November 2008
For about 2 ½ hours one afternoon last week, we met with two Esimbi men and a Wycliffe language consultant to discuss the thorny orthography questions—how to spell Esimbi. (That’s what you get to [have to?] decide when the language has never been written before!) The basic issue is how to mark the tones that carry significant meaning in the Esimbi language. The goal is to make it easy—for both those literate and illiterate in English—to learn to read and write Esimbi.
The discussion went back and forth and back again—which of the five tones are most frequent in the language; how would a choice affect the noun classes; what about the difference between the progressive and past tenses... The consultant (who is unmistakably brilliant at this sort of thing) came up with a plan, diagrammed it on the wall of chalkboard in his small office. Then he sat back, looked it over and said, “That gives lots more problems!” and he sat shaking his head. Literally, it was back to the drawing board for an alternate plan.
Finally an idea was sketched out, much different from the one we’d started with several hours before. But it had several advantages and only one major drawback. Now the plan is to take this proposal back to the community to test it and see if it will fly. Please pray for wisdom on this. It will go out as a tentative solution, but even now there are some people who don’t want to change the old way we’ve been doing it. Ever notice how we people-types don’t always like change??
Zac slept in this Saturday morning…his 11th grade class put on a Medieval Feast last night for about 140 people at Rain Forest International School and he worked hard! There were roaming minstrels and jugglers (including Arnie); jousts were done with pool noodles and steeds (just bigger people than the jousters); fairy tales were acted out by the audience; there was a “royal family” at the head table, and the king would sometimes order people to be put in the stocks, like for “fashion violations.” Then others could go up and throw socks (rolled into balls) at them. Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham put in their appearance, but did not get on well with each other as you might expect. We were served brown bread and delicious grilled chicken for dinner—but no utensils to eat them with! At the serf auction…we “bought” one student (to come and give Zac and Noah a guitar lesson). It was great fun.
Thanks for your prayers for us. We count on the fact that we are being prayed for by our faithful friends—like you!
Karen <>< for the Colemans
