In the Village and Rained Back Out Again

OK! So I wrote a nice long blog post detailing our trip and then I got bored and deleted the whole thing.
If I got bored, you probably would too, so we'll skip the dets.

We went out to the second language group on the table on Monday.
The road is was but a walking path (think game trail more than sidewalk) by the time we got to the village but we made it.
Most of the trip was sitting chatting at one location or another but we did do two … three things of note.

1. We "did an orthography check".
   So we were SUPPOSED to sit down with literate people and give them a book with one spelling system and see if they stumbled. Then give them another spelling system and see if they did better. Jot that data down and go off to another literate person. Instead, one guy read the book the whole gathering and then asked how it should be spelled. At the beginning there was a difference in opinion, but at the end, all seemed to agree that the change already decided by the translation team should remain. Which only proved that the translation team is very convincing. But as long as everyone was happy so were we. It doesn't really matter how crazy the spelling is, if you're taught it, you'll learn it. Just take English as an example!
   After that was decided, the rest of the meeting became story time as people took turns reading the remaining books we had brought for the purpose of the check.
   
2. We recorded Scripture.
   (Correctly) thinking the orthography check wouldn't consume our time, I brought out the equipment necessary to do audio recording of the book of Acts, which is the next step in their translation work. (PBT learned, the hard way, that people unaccustomed to writing have trouble editing in written form. So after even the consultant check, we're doing audio recordings to make sure everything sounds natural and sweet.) The Director of Language Affairs asked us to look into what it would look like to do recording in the village rather than paying for teams to come into town. While we put things on paper for him, we still bush tested anything. So we were able to record three chapters, learning a great deal of time and money saving information.
   
3. We listened.
   A great tradition in these sorts of things is everyone gathering for speeches. One person says something and the other person acknowledges and thanks or you're welcomes and speeches back. And a reply is given until all the words run out. This people group used to have an advisor but he had to leave for health reasons and they've felt neglected by PBT. So we responded, acknowledging their words, promising to pass them on, explaining the chaos of the past few years, giving them insight to the workings of PBT, reaffirming their feelings, and so on. 

So now we need to decide if we're going to be the people to answer their plea for an adviser or if we'll be answering the plea of the first language group on the table. We think we have an idea of what we'll do but we want to spend a week in prayer and give the Lord a chance to move us otherwise should He so choose.

We were to stay until Friday, but on Wednesday the rain came in a month renowned for its lack thereof. The first village got a sprinkling, enough to make us worry about skidding up and down the road back, but the second village we were supposed to transition to that day had torrential rain. A fool would make the venture but I am no fool.
For fear the torrential rain would head over to the village where we were and worsen the road even more, resulting in us being stuck there, we headed back into Madang.

We were ok with the shortened trip though, but that's a different blog post.