The Local Language is Lovely

We were sitting in a circle on a mat. Someone hands out pieces of paper with the story we are going to study printed out in the local language.

New books promoting local literacy

We start to read and immediately I recognize the posture of two of the women. They are holding the paper down in their laps and looking up or off to the side. The first time I saw this posture my reaction was to assume that the person was being rudely disinterested. But soon I learned to correct this assumption. More likely, they don’t know how to read. They don’t even bother to look at the piece of paper because it means nothing to them.

Illiteracy is more common with women, more common with the older generations and more common among the lower classes, but there is a significant number of islanders who can’t read, especially Roman script. More can read in Arabic script since poorer families are more likely to insist on going to the religious schools where kids are taught to sound out the Arabic letters. But even then it isn’t their own language.

Even the women with their heads down looking intently at the paper sometimes have trouble reading the words. It’s their language and it is written phonetically, but the years of reading French make reading difficult. They get better. One of the women in the circle reads the story beautifully, when I remember a couple years ago her reading was halting. It takes some getting used to, even for literate people, but it does come.

After we had read the story a few times, we tried to retell it orally. When it was my turn to tell a section of it, I saw one of the women who was looking off into nowhere lock eyes with me. She was listening and reacting to my words. It was like she was actually engaging for the first time.

Islanders enjoying new books

Tom has been inspired by this story to change the way he studies with his friend Uhaju.  Uhaju is a good reader, but by telling the story orally the first time and then reading it, he is seeing Uhaju engaging the story more fully.  The oral telling engages him so then when he reads the story, he is really understanding what he’s reading, making comprehension and retention that much stronger.

These experiences create three reactions in us. First, it makes us want to reconnect with our oral storytelling skills that we haven’t brushed up in awhile. We’ve been so excited to finally have reliable translations that it has been easy to forget about how much islanders are oral communicators. Second, it makes me realize the importance of audio recordings of God’s word.  These are time consuming—a project that takes many weeks to complete, but it is of incredible value. Thirdly, it makes me want more islanders to get comfortable reading their own language!

Oral storytelling with the written translation there as a check and a reference could be a powerful tool in more islanders’ hands. Now we just need to get islanders excited about learning to read their own language. So our group has started a campaign. We have little, simple books in the local language and we have videos with an audio reading of the books. It is our hope that it will create excitement for local island literacy. We are proclaiming that: “Local language is lovely!” (It alliterates in the local language too.)  And it’s true.  It is a lovely language able to explain and contain lovely truths, carry good news, and bring hope to the brokenhearted.  It is worthy and deserving of its own books, videos, music and prayers. And we are excited to proclaim it: “The Local Language IS Lovely.”

Enjoying day off from local school

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Thank you for your prayers concerning government bureaucracy and the authorization of our colleagues to work at the hospital.  The meeting with the ministry of health was productive.  Although the minister was standoffish and proud, our director had all her ducks in a row and all the proper paperwork, and apparently made friends with the office secretary.  A formal accord still needs to be created and agreed upon, but we hope this will be the final step in gaining authorization.  So far we’ve been able to have a good attitude about the month of fasting and the teasing we receive.  It’s led to a number of good conversations.  Tom’s meetings with Uhaju have been going very well.  There is much to hope for there.  We were able to connect, via zoom, with a Sunday school class yesterday.  The internet has been very unreliable lately, but it worked perfectly for the duration of the meeting!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for our continued perseverance through this month—that we would be joyful!  Pray for Uhaju and his wife—that they could get pregnant, as this is something that they are both praying for.  Uhaju told Tom today that he would share the stories they studied with his wife.  May these two find life together!  Pray for the local language books and that many people would learn to read.  There is even a campaign on the small island to teach the local language in schools.  Pray that it will be a success and that it will catch on on all the islands.  Pray for the audio recordings which have suffered a long delay because the reader has been unavailable.  There are only 2 chapters away from finishing the present project.  Pray the reader would make it a priority to finish. Pray that we could discover more ways to get people to engage, whether through oral story telling, listening or videos.  Pray for the body to grow as they listen to or read the word and are fed by it. Pray for a good Holy Week for all the brothers and sisters on the islands!