over there with the red top has asked you to pray for her because she has a sore foot.” Apparently, her take on my message was that today was her opportunity to be healed of her handicap. When she looked at me, she saw Jesus, so she came asking to be healed. I prayed for her earnestly, but I make no claim of having the gift of healing, so I don’t know if she has been healed yet or not. When she left our group, she was still obviously in pain. I can only pray that she will experience a significant improvement in her relationship with God as a result of her request and that she will find hope where there was none before.

After lunch, and just before we left to come back to Dabakala, another woman came. She had brought her 22-month-old son with her, and she asked me to pray for him to be able to walk, since he has not yet been able to. I prayed for strength in the boy’s legs and for wisdom for his parents to know what to do to help him. Once again, I do not know what effect my prayer had or will have in the life of this family, but it is my deepest hope that this mother will find hope for the future that was not there when she woke up this morning and that her relationship with God will be forever transformed because of all that happened today.

I find myself in awe of the idea that God would choose to use me to speak a deep and personal message to a group of people in a remote African village. Surely there are more capable people He could use. But just as He chose to work through Moses in spite of his discomfiture at the thought of being in the spotlight, He has elected to use me as His spokesperson while I’m here, despite all of my shortcomings. And here I thought I was making this trip for the purpose of helping the Djimini people get started on the dictionary they want so badly. God obviously had other objectives in addition to that one. And so “my soul magnifies the LORD” for the wonder of what He’s doing!

Saturday, July 22 - The Expected and the Unexpected

Today was a mixture of the expected and the unexpected, but all good. The day started off differently than usual when I requested leftover rice for my breakfast instead of an omelet. Last evening’s rice dish was really good, but I couldn’t eat much then because I was so full from other things I had eaten earlier in the day. So I decided I’d request a second chance on the rice this morning. That provided a very satisfying start to the day.

As expected, around 8:00, Matthieu, Moïse, Justin, Bamoussa and I gathered at the church once again, this time to all focus on the 15 or so folders of data still waiting to be typed into the dictionary database. The four Djimini speakers spent their time checking the words that had been collected, crossing out ones where the participants had misunderstood the topic, correcting the spelling of those that were misspelled, adding words that the word-collection groups had overlooked, and so on. I focused on typing the words into the database that had been checked and approved. Justin divided his time between the two tasks, first checking the contents of a folder, then typing the data into the database. We made good progress, so that when 12:30 rolled around, I had five folders of verified data to take with me to work on typing in the afternoon. (As it turned out, I got four of them entered; the other will wait until later.) At this point it looks like, come Monday morning, everything will have been checked, and we’ll spend the first part of the day completing the data entry. Maybe we’ll be done with that by coffee break.

The noon meal was another unexpected part of the day today. I’m never sure what I’m going to be served here. There is quite a variety of dishes that have made an appearance at one time or another—from yams (boiled, mashed, or in a stew) to manioc (usually in a couscous-like form known as “attieke”) to potatoes (boiled, in a stew, or served as French fries) to rice (with oil and tomato like last evening and this morning’s breakfast, or with some sort of sauce/gravy to pour over it, sometimes simply with cooked leaves of some kind), almost always accompanied by some sort of meat, fish being the most frequent—so when I show up for a meal, I’m never sure what I’ll find in the pots on the serving table. When I checked out today’s “menu,” however, I discovered that it was white rice and a peanut sauce with some tender meat in it. I love rice and peanut sauce, but this was the first time it had been served since the evening of the day I arrived. Everyone at the table today could see how much I appreciated the food I was eating for that meal!

Another surprise came my way when I was told that Moïse would be taking me to church in another village tomorrow. It’s apparently far enough away that he and Matthieu have arranged for a friend to come and pick me up in his vehicle instead of making me ride that distance on the back of a motorcycle. “Oh, and by the way, could you preach the same sermon there tomorrow that you preached at the other church two weeks ago?” I agreed to do that, so I’ll be having another very interesting cultural experience again tomorrow, I’m sure.

The day was full of surprises, another one coming as we were wrapping up lunch. The two priests who have been my hosts here announced that, since this was my last Saturday in Dabakala, they were planning a special meal for supper. They promised to provide special food and drink and make this a memorable occasion. True to their promise, a rotisserie chicken, chopped up and garnished, was added to the serving table for the evening meal, next to the leftover rice and peanut sauce and a couple of other dishes I had no interest in. A large bottle of Coke was my special drink, while most of the others shared a bottle of wine. I quite enjoyed a second round of the rice and peanut sauce, and the addition of the chicken and soda made it a very special meal.

It turns out that two others from here will also be traveling on Friday, so I’ll have companions to go with. One will be going only partway to Abidjan, but the other will be going the whole way, so we’ll be able to ride together for the whole journey. When I left home, I was mentally prepared to travel both directions by myself, but God has graciously provided someone to travel with each time. That is very special, I think.

The final surprise of the day came in the form of a thunderstorm that evolved into a prolonged, ground-soaking rain. The storm brought with it a significant drop in temperature that has me feeling on the verge of “chilly.” Even though this is the time of year when I was expecting to experience a lot of rain here, the climate in this area has ended up being different than what I had expected. The daily weather reports have shown rain every day down on the coast, where Abidjan is located. So the fact that it was raining when I left there a few weeks ago is not surprising to anyone here. But at the same time, our weather here several hundred miles further north has been mostly a mixture of clouds and sunshine, with only an occasional rain. The rains I have experienced here have been mostly light and short-lived. This evening’s was prolonged, with significant accumulation, so I’m expecting the ground to be a bit muddy when I go out in the morning.

Friday, July 21 - Word Collection Day 10

Today we finished our “marathon”—a 10-day word-collection blitz that resulted in some 13,500 pieces of data from the Djimini language. About 80% of the words and expressions collected have been entered into the database already, and the team of typists has agreed to consecrate tomorrow morning to whittling down the remainder as much as possible.

We are all extremely tired after having thrown ourselves wholeheartedly into this workshop, but we are happy about what has been accomplished. It’s not something we’re ready to sign on for again right away, considering the amount of energy it required of us, but we’re all glad to have been a part of this landmark event in Djimini history.

My way of saying thanks to this group for their dedication to the task—manifested particularly by their repeated disregard for the established break times, preferring to persevere in the search for words rather than loiter about for 30 minutes over coffee—was to pay for a can of soda for each person involved in the workshop. That included not only those involved in the word-collection process, but also those who kept the participants going by preparing meals for them. This responsibility was shared around among a large number of women so that it would not be a huge burden to any one of them. So lots of drinks were needed to ensure that everyone got one. It was a pleasure for me to be able to express my gratitude in this way. I’m very glad that God opened the door for me to come here and lead this workshop, so that I could have the privilege of working with and helping this great group of people.

Celebration time

I am scheduled to stay here in Dabakala until next Friday morning. Beginning on Monday, we’ll set about organizing and correcting the data that have been collected. And next Thursday afternoon, we’ll have a special “closing ceremony” to celebrate all that we’ve been able to accomplish. By that time we should have an accurate count of the valid pieces of data that were collected, and I hope we’ll be able to print out a copy of everything in the database for people to look at.

Thursday, July 20 - Word Collection Day 9

The last of the folders was taken by the end of the day today, so we will wrap up the word collection in all of the semantic domains tomorrow. We have several folders from the first couple of days of the workshop that we think could yield more words than were originally found, so we plan to have groups go back over those once the first pass through the domains is finished.

The backlog of data to be typed continues to grow, though not as much as would be the case if the team of typists were not taking work home with them each evening. I myself have two folders of data waiting to be typed which I plan to work on before breakfast.

Everyone is continuing to persevere in his or her role, as we are dealing with very difficult topics at this stage. But in spite of the difficulty of the work, we continue to make progress toward the goal of 13,000 words by the end of the week. We are now within striking distance of that goal, having reached 12,557 today.

My hypothesis that the lack of water these past days was due to low pressure rather than an actual cut seems to have been disproven, as we had water all day today. I’m sure that there were people closer to the source of the water who were using it during the day, yet we still had water, so the explanation for the lack of water the past few days must be different than what I proposed yesterday. Whatever the reasons, we had water today, whereas we did not for a little while previously.

Wednesday, July 19 - Word Collection Day 8

We seem to have found the optimal way of working as a group this week. Two members of the Djimini Scripture translation team, rather than serving as typists as was planned, are spending most of their time sitting in on a pair of the groups who were struggling on their own. This has greatly improved the quality of these groups’ output, thus reducing the amount of editing needing to be done by the typing team when their data was submitted. The downside is that we have two fewer typists than planned, so we’re not able to keep up with the data entry. Partial compensation for this happens at night, when the typists take folders of data home with them to edit, and in some cases type. As a result of this allocation of personnel resources, we’re making good progress through the remaining semantic domains and the quality of the material being collected by the groups is greatly improved, leaving those primarily responsible for organizing this workshop feeling much more positive about what’s happening this week compared to earlier on.

We are now working on the most difficult semantic domains. These are topics that are abstract, often expressed in the language through the use of affixes, particles or expressions rather than simple words. It is typically difficult for most workshop participants to home in on the kernel of a sentence that actually communicates the idea in question, so we get more complete sentences as data rather than mere words. Those few speakers with more linguistic awareness then have to wade through this data, trimming away the excess verbiage to isolate the specific parts that will be included in the dictionary. Because the data is harder to identify, this part of the workshop is always very draining for everyone, so one of my roles now is to keep everyone’s morale up. I walk around from group to group and talk to people as they come to get coffee, doing my best to encourage them. But most of all, I give them a good pep talk at the start of the day. I’m glad to be able to report each morning this week that progress is good and things are going well

This morning the group was encouraged to learn that they had very nearly met my challenge of reaching 10,000 words by the end of the day on Tuesday. Tomorrow I’ll be able to encourage them with another good progress report, as their 8-day total is now 11,360, making it look quite probable that they will reach their goal of 13,000 by the end of the week. (They are actually very likely to be close to that by the end of the day tomorrow already.)

We did have a bit of a scare this morning when one of the typists’ attempt to save his data to the flash drive we use to synchronize everyone’s data failed. I wasn’t sure where the problem lay at first. I was afraid that there was a data-corruption problem on someone’s computer and that that individual’s hard work since his last sync to the flash drive would be lost. It took me some time to identify the problem, but in the end the situation was as uncatastrophic as it could be. Apparently the flash drive itself had a bad sector or something and was reporting a problem when the program was trying to write to it.

I reformatted the flash drive, then each of the typists sent his data to it again. Once it had made the rounds of everyone’s computer, we once again had a synchronized database on the flash drive, and there were no further issues the rest of the day. Fortunately, the way our program does the synchronization is a very solidly developed approach, keeping a copy of each person’s data on each of the other computers being used for editing the database, so when one copy develops a problem like this, the only data that is lost is whatever was typed on the computer with the problem since the most recent synchronization. Because the problematic “computer” in this case was the flash drive, where no typing was being done but which was only used to aggregate everyone’s data, no data was lost at all. Until I figured out where the problem lay, though, I was worried that someone would have to redo what he had done overnight.

Water cuts throughout the daytime hours have now become a regular thing. Actually, I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re not suffering from water cuts so much as from low pressure. When the pressure is low, those closest to the source have water, while those farther away do not, except at night, when those closer are not using any water, so that the pressure that is there is able to push the water out to where we are. In any case, while there has been no water during the day where I’m staying for nearly a week now, I have been able to get water at night on at least two occasions. This has allowed me to refill my two buckets, which I then use for shaving, bathing, and flushing the toilet. I’ve also been able to shower (from the showerhead rather than via a bucket and cup) on these occasions. No more hot showers, but even a cold shower is beginning to feel good compared to a cold bucket bath. That’s actually a significant development in my tolerance for “inconveniences,” as I used to feel that warm water for bathing was a requirement, even if it was via bucket and cup. I still find that desirable, but I no longer view it as a necessity.

Tuesday, July 18 - Word Collection Day 7

Today was a very positive day in many ways. I was glad to have a number of genuine positive things to say to the group in our meeting to start the day off. So I had the group applauding their progress on multiple occasions. Since they were within feasible striking distance of the “magical” number of 10,000, I challenged them to work hard today to try to attain that number by the end of the day. (They don’t know it yet, but they fell just short of that goal, ending the day with 9,931 words collected. That’s still a very good result for the day, so I’ll be able to encourage them with the news in the morning.)

There are still a couple of groups that are struggling in their ability to understand the French of the questionnaire or to apply the principles that were taught during the training phase, so Matthieu and Justin felt that two of the typists would be of more help overall if they sat in on the groups that need some help rather than doing data entry. Matthieu and Justin are going over all of the data prior to it being entered into the database, in order to weed out incorrect information and add obvious items that the word-collection groups overlooked. This is great for quality control, but unfortunately, it means that the backlog of data to be entered is increasing. We might be able to finish entering the words that were collected yesterday by the end of the workday tomorrow.

Matthieu checking words before they get entered into the database

Justin checking words

Today there was a special treat for everyone: boiled corn. Apparently the ears are thrown into a pot of boiling water, husks and all. Then each person husks his own and enjoys eating it. It’s quite similar to sweet corn back home but not as sweet, and there is no butter and salt to put on it. I enjoyed my ear very much.

enjoying boiled corn

I am still in very good health, something I do not at all take for granted. I am well-fed, actually eating more than I need (yet not nearly as much as my African companions at the table). I began cutting back on my portion size because I’m not very hungry for most meals, but I think my hosts are interpreting that as lack of interest in the food being provided for me. This is a constant dilemma in the African context, given how little food my body really needs.

I had an interesting experience when I returned to my room after lunch today. I had only a few minutes to spend there before it was time to wait at the gate for my ride to the church, but as I entered, there was a small bird (a female Firefinch) flying around my room! Long story short, I finally trapped it in the 3-inch space between the glass and the screen of my bathroom window. Then I found one of my Catholic hosts and asked him what to do about it. He came, and while he was trying to catch it, the bird went out through a hole in the bottom of the screen of that window that neither of us had noticed up to that point. Problem solved!

Monday, July 17 - Word Collection Day 6

First of all, a note about what happened on Sunday. It turns out the Moïse did come to pick me up that morning, but he couldn’t find me. He wasn’t aware that I had been moved to a different room, and he didn’t have my phone number in order to contact me that way. So we missed each other. All mysteries regarding what happened that day are now solved.

As far as what happened today, we began the day with a meeting of the entire group, as usual. I announced that we were on track to exceed their goal of 13,000 words by the end of this week, since we had already collected more than 7,000 in the first five days of the workshop. They were greatly encouraged by this news, and there was a round of celebration. Matthieu and I went on, however, to point out a couple examples of ways in which some of the groups had gone astray, using up precious time writing down phrases in the language that do not belong in a  dictionary. We encouraged the group leaders to keep in mind the principles that had been taught during the training period, so that the typists would not have to cross out or correct so much of the data that was submitted to them.

The mood as we broke up to begin collecting words again was a bit subdued because of the correction that Matthieu and I felt was necessary to bring, but the results seem to have been worth the time and effort we invested during that meeting. Matthieu told me at the end of the day today that the quality of the data collected today was much improved compared to Friday’s, meaning that his job of checking the content was taking much less time. This allowed him to keep me supplied with material to enter into the database.

We added nearly 1400 words today, including those added by the typists to domains that had been treated less than thoroughly on Friday by the word-collection groups. This gives us a 6-day total of 8,437 words collected. Perhaps more important is the fact that the groups moved more quickly through the domains they worked on today; we’ve now treated nearly 1000 of the 1800 domains. That means that we’re still off the pace necessary in order to get through all of the domains by the end of the week, but we’re getting closer to being able to achieve that goal.

I’m looking forward to being able to share undiluted good news at our group meeting tomorrow morning: good progress on the word count, improved prognosis regarding our ability to get through all of the domains by the end of the week, and much-improved quality in the data collected. I think this will give everyone a boost, offsetting some of the fatigue from this marathon of intellectual effort that is definitely making itself felt at this point.

That’s not all the good news for the day, though. We got Matthieu’s computer configured to be able to submit data to the online dictionary site, so if you want to have a peek at the data we’re collecting, check out http://djimini.webonary.org. Just keep in mind that this data is very, very raw and will require a lot of cleaning up. I’ll be helping the team get started on that task next week before I leave to return home.

We also—with a bit of help via email from a colleague in Dallas to solve a problem we encountered along the way—got Matthieu’s computer set up to submit data to a website that will allow me (and other individuals who will be helping with this dictionary from somewhere other than Dabakala) to download the data from the team and upload contributions as necessary.

All in all, today was a very positive day in a number of ways.

Sunday, July 16 - On my own

Despite the best intentions of the Baptist leaders who invited me here, and of the Catholic priests who are responsible for my room and board, I ended up on my own for much of the day today. Matthieu was in another village for the funeral of a Christian woman, and there is no cell phone service there. He had asked Moïse to pick me up and take me to church this morning, but I was in the dark about this arrangement. I texted Matthieu on Saturday evening to ask what was planned for Sunday morning but received no response since he had no cell service where he was. No one showed up at the Catholic center by 8:45 this morning, so I walked to the local church and participated in the service there.

After the service, I came back to my room and waited for lunchtime to roll around. At 12:30—the time we normally eat the midday meal during the week—I went to the dining room, but no one was there. I waited around for a while, but no one showed up. Thinking that the schedule might be different on Sunday, I went back to my room for a while and returned to the dining room around 1:15. Still no one, but I did notice that there were leftovers on the side table that looked like they were intended for our midday meal. I sat and read a book for a while, but when no one had turned up by 2:05, I decided I’d be skipping lunch today. You see, as a guest here, I’ve not been expected—or even allowed—to do a number of things. Among these is the heating up of leftover food. I could have heated up some of the food that was on the side table and eaten it, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, and I didn’t know the “house rules” for heating up leftovers. So I skipped lunch. Well, not completely. I have some snacks in my room, and I dipped into them to hold me over.

The situation began to become clearer around 5:00, when I got a phone call from Matthieu. He had just returned from the funeral and finally got my text message from last evening. It was in that phone call that I learned that Moïse was supposed to have picked me up and taken me with him to church this morning. However, Matthieu also informed me that one of Moïse’s neighbors, an elderly woman, had just died last evening, and that must be the reason that he didn’t come to get me.

A couple of hours later, at the evening meal, I learned that my hosts, the priests, had been invited out to a parishioner’s home for lunch, so I was on my own. That was why no one had shown up to join me. In both cases I was in the dark about what the others had planned for me. It felt rather strange to be so alone here, but I used some of the time in the afternoon to pray and reflect on the sermon I had heard. Plus, I got a lot of rest, so I should be ready to go tomorrow morning.

Saturday, July 15 - R & R

Well, my hair’s not bushy anymore! I went to a local barber this afternoon and told him I needed it trimmed around my ears and across the back. He did that, and then some, as you can see in the photos below. Actually, I think he did a pretty good job, especially considering that I was probably the first white man whose hair he had ever cut. And the price was right—50 cents, to which I added a 30% tip.

Much of my day today was spent reading, working puzzles, and attending to personal work on my computer. I also walked to the market and bought a few things that members of my family asked me to get for them. Not much to report on after a day of so much rest and relaxation.

Friday, July 14 - Word Collection Day 5

I was able to encourage the participants this morning about their work on Thursday, and they set off to begin word collection in good spirits. They made good headway again today, finishing the week with just over 7,000 words collected.

On a more discouraging note, it seems that there are some problems with a few of the groups. One group is zipping through the semantic domains so quickly that they are missing a lot of obvious words. The typists then have to take the time to add these words to the lists themselves before actually typing them, which slows down their part of the work. Two other groups spent a lot of time writing down phrases that are not useful and which had to be crossed out. I’ll be giving a bit of an explanation again on Monday morning about the difference between idiomatic expressions (which should be included in a dictionary) and descriptive phrases (which have no place in a dictionary). The silver lining on this “cloud” is, of course, the fact that we’re collecting so much valid material for the dictionary in spite of the problems.

I continue to function as a typist, helping as much as I can. Everything I type has to be checked beforehand by Matthieu, however, and he only has so many hours in the day. There is quite a backlog of material waiting to be typed, and at this point, it’s looking like we’ll be dealing with that during the cleanup week instead of being able to focus on cleaning up the data that we’ve collected. But maybe we’ll be able to complete it the first couple of days that week and still have some time for me to teach those who will be continuing work on the dictionary about how to do that.

On the “home” front, I enjoyed a hot shower again this morning and got my laundry done during the day while I was gone. Tomorrow I hope to be able to get my hair trimmed, as it’s getting rather bushy around my ears and on the back of my neck.

Thursday, July 13 - Word Collection Day 4

Today was a day of surprises, most of which were unrelated to the word-collection workshop, so I’ll get to them in a moment.

I gave a pep talk in our group meeting this morning, urging the participants to increase their pace to get through all of the semantic domains in two weeks. I showed them numbers from the first three days, indicating that Day 2 and 3's totals were not like Day 1. They got the picture and went to work with renewed energy and enthusiasm, and I sensed throughout the day that we were doing better again.

When I did the final tally, I saw that today’s output was back up to Tuesday’s level which was quite good, but we may not get through all of the material in the ten days. I’ll keep trying to encourage them to move more quickly, all the while keeping the report on what they have accomplished very positive. The total for the first four days is 5,721, which is very good. We will almost certainly end up with more than 10,000 words. Whether we’ll reach the group’s goal of 13,000 or not remains to be seen.

My first surprise of the day came when I got set up to shave this morning. The city water is often off and I have to shave from a cup and shower from a bucket, but this morning it was on, and as I ran water from the tap, it came out warm! (I have not had warm water here at all since I left Abidjan nearly two weeks ago.) In the shower, hot water come out of the showerhead!!! I can't explain it; there was never anything other than cold water from the tap or shower in my previous room. I don’t know if it will ever happen again while I’m here, but I enjoyed it this one time even if I never experience it again. This evening, as I washed the sweat off before crawling into bed, the city water was off again, so it was a cold bucket bath that I experienced.

The next surprise came as I was leaving my room for breakfast. I saw that the lawnmowing crew had arrived and was busily at work in the courtyard outside my room. (I took a picture, which I will share with you here.) Sheep, goats, and chickens roam freely here, and this group of sheep decided that this was where they were having their breakfast today.

The quiet lawnmowing crew

The third surprise of the day came about an hour after the groups began collecting words this morning. The electricity went off. That’s not too surprising, considering where I am. However, electricity gets cut here less frequently than the city water, and when it does, it usually comes back on within 30 minutes. This time, however, it stayed off. That was the surprising part.

Computers began running out of battery power, so Matthieu began looking into getting the generator that they were counting on as a backup. To his dismay, he learned that the person who owned it was out of town for a wedding, this being a Thursday in the “season” for weddings. So the generator was unavailable.

Being unable to continue typing words into the database because his computer had run out of battery power, Matthieu set about correcting the words on the sheets of paper, then passing them to me to type, since my computer battery was still in good shape. I was kept busy all morning in this way, doing data entry in addition to the record-keeping that is my normal task. The power came back on about 12:30, but Matthieu did no more data entry the rest of the day, preferring to spend his time correcting spelling and translation errors and passing sheets to me to enter into the database. By the end of the day, I was exhausted from the frenetic pace I had kept up almost all day long.

Wednesday, July 12 - Word Collection Day 3

We have collected a total of 4,187 words through the first three days of our workshop. That’s a very good start, putting us right on track to reach the group-appointed goal of 13,000 words by the end of next week! However, I am concerned about the significant downward trend in productivity from Monday to Tuesday and again from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The pace slowed significantly today as groups tackled semantic domains that were less productive than those they had dealt with previously. Unfortunately, some of the groups spent more time than they should have trying to find more words in these more-challenging domains. Tomorrow morning I’ll have to give them a pep talk to pick up the pace. Reaching the goal of 13,000 words is still quite possible, but we’ll need to find a way to turn the trend around.

My role during the two weeks of word collection is primarily record-keeping. However, I’ve volunteered to help with data entry if someone who knows the language checks the words and their translations first so that I’m not entering some unclear wording that the editors will need to spend much time on later. Matthieu took me up on my offer to a limited extent yesterday and to a much greater extent today. (That “Personal Use Typing” course I took in high school continues to pay high dividends, enabling me to type even an African language I don’t speak or understand, keeping my eyes on the paper where the words are written and not looking at the keyboard.)

Djimini typists

I’m glad to be able to contribute, but we are lagging behind in the data-entry part of the work flow. This is due primarily to the fact that both the scribes and the translators are making errors, requiring the typists to have to get clarification from them prior to typing the words into the database. We may end up typing on the weekend in order to catch up.

On a personal note, I am sleeping well, eating well, and feeling well, all of which I’m very happy about.