Well, it's been a busy week or so! After coming home from High Wycombe, and bringing Nanny with us, it was all change again when Gavin came to stay on tuesday evening. Not content with 6 round the table, we gained another two in the shape of Morag and Serge (my sister and her husband) and often had Julia's boyfriend Song around for meals too, making lunch a squishy 9 around our table. Still, it's always good to have family around, and last weekend was no exception, as games were played, talk was...er, talked, and food was consumed in great quantities - and this wasn't even Christmas day yet!
It was all change again on sunday afternoon, and as I traipsed over to Manchester to see my cousins, the other visitors departed too. When I returned on Monday, though, the house had gained another Gray daughter (the only one left - Eleanor), and my aunt also. As you can see, it has been a busy Christmas so far, and has only just started to calm down.
Christmas day followed it's traditional (well, traditional for us) routine of walk, lunch (about 3pm!) then presents. The walk is not something that I always enjoyed, especially when I was younger, but this 3 hour trek was very helpful for later to make the excess food eating seem justified!
It's really cool to think (as most people don't on Christmas day) just how awesome the birth of Christ really was. Not that it compares to what was done on Easter day, but Jesus had to be born in order to carry out His ministry and then die for us, so His birth is so exciting!
Anyway, just about 3 and a half weeks left in England, and then it's off to face Summer in Tanzania! I am trying to enjoy the cold now that I have it, since I won't get it again for a long time, but I can't stop looking forward to the sun.
Well, Happy New Year all!
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Monday, 17 December 2007
End of training
Oh dear, I have been bad at updating! Many apologies for that.
So, back to the language project. Asante Twi was possibly the easiest of the languages to study, but still we had a very fraught 3 weeks! Each day was cram-packed with data collection sessions with Grace, and hours sat in front of the computer entering data into Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEX) or listening to sound files of data. We were required to produce 2 phonology reports over the 3 weeks and 3 grammar reports. It was tough dealing with such ambiguous data (collected by 6 people who all heard differently!) and trying to make sense of it, but we managed to hammer out 37 pages of phonology (the final report) and 48 pages of grammar report (even scarier, that was 11,525 words!). The alarming thing about that, was that it is only a basic sketch of the language! We missed quite a few things out due to lack of time, and were left with many questions still. For some of us, this was quite hard to cope with – we like doing things thoroughly! It was good practise though, but has also scared me somewhat for my work in Tanzania, since I will be doing similar things there, but in Swahili not English!
Our final week of the course was spent doing an ICT (Intercultural Communication Training) course, with very relaxed days of discussion and film clips J. On Wednesday of the last week, we had our ART party, a wonderful time of mince pies, junk food (and actually some healthy food like fruit!) and entertainment. We had a quiz, with questions about our time in High Wycombe, such as: “what time were the two night-time fire alarms?” and “How many definite destination countries are we going to?” There were also multiple sketches, some with a series of very clever grammar jokes (we are very geeky, yes, and it was possibly a bit unfair on all the non-Grammar people!), and some making fun of the fact that we spent so much time socialising by imitating a staff meeting called together to discuss the progress of the track components “food studies” (reference to the wonderful food provided on centre), “sports” (ceilidh dancing, aerobics, football etc) and “word games” (crosswords, scrabble, grabble and take two). Maybe you had to be there, but it was a very funny sketch for us J. Near the end, we had a present giving game. This was where you opened a present in the middle (taken from a pile of presents) and then decided to either stick with it, or switch with one already opened. The swapping got rather ridiculous as more people opened presents, and people tried to avoid the unwanted gifts! The amusement was that the presents were essentially things that we didn’t want to take home with us wrapped up, but some of the gifts were really nice too, and everyone wanted them. I ended up with a tin of tuna.
Sadly, we had our closing ceremony on Friday, and then a splendid Christmas lunch for the whole centre. The food was very tasty, and I think I was not the only one to eat too much! The afternoon was rather sad though, as people left to go home, and our time on the centre ended L
I think I have written more than enough for now! More later...
So, back to the language project. Asante Twi was possibly the easiest of the languages to study, but still we had a very fraught 3 weeks! Each day was cram-packed with data collection sessions with Grace, and hours sat in front of the computer entering data into Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEX) or listening to sound files of data. We were required to produce 2 phonology reports over the 3 weeks and 3 grammar reports. It was tough dealing with such ambiguous data (collected by 6 people who all heard differently!) and trying to make sense of it, but we managed to hammer out 37 pages of phonology (the final report) and 48 pages of grammar report (even scarier, that was 11,525 words!). The alarming thing about that, was that it is only a basic sketch of the language! We missed quite a few things out due to lack of time, and were left with many questions still. For some of us, this was quite hard to cope with – we like doing things thoroughly! It was good practise though, but has also scared me somewhat for my work in Tanzania, since I will be doing similar things there, but in Swahili not English!
Our final week of the course was spent doing an ICT (Intercultural Communication Training) course, with very relaxed days of discussion and film clips J. On Wednesday of the last week, we had our ART party, a wonderful time of mince pies, junk food (and actually some healthy food like fruit!) and entertainment. We had a quiz, with questions about our time in High Wycombe, such as: “what time were the two night-time fire alarms?” and “How many definite destination countries are we going to?” There were also multiple sketches, some with a series of very clever grammar jokes (we are very geeky, yes, and it was possibly a bit unfair on all the non-Grammar people!), and some making fun of the fact that we spent so much time socialising by imitating a staff meeting called together to discuss the progress of the track components “food studies” (reference to the wonderful food provided on centre), “sports” (ceilidh dancing, aerobics, football etc) and “word games” (crosswords, scrabble, grabble and take two). Maybe you had to be there, but it was a very funny sketch for us J. Near the end, we had a present giving game. This was where you opened a present in the middle (taken from a pile of presents) and then decided to either stick with it, or switch with one already opened. The swapping got rather ridiculous as more people opened presents, and people tried to avoid the unwanted gifts! The amusement was that the presents were essentially things that we didn’t want to take home with us wrapped up, but some of the gifts were really nice too, and everyone wanted them. I ended up with a tin of tuna.
Sadly, we had our closing ceremony on Friday, and then a splendid Christmas lunch for the whole centre. The food was very tasty, and I think I was not the only one to eat too much! The afternoon was rather sad though, as people left to go home, and our time on the centre ended L
I think I have written more than enough for now! More later...
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