Dan & John's Trip to Panay

Another day, another cool trip.

Lately, I've been working a lot with a guy named John. (For those of you who are keeping track, he was first introduced on brookslanding on April 19, 2004.) John is in charge of the Personnel Department here at the SIL organization. Since I work for the same department, that basically means that he is my boss. "Boss" is a term that we use loosely, mostly because we are all volunteers, and you can't assume that ANYBODY has much authority in an organization where anyone could just up and quit at any time.

So, in addition to being my quote-unquote-boss, it also means that he's my "short term personnel" mentor, and I usually find myself asking him a lot of questions like,

• "How long is the drive from here to the airport?"
• "What's the best way to fight jet-lag?"
• "What if I am travelling with a team, and someone gets sick?"

On the other hand, he also likes to ask me questions, such as:

• "Why haven't you answered my emails?"
• "Do you think it's about time you decorated your office?"
• "Would you mind if I unload some task on you?"

John has been working for some time to get me out to the island of Panay, which is south of Manila. We are planning to send a group of college students out there, and it was important for me to get a "lay of the land", and to meet the translator that the students would be working with. Her name is Bea, and she is working hard to translate the Kinaray-a New Testament. She is a really great lady--and like most translators, she is passionate about her work.

Bea gave us a tour of the area, and showed us where the students (and ME!) will be staying. By American standards, it was pretty basic stuff. Like a floor, a roof, a fan, and a light bulb. Many of the students are interested in linguistics and translation, so there is a strong possibility that some of them will someday become a translator. That's why I'm here!

Me, Bea, and John stand outside Bea's house.