Monday, July 25 Return to Waxhaw

Chad in the rainy season - hills with bushes and trees

My trip home suddenly became a bit less routine about noon today.

Everything was sailing along smoothly, as we arrived on schedule at the Dulles airport in Washington, DC, around 8:30am. I breezed through immigration and customs, then made my way to the United Club lounge, where I made use of a one-time pass I had been given. Since my flight to Charlotte was not scheduled to leave until 5:10pm, I thought this would be a good time to make use of the pass.

It was about 9:30 when I got to the lounge and was granted access for the day. Once inside, I learned that I had complimentary internet access, so I could use the time profitably by sending a few emails, and I was even able to contact Anita via Skype to let her know that I had arrived on American soil. (Oh, did I mention that my cell phone had begun acting weirdly about the time we left North Carolina the beginning of the month to go to the wedding, after which I traveled directly to Africa? Using my cell phone to communicate proved to be a major factor in the "less routine" I mentioned in the opening line of this blog entry.) There was also free food in the lounge, so I didn't have to choose between fasting or buying exorbitantly priced airport food.

Around noon, I received an email notifying me of a change in my flight plans. The flight to Charlotte was being pushed back to 5:47pm. I immediately attempted to communicate this change of plans to Anita via Skype. Passing this info on to the driver of the van from JAARS who was scheduled to pick me up was important because I was one of three people he would be looking for, and I was scheduled to arrive later than either of the other two even before my flight time was delayed. The delay meant that they would all have to wait even longer for me to get there, and I wanted to know if they would actually wait or if they would elect to make a separate trip just to get me or if one of my family members would come and get me instead or ...

An inquiry at an information desk led to the discovery that the reason for the flight delay was that the plane we were scheduled to take to Charlotte would be arriving late at the Dulles airport. And it turned out that, as time went on, that plane's departure (from Dayton, OH) kept getting delayed (for reasons still unknown to me, as those details were not shared), so our departure time got pushed back another 10 minutes after I arrived at the gate where we were scheduled to board our flight.

By that time, being no longer in the lounge, I had no more access to the internet, so could no longer communicate via email or Skype. I was dependent on my crippled cell phone, which unfortunately could not make calls, received incoming calls only sporadically, and sent text messages only after rebooting before each message sent. Incoming messages were received, but often with a 15-minute delay. Add to that the fact that Anita's cell phone, to which I was sending text messages, has limited reception where we live, and you sense the beginnings of the "less routine" I mentioned.

The plane did finally arrive from Dayton, and by that time our departure time had been pushed back to 6:16. However, just as it was landing at the Dulles airport, a thunderstorm began its passage through the area, causing the part of the airport where I was to shut down. By "shut down" I mean that the ground crews were not out doing their thing due to the danger of a lightning strike. So the plane sat near the gate, waiting for a safe time to get people and luggage off the plane. Since the passengers from Dayton couldn't deplane, we naturally were not allowed to board. We were in a "rain delay." Our departure time was revised yet again, this time to 6:34. By this time, the first of the three passengers scheduled for pickup by the JAARS driver at the Charlotte airport had already arrived there, and I was still sitting in Washington, DC!

Long story (somewhat) short, the storm eventually moved on and we did get onto the plane, leaving around 6:45. I attempted, with my crippled phone, to communicate this fact to Anita as I settled into my seat in the plane, but received no confirmation that the message had gotten through. I still didn't know if the JAARS driver was planning to wait for me or if some other plan was in the works.

I turned my phone off while we were in the air--because whatever is wrong with it causes the battery to drain very quickly--and turned it back on once we were on the ground in Charlotte. As we were making our way to the terminal, I got a call from the JAARS driver, wondering what my status was. (At that point, I knew that he had elected to wait for me, so at least I knew whom I was to contact.) At the moment when he called, our plane was stopped somewhere between the runway and the terminal, the pilot having informed us that a number of other planes had been diverted to the Charlotte airport because of bad weather somewhere else, and that our path to the terminal was blocked by some of these planes which had no assigned parking spot. I told my driver that I was unable to make calls with my phone, and he informed me that he did not have texting capability on his phone. So we agreed that I would text Anita, who would then call him, when I was on the curb ready for pickup. That was a great plan, which might have worked well if my phone would have been able to send and receive text messages reliably. But alas, such was apparently not the case.

In the end, however, we got to our gate after a short delay, and I was able to retrieve my bags at baggage claim shortly thereafter. Once I was at the curb, I sent a text message to Anita, letting her know I was ready to be picked up. In the spirit of these multiple delays, however, that message apparently did not make it through, so she never made the call to my driver, who continued to wait with the other two passengers in the cell phone lot, not knowing if our plane had gotten to the gate yet or not. About 20 minutes later, I received a call from Angela, saying that the driver was wondering where I was. (Apparently he had been trying to call me again, but was unable to get through, so he had gotten in touch with Evan, having been unable to reach Anita.)

Angela didn't have the driver's number, but she had Evan call him back. Meanwhile, I received a text message from one of the passengers in the van, so I rebooted my phone and sent him a reply, telling him that I was at the curb, ready for pickup. As if to validate the reality of my cell phone's handicap to the driver and passengers in the van, I received a text message alert as we were exiting the airport. When I looked at it, it was a message sent some 10 minutes earlier from the passenger's phone, saying they were on their way to pick me up. As you might well imagine, there were multiple times during this day where it took a lot of self-control to keep from just crushing my cell phone out of frustration!

On the positive side, I made it safely home, as did all of my luggage. Now my body is adjusting to this new time zone. That will probably take about a week.

Sunday, July 24 Departure

Farewell gift received during my last day at the RWC workshop

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting at the airport in Washington, DC, on Monday morning, waiting for my third and final flight to rejoin Anita, Evan, and Angela in North Carolina. My first two flights have been quite routine, which is just the way I like them. But the lead-in to the first flight, the one out of Chad, was rather un-routine, so that’s what I’ll write about.

Sunday morning started off with my regular morning routine, then putting my stuff into my suitcases and backpack, saying a few good-byes to SIL colleagues, and attending the first part of an English church service. I couldn’t stay until the end of the service because the person taking me to the airport was told to pick me up at 11:00, and that was in the middle of the sermon.

We got to the entrance of the airport in plenty of time for me to check in for my flight, but there were policemen stationed at the entrance to the road leading into the airport and were not allowing anyone to go into the airport property. The taxi man who took me there had another prearranged fare, so he was unable to stay there with me. I just got out of the car and, with my baggage, joined the others who were standing out in the sun at the entrance, all of us waiting for the signal that we would be able to go on in. As I suspected was the case, there was some important political figure due to fly in, so other traffic was blocked until after that person was off airport property. I’ve not lived in our nation’s capital to know if that sort of thing happens here or not, but I’ve seen it happen on numerous occasions in Burkina Faso.

I didn’t keep track of the time, so I don’t know how long I waited under the Chadian sun before we were given permission to enter the airport property, but it was a while. I’m guessing it was about 45 minutes. Fortunately, this time of year the sun is not as overbearing as in the peak of the hot season. It was probably about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, so I survived okay.

When we were finally allowed to make our way toward the airport, I had to take all of my bags about half a mile—and I’m trying hard not to exaggerate here; I think it was pretty close to that far. However, it was a paved road with no potholes, and my checked bags both have wheels, so I put my backpack on my back, slung my computer bag over my shoulder, and pulled the two checked bags.

As I got about 100 yards from the entrance to the building, there were two officers who were checking to make sure everyone going in had a good reason for being there. That means they were checking tickets and passports. That didn't take long, but it did mean that I had to stop and take my two bags off so I could retrieve my documents from the backpack. (I hadn't been expecting a checkpoint prior to reaching the entrance to the building.) 

The next stop was just outside the building entrance, where everyone's bags were searched. Then, at the door itself, there were another two officers who were only allowing ticketed passengers to enter the building, so they were looking at people's papers.

Once inside the building, I had to show my passport once again in order for it to be officially stamped to show that I had left the country. Then I was able to check in at the ticket counter and have my two bags checked all the way through to Charlotte. I also obtained boarding passes for my first two flights (to Addis Ababa and then to Washington, DC). Next stop was an immigration checkpoint, where they made sure that my passport had indeed been stamped with my date of departure and that I hadn’t somehow skipped that step in the process. Oh, and on the way to that checkpoint, a woman made sure I actually had a boarding pass for a flight that was leaving that day.

Next up was the security check, where computer, shoes, liquids and gels, and belt all needed to be put into bins to go through the x-ray machine, along with my backpack and computer bag. Then in stockinged feet and with pockets emptied of all their contents, I walked through the metal detector and was quickly given permission to reclaim all of my possessions at the far end of the conveyor belt that had taken them through the x-ray scanner. From there I was able to proceed to my gate. There my passport and boarding pass were checked one last time before I was able to find a seat and await the boarding call.

I didn’t get much sleep on the planes and none at all in between my flights, so I’ll be arriving home quite sleep-deprived. It’ll probably take me most of a week to adjust to this time zone again, but I’ll get there eventually. I always have.

Saturday, July 23, 2016  Workshop total was 13,086, my last full day in the capital city

Today I went out for breakfast with some SIL colleagues to a pastry shop. I was expecting to eat only a pastry, but discovered that they had a breakfast menu that included omelets. That just happens to be my favorite breakfast menu item, so I had one with ham, mushrooms, and cheese. Then I tagged along with the others as they did their grocery shopping before we returned to the SIL center.

Shortly before noon, I left for lunch and a long visit with one of my former roommates from the 1980’s, when I was learning about linguistics, literacy, and Bible translation. I had not seen Mark for more than 20 years, and he had married in the meantime. We’ve kept in touch via newsletters, but today was my first opportunity to meet Diane in person. Mark and Diane are working in a Bible translation project under the leadership of a different organization, and they arranged their schedule so that they’d be here in the capital city at the same time I was scheduled to be here. We spent about three hours together, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Sometime this afternoon, I received a text message from the workshop coordinator. The message went something like “We finished well. Final total was 13,086 words and all the semantic domains were treated. Big closing ceremony. I showed screen shots of the words that have been uploaded to the internet.”

What a blessing and privilege for me to receive a divine assignment to be involved in something like this! It’s not an easy assignment--definitely not a lark—but oh, so satisfying to know that I’m doing what I was created to do!

Tonight I’m packing my bags. A taxi is scheduled to come and pick me up at 11am tomorrow and take me to the airport. My journey home (from SIL center here to our house in NC) will take about 36 hours, so I’ll see Anita, Evan, and Angela again Monday evening. I’m looking forward to that! It was good to come here and be part of this great beginning here, but it will be good to be back home again.

Thanks for praying me through this trip.

Kevin Warfel

Friday, July 22, 2016

My guide took me first to see one of the new government buildings in town. It was near the river, so we got off the minibus we had taken from the SIL center and walked across the river on the bridge. From there, we could see all of the gardening that was being done on the low-lying areas that the river will flood in another month or two—lots of manioc and some plants whose leaves are used in the sauces that are served with the staple food, called “boule” (pronounced pretty much like the English word “bull”).

From there we traveled to the university where my guide is a student studying linguistics, except that the faculty has been on strike since January, so he’s kind of stuck in his efforts to get his degree. The university is in the process of combining its schools, currently located on several small campuses, onto one large campus. Funding for the construction has apparently run out for the time being because there is a lot of planned construction that is not happening. That fact may be related to the strike or it may not; I don’t know.

The university is way out of town, so it was late morning by the time we got back into the heart of downtown. At that point, we continued on to the main downtown market for one last visit. While there, it began to rain, so we took shelter under the awning of one of the booths. Unfortunately, we discovered that the rainwater ran downhill toward our chosen shelter location, pooling to a depth of an inch or two. The rain lasted the better part of an hour, but we ventured out again before it was quite finished. While en route to our next destination, the rain became heavier again, so we ended up returning home quite wet.

With all of the places we visited and especially because of the large open spaces between existing buildings at the university,  I walked several more miles today, adding to the exercise I got in yesterday’s outing.

There are three forms of public transportation that I’ve seen here, and I’ve personally experienced two of them, having been warned not to avail myself of the other one. There are taxis (painted yellow) that you can pay 20 cents to get picked up and dropped off anywhere along their assigned route or that you can hire to take you some specific place you want to go to, in which case the amount you’ll pay is to be negotiated. There are motorcycles that serve as taxis for an individual at a reduced fare; I’ve been told not to take those, since there are apparently many accidents where they are involved. And there are minivans, which my guide and I traveled in many times yesterday and today. It is quite an interesting experience to travel in one of these, so I’d like to tell you about it.

First of all, these “minivans” aren’t necessarily like what you might be imagining when you read that name. These are Toyota minivans from the 1990’s (I’m guessing), so they are smaller than what I at least picture when I think of a “minivan”. Furthermore, all of the seats except the front two have been removed and the resulting space filled with four padded “bench seats.” (These are literally *bench* seats, though they do have a back to them, like what we think of as “bench seats.”) Each of these benches is used to seat four people, even though the space is only adequate for three people from a Western perspective. In addition, there is another set of four seats immediately behind the driver and the front passenger seat; these seats face toward the rear of the vehicle. Now if you do the math and take into account the fact that a third person is squeezed in between the gearshift and the front passenger seat, you realize that the operational capacity of this type of vehicle is 23!! And there were multiple times when I did indeed count that many adults inside one of the vehicles I was riding in. However, considering that each of us was paying only 20 cents for the ride of several miles, I guess it is only fair that they try to pack in as many people as they possibly can.

Thursday, July 21, 2016 Tour downtown - by foot and by taxi

Today a friend (originally a friend of a friend) took me to see some of the sights in the capital city. We visited the national museum and the main (very big) market downtown. Neither of us has any "wheels” so we relied on our legs and public transportation. I expected more of the latter and less of the former, but as it turned out, we walked several miles altogether. Considering that it was a sunny day in the heart of Africa and that I have neither hat nor sunscreen with me, my face and bald spot are both red and a bit tender tonight. The pain is not too bad yet, but we’ll see what it’s like in the morning. An SIL colleague recommended that I treat the sunburnt areas with vinegar, so I’m giving that a try.

I received word in the early going this morning that the word-collection teams have surpassed their goal of 10,000 words. They will continue collecting from the remaining domains for two more days yet, wrapping things up with a closing ceremony on Saturday afternoon. I’m still expecting that they will end up with around 13,000 words in all.

SIL colleagues here in the capital city are seeing that I’m well fed. I did get out and verify the route to the local grocery store and nearby restaurant for when (or if) I need them. I found some bread, which I bought for my breakfast. That foray was in the late afternoon when the sun was less direct. Plus, since those places are nearby, I wasn’t exposed for such a long time like I had been earlier in the day.

Kevin Warfel

Wednesday, July 20  Return to the capital city; Day 6 of word collection

Word collection continued in my absence, as I left the remainder of the workshop in the capable hands of those I had come to train. A text message at the end of the day informed me that the total count is now up to 9688 after 6 days.

While 40-some of my new coworkers were having fun collecting words back in the village, I was condemned to the confines of a bus which left at 6:00am, with the capital city as its destination. The bus was not full, so there were many stops along the way to pick up other passengers. There also seemed to be more places where we were required to stop by officials of one sort or another than there had been on the way out, but that was probably just my perception and not reality. At two of those checkpoints, all of us men had to get out of the bus, where we were patted down. Then when we boarded the bus again, we had to show our ID (e.g., passport), which was inspected before we were allowed to get back on. That was a new experience for me; I don’t ever remember that happening where we served in Africa.

The trip took nearly 8 hours, but we arrived safely, and the bus was air-conditioned, so we were not uncomfortable during the ride. At the bus station, I found a taxi to take me to the SIL center, where a room was ready and waiting for me. I took care of a few administrative tasks, unpacked my bags, caught up on email, and had a little nap before meeting with the young man who has agreed to be my indigenous tour guide for the next couple of days here in the capital city.

I am thankful for good health, a safe trip, and a nice place to stay until I am scheduled to leave on Sunday.

Report of Tuesday, July 19, 2016  Day 5 of  Rapid Word Collection and Catastrophic Flooding

Attendance was down today, as was production. The excitement of the previous afternoon from having reached a total of 7000 words was greatly dampened by the news of what happened overnight in the village where our workshop was taking place. The rain that began Monday afternoon intensified during the evening hours. There must have been heavy rain upstream as well, as the small river that flows by the village overflowed its banks in a big way during the night. A significant portion of the village was flooded—by some reports as much as 4 feet deep in houses where people would normally sleep. Not only could they not sleep, but the swirling flood waters eroded the mud that held the baked bricks together, and about 100 houses collapsed as a result. People lost homes, granaries full of food, animals, and possessions. It was a catastrophic night for many in that village, and since many of our workshop participants have relatives who live there, they were directly or indirectly impacted.

Those who were able to take part in this, the fifth day of word collection, worked valiantly, but their enthusiasm was not quite what it would have been without the tragic events overnight. Still, they collected another 1500 words, bringing the 5-day total to 8500 and giving us ideas about possibly getting close to 15,000 altogether in the nine days of word collection that are scheduled.

Since Wednesday is the day I am scheduled to return to the capital city, there was a farewell ceremony of sorts at the start of the afternoon session. The regional coordinator for SIL, the director of the organization that coordinates language work in this region, and the director of the local language association all gave short speeches. I received two cards—one in French and one in the local language—signed by everyone involved in the workshop, as well as some cultural gifts from the local language association. It was a very meaningful close to my very positive experience here with this language community.

During the course of the morning, we also had a visit from the Director of the government branch that is responsible for non-formal education and development of national languages, along with his Assistant. They had been on a trip to one of the other regional capitals, and their return path brought them right through the village where we were collecting words. Since the SIL Director had taken me and a couple of others to see this particular government official during the few days that I had in the capital city right after I arrived in-country, this government official was aware of what we were doing and where, so he decided to take time to visit and see how it was going. He and his Assistant are very interested in seeing this type of workshop replicated in other languages in the future.

I am very glad I was able to come and help these dedicated people to get off on the right foot when it comes to word collection. There are about 25 languages spoken in this Region, and there is a great deal of interest in making a dictionary for most if not all of them.

Kevin Warfel

Monday, July 18, 2016  Rapid Word Collection workshop - Africa

Today was sunny in the morning, then it poured rain in the village where we were working. We packed up and drove home in the rain. When we arrived at the regional capital, however, we saw that it had not rained at all there (30 miles from the village). That was nice from my point of view because I had had my wash done and it wasn’t soaked as I had expected it to be. Since I’m traveling to the capital city on Wednesday, I won’t have to pack a suitcase of damp clothes after all.

After four days, the group has collected 7000 words, so they are very excited to see the progress they’re making..

Kevin Warfel