Panama News

Yesterday Doug, Abundio, Julio and Chaz attended a meeting with a team headed by the unofficial chief’s education coordinator. We were cautious about this meeting because of a distrusted person who was in attendance. The coordinator asked us to do a series of training seminars on linguistics so those trained could visit remote villages, do some seminars themselves and take a survey to resolve the differences between the two remaining alphabets. (These alphabets differ from one another by just two letters.)

We agreed to do the initial seminars but time is a factor: they would like them as soon as possible and Chaz has a lot of other commitments right now. They also asked for whatever funds we could provide for the seminars in remote communities since they have nothing; after all, their chief is not recognized by the national government. (He appears, however, to have the majority of the popular support.) The request for funds may be a pressure tactic since the distrusted person mentioned in the first paragraph is looking for funds on his own to do another type of survey that could introduce another alphabet!

Pray for wisdom for Chaz. He has limited time and any funds he receives in the short term should go for other things he has already committed to. Ask God to make it clear just how much time and money Chaz should commit to this group.

Chaz has finished the fourth provisional edition of the book of Genesis after incorporating Doug’s suggestions. He expected to give newly bound copies to Doug as well as to Abundio and Julio, who were in town for a meeting. But as Julio was leaving he asked for 12 copies since his uncle is starting a Genesis study in their home village. Chaz only had 9 left, so Julio took 5. Chaz had thought he was making the copies for whenever people wanted them, and it was obvious people wanted them as soon as we picked them up at the copy shop!

Kirsten has survived her first week of college and so far is enjoying it, despite lots of homework and late nights. She has decided for this semester to not take on extra involvement like rowing or yearbook, to make sure she has time for studies and work and can get into the rhythm of college life. She is currently applying for several work-study jobs through a student research program on campus, jobs where she is involved in hands-on research. She says this is a highly competitive program, so she appreciates prayer as she goes through the application and interview process.

We enjoy regular chats with her on Instant Messenger as well as emails and occasional phone calls. We are really looking forward to Christmas, when she will come home to see us for 10 days.

She has posted lots of pictures of her new life and friends. See the link to her pictures at right.

Laura and Helga are involved in US Girl Scouts Overseas in Brownies troop #6. For the past 2 weeks all the US Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts here in Panama have been raising funds to make a donation to the Red Cross for the Katrina victims’ relief fund. Several girls from our troop, including Laura, have been working at asking people for donations and putting collection cans in various businesses around town. The money is to be all turned in by Monday. So far around $3,000 has been counted, and not all funds are in yet! We’re excited that we could be a part of this opportunity to help people who have lost so much.

Yesterday all the participating scouts had the opportunity to meet the new US Ambassador to Panama, William Eaton. He stopped by to pose for a number of pictures with the scouts and to give them words of commendation and thanks.

Laura’s a row in front of the ambassador, a little to the right of the center.

Now Laura is right in front of him.

Thank you for praying regarding my accepting the role of linguistic advisor for the group I mentioned yesterday. I definitely will not accept the role at this time. The group’s goal appears to be that of funding the linguistic research project of a private individual, part of which is introducing yet another alphabet proposal! We are not sure if this individual has deceived the group or if they are acting in concert. The sad part is that a friend of the church may be involved.

We had a meeting today with the Embera teachers who work with the ministry of education and with the Embera chief the government recognizes. The meeting went well and the resolution of August 16th which recognizes the consensus alphabet has gone to the minister, officially replacing the unusable alphabet. The Embera church will accept the consensus alphabet if the bilingual education bill becomes law. If it fails or the people reject it, the church will go back to using the alphabet they have used since 1974. The difference between the two alphabets amounts to two letters.

While there have been some positive steps in the N. Embera alphabet saga, there are still some rocky areas we need to go through.

The first objective has been met: the alphabet deemed unusable by the people is no longer under consideration. On August 16th a resolution was drafted to use different letters. The church agreed to this although they didn’t get all the letters they wanted. The letters they didn’t want, though, are not that crucial and they can see that now.

The resolution is being sent to the Minister of Education and the alphabet presented is supposed to be provisional for two years. There are some, though, who would already like to make changes and those individuals come from all quarters. What is most important here is that the resolution from August 16th be applied. If it is suspended, the unusable alphabet could be resurrected or the bilingual education bill could be withdrawn from consideration by the National Assembly.

There is still a chance the church could get all the letters they want but that would be after the testing period is over or, if one group gets its way, after a survey is taken in remote communities. This particular group has asked me to fund such a survey (with funds we don’t have) and be their the linguistic advisor. Since I value the church’s opinion I have taken advice from them on how to proceed but the situation changes almost daily. Please pray for us all. I do not want to be involved in funding something if it is the wrong way to go. We also need to abide by the resolution we drafted and have sent to the Minister.

View from town of Sambu toward pedestrian bridge to Puerto Indio.

Doug and I were invited to attend a regional congress and present the 1974 alphabet, the one the church uses. We had to go out a day earlier than we thought, because of the limited flight schedule, but it was a time to meet people in an area neither of us had visited. The alphabet presentation was fairly brief because of the full agenda but it was received well by the people and the leadership. We had one detractor but after we sat down one of the leaders accused him and a few other seleted individuals of trying to destroy the Embera language. Thanks for praying; we feel as though the tide is turning in favor of the church and the people.