Mesisoo ilool ig yogendegee

“Stomach pain hit us” is the translation of the title. You don’t catch a stomach bug, it hits you; and if you think about it that makes more sense. When you want to catch something you have to try, but sickness usually finds you on its own 🙂

Central area conference 2024

Once a year the missionaries of our central area meet for conference consisting of tribal reports, fun and Bible teaching. The central area consists of the highlands of PNG and the Madang area where Kovol is, so that’s the one we attend. PNG is a large country and so we also have Western and Eastern areas, and they have their own conferences.

Illustrating short stories

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 🙂

September video update

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 🙂

Implicit and explicit information in translation

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?

Visitors

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.

Getting ready for Bible translation

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.

Language study is finished for Steve

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?

Stitching up a wound

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.