Thursday, February 9 - Third and final day of training

We put the finishing touches on the training today by doing a few more word-collection exercises, then discussing the words they had found. I worked with the team of glossers—those who add the French meaning for each word—to help them better understand the nature of their role; I did this by having them add French glosses to the words that were collected in the first exercise of the day. Then I rounded up the typists and had them type those words and their French glosses into FLEx, the program developed by SIL to help with the creation of a bilingual dictionary, so that our team of typists had some real experience doing what they’ll be asked to do for the next two weeks.

David and Ibrahima were responsible for overseeing the progress of the word-collection groups while I attended to the further training of these other smaller groups of people. I also helped our record-keeper Rebecca understood the details of what she is expected to do in her role.

Ibrahima

We included a presentation earlier in the day on idiomatic expressions, explaining that these too were valid parts of a dictionary, as they are necessary for speaking a language correctly and completely. Then we assigned them a semantic domain to collect words in which almost every languages has such expressions for—death and dying. There was lots of lively discussion about the words and expressions that were collected in that exercise! By the time our midday meal arrived, both David and I felt pretty good about the preparedness of the participants, at least those that were there.

David explaining idiomatic expressions via Gusiilaay examples

We are still concerned about the fact that several of the individuals whom David and Ibrahima had hoped would be group leaders were unable to be at the first day of training, and some of them never came at all. I’ve agreed to lead a make-up training session on Saturday for any of these individuals who are willing to come, thus allowing them to still be part of the word-collection phase the next two weeks if they’re able to make it to that. I guess that the services of at least some of these people are quite in demand in other realms of life, as well, so they are pulled in multiple directions. My role here is to help the workshop succeed to the best of my ability, with the people who are available, with whatever giftings and experience they have.

We had chicken with our rice today instead of fish

I am the only white person—so far as I know—in Thionck-Essyl at the moment. The others have returned to Ziguinchor and plan to come back in David’s Pajero on Sunday afternoon. Ibrahima has remained here and will be looking after me, but I am staying alone in the house where Tim and I have been sharing these first few days. From my discussion with Ibrahima this evening, it sounds like I’ll be walking with him to visit some of those whom we’d like to have serve as group leaders but who never attended any of the training. We’ll see if any of them is willing to come to the make-up session on Saturday. Apart from that, I expect to have time to myself. For that, I brought several books along to read.

Wednesday, February 8 Training and putting it into practice

The training phase of our workshop continued today with role-specific training and exercises to put into practice what I’d taught yesterday. For the role-specific training, I ask those who will be functioning as word-collection group leaders to come to the front of the room and the others to sit behind them. Then I explain in detail what a group leader is expected to do and how it is to be done, allowing those being trained to ask questions or make comments but requiring those listening in to remain silent. Then when I’m done covering all the details that those being trained need to know and they have no more questions, I allow the others to ask any questions that they have. Then we repeat the process, but changing seats so that those who will be serving as scribes now take the front-row seats. Finally, we do the routine once more, this time with the glossers (translators) seated in the front row.

training the scribes

I do the training for these three roles with everyone present because we usually need, at some point in the workshop, to ask someone who was originally selected to perform one role to switch and do one of the others, and I want them to have a good idea what that other role entails when that happens, so that I don’t need to give them an impromptu 20-minute training session. The training for the typists and the record-keeper involves only the individuals who’ve been designated for those roles because it’s not very likely that we’d bring anyone else in to do those particular tasks. 

Near the end of the day, we dismissed everyone except the typists and then spent 45 minutes or so introducing the six data-entry individuals to the program they’ll be using. Their training will continue tomorrow (day 3 of this training phase) as we practice collecting words via group exercises and the typists enter these words into a practice database. The remainder of their training will take place on Monday, when they get words from the groups during the workshop to enter into the real database.

training the typists

Yesterday we did a couple of exercises as a single large group, but today we broke up into three smaller groups to collect words. After allowing them some time to write down the words that came to mind, I asked the scribe for each group to write the words they found on the blackboard. Tomorrow I hope to do much more of this, giving everyone the opportunity to put into practice what I’ve been teaching them. As we go, we point out what has been done correctly and what has not been done quite the way I had instructed, and through this, the various details of the process become more and more solidified in their minds.

scribes from each group writing their words on the blackboard

Tuesday, February 7 - First day of training

We Westerners realize that we are in Africa, and we know that throughout much of this continent, people view time very differently than we do. So when we say that an event is to start at a certain time, we don’t really expect everyone (or even anyone) to be there then. However, David and Ibrahima, who have worked hard for the past six months to organize this workshop, found it frustrating when only a handful of the 25 or so individuals who were expected to attend this week’s training session were present at the announced starting time of 9:00. Even more frustrating was the fact that by 10:00, only about half of them had shown up. In the end, we began the training with less than 100% attendance because David and Ibrahima felt we could wait no longer to begin.

Kevin teaching the workshop group leaders and other roles

This group is no different than the 6 or 7 others I’ve trained using the same materials. They enjoyed the presentation of my Warfel family tree but of course wondered what that had to do with collecting words. Then when I transitioned to explaining how words are related to each other in ways that are similar to the relationships between people, they were able to follow my line of reasoning and seemed quite enthusiastic to put into practice what they were hearing from me.

This first day of training is a lot of theory—what semantic domains are, how they are related to each other, how words fit into one or another domain, and so on. For people who, in some cases at least, have never attended school, it’s a lot to absorb. But most of the people attending the training sessions this week are educated, bilingual in French, and able to follow the presentation.

We got off to a good start, but there is some degree of concern about how well those assigned key roles but who were not present at all for the first day of training will be able to function in their roles during the actual workshop next week. In an effort to minimize the negative effects of their absence, I have been asked to begin the second day of training by reviewing in abbreviated form the presentation of the family-type relationships between semantic domains and the words associated with them. I’ve never done this before, and it will need to be done without the benefit of the visual presentation that I made the first day (for a couple of reasons), so it will be a bit of a challenge, but as always I will give it my best shot and trust that God will use it effectively to help this workshop succeed.Today the training for the word collection workshop was held at the Women's Center in Thionck-Essyl. This is for the essential roles of group leaders, scribes, glossers, and record-keeper.

Kevin Warfel

Note: While there are usually six groups, Kevin trained more than six people in the roles of group leader and scribe in order to have substitutes in case of absences. There are nine major categories or semantic domains, and these have several sub categories. The chart goes down several levels resulting in about 1800 total categories to consider for their cultural terms. Practice is given to find terms in their language Gusiilaay for a couple of the categories, in order to be prepared for the word collection next week where they will be joined by more speakers of the language.

Anita Warfel

Tuesday morning, February 7  Daily routine without a mirror

The most “interesting” part of preparing for my first day in front of this group was figuring out how to shave in the morning without a mirror. The bathroom is equipped with a toilet and a shower stall (complete with the fixtures), but there is no sink—though the pipes are in place to connect one. There is no running water either; the room was designed with the future in mind—a future when there will be water pumped from a well or distributed by the town—but that is not the current reality. I’m not sure why the shower has fixtures (even though they serve no useful purpose at this point in time), but there is no sink in place; nevertheless, that is the reality of my living situation.

Please understand, the house where I’m staying is a very nice house. I enjoy having a full-sized bedroom, where the bed has a full-sized mattress that is nice and firm, enabling me to sleep very well. I enjoy having a little table where I can work on my computer—to write these entries for my blog, for example. I appreciate the fact that there is a sink in the kitchen where dishes can be washed and the water just goes down the drain and is disposed of properly without any effort on my part. I am delighted to have a refrigerator, allowing me to enjoy a glass of cool water at the end of a long day of teaching. I am glad for a gas stove, on which I can heat water for tea, for sterilizing dishes after washing them, for my bucket baths, etc. However, I do miss having a sink in the bathroom. I’m still getting used to the idea that I need to brush my teeth and shave in the kitchen sink instead of in the bathroom.

What I miss more than the sink in the bathroom, though, is a mirror. I have not yet found a mirror anywhere in this house. So my challenge this morning—my first morning in Thionck-Essyl—was devising a way to shave without the benefit of a mirror. (Finding solutions to challenges of this nature is nowhere in my job description that I’ve ever noticed, yet here I am faced with a reality I need to deal with.)

So what did I do? First of all, shaving works best with warm water and some sort of soap. Since I was able to bring my can of shaving cream with me, I was set with the “soap.” Warm water was pretty easy to come by, given that there is a gas stove in the house. I use a large plastic cup, about the size of a two-cup measure, filled with warm water. I splash some of that on my stubble to soften it up a bit, then begin to apply the shaving cream. This is a bit challenging without the aid of a mirror, but I found that I could see a bit of a reflection of my face in the kitchen window as the sun was beginning to come up and the overhead bulb in the kitchen was lit. So with the hint of a reflection and a bit of guesswork, aided by the communications sent to my brain, I was able to do it, with more careful strokes so as not to cut myself.

The task was a challenge, but in the end I was clean-shaven once again and ready for the day. I did add “mirror” to my shopping list, though. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in my search for one in the shops and at the little market at the end of the day. Tomorrow I’ll try to go to the market area a bit earlier; most of their wares had already been packed away by the time I got there today.

Kevin Warfel

Monday, February 6 - Taxi ride to workshop location

We made the long-awaited trip from Ziguinchor to Thionck-Essyl today. Because David’s car was not yet fixed, he rented a Peugeot station wagon and a driver, asking him to come by at 8:15. The car and driver showed up at 8:30, and we loaded our personal belongings and all of the stuff for the workshop in the back or on top of the vehicle. Then we drive a short distance (1 mile?) to pick up Ibrahima and his luggage. From there we went by the apartment where Tim was staying and collected him and his things. And finally, we picked up Clare and Rebecca at the designated meeting place. So there were six of us plus the driver plus quite an assortment of suitcases, boxes, and so on, all ready to travel to Thionck-Essyl.

 our taxi

Maybe you’re wondering how to pronounce the name of this town. “Chunk o’ seal” is pretty close, so I guess that’ll do well enough for you to be able to read my posts.

We left Ziguinchor around 9:00, and I was expecting a 4- or 5-hour ride to Thionck-Essyl, but when I asked about the travel time, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it would take only a bit more than an hour and a half. The distance between the two towns is not great, but then neither are some parts of the road we took, so there were some parts of the trip that were a bit bumpy. However, they were not much different than some of my experiences in other parts of this continent, so I didn’t find them bothersome.

We arrived in “Thionck” almost exactly two hours after we left “Zig”. There our rented ride first stopped by where the ladies would be staying, so they could put their luggage there before continuing on with us. Next stop was the house where David and Ibrahima will be staying. (Everything was new to me as we arrived, so I’m not sure, but I think that may be Ibrahima’s house, actually, since he is from this village.) We unloaded their things, then continued on to the Women’s Center, where David and Ibrahima have arranged for the workshop to be held. Once there, we unloaded the rest of our luggage and said farewell to the driver who had brought us. We were quite grateful that David’s Plan B for getting us and our stuff to Thionck (after his personal vehicle was not yet ready) had worked out so well.

Women's Center

Tim and I are staying in a house across the street from the Women’s Center. It’s equipped with an electric fridge, a gas stove, a toilet and shower (but no running water). Eating and cooking utensils are pretty minimal, but the two bedrooms each have a double bed with a mosquito net, along with a cupboard for clothing, a small table, and night stands. It’s all very adequate for my needs.

An modern African home we are renting

A very adequate kitchen

We did hit a little snag when we realized that there were no hooks in the ceiling to tie the mosquito net to, so someone had to get a few nails. Then there was no hammer, so we had to improvise with a piece of a brick. It worked, and we got our nets hung just fine.

Pounding in nails with a rock

Lunch was a bit after 2:00 and consisted of rice, vegetables, and fish. It was very good, and I ate my fill. After the meal, we were served a fruit drink that I’d never had before but which I quite enjoyed. One did kind of have to get past the color, as it was a greenish-brown, so didn’t look very appetizing. I drained two glasses of the concoction and left there with a very full stomach after having eaten a large helping of the rice.

Lunch of fish and rice was served in two pans and shared by the group

In the evening, I called a meeting of all those who’ve been working at organizing the workshop. I took some time to give them an overview of what the training phase would consist of. I wanted to help them understand what I’d be doing and in what order, so they’d have some idea what to expect. It also gave them an opportunity to ask questions, and it gave me a chance to meet all of the organizers.

Our first crisis for this workshop came to light as David and I talked after lunch. He mentioned that two of the group leaders would not be able to attend the first day of training because they needed to make a trip to Zig that day and wouldn’t be back until the evening. After processing this piece of news for a bit, I told David that he’d need to begin thinking about who could replace those group leaders in that role, because I’ve led workshops before where a group leader missed the first day and then tried to lead a group, but it didn’t work well. The only other option I could imagine was to postpone the start of the training phase and reduce it from three days to two.

David thought about this for a bit, then brought Ibrahima into the conversation, relaying to him what I had just said. They began discussing several different individuals whom they had planned to have serve in one of the other roles, wondering who would have the skills necessary to lead a group instead. As I listened in on their discussion, another idea came to me—train pools of people for each role, eight group leaders, eight glossers, eight scribes, instead of just the six that were needed. A number of participants would then go through the training for multiple roles, so that when the time came to decide who would do what, we’d have more trained candidates than we needed for each position. That solution seemed good to both David and Ibrahima, so it was adopted. Thus, we found a way to work around the first problem that threatened to sabotage this workshop.

There are still many details to take care of before 9:00 tomorrow morning, but I did learn from David that his Pajero is now running again. The engine problem has been fixed, and all that needs to be done yet is an oil change, then the mechanic will return the vehicle to their family. Thank you to all who prayed for their car to be fixed. David plans to return to Zig on Thursday to spend the weekend with Janet and the boys, then bring them all along back with him to Thionck for the following week.

Tomorrow we begin the training phase of the workshop. Pray that those who need to be there will be!