Recently, I had a chance to take trip to the interior of another island where we have a team working with a church. I tagged along with a consultant who was going to give language evaluations to the members of the team there. I had planned to only stay a couple days, but when it was all said and done, I had been gone about seven days. It was a good chance to see what life is like there and how the team functions. It was a rather grueling trip since the traveling took longer than I had expected (in total, 16 hours on a ferry and 6 hours on the back of a bike/truck and a lot of time just waiting), but I think that is normal here.

We just had language evaluations ourselves, although we haven’t gotten the results back yet. Still, it’s not hard to realize we have made some progress, but there’s still a long ways to go. One of the things that is difficult is the difference between formal and informal/everyday language. Informal is more commonly used, but it can be harder to get that kind of language in a session. We need to be able to use both. So it’s frustrating oftentimes, having studied one, and then hearing (and not understanding much of) the other.

Elroy and Scout are almost finished with their school for the year. Only a few stubborn math lessons stand between them and the glorious freedom of summer. We continue to try to find ways to help them learn language, but without a whole lot of progress.

Davis has helped immensely with meeting people in our neighborhood. It’s amazing how having a baby breaks down some of the barriers here. Davis has made plenty of linguistic progress. Even at his young age, he knows how to laugh and smile AND cry in the language. He is hailed as a native already.

It looks like we are just starting rainy season. Several times in the last few days, it has rained off and on all day. It makes it difficult to go out, because you have to carry your rain gear even if it’s not raining yet, and our rain coats/pants are a little bulky.

Praise:

-chance to visit and observe interior team

-linguistic progress, however slow

Prayer:

-relationships at church and in the neighborhood

-more progress in language for all 5 of us (even Davis can get familiar with it to a degree)

 

Thanks for your prayers and support!

McIlroys