My newest nephew, Reagan, born August 6th at 8lbs and 4 oz. I love my nephews, and I’m excited to have another even though I’m leaving for Papua New Guinea in a few months and will not be able to spend a lot of time with him as he grows up. The advantage for him will be occasionally receiving a letter with a neat stamp and postmark and maybe some exotic souvenir in a few years when I come home for a visit. Welcome to the family, Reagan!
This week, I will travel to Oklahoma for my Linguistic practicum. After this practicum, I will have completed my training with New Tribes Mission and be ready (at least educationally) to go to Papua New Guinea. For the next ten weeks, I will practice using language-learning, alphabet development, and grammar analysis techniques as I work with a Cherokee language helper to get a little bit of an idea how these techniques work outside the classroom. This will help me to be better prepared when I use them for learning and analyzing a language in Papua New Guinea.
During my time in Oklahoma, internet access will be limited. With that in mind, please continue to e-mail so that I’ll have a letter from you when I check my e-mail, but understand if I don’t get back to you right away. Please pray for my travels this week and that I will get good experience using the skills I’ve learned in the classroom while working with a language helper. Thank you for your prayers!