Tensions in Kovol
Currently there is tension between Kokoma and Eririm. Kokoma is the village we live in and Eririm is a village that is a 3-hour hike away. They are both Kovol villages and people from Eririm come over from time to time to see us and play soccer.
Wrong advice?
Some young men in Kovol like to get their wife from town or other bush locations. One such guy came to us with his wife and his mother a few days ago. They came to us for advice because the wife was sick. She has had pain all over her body since she arrived in Kovol, so they said. Because of that, she can´t work. There is no fever, no sores, no other physical signs that could give us a clue about a sickness she might have. I was silently praying for wisdom. She didn’t say much, so I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to talk to her alone and took her aside. After I asked more questions, it appeared that she was homesick. Like many other young couples, they had run off together, not telling her parents who live far away in another remote place. Now, six weeks later, she is worried about her parents as they are still looking for her. There is no way to contact them from here.
Roof-leaves and a cut
We live on a mountain ridge. If we want to go out, our options are visiting people in their houses or going to their gardens. Most of the time the people are in their gardens. The way to their gardens is going downhill on steep trails, which are worse in Read more
Speaking stories
I’ve been spending my language time recently transcribing audio recordings of Kovol stories that are about 100-200 words long. I started to feel like I was spinning my wheels a bit. I’d take a fresh story, work on it for 1-3 days and then I’d be done and would move on. It felt a bit like I was putting lots of time into writing these stories down, only to nibble on them just a tiny bit before moving on. It’s also a pure comprehension exercise because there’s no way I can speak anything like the fluent Kovol I see in stories.
Different?
As we transition from Kovol to Germany, here is a list of things that are ‘different’ during daily life and we have to get used to
Giving Birth
Today I went to see a mum that just gave birth this morning. I went there with Gerdine and our kids. I was so happy to have gotten the news so quickly about a newborn baby. Turns out, she was even just finishing her hole birthing process. The mother was still sitting on the leaves where she has given birth to her baby.
Where is home
We are going for a home assignment to our home countries in a few days. And my emotions are a roller coaster. I am even struggeling how to title this blog post. ‘how I feeling about going home’? or how I feel about leaving home’?. Don’t get me wrong. Germany is in a way a home, there are people I love, family friends… but Kovol has become also our home.
Funeral of a Kovol ‘dad’
He died two days ago. We heard the wailing starting in the night and we knew it was him. Yesterday was a day of mourning and sitting with the family. They dressed him in a nice white shirt and black long pants. Today was the burial. Nothing fancy. Very simple. They built the coffin, dug the hole, put him in there and filled the hole. No ‘last will’ to take care off as far as we know, no fancy meal or decoration, no program, today there was not even much crying from what we saw. Just sad blank looks. But it took all day from morning until almost 6pm to burry him.
Discourse Analysis
Proverbs 26:11; As a dog returneth to his vomit,
To translate this passage was one of my tasks at our last Culture and Language Evaluation. Did I nailed it? No. What came back from the Kovol people was, that a foul goes to the vomit like the dog does. Oh dear. On my second try (with a hint from the consultant) I did get the message across. But this is not the only task that I had, that showed that my Language hasn’t progressed at all. This was something I expected but it was still disappointing. I know vocabulary isn’t necessarily my weakness, but it is about how I communicate..