Thursday & Friday, July 26-27 - Crow RWC Workshop - Days 9-10

Things were pretty busy as we wrapped things up at the word-collection workshop, and then I was busy packing, flying back home, and digging myself out from under the pile of emails that were waiting for me my first day back in the office. So it's now Wednesday, August 1st, and I'm finally taking the time to post some details about the end of the workshop.

Day 9 (Thursday) was a bit of a disappointment in some ways, with productivity dropping off sharply in some of the word-collection groups. It seems that there was too much discussion in the groups that day, which took away valuable time that would have been better spent focusing on collecting words. About 1,250 words were added that day, bringing the 9-day total to 13,349. (In all fairness, I should note that, even with a less-productive day on Thursday, the word count for this workshop is still very much in the acceptable range. The main concern was that we might not get through all of the 1800 topics, potentially leaving certain aspects of the culture unrepresented in the dictionary that will result from our efforts here these two weeks.)

On Friday (Day 10) then, we "lit the fire" under the participants, stressing the need for speed in getting through the remaining semantic domains (topics) by the end of the day. At our location (Pryor), we even went so far as to impose a 10-minute limit per topic on each group, claiming that collecting fewer words in each domain but getting through all of them was better than working more thoroughly and leaving certain topics untouched. That strategy worked, and it was about 2pm when we finished the last topic on our part of the to-do list. The remainder of the afternoon was then spent revisiting topics that had been treated early on, in hopes of adding more vocabulary from those domains. Mammals, insects, and flowers were a few of the topics the participants were interested in looking at a second time, and we added another 75 words or so in those areas.

The four word-collection groups at the college were apparently very motivated that final day, because their productivity went from a paltry 675 words on Thursday to a voluminous 1001 on Friday, as they pushed hard to reach the lofty goal of 15,000 words by the end of the workshop. It turns out that, had they made a more reasonable effort on Thursday, we probably would have attained that mark, but the 1,651 words needed on Friday in order to reach 15,000 proved to be just a bit too tall of an order. Nevertheless, I consider the final tally of 14,863 words more than satisfactory.

I am grateful to each person who was involved in this two-week word-collection effort. It was hard work, and we encountered a number of challenging obstacles along the way, but we worked together as a group to overcome those impediments, and in the end, we achieved a great victory together.

Pictures of the word-collection groups for Thursday, Day 9

One of our word-collection groups was in a rut of sorts, so we decided to mix up the teams a bit. Father Randolph, the priest at the Catholic Mission where we're doing the word collection in Pryor, had been leading one of the word-collection groups, but his availability was limited to Days 2 through 7. Thus, we now have only three groups working. Here they are:

Pictures of the word-collection groups for Monday, Day 6

Here are pictures of the four word-collection groups in Pryor on Monday, Day 6 of the workshop:

Monday-Wednesday, July 23-25 - Crow RWC Workshop - Days 6, 7, & 8

I've been very busy at this particular workshop—so much so that I have not found the time to update my blog on a daily basis!! So this is my attempt to sum up what has happened the past three days.

The overhaul of the size and composition of the word-collection groups on Friday led to very positive results, so we continued with those same teams of participants the first three days of this week. Morale was high at the beginning of the week, but by Wednesday we were all feeling the fatigue of this intense effort to get through all 1800 topics in the two weeks of the workshop. This is a great group of people that I am privileged to work with here in Pryor, Montana. They have worked hard, and I'm very happy to have the opportunity to be here and get to know a few of them.

As far as our progress in collecting words, our total after Monday was approaching 9,000, and at the close of work on Tuesday, we had 10,543. So, at our 8:45 meeting on Wednesday (before starting the word collection at 9am), we had a round of applause to celebrate having already reached our goal of 10,000 words after only 7 days. I encouraged everyone to just continue doing what they had been doing for the past couple of days, and I was pretty sure that we'd get through all of the topics and end up with 13,000 or 14,000 words.

Wednesday's output was down a bit from the previous days, and this was due to at least two major factors: (1) We're now dealing with topics that tend to be less productive, where finding only one or two words related to a particular topic is a common occurrence, and (2) One of the individuals who was leading a group, writing the words down, and managing the audio recording for the group is unable to be present for the last three days of the workshop, so we have only 7 word-collection groups now, as of Wednesday. Thus, our output on Wednesday was just a bit over 1400, bringing the total to 11,988 after 8 days of collecting words.

I will try to upload some pictures of the participants for my next post.

Pictures of southeast Montana landscape

Wheat field just after harvest

Wheat field ready for harvest

Sunday, July 22 - A Weekend of Active Rest

This weekend, I didn't have to do a lot related to the word-collection workshop, so I filled my time with other things. I didn't spend a lot of time twiddling my thumbs, but doing things that were different than what I had done during the week helped to recharge me for the new week.

Saturday involved a relaxing start to the day as my colleagues slept a bit later than they had been able to do during the week. Then the three of us that are here representing SIL headed to the campground laundry to wash clothes, and from there, on to Billings. While waiting for the washer and dryer to run their cycles, I was able to talk to Anita, Rachelle, and Angela on the phone and exchange news.

In Billings, we had lunch with Wayne and Elena Leman, an SIL couple who have worked with the Cheyenne tribe for more than 30 years. Wayne and I had each heard of the other because of our roles in the organization, but this was the first time that we had the privilege of meeting each other in person.

After lunch, we took advantage of the fact that we were in the city to do a bit of shopping, then returned to the trailer and rested for the remainder of the day. I was tired, so I went to bed early.

I awoke refreshed on Sunday morning, feeling rested for the first time in several days. After attending church, we went out for lunch, and in the afternoon we visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, where I learned much more about the context of General Custer's famous "last stand". We returned to our trailer around 7:30, exchanged news of the day's activities with our co-workers from The Language Conservancy, discussed plans for Monday's word collection, and then headed for bed.

Friday, July 20 - Crow RWC Workshop - Day 5

We ended the first week of this two-week workshop on a high note, collecting more than 1,800 words on Friday and thereby pushing our first-half total to just over 7,000. This was a tremendous encouragement to me, as it was to all of the TLC and SIL staff members when we shared the news with them, since we’ve encountered a significant number of obstacles along the way that we had to find creative ways to get past.

What was even more encouraging was the report I received second hand that the Crow tribal leaders were getting really excited about what is happening at this workshop. Apparently the leadership began the week feeling rather skeptical about the helpfulness or effectiveness of what was planned, but by the end of the week, they were fully supportive and enthusiastic about what was taking place. That places our workshop in a very good position for a successful conclusion next week.

I mentioned obstacles. Thursday was a difficult day because of having to tell so many people that they couldn’t come back on Friday. The previous days were challenging because we were adding a new group each day, which meant taking care of lots of logistic details and training/monitoring a new leader and a new scribe. The pace the first few days was too slow, and it was not easy to communicate the need for a faster treatment of the semantic domains in a way that the participants could connect with culturally. There were key people who had missed part or all of the training that I had given, and it took some time to help them all understand what was expected of them. But Friday, we began to experience the rhythm of a well-functioning word-collecting machine, which produced the kind of results we’ve been striving for all week.

In each of the two locations (Little Big Horn College in Crow Agency, MT, and St. Charles Catholic Mission in Pryor, MT), our Friday morning report and pep talk highlighted three things: (1) the good (but not quite stellar) results from Thursday, (2) the fact that having 8 or 9 people in a group on Thursday had impeded progress rather than helping it, and (3) the need to move through the semantic domains more quickly. On this final point, I did the math for the participants who were there, demonstrating the need for each group to adopt the objective of treating 30 domains each day in order to help us reach the goal of getting through all 1800 of them.

Throughout the day, it was hard for me to judge whether my exhortations regarding the need for speed were having the desired effect. Sitting at the record-keeping table where groups came to turn in completed folders and check out a new one, it felt like things were moving rather slowly. However, I recognized that the folders the groups were working on that day contained more domains than the ones we did on Thursday when I was being kept busy almost continuously. So until the numbers were tallied at the end of the day, I wasn’t really sure how well we had done. (One group worked on one very large folder all day long, so I had no idea how many words they were coming up with until they turned in their folder at the end of the day—when I learned that they had gleaned more than 250 words.)

Thursday morning, I had given everyone at Pryor the challenge of coming up with 250 words and covering a minimum of 30 domains in a single day. No group even came close to reaching that objective that day, so I was curious to see what would happen on Friday, given the more reasonable group sizes. I kept a running tally on a piece of paper of the results for each group, so that I could quickly add in the figures for the last folder for each group and give them some idea of how they had done before they left for the weekend. When all the numbers were in, one of the groups had indeed achieved the double objective of 250 words and 30 domains; I congratulated each member of that group before they left. Another group surpassed the goal of treating 30 domains; yet another collected 255 words but fell short of the goal of 30 domains; the final group finished with 222 words in 17 domains, which was not quite as good as we had hoped for but was still acceptable, considering that those were our lowest data points in the overall group.

The four groups in Pryor finished with a total of 895 words in 107 domains on Friday. The groups at the college did even better, tallying 933 words in 129 domains, with two of the word-collection groups attaining the double objective. That gave us the excellent results of 1,828 words in 236 domains for the day. I was nearly euphoric, after having worked so hard all week to ensure the success of this workshop.

One final note: I had encouraged each group to treat at least 30 domains on Friday. If we had met that goal, we would have completed 240 domains in one day. Doing that same thing each day next week would actually mean that we’d get through all of the domains before the end of the week. So I didn’t really need them to move quite that quickly, but I wanted to give them a lofty goal in hopes that, even if we fell short, we’d still be able to get through all of the semantic domains by the end of next week. The combined efforts of all 8 groups was actually 236, just 4 shy of the goal, which is simply outstanding, and we will tell the participants so at our Monday-morning  pep rally, all the while encouraging them for a repeat performance.

Thursday, July 19 - Crow RWC Workshop - Day 4

Thursday could be described by any of the following words: exciting, frustrating, exhilarating, taxing, exhausting. We witnessed an unexpected level of enthusiasm about the workshop, but we were unprepared for and overwhelmed by the responsibilities that that enthusiasm brought about.

Unlike most RWC workshops, where things have settled into a routine by the fourth day, this one presented a set of fourth-day challenges I’d never faced before. Our three word-collection groups were too large on Wednesday, so we launched a fourth one today. (This stretched our personnel really thin, requiring Steve to run the recording equipment for the new group, which in turn meant that I had to take care of all of the administrative details—signing people in, registering new participants, recording which group took which folder, when they brought it back, and so on. All that would have been easily within my capabilities had we not experienced something totally unexpected.)

Word had apparently gotten out via the Crow grapevine overnight that an exciting event was taking place at the Catholic Mission in Pryor, and many more new participants showed up this morning. As the one handling the administrative side of things, I accepted the first 8 or 10 of them, but I finally had to turn the rest away, as our four groups were already well over the recommended size, and they were crowded into the rooms they were working in. In the end, we had two groups of 8 and two groups of 9 collecting words throughout the day. (I have never had to turn prospective participants away from a RWC workshop before, but the groups typically function best with 4-6 people; 8 or 9 usually results in slower progress and lower productivity.)

The TLC director arrived mid-morning with some necessary supplies, and I brought him up to speed on the situation. (He had to travel from Hardin to Billings to trade in his rental car, which was having mechanical problems, then do the shopping, then continue on to Pryor to drop off what we needed there, then continue on to Little Big Horn College to deliver the lunchmeat, cheese, etc. to feed the participants working there, so he was going non-stop all morning. There are locations out here where cell-phone service is unavailable, so my attempts to reach him by phone were unsuccessful, he being on the road somewhere in one of those dead spots.) On his arrival, however, he confirmed that I had done the right thing in turning people away—but maybe I should have made the decision to do that a bit earlier than I had.

Some time after the TLC director had left, but before we broke for lunch, I received a message from him, saying that he had decided that we needed to decrease the number of participants for Friday. His orders were to select 4 or 5 from each group and invite them to come back in the morning. The others were to leave their contact information so we could invite them to come in the event that one or more of those chosen to continue could not come on a particular day. So I met with the leader of each of the four groups, asking who they felt were the most helpful people to keep on for the days to come. That was hard for all of us, and it was decided that the most culturally appropriate way to communicate the news to each one was for them to check with me as they signed out for the day. So I found myself in the unenviable position of having to tell many of the participants that they had not been invited back for Friday. But I did ask each of them to leave a phone number where they could be reached, in case we needed them sometime next week. There was much disappointment, and I’m sorry to see them go—their enthusiasm was a wonderful thing. But at the same time, I do think our groups will function more effectively tomorrow.

As expected as a result of the overpopulated groups, productivity dropped off today—in spite of the fact that we had added a group—and we tallied about 1,550 words for the day, bringing our total to 5,235. That means that we’re already halfway to our goal of 10,000 words by the end of next week, so that will be a piece of good news to report to the groups in the morning. However, we’re still moving too slowly through all of the topics, and unless we find a way to increase our pace, we will leave a significant number of them untouched. This is a major concern to the TLC director, so I am doing my utmost to help the groups move more quickly.

Wednesday, July 18 - Crow RWC Workshop - Day 3

[NOTE: I have internet access only during the workday, and I’m kept quite busy during that time, so it’s rather challenging to find time to post to this blog. That’s why my entries are delayed. My apologies for that, but I’ll do my best to keep you updated.]

We’re doing this workshop at the invitation of The Language Conservancy (TLC), a non-profit organization that helps Native American groups to breathe life back into their language if it appears to be dying out because the children are no longer learning it from their parents. This is the same organization that Anita and I helped last year in New Mexico.

On Wednesday, the TLC director asked me to make the trip to Pryor (an hour in each direction) to help the groups working there to improve their productivity. Originally, it seemed that there was limited interest among the Crow community around Pryor, so there were only two word-collection groups there on Tuesday when we first met in that location. The actual turnout was significantly higher than expected, however, so the TLC director decided to add a third group on Wednesday, when he sent me. Traveling with me were two TLC linguists and Steve Echerd, a colleague who works with SIL’s Americas North branch and who is shadowing me at this workshop in order to be able to facilitate future workshops by himself.

After the morning status report and pep talk, which were my responsibility, I took care of a few administrative details and then spent most of the remainder of the day sitting in as an observer (making an occasional comment) with the group that had gotten off to a weak start the previous day, helping them to understand how best to work with the materials in the time allotted for this workshop. I had been asked by the TLC director to do the record-keeping as well, but that proved to be more than I was able to handle if I was to be the near-constant presence that the word-collection group needed. So I was glad that Steve had come along with me to Pryor, as he was able to monitor the other two groups on an intermittent basis and take care of the record-keeping.

The word collection seemed to progress slowly, with only a few of the 126 folders we hope to get through during the workshop being completed. However, when we tallied up the results in the evening, we discovered that the number of words being collected was more than adequate, bringing our total for the three days to 3,680.

Tuesday, July 17 - Crow RWC workshop - Day 2

Tuesday, we had six groups collecting words—four at Little Big Horn College and two at the Catholic Mission in Pryor, Montana, a bit over an hour away from the college. (This was the first day for us to work in two separate locations.) I was at the college, working with the four groups there, while Wil, The Language Conservancy leader, traveled to Pryor to launch and coordinate the work there.

At the college, we got off to what seemed like a bit of a slow start. Not all of the expected participants were present at the start of the day, so the composition of Monday’s groups couldn’t be maintained. Instead, we formed three word-collection groups, using the people who were present. That got the fun underway a bit after 9:15, but it gave our record-keeper, Raquel, a challenge, since folders that had been started on Monday were now in the hands of a different set of individuals. (It took us an extra hour at the end of the day, but she and I were able to get everything straightened out in the end.) A fourth word-collection group was formed once there were enough people to make it viable.

One of the word-collection groups seems to have caught on exceptionally well to the way we want the groups to work, and as a result they collected a 389 words on Tuesday, which may be more in a single day than any other group in any other workshop I’ve led. The other groups are making acceptable progress but seem to be moving a bit more slowly than is necessary if we are to get through all of the material in two weeks. In all, we collected 1,332 words on Tuesday, bringing our total for the first two days to 2,053.

The weather here has been warm and dry for the most part. It reminds me of Burkina Faso but 10-20 degrees cooler. Daytime highs have been in the low- to mid-90s, with relatively low humidity, so I’ve been comfortable in my African shirts. This causes my bedroom in the mobile home we’re living in to get very hot in the afternoon (because it faces west), and it holds that heat for the first part of the night, making it somewhat difficult to fall asleep some nights. About midnight, however, the temperature outside is in the 60s, and my room gets cool enough that I am grateful for the light blanket that was provided. (The air conditioning or heat in the trailer is either disconnected or non-functional for some other reason. We have only a swamp cooler running 24/7 in the hall at the middle of the trailer, and it has no impact whatsoever on the temperature in the bedroom where I’m sleeping.)

I am grateful for hot water for showers, a working fridge for storing milk and yogurt for breakfasts, the cot with a built-in air mattress that serves as my bed, and the provision of life-sustaining food at the important times of the day (sandwiches at lunch and grilled burgers, brats, or chicken in the evening).

Monday, July 16 - Crow RWC Workshop - Day 1

The workshop got off to a good start on Monday, in spite of the fact that we had to wait a bit past the official start time for everyone to arrive. (It seems that the Crow culture is similar to many African cultures in this regard: I learned that people talk about “Indian time” here, while in Africa we talked about “African time”. Events just rarely start at the time they are scheduled to begin.)

I was responsible for providing an abbreviated training session in the morning. (Instead of the usual two or three days, I had two or three hours.) Then shortly before noon, we broke into groups and began the actual word collection.

We had five groups working at Little Big Horn College. One of those groups was made up of women who had made the 1hr 15min drive over from Pryor, where they live. They came so that they could benefit from the training session Monday morning. Starting Tuesday, we plan to have four or five groups continuing at the college and two others in Pryor (including the one that was at the college on Monday).

This first day was typical in many respects, each participant adjusting to what they were being asked to do. I spent the afternoon checking in on various groups, answering the questions about the process, and doing my best to encourage everyone. By the end of the day, 721 words had been collected—a more-than-adequate beginning.

Saturday, July 14 Crow RWC: Preparing for departure

I am scheduled to leave tomorrow morning for southeastern Montana to lead a Rapid Word Collection (RWC) workshop for the Crow Nation, a Native American group located southeast of Billings, MT. I plan to leave for the airport at 4:40am, taking a neighbor with me who has a 7am flight. Rachelle has graciously agreed to get up much earlier than her usual time, in order to drive our car back home.

I'm looking forward to this opportunity to lead another word-collection workshop, as it's been a full year since I last did one. This will be my second time to visit Montana, the previous occasion being 40 years ago, when our family traveled together from our home in Pennsylvania, pulling a pop-up trailer and visiting lots of national parks west of the Mississippi River. That trip was full of great memories, and I expect this one will be too.

Like the workshop that Anita and I took part in last year in New Mexico, this one is being organized by The Language Conservancy (TLC). They are a non-profit organization that works with various Native American groups in the US, helping them revitalize their language by providing means for the children and young adults who've not learned it growing up to become competent speakers of it. SIL partners with TLC by leading word-collection workshops like this, so that they can then create written, audio, and online resources to facilitate the revitalization process.

Each workshop I lead is unique in some way. This particular workshop will be different from any other I've ever conducted because we'll be having word-collection groups working simultaneously in two locations a bit more than an hour apart. It will be interesting to see just how that works out.

There are 10 or 12 non-Crow individuals who will be helping at this workshop in one way or another. Those of us who are on site Sunday evening will meet to discuss some of the logistics, but several staff members won't arrive until late Sunday night, so a 6am meeting has been scheduled, mandatory for all staff, in order to prepare for the start of the event, scheduled for 8:00.

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)