It’s winter here in the good old southern hemisphere and we are freezing our tootsies off. This week classes began at Hefsiba (check out the little map thingy in the sidebar of the Lingamish blog if you’re curious where we’re located these days). I’m teaching Old Testament wisdom and poetry. I love Job so that’s what the students are getting mostly.
And at the same time the Nyungwe translators showed up to work with me for the week on finishing up a translation of the Gospel of Mark. This has to be one of the longest translations of Mark on record. We began in 2005. Our progress was interrupted by my unexpectedly long stay in the U.S. in 2006. By the time I got back to Africa, they had started on Genesis which they just finished last month. Now we’re trying to get through a final check on chapters 14 to 16. Chapter 14 is 72 verses long! That’s longer than several of the epistles.
In July 2005 we were in Dinthi, the translators were there. Along with two Bible translation consultants. We checked the first eight chapters of the translation. I had the time of my life. Here’s a photo.
In July 2006 we received word that our Bible college students were suffering with the cold. Read the post here: Sleep well. Now a year later we are at that same Bible college as permanent residents suffering with the cold. The translators are bundled up at night under huge stacks of blankets. Are we in Africa?!?
Can I ask your opinion? The Nyungwe translation project is broke. Their funding is almost gone and I thought of mentioning it on my Lingamish blog. These guys work really hard and they now have the chance to rent an office for a whopping $30/month. They also need about $1,500 for basic office equipment. Any advice on throwing something like that out on the Web?
One last thing from the July archives: A strange and lovely post from July 2006 is this one with a gargoyle pondering humanity a la Descartes. Does Blogger still show the photo?
I am still recovering from one of the low points of the lingalinga blog which was a really awful post that I published on Monday. Some hammering from online friends brought me to my senses and I pulled it early Tuesday morning. When will I learn? I do criticism really bad. My motto should be “Praise the good and shut up about the rest.” Forgive me.
The gargoyle still shows up fine. Great picture! But your map widget doesn’t say where Hefsiba is, is it the SIL training centre?
Do you have a Paypal or similar account to receive donations for the Nyungwe project? I guess you need more than that to make things tax deductible in the USA. But maybe a few of your readers worldwide could sponsor a month’s rent each if there was an easy way to do so.
I think the idea of sponsoring a month a year is a good one. Could you put a donation link as a sidebar option on the Lingamish blog? Maybe announce it in one post, but then put it as a permanent link thing on the side like some people have Amazon links or whatever? I don’t think that would be too intrusive or pushy.
Thanks all for the input on the funding.
Hefsiba is in Vila Ulongwe. When I am at the training centre in September I will have high speed internet and will be adding more photos and info to the map thingy.
And I’m glad to hear the thinker is still around. He’s a handsome fellow.