Team Update: Film Crew from U.S.

Scenario: SIL is finding that translation can be done quicker and more accurately if it is done by a person who grew up speaking the local language.

Problem: While these "mother-tongue" speakers do a fantastic job in their translations, the surrounding communities just do not have the financial means to be able to support them while they are working.

Solution: An organization in the U.S. dispached a film crew to the Philippines to interview one of these translators, so that his story can be relayed to others in the States. It was my job to assist the team leader in setting up the logistics of the trip before the team arrived.

The film crew "on location" in the Philippines.

10-ICAL Conference

A couple of months ago, I mentioned a website that I was working on for a linguistics conference that was happening here in the Philippines. The conference finished up last week, and it went really well. My jobs were to download the papers that were being presented, create a conference CD, help with any technical problems that our 160+ presenters might have, and be of general assistance when available.

It was a really busy time, but very rewarding. I found out first-hand that our SIL linguists are highly respected in the linguistics community, and that many people reference their work. Of course, I barely understood what these people were talking about (click here for a list of all the presentations given--if you understand more than half of the titles, I'd be very impressed!)

Helping a linguist download his paper to published on the Conference CD and the website.

Movie: End of the Spear

Last weekend, a new movie coming out in the States called End of the Spear. It's the story of 5 missionary men who were killed in the jungles of Ecuador 50 years ago this month. From what I hear, it's supposed to be a really well done movie, unlike many of the pre-Passion "Christian" films that have been produced in recent years.

Since it's an independent film, it probably won't make it out here to the Philippines, so I'd be anxious to hear your thoughts about it. I'll open up the comments so that you can leave your own reviews of the film.

For more information, go to www.endofthespear.com.

Vermicomposting!

In third grade we cover a unit on communities. Within it we talked yesterday about how much garbage can actually be recycled and reused. Matt, a member of Faith's faculty is our local expert on vermicomposting, which is "using composting worms to transform biodegradable garbage into nutrient-rich soil for growing more fruits and vegetables. "

God wants us to be good stewards of all the things we use, so one way third grade is going to do this is we are going to turn our apple cores, banana peels, vegetable scraps etc. into excellent soil for plants to grow!


Matt shows the kids the worm bin where are African Night Crawlers will turn our trash into fertile soil!


The class sifted the castings (fertile soil or aka worm poop.) out of the bin.


After sifting the castings we used the soil to plant some cucumber seeds.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Today is my precious husbands 29th birthday! (his first 29th birthday!) Unfortunately, he is away from me, but I am sure he is having a wonderful time with friends from SIL down at the linguistics conference!

We celebrated Saturday night by taking Scruffy out with us to a place called Tiendesitas. It has a very dog friendly atmosphere with lots of little outdoor shops and food places. While we were there a dog show was going on. Scruffy was very happy to not be one of the very long haired Shitzus who had to just lay with their head on a pillow and look pretty. We then came back and enjoyed some birthday cookie with a couple of our neighbors.

Where have I been?

I think I definately put my life of telling you all what is going on with us on hold while we were in the states. (thankfully, Dan didn't totally!) Even now, I can't show you all the pictures we took during our wonderful time because they are with Dan and he is at a linguistics conference! My procrastination got the best of me once we arrived back in the Philippines and I never did download the pictures before he left. Regardless, I thought I'd give you ten of my favorite things about being home for Christmas. (much delayed and in no particular order!)

10. chilly weather (actually needing a jacket!)

9. meeting Cory, my sister's boyfriend

8. walking our dog Molly (Molly thinks the leash is a toy and just wants to bite it, but eventually gets tired and is a great walking partner!)

7. seeing two of my best friends, Tricia and Ginny

6. spending time with my new mom-in-law, Belinda

5. eating lunch with my daddy at his work, ebanr (check it out! ebanr.com) and riding his lift that goes 30 feet in the air that he uses to hang signs.

4. spending the night at my sister, Anne's house (David lives there also!) It was fun to catch up with them the first night we arrived and sad to say goodbye the last night before we left.

3. lots of Mom time :)

2. Christmas Eve and Christmas day, just being together with family

1b. Family! Family! Family!

1a. anniversary trip to Atlanta with the best husband in the world!

Congratulations, Ryan & Vic!

While in the States, some friends of ours in Pensacola had a baby girl become part of their family. Ryan and Victoria gave birth to Katheryn Ann, who we met up with at the hospital on New Year's Eve. Congratulations, guys!

She likes to blow bubbles.

Hello from Hong Kong!

Here in the Hong Kong airport they have these free internet kiosks that I thought I would take advantage of while we waited to board our last plane! To be honest we weren't sure if we would make the plane because our plane had been delayed, but we did and with time to spare!

My brother David, took us to the airport this morning leaving at 7am so we have been traveling for roughly about 25 hours so far! We had such a wonderful trip and it was really sad to say good-bye to everyone, but we are looking forward to getting back to Manila. There are many people and things to look forward to, but I believe #1 on our list is being reunited with our bundle of fluff, Scruffy! We have missed him, though we know he has been very well taken care of!

Time to board! We'll be sure to put up some pictures in the next day or so from our adventures in the southeast!

What time is it in the Philippines?

If you've ever wanted to call us on our Vonage phone but you had no idea what time it was, I just installed a clock on the webpage that shows you exactly what the current time and date is. Just scroll down the right-hand side of this page to "Current Conditions". It is located just under the weather information.

Hope this helps! Now, if you'd like to call us, but don't know our number, just send us an email, and we'll get it to you!

Simple Pleasures From the US

Well, it's time to begin packing and saying good-bye to our home country. It's been great celebrating the holidays with our families.

While we have been here, one of the most asked questions that people have been asking us: Other than your friends and family, what do you miss most from the United States?

So, in no particular order is my list of Simple Pleasures From the US:

1. Sonny's BBQ
2. Waffle House
3. Driving faster than 40 MPH
4. Enjoying the wide-open expanse of the Alabama countryside
5. Not having to horde my Cinnamon Altoids
6. College Football


While I'm at it, here's another list: Stateside Epiphanies (you know, those moments where you go, "ah-hah!"):

1. You never hear anyone say, "I think I'll just stop in real quick at the Super Wal-Mart."
2. On the interstate, I see one sign that says, "Speed Limit 70", and I see another sign that says, "Minimum Speed 40". An upper limit and a lower limit imply that there is a range that should be enforced (although no one seems to push the lower limit). Why don't we have just one sign that says, "Speed Range 40-70"?
3. If there was a country that used Monopoly money as their currency, they would think that every other countries' bills looked soooo fake.