Christmas 2013

I thought I would give a few snapshots, in words and pictures, of our Christmas here in the village.

On Christmas Eve we were visited by the church children, who were visiting all the church leaders to bring Christmas greetings. They marched in, sat down, sang to us, and then marched off again. They made a colourful picture!

On Christmas morning our kids had stockings. The boys opened their small presents and then enjoyed helping their sister to open hers. We then took our traditional family Christmas one-take self-timer photo.

We went to church at 9, though we knew it would start a bit later because of Christmas, so sat outside for a while, greeting people as they arrived. Eve isn't a big fan of church at the moment, as it is her nap-time and she doesn't like sitting still. So I just stayed for half an hour of singing at the beginning, but it was good to be worshipping with fellow Christians to celebrate Jesus' birth!

We had guineafowl for Christmas dinner, with roast and green veg, and gravy and bread sauce.

After the afternoon nap, there were more presents, and then an outing to watch the church playing a friendly football match. You might spot some familiar heads among the spectators!

Finally we started a new tradition of a family video night, watching Shrek 3, which Benjy had had for Christmas. It is rare that we all sit down together to watch something, and it was fun! (Eve was already in bed, she'll have to wait a few years to be included!)

blowing your own trumpet? or something else?

Our translators translate from French - using several different versions - into Monkolé. I then check the Hebrew text against what we have in Monkolé. People sometimes ask me if it isn't good enough to simply translate from the French.

Here is just a small example of why I think we get a better translation if we compare it with the Hebrew. As we were translating II Samuel we came across several instances of the Israelites blowing a "trumpet". This had been translated from the French into Monkolé as "kãakãakĩ" and when I asked my translators what it was, to check, they said "a trumpet", and confirmed that it was a metallic instrument.

In Hebrew the word is (if I transliterate) "shofar", a ram's horn which is blown through to create a loud, carrying sound. And in Monkolé, a similar horn is called a "kuu". So where appropriate, we have been changing "kãakãakĩ" in our text to "kuu".

(I have just had a look in a few English versions out of interest and have found a lot of "trumpets" but one "horns"!)