Rememberances

Recently I have been meeting with friends we made through our weekly Health Clinic.  Manong (big brother) Dunstan and Manang (big sister) Esther have been regular patients for about 3 years now. They have been helping me understand the language and culture here. Esther is a patient teacher and Dunstan has a lifetime of stories to share. We have a lot of fun together. When I record Esther's pronunciation of an Ilocano word or phrase, the recording usually ends with her giggling.

This week, I was surprised by gifts of Dunstan's handiwork. He does rattan weaving on bottles, knives, machetes, canes, and whatever else he can get his hands on. It is very interesting to watch him as we share stories and I learn Ilocano. As I was talking with Esther, he started bringing out bottles covered with his work. A couple of them even have woven geckos forming a handle.  On top of all of that, he presented me with a handmade knife and sheath. I was torn between encouraging him to sell his work at a local souvenir shop and being overwhelmed at his gifts. They would have nothing to do with any option but my taking them as "rememberances".

Manong Dunstan and Manang Esther, I would never forget you, gifts or no gifts!

Grace,

Thomas

Answered Prayer

Our desire is to share the truth
of the Gospel with people of all ages.  One challenge is that many children do not learn English until they attend school and their English skills are not strong until they are in their upper grades.  One project we have undertaken to resolve this is working with high school and college students to translate the Read Aloud Bible Stories by Ella Lindvall into Ilocano.

As a family we have enjoyed the Read Aloud Bible Stories series since our girls were very young.  The rhythm of the text and the simplicity of the illustrations make an inviting combination.  We brought two copies of the entire set of four volumes so that we could use them in our work here.  Good books are not readily available and quality children's books are even more difficult to obtain.


So far, we have three of the twenty stories completed.  The students, including Adriana and Alexie, have worked hard to translate the meaning and maintain the essence and rhythm of the stories.

As we have completed the stories, we have recorded a native speaker reading the stories.  Now we have the means to read the stories personally or play a recording - complete with chimes to signal
when to turn the page.

The final step in the process is to combine the illustrations with the audio to make a video that can be presented to larger groups than holding up the book would allow.  I am no expert, but this seems to fall into copyright territory.  So yesterday I emailed Moody Publishing asking for permission to use the images.

As I was journaling my prayer this morning, I had just finished asking God to grant me favor with Moody Press.  Without exaggeration - I was writing the first word of the next sentence when Lisa said there was an email from Moody.  They granted copyright permission.  God is so good!

Now we just need to complete the project.  Please pray with us that we can get these stories translated and that they will help people to better know the truths of God's Word and His love for us.

Grace,
Tom

The Easter Who?

We have already talked a little about the struggle to learn another langauge. But we have been looking at it from only one side. Tonight at Fun Night with the SSM, we had an insight into the language and cultural gap from the Filipino side. We played Picture This as a group. Each team took turns trying to guess what their representative was drawing. The artist had a card with 5 terms or items on it. Within the allotted time, they were to try to get their team to say as many of the items as they could. But we found that the students were not familiar with a number of the terms they were asked to illustrate.

They had no idea who the Easter Bunny was. (Imagine growing up thinking that Jesus was the purpose of the holiday?) I grew up with the Easter Bunny and have colored my share of eggs. But it was clear that they did not get it as I tried to describe that cultural tradition.

I had not thought of it until tonight, but I can't recall seeing a Frisbee since we have been here. When I described what it was, they did recognize it by description. But it is obviously not a popular toy here.

There are parking meters in Manila and someone said they have seen them in Baguio, but most of the students here have not traveled much out of Mountain Province. They certainly have never had their own car to park. So it took a little describing with some of them about the purpose of such a thing.

Since there are no Chinese take-out restaurants in the region, it only makes sense that they would have no idea what a fortune cookie is. (I have been told before that fortune cookies are an American invention anyway.)

When I saw the word teepee on the list, I knew I would have a little explaining to do. This one I am not sure if the Australian staff were even familiar with.

We have discovered that some Ilocano words will be a little easier to learn than we thought...kind of. You see, there are some things for which there is no Ilocano word. In our language lessons this week, we discovered that there is no Ilocano word for ballpoint pen, stapler, marker, paint, or eraser. They just use the English words you just read. The same word is used to describe tape, glue, and glue sticks. (Can you tell we studied school/office supplies?) In line with our experience, we also found that they have no word for butter knife. (We also studied kitchen/dining utensils.) I mention this because when we were getting things when we first moved here, we could only find sharp knives. We now treasure the 6 butter knives we found at the bottom of a bin at some store. Since they don't have them, there is no need for a word for them.

So until next time, See ya later alligator! (I guess that might need some explaining, too.)

Tom

12/16 – 12/18 Watch Your Language!

It was amazing how much quieter the night was at the Hagen’s home. We did not hear roosters crowing. (They don’t just crow at daybreak.) Their two dogs did not bark through the night like the countless strays that wander Bontoc. And best of all, we did not get treated to the ballads and shouts of drunks out on the street. I thought I was used to it, but in its absence I really enjoyed the quiet.

On Tuesday and Thursday Jen took us through a crash course on linguistics and language learning techniques. They do not know Ilocano but are fluent in Tagalog. Apparently, the structure and grammar of most of the Filipino languages is very similar. Regardless of that, their intent was not to teach us language, but techniques for learning language.

As part of the training we received, Jen gave a 15 minute demonstration of how a language lesson should look. On Wednesday we went to several villages with them where they are establishing churches (more on that later). While there, Lisa was listening as Steve asked one of the villagers a question for her. She was excited to see how she was able to pick out a couple words and have an idea of what the response was even before Steve told her.

Alexie and Adriana joined us for the first day of language learning. It was the part of the training that was most applicable to where they are at. Alexie was a little frustrated about some of the mechanics. She is probably most advanced of our family in learning Ilocano. In fact, our first night there, co-workers of Steve and Jen came over to meet us. They had worked for years in an Ilocano speaking area. When he asked Alexie to demonstrate some of her Ilocano, he was impressed by how well she had the pronunciation. She enjoys learning from her friends, but was not interested in learning about the linguistics associated with the language.

Another language related thing about our time with them in the village was that we had the opportunity to practice the techniques they taught us. There was a man there who knows Ilocano. With Jen there to help guide us, we were able to try the things she was teaching us. It was good practice. In my former career, we would have called it a training performance evaluation. We passed and are now qualified to try to learn Ilocano using the Hagen language learning method. Now we just need to do it.

Tom

Ilocano lesson in Centro, Bicol, Philippines

Language and Culture

Culture
Today after watching street dancing, we learned more about the rituals and traditions through the many cultural presentations. (We did not get to see all of them however as Alexie once again suddenly became ill and I needed to quickly get a trike and get her home. I am not a doctor but my guess is the heat and long periods of time without food caused her to suddenly get pale and sink to the ground. But she is fine now.) In the many presentations we did see, we witnessed the offering of many sacrificial chickens. The people here have rituals surrounding the rice planting and harvest, a new home, matrimony, and sickness. During the one demonstration regarding sickness, they called out to the spirits and the spirits of dead ancestors to release the spirit of the sick person.

Although we were not standing near each other, as we talked later, we found that Thomas and I spent this time praying for the people to come to know God. He is the one who brings true blessing, hope, and healing.

While the dancing and presentations were going on, we distributed the water bottles we had prepared. God's love and salvation is free and does not require the sacrifice of chickens, goats, pigs, or water buffalo. Yet as we tried to give out the water bottles, many were hesitant to accept them. A few even refused. The idea of a free gift is new to them.

Language
This afternoon we were so blessed to spend a few hours with Dr. Lawrence Reid (Laurie from yesterday). This was definitely an appointment from God. He has lived in the Philippines for many years studying the languages, although he does not currently live here. He lectures all over the world on Philippine languages and was only here for a few days. Yet he offered to spend his time teaching us. The few hours spent with this author of a dictionary of the Bontoc language were so helpful. We still have much studying to do but now we have a basic understanding of some of the grammar and syntax of the language which gives us encouragement in our quest to learn to communicate in the heart language of the people we now live among. God added an extra bonus. We read a story of a missionary, Joanne Shetler, The Word Came With Power, years ago in our homeschooling. She lived in a village near here in the 60's, learning their language and translating the Bible. Many of us have reread the story since having some time in the Philippines. Today we were all surprised that the man in our living room was who took this woman to the village and introduced her to the people, assisting her in many ways! We enjoyed hearing a few stories along with our language lessons.