For one of our post-literacy readers, I thought it would be fun to write a short story about a time Gerdine and I went to a Kovol garden with our friend. Readers need illustrations to go with them, so I’ve been working on illustrating my own story 🙂
Just before we head out of Kovol for our annual conference we took the time to shoot a quick update video. If you’ve been reading the blog it’s nothing new, but it’s always nice to see our faces right? We also don’t assume and expect that everyone keeps up 🙂
As I step into translating into the Kovol language I certainly feel overwhelmed! Translation isn’t a task where there is a simple right answer and wrong answer, it’s a complex spectrum of choices. It’s possible to be too free and end up paraphrasing on the one hand and being too wooden on the other. It’s possible to have correct sentences that all work, but don’t fit together as a paragraph. There are choices to be made on how much “glue” to add to help the sentences hang together. There are choices to be made in how to translate new vocabulary and concepts. There’s the fact that one helper prefers to use this word and say it this way, and another prefers to say it that way. Are the different opinions simple stylistic variations? Does one flow better? Which term really fits the original meaning best?
After being on our own for 6 weeks or so it’s been a busy time of comings and goings. Two weeks ago we had language learning consultants visit us for 2 days and now this week we have a double whammy of visitors.
I started the week with a translation kick-off. I had a phone call with a translation consultant here in PNG who talked me through the procedure, the available tools and a suggested order to translate. With the kick-off done, I’m ready to start translation.
At some point, I’ll get to attend a team translation workshop where my teammates and I along with some Kovol helpers are led through the process and use the workshop to draft a chunk of scripture under supervision. One of these isn’t scheduled just yet, so after my kick-off, I’m ready to have a go.
What a nerve-wracking few days! 8 months ago we had a language speaking test where I scored level 8/9 leaving only a single level to go. Would 8 months of work be enough to get over the final hurdle? I had finished all of the paperwork required, but had my speaking level also improved?
Just as we finished Sunday lunch we got a knock at the door. On Sundays, we get together for a little church service as a family, we go down to the stream and have a paddle and we come back for a sit-on-the-floor finger food lunch. That’s a settled routine for us, and just as it finished there was a knock at the door. Our friend informed us that someone had been cut and we needed to come and see it.
Having just finished our team’s cultural themes paper, where I pulled all the cultural knowledge I’ve discovered over the last three years. I identified some core themes of the Kovol culture. I have been encouraged to start our scope and sequence plan for evangelistic teaching. While my cultural observations are fresh, the consultants said it would be a good time to start thinking about how specifically it will apply to the Kovol evangelistic Bible teaching.
One of the recommendations I received for the last few weeks before my speaking test is to work on a Bible knowledge quiz. The Wantakia team, a team elsewhere in Papua New Guinea provided me with a list of around 60 questions that they asked their people as they studied their culture and began thinking about how to teach evangelistic Bible lessons.
With me pulling so near to the end of my language study time I was told by my CLA consultants that I could have a go at translating some literacy books to start to familiarise myself with the translation process.
I’ve now finished all the paperwork I need to do to complete my language study time and I’m just waiting on a speaking test. The test is scheduled for August 27, which is further away than I hoped for. I asked what to be doing in the meantime so I don’t drive myself and my language helpers crazy just doing practice speaking sessions with them!