A friend has asked a few questions about my last blog, so I thought I’d answer them in case anyone else out there is wondering. By the way, feel free to send questions and I’ll be glad to try and answer them – well, at least things I know about of course.

1) Who wrote the last blog – Tim or myself? Me – Martha. I write most of the blogs and if Tim writes one we make sure we make that clear. Generally, I’m the ‘idea girl’ and Tim edits.

2) Pijin. Isn’t that spoken other places?

Yes, there are many ‘pijin’ languages spoken around the world. From a linguistic definition, ‘pijin’ is a common language that develops to allow people from different language groups to communicate. As such, for most people it is a second language. When children start speaking a pijin language as their first language, it then becomes a ‘creole’ language.

Around the Pacific, there are various pijin languages and they have an interesting history. Back in the 19th century the sugar cane industry in Australia needed laborers, so ships were sent around the Pacific Islands to ‘recruit’ laborers, a practice called ‘blackbirding’. Some islanders were hired to go to Australia, while others were taken by force.

Because this labor force on the sugar plantations came from many different places and spoke various languages, communication was a challenge. Foreman tried giving orders in simple English. The laborers communicated with each other in a similar way, and what resulted was a pijin language – based largely on an English vocabulary, but with a grammar structure that reflected Melanesian languages.

When the laborers returned to their homelands, they carried pijin with them. Later when more westerners came to these islands, the pijin speakers were the ones who were able to communicate with the outsiders. Speaking pijin opened doors for communication and employment with the colonialists.

Today in Papua New Guinea they speak, ‘Tok Pisin’ and in Vanuatu to our south they speak ‘Bislama’. These pijin languages are similar to Solomon Islands Pijin and there is some overlap in vocabulary, but each is distinctive.

Here in the Solomons where there are more than 60 languages spoken, pijin is an important tool for communication and most people speak it. You hear it spoken by the highly educated as well as illiterates and on the street, in homes and on the radio. Both English and Solomon Islands Pijin are legal languages in courts of law and in Parliament. While it is widely spoken, it has not always been accepted as a written language.

We are beginning to see a change in this attitude toward written Solomon Islands Pijin for which we are grateful. Although our first choice is to see people have God’s Word in their first language, many languages do not yet have Scripture in their language or only have the New Testament. The Solomon Islands Pijin Bible will give Solomon Islanders access to God’s Word in a language which is more familiar than English for most.

Sometimes I find it intimidating to be around a bunch of brainy Bible translators who know so much about linguistics and the Bible. I like the literacy work that we do and know that I can make a real contribution to Bible translation through helping people to learn to read their own language so that they can read the translated word. But I’ve found another area where I like to help – public relations and publicity!

Since coming back to the Solomons I have been working hard to help promote the Pijin Bible translation. This month translators are working on the final revisions of the full Bible in Pijin for publication in the next year. I’ve had fun setting up 3 forums around town for the public to come and discuss issues related to Pijin. I’ve also been working with the local media which has resulted in me being interviewed on the radio, several articles and advertisements appearing in the newspaper, one of the project advisers being interviewed on the television news and this morning a talk back radio program. Pijin translation adviser Gerry Beimers and national translator Aloysious Jack (on the right) interacted with the public via phone calls while broadcaster Bart Basia on the left moderated the program. It’s another step in making the public aware of the translation program and encouraging people to share their ideas about it.

Me? I’m having a ton of fun working with people around town that I already know and building new relationships with others. Many of my Bible translation colleagues would find it hard to do what I’m doing. Isn’t God good? He has just the right place for each of us to use our gifts and talents and have fun while doing it.

A very important workshop is starting on Monday, 30 April 2007. Twelve national translators from around the country will be gathering to review the Pijin New Testament which was first published about 20 years ago.

The Pijin Old Testament is nearly complete and the entire Pijin Bible is to go to print later this year in time to be launched in July of 2008.

During the month of May, three public forums will be held here in the capital city to allow Solomon Islanders to express their opinions on the choice of some key Biblical terms used in the Pijin Bible, standardized spelling of certain words and any parts of the New Testament that might need editing.

This past week I have spent a lot of time trying to organize the venues for these meetings and then promoting the meetings so we get as many people as possible to come and participate. Yesterday my colleagues and I spent time taking flyers around town and asking people to come. One of my stops was the national radio station where I shared about the workshops with some of the news staff. Not only did they agree to put the workshop in the evening news, the reporter also interviewed me for the news and a special in depth news program!

Please pray for the Pijin team as they review the New Testament and make sure that the Pijin is clear and understandable as well as true to God’s Word.

Pray for the 3 public forums that will be held May 2nd, 8th and 15th. Pray that the meetings will be well attended and that they will be productive as well.

We thank God for the addition of “Oakwood Community Church” in Ortonville, Michigan to our prayer/support team! The addition of their partnership in our ministry helps to meet some of the gap in our monthly financial needs. We look forward to getting to know our new friends at Oakwood.

Welcome, Oakwood!

Hooray!!! We are back in town! (Here we are at the wharf with our cargo on Sunday morning.)

We left Kia Village about 5:30 on Saturday morning and traveled almost half the length of the island of Isabel arriving 6 hours later in the provincial capital of Buala.

On our way to Buala, the boat motor used more gas than expected and we had to call into several hamlets to try and find some to purchase. On the third attempt, we were successful, and we found an interesting bonus there – the skeleton of a whale that had died on the coast last year! This amazing skeleton is only the tail section we were told! The kids are holding ribs.

When we asked if we could buy a whale bone we were told we could take one. What an amazing souvenir of our trip! We aren’t sure what we are going to do with it, although it’s been suggested we could make it into a coffee table or footstool! By the way, for its amazing size, it is not very heavy.

We spent the afternoon at a guest house run by the Anglican church and felt blessed to be able to take showers and catch a little sleep while waiting for the ship. The Estrella arrived around 7:00 pm and we boarded with our pile of cargo. The ship was really full as this was the last port of call before heading to Honiara and it had missed the previous scheduled stop at Buala last week due to the tsunami. We had 5 seats in second class and our legs had to rest on all the cargo. It was not very comfortable, but we were thankful to be heading to town at last!

The ship left about 8:30 pm and normally would have arrived in Honiara in the middle of the night, but we didn’t get in until 6:30 am! The ship went very slow because it was so heavily loaded. The ship was so loaded down that even though the sea was not rough, waves were splashing onto the outer walkways of the ship. We never take a safe arrival for granted!

Here are some photos up from our week in Kia so you can ‘see’ where we have been.

Here’s a photo of the participants of the course on the last day. They are standing in the new church building in Kia. All the beautiful decorations on the wall behind them are shell inlay. The angels and dove are carved from wood by a local man with a grade six education. It is beautiful!

This is Kia from outside the church late one afternoon. As you can see, many of the houses are on stilts over the water. The small shacks further out in the water are pig pens.

I had a lot of fun taking photos out in the village. Here’s one of my favorites!

We returned from the workshop today (Wednesday) with word that an email had come in for us from a colleague in Honiara. The ship that we are supposed to take to town was stuck on the reef and now has arrived in Honiara. So, that means the ship is delayed and now isn’t scheduled to leave Buala, the provincial capital, until Saturday evening getting us to Honiara in the early morning of Sunday. Hmmm. Will there be a plan D or E before we get to town? Emily has taken accepted the news with grace.

The workshop continues to go well. The participants are doing really well and excited about what they are learning. When we had our break around noon, the group surprised us with a feast. Planks were laid on top of pews in the church and brightly colored tablecloths with crocheted edging. Pots, plates and bowls were laid out on the table filled with rice, sweet potatoes, slices of juicy pineapple, noodles and fish. (Some of the fish are colorful reef fish that you would find in a US pet store with triple digit price tags!) The participants also brought me orchid plants and other flowers to plant in my garden in town.

A few words of thanks were given by one of the leading women in the church who is also participating in the workshop. After Tim prayed for the food, we began filling our plates while the workshop participants sang songs in beautiful harmony for us. When everyone had mostly finished eating, the man who heads up the translation committee stood up and gave some words of thanks to us for coming. We were given a chance to say a few words as well. It was really a very nice feast and it made us feel us very special. Normally such a feast would be held on the last day, but since everyone thought that we were leaving tomorrow the feast was held today. Of course now we won’t leave until Saturday, but never the less we celebrated today!

If Emily has any regrets about growing up in the Solomon Islands, it is probably that she didn’t get to live in a village for a long enough to learn a local language. She envies her MK (missionary kid) friends who spent many years living in a village because their parents are Bible translators. Emily has enjoyed the opportunity to hang out in a village this week.

Kids here have a lot of freedom in the village. They can run and play outside all day, jump in the sea for a swim or take a ride in a canoe. If someone is cooking, it’s not unusual for someone to offer the kids a bit to eat – villagers are so pleased when the MK’s like the local food!

The other day someone came to the house with a few sticks of sugar cane for the kids. The Emily and Grant quickly grabbed a machete and headed outside to cut the cane in pieces and share them around. After the outer skin is cut off, big bites of the cane are broken off and chewed to release the sugary sweet juice inside. When the juice is all gone, the tasteless bits of cane are spit out on the ground.

Last night Emily and Tim went to the evening prayer service and afterward Emily and Grant (one of the other MK’s) hung out with the village kids. They strolled around the village and the kids were telling Emily the names for different things in the Zabana Language. Later they sat around and the kids told Emily some of their traditional stories. She had a wonderful time hanging out with the kids.

Village life is not perfect, but there are some really nice advantages. We always know that when the kids are wandering around the village, they will be watched and cared for by the whole community. It’s a nice feeling.

Tuesday afternoon

The workshop went well today. The students have now learned the first half of the coursework which involves teaching students to read and write stories. We finished the workshop by 2:30. Tomorrow we start training them to teach the phonics part of the program.

After the workshop, I walked through the village. It was quiet and I didn’t see many people, although I did see a few escaping the hot afternoon sun by taking a nap. Others were probably out tending their gardens or harvesting food for their dinners. The trail through the village curves and follows the coastline. It’s a pretty village with flowers growing along the path and around people’s houses.

At 4:30 we gathered around the two-way radio to talk to our office in Honiara. A friend in Honiara was able to buy us tickets on a ship that is making a trip to the other end of the island. We will have to meet the ship at the provincial capital of Buala. In order to get there, we will hire someone to take us in his fiberglass boat with a 40 horsepower outboard motor. We will leave here Friday morning, expecting the journey to Buala to take 5 – 6 hours. The ship is due to leave Buala Friday night and travel through the night with an expected arrival in Honiara early morning on Saturday. The air conditioned cabin is already booked, so we will have seats in the second class cabin where Tim sat on the way out. If it all works out, we should get into town in time for Emily to attend the youth group retreat.

Here it’s always a relief when you can get to your destination although often it is often not by ‘Plan A’.

Tuesday evening

Dark clouds on the horizon threatened rain most of the afternoon. It finally came around dusk with a very heavy downfall making quite a racket on the corrugated iron roof. It will be nice to be able to take showers again rather than bathing with dipperfuls of water from a basin.

With the rain came flying insects that descended on the house. It is a bit of a mystery how they get in the house, but soon there were hundreds of them swarming around the lights and on the walls. After a while they die and fall to the floor. It’s quite annoying when they come in as it makes it difficult to do much of anything. This morning (Wednesday) there were piles of them to sweep up off the floor. These insects do not come everytime it rains, but every once in a while the conditions must be right and they descend in droves!

Seventeen men and women arrived this morning for the teacher training workshop. Amazingly, we started just before the scheduled 9:00 opening time with Tim leading in a short devotional. Except for a short break at noon we continued until 3:30 pm. The participants are excited to be in the workshop.

Lee and the literacy committee are working on a beginning reading book in Zabana which we are training them to use. Tim and I taught most of the workshop today using Solomon Islands Pijin. The students then do their practice teaching in the Zabana language in small groups. Lee, Tim and I observed the groups to make sure that they include all the steps of the lesson we have taught them and are doing them properly. We will teach the workshop tomorrow through Thursday.

When we got back to the house, we found out that an email had come in for us from Honiara. We were planning on taking a canoe on Thursday afternoon to a port about an hour or so away in order to catch the ship back to Honiara. Because of a tsunami disaster relief charter, the planned trip out here is delayed until Sunday. We will be explore other options for getting back to town.

We’d appreciate your prayers for some kind of transportation to open up so that we can get back in a timely way. Emily will be very disappointed to miss her youth group retreat scheduled for this weekend and the girls are due to go back to school on Monday.

Travel in the Solomon Islands is always interesting and unpredictable.