Our departure date is fast approaching. We leave Friday. Thirty five hours and two layovers after take-off, we will climb out of a state of the art Airbus and enter another world and culture. Working on translation from a distance and making two trips out per year has its benefits. It also has its cons. Aside from the obvious ones, there is one I didn’t expect. The sheer speed in which you change cultures. When you plan to be gone for four years you do much more mental preparation for the transplant. For these short trips, one day you are weed-whacking the backyard and the next day you are eating grilled aloko plantains on the streets in Abidjan. And then after three fully packed weeks of working all hours of the day you are again sitting in your backyard sipping iced-tea and listening to the the neighbor’s sprinklers watering the grass. And your head sort of feels like the sprinkler. Its a lot of fun though.
Benjamin Nieuwsma is traveling with me on this trip and we have a lot we would like to accomplish, including the following: have a translation consultant check my translation of Galatians and James; teach a small group of Bakwé micro-entrepreneurs; setup a wireless network and train our Bakwé colleagues how to troubleshoot it; set up and train in the use of the new audio recording equipment; train in the use of other software; visit each of the Bakwé micro-entrepreneurs.
We will try to update this site with some text and some pictures as our trip progresses, so check back every couple of days.
I’ve had such a wonderful time reading all about your June trip. It’s so good to see the work progress and hear the wonderful stories of God’s word affecting people’s lives. The music was amazing. We’ll be praying for your trip in August. It sounds like you accomplished so much in your June trip. Very glad to hear that Lisa is feeling much better.
Thank you very much! Greetings to all the Saints in Rathdrum.