The New Ireland Translation Institute (NITI) has been keeping both Gertrude and myself very busy. There has been eleven new netbook computers that have been donated to NITI for the translators to use in their villages between NITI courses. With the computer they have been supplied with solar panels and batteries to keep these computers running. It present I am getting the translators going on their new computers providing some training on the new software that they will be using. I have also installed the new software on the staff computers and giving them some help along the way. (Sorry I don’t have a picture of the netbook computers to upload yet.)
Beyond all the computer work that has been keeping me so busy I have been working with the Notsi translators in developing a back translation of the book of Galatians which they have translated and had a village check with. This back translation back into English is the help me as well as the consultant in the future to determine how good the translation is without knowing the language. It is a tremendous help to me to learn the language. Pictured here are Paul & Wesley two of the translators that I am working with on my computer on the back translation.
Gertrude has very full days starting at 8:00 and ending somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00. She is teaching a group of 13 people from 5 different language groups. What she teaches ranges from basic literacy principles of just what are all the sounds of the language and the alphabet that they use, to basic computer skills. Part of the day they spend writing common stories from their village that may be published in a reading primer. She has a lot for them to accomplish in these four weeks that we are here. When the class is done they will take books back to their villages that will help people to become better readers in their own language. May people already know how to read English or Tok Pisin but do not know how to use those skills to read fluently in their language.
NicholasNews 