South Pacific!
No not the musical! But the idea of returning to the South Pacific is music to our ears. In late May we began to discuss details of returning to Papua New Guinea with Wycliffe personnel administrators. We confirmed linguistics courses I needed prior to assuming my new role as Biblical exegete and in June we began to outline job descriptions for both of us. Of course, Gertrude's role will continue to be in literacy. She is grateful to be mentored by Dr. Patricia Kelley, the S.I.L. International Literacy Coordinator. Pat encouraged Gertrude to re-tool by co-teaching graduate level courses at GIAL. She also recommends that Gertrude plan to continue re-tooling by taking a distance course in alphabet development, sitting in on the Multi-lingual Education course and helping to co-teach a Literacy Principles course this Fall at GIAL.
Patricia and Norm Maguire, the SIL Pacific Area Director smiled as Gertrude walked into Patricia's office one afternoon. They were discussing who might fill the role of Pacific Area Literacy Coordinator-(including countries like PNG, Australia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Timor). They invited Gertrude to assume this role and Gertrude's first response was "Sure, I'll do it." But then she remembered that she has a husband seeking to settle into a language program in PNG. How would an international role affect my work. We were delighted to hear from the Pacific Area leadership stating that they only needed Gertrude for about 20% of the time. The rest of the time could be spent engaging in literacy work in Papua New Guinea. When necessary, I could travel with her and possibly help with computer related tasks. Much of the literacy coordinator's job could be done from Papua New Guinea by email. We look forward to finalizing the particulars of our new jobs and written invitations from both PNG Branch and Pacific Area SIL soon. We'll keep you posted!
Created on December 6, 2008..................................