The other day my wife pointed out that she uses four languages daily and I said, “That sounds like a good blog post.” Unfortunately, for you, she’s been too busy (or lazy) to write that blog post and so you’re stuck with me. Daily we’re using English (with the white skins), Tok Pisin and Pal (with the Pal people), and Bailey. Bailey has her own language which I’m still trying to learn but Maggie has it down pretty well. I think it’s a tonal language for it seems that communication occurs through the inflection of her voice instead of the letters used. She does know the English words for “yes” and “no” pretty well so when I cannot understand her it becomes a guessing game. (e.g. “da dan dai dendy.” “You have to go potty?” “No.” “You want a drink?” “No.” “You want your blankie?” “Yah!”)
It seems unfair to complain about the cold when most or all of you are experiencing a much colder climate than we are. However, when you choose to live in Minnesota you expect it to be cold. You’ve chosen to live where it’s cold. But when you go to a tropical island a few hundred miles off the equator, well, you expect a certain degree of warmth. We’ve grown accustomed to it being chilly in the mornings and evenings here but lately it’s been chilly all day. We’re in the middle of the rainy season and these days when we don’t see the sun all day stay pretty chilly. I sit in my office with the hood of my hoodie pulled over my head huddling over my computer sipping hot tea while trying to import language data into my frozen brain.
You know, if all I’ve got to complain about is the temps dipping slightly below 70F, we’ve got it pretty good. We just got our orthography (Pal alphabet) approved by the literacy consultants and we hope to begin teaching the Pal people to read and write within the next few months. It’s a busy time but we’re excited to have things moving forward! Lord willing we’ll finish up language study in the next 3-6 months. Keep praying!