After living with the tribal people for 9 years, we were able to develope an orthography that was easy for the people to understand so we taught our first literacy class beginning in December 2005. There was no one in the class younger that 13 and most of the class consisted of married men and teenage girls. At first, it was difficult for them to learn how to hold a pencil but by the end of the second week, they were getting the "knack" of it and doing quite well.
We have trained Jaakurya, a woman believer of about 26 years of age to teach the present women’s class of 32 women. (She previously taught another class last year where over 20 men and teenage boys learned to read and write their own language for the first time.) During this previous class, she taught Jesi, a male believer, to teach the men. So Jesi is teaching about 34 men at the present time.
Many of the students have told us that they want to learn to read so they can read "God’s talk". We give each one that graduates the newly translated Gospel of Mark. The graduates take them to their huts at night and read to their other family members around the fire pit that they use for light with the aid of a "torch" or flashlight. Because of this, much interest is developing in the village and many more people are attending the teaching daily.
These are exciting days in Wusuraambya land!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.