tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79948332024-03-07T16:32:15.296-08:00the Dancing SniA place to view the mundane news of the Dancing Sni and her Accompanist Spouse.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.comBlogger959125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-46954299255169825542015-02-01T22:31:00.001-08:002015-02-01T22:31:55.194-08:00Water, water everywhere<p>It's hard to explain to those who have not lived cross-culturally how even the little differences can be a source of constant stress. Sometimes, it's just a sea of little discrepancies from the life I lived in North America that add up to a weight of stress that it's hard to quantify. I find myself being jittery and hyper-reactive, even when things seem to be going really well in most areas of my life. And I wonder what's wrong with me, where the stress is coming from. And then one of the stressors is lifted. And I recognize it as a stressor that I hadn't even known I had.</p>
<p>Like water. Since moving into the apartment we're in now, we have not been able to drink the water from the tap. We were thankful for the fact that the taps were producing water, to be sure (yay for showers and flushing toilets!). But we were advised by the landlord to come up with an alternate water source for our health. Because sometimes the water was potable, sometimes it wasn't. You can't tell which phase it's in just by looking. It's not that the water isn't being treated at a municipal water treatment facility; it is. It's just that it seems like it's not being treated either well or consistently. I learned the reality of this the hard way. Once while Rob was out of town, I was running water to wash dishes and thought, "Gee, that water looks really clean. And it smells fine. Maybe…" So, I drank some. Within just a few hours, I was laid out on my bed with cold sweats, fever, and abdominal cramping. My bad.</p>
<p>So, Rob and I have been buying water from a reverse osmosis facility downtown since 2011, when we moved into this apartment. I don't mind "fetching" water like this. OK, maybe some days I did mind. It's just one more thing to add to the to-do list. But then someone offered a water filter rig for sale on a local second-handers group on Facebook. And it wasn't like any I had ever seen. Usually, they're fancy rigs that run on electricity and have lots of fiddly bits. I had visions of paying a jillion dollars for one, plus filters, then having it crap out in a year with no one in the area being able to fix it. But this one on the second-handers group was something different. It was a <a href="http://www.h2o.co.za/product/bajaj-stainless-steel-gravity-filter/">stainless steel gravity water filter</a>. I had never even <em>heard</em> of such a thing! It uses silver-impregnated ceramic filters with activated carbon cores. The filters last 6 months. I thought, "Now <em>there's</em> a system I can handle."</p>
<p>So, I bought it. The water that comes out of it is clean. I just fill it with tap water and it comes out clean. Our tap water lately has been either full of algae (no really… algae!) or reeking of chemicals with a hint of algae (smells like "locker room at a YMCA that has a pool"). But it doesn't matter anymore. Because I just dump whatever sludge comes out of the tap into my filter system. And clean water comes out. Tada!</p>
<p>Then I noticed a change in myself. Everytime I fill the filter container, everytime I open the spigot and get beautiful clean water out, everytime I drink this filtered water, I feel like I've won some kind of battle. And I feel like a weight has been lifted. Like, I now control my own water. No matter what happens to the water supply in this town (or this country) I know that I can just grab any water (within reason, I suppose) and filter it. And I'll have water to drink. I guess I was stressed about water. And I didn't. Even. Realize it.</p>
<p>Which makes me wonder: what else am I currently stressed about that I won't even realize until the weight is lifted?</p>Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-76669826080283576272014-04-02T01:58:00.001-07:002014-04-02T01:58:20.767-07:00Keeping the Veiths in BotswanaWe have a launched a fundraising page on GoFundMe, to help bring our support levels up to 100%. If you can take a moment, do check it out and share it with others.<br />
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<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="338" title="Click Here to donate!" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="258"><param name="movie" value="//funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="flashvars" value="page=REVeith&template=11" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed allowScriptAccess="always" src="//funds.gofundme.com/Widgetflex.swf" quality="high" flashVars="page=REVeith&template=11" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="258" height="338"></embed></object>Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-51563182783752360412013-03-04T05:32:00.001-08:002013-03-04T05:32:28.854-08:00Every language has its strengthsI've often pointed out to people that every language has its strengths and weaknesses. That is to say that some languages can say things in a single word that it takes other languages whole phrases added to include. Therefore, there are some passages in Scripture that can be more clear in new vernacular translations than it can even be in English. I've even said that things can be more clear than they are in the original. That statement may have gotten me the stink eye on occasion. Thank God, I now have an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about.
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<br>Carolyn and I are visiting with the Naro Language Project today, where the Khwedam Bible translation team is here for a consultant check of their translation of Genesis. They're working through Genesis 19 which, as you know, is full of men. Groups of men (the men of Sodom), pairs of men (the two angels), and a single man (Lot), to be exact. There's a string of verses - 19:4-11 - where men are described as doing and saying all kinds of things, without it being specifically stated which men are doing what. You can tell, pretty much, just by reading it who is doing what. But perhaps that's just my prejudice as I already know the story. It's hard to remember what you may not have known before you knew it, especially when you've learned it decades ago.
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<br>At any rate, when translating this section into English, the only pronouns we have for the men are "they" and "them". And, where the Hebrew just says "men", we can't specify which men without adding to the text; a limitation of English. Not so in Khwedam! The Khwedam language has a masculine pronoun for two people and a masculine pronoun for more than two people. So, when they translated Genesis 19:10, it is clear that the men who are dragging Lot into the house and shutting the door are the two angels, not the Sodom delegation.
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<br>OK, so people could probably figure out which men are which without a headcount being given by the pronoun. My point is just that even Hebrew doesn't tell you clearly which men are which in this section. So, in a sense (however minor), the Khwedam translation of this passage is more clear than the Hebrew original.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-6708807484512228642013-01-13T04:08:00.001-08:002013-01-13T04:08:35.392-08:00The beginning of the yearWell, this year is off to a strange start. It began with a break-in at the intern's house; some things were stolen and it was decided that she should move to a safer location (i.e. with dogs, barbed wire fence, and metal doors). It meant some trips to the police station, reports to insurance, and the like. She's still shaken up, I believe, but working on recovery. She fell ill this weekend, which we both suspect was the stress catching up to her.
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<br>I've been somewhat unwell myself. Not to get into any detail but I have been have some malfunctions in a certain organ (how's that for vague?). It has left me fatigued and stressed. Part of the last few weeks has been trying to find a way forward, health-wise, for the months before we head back to North America for our very-3-year trip. I'm trying a few dietary modifications and will keep you posted as to my success.
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<br>We're back in the translation project office these days and will be expanding our hours of being open as we ramp up for (hopefully) getting staff. Next week, we prepare for the WBTP advisory committee meeting that will be held on Saturday morning. My printer is busted so I'll be having to do a bit more mucking about than usual to get documents printed for the meeting. Oh well, I guess it means a trip to Francistown soon, to shop for a new printer.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-13152547937650510872013-01-13T01:00:00.001-08:002013-01-13T01:00:36.025-08:00Testing a theoryWondering if I can just post to this blog from my iPhone.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-46472069222347489262012-05-23T07:12:00.002-07:002012-05-23T07:12:17.330-07:00No longer coveredWe're about to head out tomorrow on vacation with some friends visiting from Seattle. As a part of getting ready, Rob and I were getting gas at the station when I started to muse on how many trips we had left on the car before our next scheduled maintenance. I was thinking it was at 64,000 km but couldn't remember for sure. So, I asked Rob to check, looking down at the mileage and seeing that we had driven 60,128 km. He checked; it's supposed to be done at 60,000 km! And the nearest registered service center for Jeep is 1000 km away!<br />
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OK, so I freaked out for a bit. Suddenly, I was thinking that we'd have to rent a car for driving our friends around, which would make me feel all manner of stupid and unprepared, especially with a perfectly good car beached in my parking space, just waiting to be taken in for maintenance.<br />
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I'll spare you the gory details. Sufficient to say that we discovered during the booking of the service trip that the car is more than 3 years old now; therefore, we're out of warranty. So, going over the 60,000 km is no longer relevant, in terms of warranty. Thank God! And I think I can honestly say that this is the first time I've ever been happy to find that the warranty on something had expired!<br />
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Have we really had that car (i.e. lived in Maun) for 3 years already? Time flies, eh?Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-13862993504658117292012-05-10T04:07:00.001-07:002012-05-10T04:07:02.065-07:00(Re)learning to prayAs of 5PM last night, there were 3 things that I could not find, all of which I needed to complete my week's work: the contact info for our newest committee member, the call for papers for the conference that I may be speaking at in July, and our coming due phone bill. I searched and searched, to no avail. Rob saw me looking frazzled, expressed sympathy. I prayed that I would find them but quit looking for the day.<br />
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This morning, I set about looking for them all again, in all the same places I had looked before. I found them all. Thanks be to God! And there was much rejoicing.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-80637361434757323932012-04-02T14:10:00.001-07:002012-04-02T14:10:13.810-07:00Hitting the roadTomorrow morning, Carolyn (the intern) and I head for Gumare, along with Bahiti. We head back to Maun a week from today. Workshop, meetings, and the cultural festival; welcome to my holy week!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-86563541461144368812012-03-14T06:50:00.003-07:002012-03-14T06:50:57.507-07:00Time for a new workmateNow, my work computer's fan is making a grinding noise. Sigh. Streaky screen, weird noises… this 6 year-old has seen better days. Rob's has been acting up these days as well. Given that they've served us well in a very hot and dusty place for the last half of their life-to-date, I'm not complaining. We're approved to replace them but need to raise the funds to do so. To support the "Veith Computer" project at Lutheran Bible Translators (a tax-deductible donation for U.S. folks), click <a href="http://www.lbt.org/projects/botswana.php#12-0002" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1605255426"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiasqo1jqkyRbi7arndSC9fYLErDrnh-WGkDkTj-b2qIiyBmHKHjsY_3_ZAcCBYRr3YASJrkQamRcgBfkd4sM8cSNGbUblyoevJlbYTk9r1OPcLvPbl_TJxMtxrekvqteMtcPAd/s400/AppleOther.jpg" width="335" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">at a meeting with the current computer, in healthier days</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-38958913998586057782012-02-08T06:24:00.000-08:002012-02-08T06:27:41.710-08:00Lost and foundI lost the keys to the office today. Actually, I should say that I discovered that I could not find my keys when I went to leave the house to go to the office. They must have been lost sometime between leaving the office yesterday and this morning. I was late leaving then because I had to turn the house upside down, all to no avail.<br />
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So, on the way to the hopelessly locked office, where I knew that Bahiti and Keene would be waiting for me to begin the day's work, I began to think of things that we could do instead, that didn't involve office space. I told them that we would have a field trip morning instead. There were some new Shiyeyi materials at Mrs. Musupukwa's place that Lydia had left there for me and I hadn't gotten around to picking them up; we would start there.<br />
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She wasn't there when we arrived but her daughter Pearl was. She welcomed us, we sat in the porch area. She brought out the new materials for me to take some. We ended up sitting and chatting for quite some time, switching back and forth between 3 languages the whole time; Setswana, Shiyeyi, and English. Bahiti shared about what we had been doing at the new office, told her how to find it. She had been meaning to visit but wasn't sure of the location.<br />
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After a bit, we left there and I asked if they would come with me to Sexaxa, where the Shiyeyi cultural village for tourists is. Bahiti said that it was not too far from where he lives and said that he could go with me; Keene came along as well. We drove out, just about 15 minutes outside of town.<br />
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To make a long story short, we spent an entire morning driving from kgotlas to basket shops to people's homes, looking for the contacts for the cultural village so I can arrange a visit when my intern moves here. Along the way, we talked to dozens of people. Each time, Bahiti shared about the Bible translation work and chatted a bit with whoever we found. The way that he introduced me to people was kind of fun; he said that I was a Muyeyi, that I speak Shiyeyi. And throughout the course of the morning, I did. Not streams of it, mind you; I can read and understand it far better than I can speak it, by a long shot. But in the moments where the appropriate response in Shiyeyi came to mind, I used it. People's responses when I do that are fun to watch. Shock usually features in. Laughter happens. And Bahiti smiles, like he's played a particularly clever trick on those who heard me. We had a good time.<br />
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Once we finally tracked down the contacts for the village, I dropped Bahiti at his place on my way home. We stopped for a moment to visit with his mother, who was visiting him there. Then, I headed back to town with Keene, to drop her at home also. Normally, she would grab a taxi from the office when we finish work but we could see a major storm coming and nobody wanted her to get stuck in that. It actually hit when we were halfway to her place. Rained so hard that we had to pull over and wait for the roads to be less flooded and for visibility to return. Lightning was everywhere. Rob called me while we were parked on the side of the road and asked if I had seen the strike just then from where I was (on the other side of the river). I had. He told me it had struck immediately next to the house, close enough that he was actually shocked, while inside the house. How wild is that?<br />
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Eventually, we decided to creep back onto the road and go slowly with the hazard lights on as the rain showed no signs of stopping any time soon. As we crossed into the main part of town, we drove out of the storm. Just like that, we were in a totally dry place. The sand near the road was totally dry and people were walking about freely, no idea of the deluge that was happening just a few kilometers up the river. I dropped her at her ward and began the trek home.<br />
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I couldn't help but notice that the morning had been highly productive in ways that I hadn't planned on when I got up this morning. I may have found a place where I can learn to dance with the <i>mawayawaya</i> (the reed skirt) and to weave a basket (<i>ku ruka shiteko</i>). I got out there and practiced using my Shiyeyi-ears and my Setswana-ears with people other than my immediate circle of friends and co-workers. I got to startle a bunch of Wayeyi with my presence and amuse them with my "Shiyeyi tricks". People in Sexaxa have been told about the Wayeyi Bible Translation Project.<br />
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So, am I sorry that I lost my keys? No, I can't say that I am. But I sure wish I could find them. God, if you were trying to lead me somewhere with this inconvenience, I have gone; thank you for that. But can I have my keys back now?Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-89886376193738569802012-02-07T06:25:00.000-08:002012-02-07T06:25:13.446-08:00Akin to the whirlwindSo, I'm trying to get a handle on Shiyeyi kinship terms today. I've read Thomas Larson's "The Bayeyi of Ngamiland" (naturally) and his section on kinship terms, about 2 pages long. The challenge is that it's all in prose, making it difficult for me to visualize how everyone connects. For example, he writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The wife of one's father's brother is <i>moshemoze wakaza mokorana</i>. A father's brother's child is a <i>tate yo xene</i>, while the father's sister's child is called <i>moyokoranga</i>. One's wife's brother's child is <i>mono mokarako zanga</i>. Father's sister's husband is <i>moramo moqhana tate</i>. The mother's brother's wife is called <i>wamokaza moora ima</i>…" (Larson 1992, p9)</blockquote>
Now, that's all very well and good for him to rattle it off in prose but it sure makes it difficult for me to pick up reference patterns from a paragraph. It's even harder to try to use this as a reference for studying how to refer to someone.<br />
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Then, I found a handy free app – <a href="http://code.google.com/p/silkin/" target="_blank">SILKin</a> – for creating kinship charts. I've spent all this afternoon so far creating the charts and entering kinship terms in:<br />
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And I'm not finished yet. But my head is spinning and my chart is getting larger and larger and larger…Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-73095272953607730112012-01-24T03:20:00.001-08:002012-01-24T03:20:16.989-08:00Running in circlesI feel like I'm chasing my own tail today. In trying to enter a story into my linguistic software, I got bogged down with the ongoing issues in formal word division that the current version of the orthography has. So, I stop to try to write something up detailing what morphemes are the ones that seem to be the most problematic. In the process of doing this, I see that the problematic morphemes are generally ones that do not have a comparable utterance position to Setswana. Furthermore, some of these morphemes occur in tiny clusters... or are they actually separate morphemes in their own right that just share syllables with other morphemes? I decide that I need to go through the available grammars to see what they say about the nature of these morphemes. I'm going to write a simplified grammar based on these more complex ones, then test with Shiyeyi speakers to see which of these should be written separately from the morphemes around them.<br />
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Time from sitting down and starting to type in the story to beginning the simplified grammar? Four hours! Half a day and I feel like I'm getting nowhere! And I still need to come up with some sort of Language learning activity for tomorrow morning's session. Aaagh!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-75431917506432052372012-01-23T08:35:00.001-08:002012-01-23T08:35:39.313-08:00Leaping lizardsLiterally. Rob just heard a sound on top of the air conditioner. When he looked, he thought he saw a snake's head. Thankfully, it was just a lizard with a snakelike head. But when he tried to brush it off the air con and into a bucket, it leaped several feet across the room and onto the filing cabinet. Egads! I didn't know they could do that! He dealt with it with no help from me; I was in the bathroom, hiding out. He's my hero.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-88726890213162185912012-01-16T22:58:00.000-08:002012-01-21T08:43:15.953-08:00If you want it bad enough...Have I mentioned before that true, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is not (to my knowledge) to be had in the country of Botswana? Yet, sometimes, it is just the thing. The combination of watching Top Chef All-Stars and a sudden craving yesterday resulted in this brain-child. It took me about 15 minutes to make, from the moment of walking into the kitchen, concept fully formed in my brain, to serving it up. Here goes, the recipe for feeding two people:<br />
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Stewing sauce:<br />
1 small (~410g) can of diced tomatoes<br />
1 tsp chopped garlic<br />
1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil<br />
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled<br />
1/2 tsp dried oregano<br />
1/2 tsp mixed "Italian herbs"<br />
2 Tbsp red wine<br />
freshly ground black pepper (I used about a 1/4 tsp)<br />
salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp, Himalayan)<br />
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Combine in a pot that will have plenty of room for expanding dumplings; bring to a simmer. Let simmer while you grate cheese and mix dumplings.<br />
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<i>On*</i> Dumplings:<br />
3/4 cup flour<br />
1 1/2 tsp baking powder<br />
1/4 tsp salt<br />
1/2 tsp sugar<br />
1 egg<br />
1/4 cold water<br />
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Mix dry together; add wet. Drop by the sloppy spoonful into the simmering tomatoes to make a circle of dumplings.<br />
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Grate:<br />
mozzarella cheese - as much as you like (I did about 1/4 cup, when grated)<br />
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Immediately after putting in dumplings, sprinkle the cheese over them. Cover. Simmer without uncovering for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and eat.<br />
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I was floored by how well this satisfied the craving! Will definitely be doing this again and again. I may even introduce some favorite toppings in the future, maybe some sliced Kalamata olives, a little additional fresh basil. I hope that this brings many of you pizza-craving satisfaction, especially those who are living in places where great pizza is ne'er to be found.<br />
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* My only modification to the basic recipe that I know that I'll be trying next is to use a different dumpling recipe. I have two basic recipes, both of which I use and love. The only reason that I would choose one over the other is that one is designed to be cooked <i>on</i> top of a thick stew, the other is meant to be cooked <i>in</i> a soup. The <i>On</i> version is the one that I used this time - so you can use this dumpling recipe from above on top of any stew for beautiful fluffy dumplings every time, in just 3 minutes. But, as I noticed when dropping the dumplings, the tomatoes were really liquid enough that I should have used the <i>In</i> recipe, which is follows.<br />
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<i>In</i> Dumplings:<br />
1 cup flour<br />
2 tsp baking powder<br />
1 tsp sugar<br />
1/2 tsp salt<br />
1 Tbsp oil<br />
1/2 cup milk<br />
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Mix dry together; add wet. Drop by the mounded spoonful into simmering soup. Cover and simmer without removing the lid for 15 minutes.<br />
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<b>Edit</b> on <b>January 21, 2012</b> - I take it back; I won't do the <i>In</i> dumplings in the future. I tried it last night and it was very similar to the <i>On</i> version. The primary difference is that the original <i>On</i> version was much faster and the melted cheese with the original recipe was more like melted cheese, less like a bubbly cheese-flavored foam. So, go for <i>On</i>!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-80806902988672470422012-01-15T07:47:00.000-08:002012-01-18T06:42:39.655-08:00Angel in the mophane treesWe were arriving at church this morning and got out of the car, as we always do, grabbing our hymnbook, Bibles and the drum. On the way to the front door, I noticed that the ground seemed to be shifting around. I quickly realized that there were little caterpillar-looking things everywhere. And I mean <i>everywhere</i>. We went into the church, all the while my brain belatedly realizing that the critters were inside as well, teeming across the church floor. I went to the front pew to sit as usual, kind of on auto-pilot, headed for the best place in church to hold and play a drum comfortably.<br />
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Sitting down, I saw that the were not only coming in the back door; they were crawling through the front door as well. I froze. They would get too close to my feet; I would try to scoot them away with the (thankfully) closed toe of my shoe. Jumping in to the first chorus and drumming meant that one actually made it up onto the bare top of my foot without me noticing until I set the drum down at chorus-end. Flicking it away in disgust, I handed the drum to Rob and sat with my feet elevated.<br />
<br />
Long story short, after seeing that one had actually made it all the way up to the skin of drum without me noticing its progress, despite my vigilance, I fled. I squawked, grabbed the drum and my purse and fled. Off to the car I ran, where I skitted from one foot to another - they were all around the car as well - brushing them off the drum before placing it in the car, closing the door and fleeing across the parking lot.<br />
<br />
I had to go almost all the way to the entrance of the parking lot to find a place to stand where they wouldn't be sneaking up onto my feet. I had lasted only 30 minutes in the service before running from the wee beasties. I was actually shaking. I couldn't believe that people were still in there, carrying on with the service like there weren't little worms wriggling everywhere! I was a little surprised that Rob didn't immediately follow me out, I don't mind saying - more on what he <i>did</i> do later.<br />
<br />
While I was standing there in the late morning sun, trying to clear my head, calm down and figure out what I was going to do next, a car pulled up. It was Luise, a friend of mine who had decided to come visit our church for a look see. She had already attended the Methodist church that morning but had somehow felt compelled to come to my church as well. She saw how rattled I was and got out to talk to me. When I pointed out the swarm, she agreed that it might be best to visit on another occasion and offered to give me a lift home. It had been about 15 minutes since I had run out of the church building and Rob still hadn't followed me so I thankfully agreed to the lift. I sent Rob a quick text message and hastily got in her car; off we went. On our way out, Luise noticed a cabbage patch next to the church grounds. We hypothesized that perhaps some pesticide had been recently applied and they were all just looking for a new home, seeking sanctuary in the sanctuary, so to speak. Later, I discovered that this was a smaller variety of the phane worm that lives in mophane trees, the worm that some southern Africans eat for food. These small ones are <a href="http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=6&aid=1034&dir=2012/January/Friday13" target="_blank">a real problem right now</a>, competing for food with the larger, edible worms.<br />
<br />
She took me to her house first, to show me around her new digs. While there, I had a cup of sweet tea and regained my composure. We chatted for a while about our respective Christmas holidays and plans for a Bible study that we hoped to begin in the new year. About an hour later, she was dropping me off at my front door, in a much better state than she had found me. I still had a serious case of the willies for<br />
a while but I'm OK now.<br />
<br />
It was a rattling experience to see those critters crawling across the whole church, structure and members. Rob got my text message late and so had been there for about half an hour longer waiting for me to return to the pew. But he reported that while I was gone, he too had been distracted by the sight of them everywhere; on the altar, the pulpit, the guy sitting next to him. On the one hand, I felt like I was witnessing some kind of wholesale desecration of "the house of the Lord", made all the more surreal by the people around me who were continuing with liturgy as usual, just as if the place weren't infested. I seriously was incapable of thinking heavenly thoughts during the entire half hour I was in there and, truth be told, for some time afterward. I rather felt like the first person to be kicked off of Fear Factor for failing an insect-based challenge and was feeling rather sheepish about it. I mean, what kind of missionary am I?<br />
<br />
On the other hand, the arrival of Luise – out of the blue and entirely unexpected – could have been accompanied by blasts on a trumpet, so palpable was my relief. I have no doubt that she was a God-send; she agrees. And so, she had the chance to be the love of Christ to me in the midst of my own tiny, embarrassing crisis.<br />
<br />
And I'm OK with that. And I know what kind of missionary I am. I'm not the kind of missionary who believes that the desire to live the Fear Factor lifestyle is an essential component of being a missionary. I'm the kind of missionary who lives elsewhere only because that's what the job that I've been called to do requires of me. I don't look for trouble and when trouble finds me I'm likely to run screaming like a little girl. But I run to God, to the One who sent me here, even though He knows how I feel about creepy crawlies. I'm the kind of missionary to whom God - in His mercy and grace - will send an angel in the mophane trees.<br />
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</div>Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-39716340270870466492012-01-09T07:06:00.000-08:002012-01-09T07:06:12.639-08:00Trying to make microblogging more macroI've learned a new word this week: microblogging. That is the sharing of snippets of info and daily life via status updates, such as on Facebook or Twitter. And I've realized that microblogging is actually where I'm at these days, rather than standard blogging. Just read down this page, check out the dates; you'll see what I mean.<br />
<br />
I've been doing the Facebook status update thing for several years now, at least once a day. I even found an app that allows me to share my thoughts on what I'm reading on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/eshinee">Twitter</a> with a few taps of the iPod screen. Now, I've discovered Paper.li and created <a href="http://paper.li/eshinee/1326118009">The Exegette</a>, my own media newspaper created from microblogging content. Look to the right of this post, in the sidebar - there it is!<br />
<br />
So, even if I am not getting around to having anything more fleshy or pithy to say here on the Dancing Sni, folks can still read a little something-something without having to check all the different sites where I post stuff.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-51039846915293485022011-09-05T03:23:00.001-07:002012-01-09T07:06:49.406-08:00Your word is a stone is an eggOne of the challenges in translation is the fact that a word in one language can have multiple meanings in another. This is something that was highlighted last week during my language learning session with Bahiti. We were going through the Shiyeyi picture dictionary that was published a few years back and he was pointing out to me the definitions that weren't adequate. For example, the Shiyeyi definition given to go with the picture + English word "egg" is the word <b>ldiyi</b>. Bahiti explained to me that, yes, <b>ldiyi</b> means "egg". But it also means "voice/word". The Setswana definition for "egg" is <b>lee</b> but <b>lee</b>, unlike its Shiyeyi counterpart, does not also mean "voice/word". The Setswana word for "voice/word" is <b>lentswe</b>. But <b>lentswe</b> also means "stone".<br />
<br />
This is also an example of why a translation from something other than original languages can create a problem, especially if it then gets retranslated into yet another language. A Shiyeyi speaker who understands Setswana and translates into Shiyeyi from a Setswana Bible would have to choose which meaning of <b>lentswe</b> was intended in passages that contain that word. An English translator from Shiyeyi would then have to select the correct meaning of <b>ldiyi</b>. Imagine the difference that would be created with just one wrong translation choice in the transition from Setswana to Shiyeyi to English in <a href="http://net.bible.org/#!bible/Psalms+29">Psalm 29</a>: "The Lord's egg strikes with flaming fire!" Go ahead, <a href="http://net.bible.org/#!bible/Psalms+29">read the whole chapter</a> with "egg" in it replacing the word "shout" (in the NET Bible); it's good, clean fun!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-58611424789366128372011-08-03T07:06:00.000-07:002011-08-03T07:09:47.258-07:00An enduring WordI just had the most encouraging (and unexpected) interaction! One of our fellow local church-goers recently returned to Finland after 10 years of ministry here in Botswana and, shortly before her departure, sold her car. As it happens, the paperwork was not able to be finalized prior to her departure late last week so she asked if we would be willing to receive things from people on her behalf, to hand off to one of her remaining colleagues to forward to her when we see them. We agreed. Rob got a call yesterday from the new owner of the car, to arrange to meet for the transfer of paperwork. Rob told him that I would be in the office today, that he could drop them off here. The man, Edward, agreed. <br /><br />He called me this afternoon and said that he would be by before 3:00PM, looking for further directions as he was at the bank but didn't know exactly where my office was. I agreed to walk out to the main road and meet him there. After a few minutes of not seeing him, I called again to make sure that he had not passed me in the time that it had taken me to walk to the main road. While we were talking, he said, "Oh, I can see you now!"<br /><br />When he approached, we greeted. Then, he said, "I have something for you."<br /><br />He handed me a small stack of papers. The top paper was the receipt for the car purchase transfer of funds. But the following sheets of paper were my sermon notes from a message that I shared with the ELCB congregation here in Maun back in January 2010: <span style="font-style:italic;">Why it doesn't matter What Jesus Would Do</span>! He laughed when he saw my face. He then explained that he had recognized my voice on the phone – "As soon as I heard you speak, I knew who you were; you sounded just like you sounded when you preached" – and so brought these notes to prove that he remembered me. He said that he still wanted to keep the notes, he just wanted me to see them. He had been a visitor at our church that day and had asked for my notes so that he could study them in order to (as he put it) fully understand the message.<br /><br />What a fun reunion… both with Edward and with my sermon notes! When Rob and I give a lesson or a message here, someone always asks us for our notes afterwards. Sometimes it is when their first language is neither English (what we have spoken in) nor Setswana (into which our message was translated), as was the case with Edward. We have often wondered aloud, between the two of us, what it is that happens to our notes once they are given away. If Edward's treatment of them is any indication of the kind of longevity such messages can have – at least in physical form – consider my day <span style="font-weight:bold;">made</span>!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-4919718765286016392011-07-21T02:44:00.000-07:002011-07-21T03:00:08.813-07:00Safe and sound<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAtIV5wms5-nNDW49PRQQGuhh1ducJHiviTf0bOenbVP2AMFPF2iqF9g0olkSUP2neyVp0ekLhL6Nk-SYhaTT4RYrOqN8aCrk7v8CRS74Pxkzb_ppDsh8A_Pj3XvzZEeL2D5f/s1600/IMG_7012.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCAtIV5wms5-nNDW49PRQQGuhh1ducJHiviTf0bOenbVP2AMFPF2iqF9g0olkSUP2neyVp0ekLhL6Nk-SYhaTT4RYrOqN8aCrk7v8CRS74Pxkzb_ppDsh8A_Pj3XvzZEeL2D5f/s320/IMG_7012.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631740397197540082" /></a>We made it back and forth to the workshop OK. We noticed on our way up that the Toteng bridge had sandbags on it and that the water was all the way to the edge of the road but we went ahead anyway. On the way back, the water was creeping onto the bridge.<br /><br />The workshop went well, all the remaining Shiyeyi hymns to be revised before the new printing were checked. Most of the changes were just to the new orthography. After the revisions were complete, on the second day, there was a Shiyeyi lesson.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-3738953915180261262011-07-12T00:23:00.000-07:002011-07-12T01:30:17.560-07:00The floods are hereHave been seeing pictures posted on facebook in the past week by friends who live here in Maun of the floodwaters covering the roads to their home.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAVsKvP1CZKHy6tu6zG9lu88I8WDG1qYbiw5mkyaxI5IrLVZfbN0o9x1gtv8_xmDlVP8RXZEK7Z4n6kycMBzxS_1Y4pG2ahM8koBxw1IXzYxVCZ6nEZ4r2cLqSJsqpFR-66Uil/s320/photo-759801.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAVsKvP1CZKHy6tu6zG9lu88I8WDG1qYbiw5mkyaxI5IrLVZfbN0o9x1gtv8_xmDlVP8RXZEK7Z4n6kycMBzxS_1Y4pG2ahM8koBxw1IXzYxVCZ6nEZ4r2cLqSJsqpFR-66Uil/s320/photo-759801.JPG" border="0" alt=""></a><br />[photo from <a href="http://sitatungadispatches.blogspot.com/2011/07/flooded-road.html">Sitatunga Dispatches</a>, the blog of Elena, for whom we house sat a couple of months back]<br /><br />I don't think we have anything to worry about here at our house. The real heavy flooding is supposed to hit on Friday, the day that we're traveling up to Gumare for a writers' workshop. Flooding is predicted to possibly continue until the end of August. It's going to be a wet few years, they say (the local flood-pattern experts, that is… not your typical, generic "they"). Still, when we head northwest, we'll get all our electronics off the floor. The complex that we're living in has been around for a fair amount of time, long enough to even show up on Google satellite maps, so I doubt that we'll have an issue. <br /><br />My main concern is actually the route to Gumare. I'll have to keep an ear to the ground for the next couple of days, make sure we're not driving into a problem. Gumare doesn't flood, I hear, but the roads around it occasionally do. North of it, really. I remember well the writers' workshop around this same time of the year, a few years back, where we had reservations at a river camp in Sepopa that was flooded and had to leave the car at the flood edge to take a mokoro to the camp. <br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dypn9hKT-Fuf1w8aCl4_4E53Jeag0ObmfHR-Ykq5oCT7gDy74Xa55WsiV2XGVqW8qo5UiaZbOOdKtA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />I would say "those were the days" but, as I'm beginning to think, these may be the days again. At least accommodation is now available in Gumare so we don't have to drive back and forth through the worst of the flood plain during this time of year anymore. I'll actually be able to walk back and forth to the workshop from where we're staying; thanks be to God!Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-6576055159787027932011-07-07T00:04:00.000-07:002011-07-07T00:10:32.900-07:00Getting readyThere are so many aspects of a translation project needing to be attended to that never occurred to me prior to being here, being an advisor to such a project. Like, it isn't enough to rent an office; the office building itself requires tending. Right now, the office has 2 broken window panes (came with it, were going to be fixed "ASAP"), a leaky toilet and (possibly) a rodent infestation. Yes, we've got droppings. I'm not sure if they are rodent or lizard but they don't have that telltale white dot on the end of any of the droppings so I'm leaning more towards rodent, unfortunately. I have no idea how they could be getting in, the only entry point is under the front door. Which I can't even imagine, the crack is so small. But I have heard tales of rodents getting into the tiniest of crevices, often dying where they crawl in, if they can't get out. So, now, I am having to fuss with some additional basic logistics that are surprisingly time consuming.<br /><br />Also, I still have to outfit the office, finding and purchasing furniture and other fittings. Which I am holding off on, frankly, until I figure out the source of the droppings.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-17813809267496490192011-06-29T00:15:00.000-07:002011-06-29T00:36:21.532-07:00Ant weirdnessLet me start by saying that having ants in the home here in Maun is not considered to be a problem. It's just the way things are. The place we're in now is pretty good; we rarely see them, just a small string of them here and there if some food falls on the floor or gets left on the counter. Ziploc baggies are my friend, let me tell you. I baggie everything.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-MMCbBkIVL2JpIjZ6MdnwrYSfH9tacYI4EdxBtkty1ynsRqdap8rcFTUHtaQ3rHSdkhgKmSJP4afuVSHg28BMq6MyXsWybCPqZ7w3SOBlDu-bEPsDzK2qYYZAO6ODJbDYUGm/s1600/IMG_6962.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-MMCbBkIVL2JpIjZ6MdnwrYSfH9tacYI4EdxBtkty1ynsRqdap8rcFTUHtaQ3rHSdkhgKmSJP4afuVSHg28BMq6MyXsWybCPqZ7w3SOBlDu-bEPsDzK2qYYZAO6ODJbDYUGm/s320/IMG_6962.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623538673369518722" /></a>But we have a weird thing going on right now; piles of dead ants. Like, I came out to the living room this morning and was greeted with a small pile of dead ants. It's hard to tell from this picture but the dark brown bits are dead ants and the lighter bits look like pulverized concrete. The thing is, I didn't spray this area so I'm not responsible for the dead ants. Rob says that the landlord does have his guys sprinkle ant killer around the foundations so maybe that's what's killing them. They're just crawling inside and dying once they arrive. At any rate, I guess I'm just glad that they're dead when they arrive, rather than infesting the kitchen. I just have to sweep up the piles. There are worse things.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-22779593906437635422011-06-23T13:39:00.001-07:002011-06-23T13:39:20.214-07:00Looking forward to singing a new songI went to the office today, for my usual shift. There was supposed to be someone coming to fix two windows but that didn't happen during the time that I said I'd be around for them to do so. I didn't wait any longer than I had promised; that's a recipe for frustration, let me tell you. And we had had enough of that for the day already. Rob spent hours today trying to get our local bank account set up for internet banking so we have a way to pay rent without standing in long lines at the bank to do so every month. Long story short is that we still don't have online banking set up; he hit a wall. I'm thinking there will have to be some phone calls made tomorrow, see what we can work out over the phone. At any rate, I'm recommending that he call the bank and make an appointment with whoever it is that know anything about the online banking set up process, rather than taking his chances with whoever he gets passed off to on a walk-in basis - in today's case, several whoevers. I say make an appointment. If that's even possible, mind you. Gotta try it; bank queues are nuts.<br /><br />Tomorrow morning, will be laying down a vocal track for a couple of local budding rap artists from our church. They're doing some pretty fun stuff, good solid talent. Hopefully we'll have something to link to from here that you can preview soon.<br /><br />New fun drink that I came up with last night:<br /><br />1/2 cup ginger ale (I like the local brand, Stoney)<br />1/2 cup pineapple juice<br />fresh-squeezed juice of 1/2 of a tiny lime<br /><br />Delish! What should I call it?Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-61294950682085664992011-06-22T11:50:00.001-07:002011-06-22T11:59:55.812-07:00Back againI know that it's been a long time since I blogged. And I must confess that I've had internet since Monday but I've been too excited looking up all the information that I couldn't look up for so long that I didn't even think of blogging until just now. Hopefully, this will change.<br /><br />I've been out of the office - the physical one, the one we just rented - for the last couple of days. Tuesday was because I had a sinus thing going on and didn't want to trek there and hang out in the cold when I had a perfectly good home office space to work from right here, where I could recuperate a little. Today, Rob had some guys coming over to record so I stayed as support staff. Also, they want me to help out with a track on the album so they taught me the part. And I made them coffee and lunch, you know, wifey stuff.<br /><br />Tomorrow, I'll be going in though. It's just me there for now, while we figure out who the staff will be, so it isn't like I have anyone waiting for me when I get there. But I'm going in to get into the habit of doing so, really. Plus, I've already moved all my linguistics books and project files over there. Tomorrow, someone is coming to fix a couple of windows that were already cracked when I moved in so I need to be there for that.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994833.post-40317156642783717162011-04-15T01:27:00.000-07:002011-04-15T01:29:05.807-07:00Home at lastWell, we aren't. But we do have prospects; we hope to be meeting with our new landlord some time today. Thanks be to God! It's the place we wanted to be living in all along. Right now, I'm emailing at the university library at the edge of town. Then, we get groceries and back out into the bush.Eshinee Veithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13016332215665621849noreply@blogger.com0