Prepare for a Discovery

I've been planning a trip for the last 10 months, and the participants arrive tomorrow morning. They are all prospective translators--most are college-aged, and are wanting to experience the real life of how a translator works. Needless to say, I've been pretty busy emailing, making phone calls, and trying to make arrangements to get the last details in place. It'll be a fun time!

The name of the group is called "Discovery". If you want to follow their journey throughout the summer, they have set up their own webpage. Feel free to check it out!

Morning Rain!

After writing about the rain last night, we had our first morning rain! I captured some of the raindrops and also a couple of our nieces, Vivian and Anna enjoying the weather!

Let it Rain!

These past couple weeks, we have recieved the first rains of the season.

I remember when I first heard it start to rain. I was over in the guest house, instantly I stopped and stared out the window. It was the first rain I'd seen in three months and I was mesmorized. Quickly, I stepped outside and let it rain on me! It felt so great!

Now, when it begins to rain, often in the evening, Dan and I will step outside on our balcony. We will stand or pull out a couple chairs to enjoy it from some dry spots. It really cools everything off and washes away so much dust and pollution!

We hear that soon it will begin to rain everyday. Flooding will become a huge problem for the Manila area. For now, I say, "Let it Rain!"

2004 MDOC video

Now that we have this new server to store stuff on, I thought that you might like to see a video that I threw together after we finished our MDOC training last fall. It's basically a collection of pictures that we took while on various "outings" outside of class. It probably won't interest everyone, but I thought some of our old classmates wouldn't mind seeing it again!

For dial-up, click here.

For broadband, click here.

Running time: 3 min, 20 sec

Elizabeth the Ethnomusicologist

Webster's Online Dictionary describes Ethnomusicology as: The study of music that is outside the European art tradition or The study of music in a sociocultural context.

It seems kind of odd to us, but there are many people in this world that believe that their language is not "worthy" enough to have a Bible written in it. Some even believe that it is sacrilegious to write God's Word into a language that is so "common".

Ethnomusicologists help to break down this barrier by encouraging these people to connect their faith to their language by worshiping in their own dialect.

We recently had the chance to get to know a real-live ethnomusicologist. Elizabeth is studying music and sociology, and she was wanting to put her knowledge to good use. After she arrived in the Philippines, we spent a week orienting her to the country, and now she is traveling with some of our other ethnomusicologists.

We have heard reports that she is diving into this new work. She has already led a vocal workshop with over 100 participants!

Ellen and Elizabeth in the courtyard of Casa Manila, one of the stops on the orientation.

Is it warm in here, or am I just sweating?

Well, it's now official. Last week, Manila posted it's hottest temperature ever at just over 100F. Of course, that doesn't include the "heat index", which would also factor in the 70-80% humidity that we have.

People have been telling me that they've never seen it this warm before. Usually, I mostly ignore remarks like that, especially when made by a fellow expat, but when Filipinos start telling me that it's hot, then I take notice.

I have to admit--I was beginning to worry about the heat. It would be tough to handle these temperatures year after year. But, since this is a new record, the mercury has nowhere to go but down!

More Gigabytes!

Notice anything new about the site? No? Well, you aren't really supposed to. I just finished moving brookslanding.com to a new web server. We were starting to run out of room at the old place that we were at, so it was time to make a change. So, while sitting in Manila, I spent my Saturday morning moving files from a server in Georgia to a server in California (isn't technology cool?).

We actually jumped at an offer that was too good to pass up; for about the same price each month, we are going to get 100 times more space to store pictures and stuff. I've been wanting to do some video postings for a long time, and that takes up a LOT of room, and now we've got the space to be a little more creative!

Oh, and if you happen to be looking around, and you notice that a picture is missing, or a link doesn't work, don't hesitate to let me know. I hope to do a complete "click-through" when I get some time, but that might be awhile. Any help is appreciated!

Nieces and Nephews

One of my favorite traditions in the Philippines is that most missionary kids will call you aunt or uncle instead of Mr. or Mrs. or Miss. (well... except at school if you are their teacher!!) Over here your friends are more like family. Often you don't have your blood related aunts and uncles, so you have surrogate ones! So, in the last few months Dan and I have gained many nieces and nephews. There are two families that we have especially gotten to know and love very much!

Vivian, Anna, and Allison....
These are three of our nieces that we get to see almost every day because they live just downstairs from our apartment. I get lots of hugs from these girls, which if you know me at all, you know I have a NEED for lots of them. I love it when I come home and hear "hi aunt ellen" shouted from the balcony. They are tons of fun, and make really good swimming buddies!

Melissa, Rachel, Christopher, David and Allison...
These were some of the first kids we met when we came over last April and now they live just down the road. This past weekend their parents went out of town on an anniversary trip, so we got to watch them for the weekend! I joked that this could be the deciding factor on whether we have kids, and if it was, of course it was positive. They are terrific. Allison even let me take her to see the Heffalump movie and the boys "let" Dan take them to play video games.

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.

Step Into My Office

For the first time in my life, I have my own office! I'm forever done with the felt-lined walls of cubicles, listening to other people's phone calls, and not being able to fall asleep at my desk!

(strike that last one)

"Chesnut! In my office, NOW!"

The view from my desk. (Except when Ellen isn't there. Then it's just a picture of empty chairs. And pictures of empty chairs aren't worthy to be put on our website.)

The Days Are Just Packed

As Calvin (the title character in the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes) would say, "The days are just packed." That's how I've been feeling. I've been pushing pretty hard to get ready for all of the teams that will be arriving this summer, and I've been loving every minute of it.

My first "team" is an student who will be working alongside our resident ethnomusicology as he provides workshops for indigenous musicians throughout the Philippines. So, no, she's technically not a team, but, Ellen and are responsible for her while she is here.

It takes a lot of logistics to work someone into a program like that, and I just counted 80 emails that I've received so far about this trip. I'm sure it'll top 100 by the time she arrives on May 16. All part of the job!

This morning, I went down to Intramurous, which is an old walled city in downtown Manila. It's a great place to learn about the history of the Philippines and to experience the culture. I am thinking about making it a key part of the orientation for our teams.

After I got home, I flopped down behind the computer and put some new pictures in our Photo Gallery. Click here to see them, or click on the link in the column to the right.

Tomorrow is Larry's birthday! The guy is turning 40, and tonight we're going to celebrate over dinner at a restaurant called . . . wait for it . . . Chili's.

Yep, the restaurant that epitomizes everything that is Amerikano is located just a few miles down the road. I vowed I would never would go there, because it just doesn't seem right to fly all the way around the world just to eat in a restaurant that I could eat in anywhere in the States. But, it's the guy's birthday--what am I supposed to do? Bottomless chips and salsa, here I come!