Fascinating article on development  aid

here are the first five lessons along with some introductory matters

lessons1-5-1

click here and you should be able to listen and download

cebuano-language-lesson01

With permission, I am posting this great letter from friends Chris and Ros about Ros’ trip to the doctor for a check-up back in September.  Helps you to picture a little bit more about life here.

Dear All

The other week I went to see my doctor for my monthly check up. I arrived at 10am, to be first in line for clinic to start at 12 noon. Once I was booked in for the appointment I went to a local café, revised my Tagalog grammar, and watched the rain begin to pour very heavily.

On my return to the waiting corridor I was told that I would have a substitute doctor as my doctor was not available. Eventually, after waiting another hour, I was told that the substitute could not come because of the bad weather, so another substitute would be coming! I eventually saw this doctor at 2pm. The appointment lasted 20 minutes. The baby seems to be fine and I got to hear the heart beat.

My journey home was then quite an adventure. Firstly I got off my jeepney in the wrong place (one stop too early), then a kind lady directed me to the rail station – only it was the wrong line! I eventually worked out where I should be and got the correct train line. At the other end of the line it was still raining and the queues for the Multitaxi were very long.

Eventually I saw some normal taxis and found one that would take me home (but for a price!) because the weather was so bad. Also in the queue at the station was the father of a child from Chris’ class and we shared the taxi. I only knew him vaguely but it was good to have his company.

Due to the heavy rain, traffic was very slow moving. Our driver even took to driving on the wrong side of the road (“contraflow” a typical Filipino road habit!)… I closed my eyes at that point! Then we got stuck! The main road to our housing subdivision had flooded knee high and no traffic could pass any further. So we got out and walked until we reached the flooded area.

Some very enterprising Filipinos had pedal bikes with side carriers (usually for big water bottles) that they had put planks over the top for people to sit on, so they pushed us both through the water and we didn’t have to get wet. They were having great fun and pleased to be earning some money at the same time.

A bit further on we walked through water, but only ankle deep – still not pleasant when the water looks like a mud bath. I was very grateful as the parent with me helped me through the water so I wouldn’t slip. Overall, from the time we got out of the taxi, it took us 45 minutes to walk home. I got home at 5:30pm having left that morning at 8:30am for a twenty minute appointment! It took me the whole of the following day to recover my energy.

The experience reminded me that God does not let our foot slip and really does watch over our coming and going (Psalm 121). I believe that I was able to share that taxi and have the company of that parent to get me home safely. It would not have been safe or fun to have been on my own in that situation. I’m now gearing myself up for my next trip to the hospital for my next scan on October 8^th. Please pray that we have better weather!

Found this–might be worth some laughs

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row …
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is ’UP.’ It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election
and why is UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP  the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir  UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes  UP  almost 1/4^th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it
is clouding UP  . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP…

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so……..it is time to shut UP!

Oh . . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?     U P

Heard a fascinating story from one of our missionaries last night who works with a tribal group who described the powerful use of story in communicating the gospel, using the Chronological Bible story method.  He said he was able to hold people’s interest for three hours telling the Bible story–with interactions and dialogue.

In telling the story of Adam and Eve in the garden, he realized he needed to adjust the story to their world view.  Apparently, for this group, man and woman were created without sex organs and the pictures used in the stories perpetuated this thinkng–fig leaves covering up the private parts or just using generic bodies.  So, he began to describe in the story of creation how God created man and woman with a complete set of parts.  This led into an opportunity to discuss God’s view of the beauty and intimacy of sex–contra to the painful, sinful worldview of sex associated with pre-marital sex, rape and arranged marriages for young girls.

Here are a couple of amusing signs, courtesy of engrish

One of the hardest things as missionaries has been our inability to hold onto pets. Since my wife is a cat person, we have had cats since we were married. That worked okay until we moved overseas. We have adopted numerous cats but only once did a cat survive our move. On one home assignment, one of our staff adopted our cat and loved it as her own and then returned it to us when we came back. Unfortunately, the cat didn’t last too long after that. But, the story is when we returned, the cat, named Butterscotch had not forgotten us–well, my wife, anyway. So, follows the link below that my wife sent me.

This made me cry….Snopes.com says it is real. Reminds of when we got Butterscotch back, after a year.

Enjoy

Went and looked at Brad Sayers website, Set a New Direction today and he looks like he may have some useful tools for cross-cultural workers trying to make the transition back into the mainstream work force at home. Check him out. Here are a couple of graphics I picked off his website.

Found this on Samm Blake website