After our traditional lunch of pizza accompanied by Settlers of Catan (Mom wins again!), the girls and I prepared to go outside and catch up with our neighbors. Aaron had just started working on one of the many house repairs when Ezekiel stopped by. Sunday afternoons are such a great time to visit, and those two guys had a lot of planning to do. I took my phone with the Lavukaleve app, and I was determined to share with anyone who was willing. I love that it promotes literacy by highlighting the words as you listen. I played through all of Ruth for Leku’s extended family, and they were delighted by the translation. (Although, one of the ladies didn’t recognize it as being from the Bible at all.) They said it sounded “straight”, like good Lavukaleve. In between each chapter, I kept stopping and asking if I was boring them, and they kept encouraging me to keep playing it. This area had one young lady with a smartphone, and I tested my technological skills by sharing the app with her – it worked!
Then I walked over to Margaret’s house. She was rolling out little cakes made of flour and coconut cream and her granddaughter was frying them over an open fire. They were yummy! I helped Margaret make patterns and designs on the cakes while we listened to Ruth. Her husb
and sidled into the kitchen (which was super hot, so you know he was interested) to listen. I started writing words instead of just poking holes on the cakes using the stick of a lollipop. I wrote “tutua” on one of the cakes, which means grandmother. It was supposed to mark the cake for Margaret, but it’s what all of the kids call me now. Nobody in this area had a smartphone, which makes sense. We get little to no signal, and the tower that sends it has only 2G, so very little data can move through the air.
When I went to find Ofoaen, her husband informed me that she had gone to the clinic with her daughter who had a baby girl that day! I was so excited for her. Since she wasn’t home, I popped back in at our house for a drink of water and found Ezekiel and Aaron still going strong after a couple of hours. Then I headed over to find Kiko, who read the part of Naomi. She and her sisters were delighted to hear the recording, but again, nobody in this area had a smartphone so I could share the app.
I walked over to where the girls were playing and found another group of ladies who had participated in the recording. Josephine’s husband, Derek, read the part of Jonah, and I wanted her to hear him read. So I played a little bit of Jonah and part of Ruth so the other ladies could hear their voices. They also were very complimentary of the translation and said it sounded like proper Lavukaleve. I love the look on people’s faces when they hear their language coming out of the phone.
The girls and I finally headed up to the house at 5:00 because we knew the bell for Evening Prayer would be ringing soon and we were all stinky and sweaty. We found Aaron and Ezekiel wrapping up their chat after four hours. I relayed all of the good things I had heard about Ruth, and he ducked his head and said something like, “That’s good because that’s the one I translated.”
I’m hopeful that Bible literacy will improve now that we have recordings of Ruth and Jonah. I’m also hopeful that people will view their language as something important and worth saving. Most of all, I’m hopeful that in the books of Ruth and Jonah, my friends and neighbors will see Jesus.
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