What does typhoid feel like?

One of the overseas immunizations we needed before going to Tanzania was Typhoid.  Of all the immunizations we received, this one hit me the worst.  I had the classic side-effects: fever, headache, abdominal discomfort and cramping, nausea, yuck!

Salmonella Typhi bacteria

But that's nothing compared to actually contracting the disease.  The CDC says,

Typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi.  Typhoid fever is still common in the developing world, where it affects about 21.5 million persons each year.  Salmonella Typhi lives only in humans. Persons with typhoid fever carry the bacteria in their bloodstream and intestinal tract. In addition, a small number of persons, called carriers, recover from typhoid fever but continue to carry the bacteria. Both ill persons and carriers shed Salmonella Typhi in their feces (stool).

You can get typhoid fever if you eat food or drink beverages that have been handled by a person who is shedding Salmonella Typhi or if sewage contaminated with Salmonella Typhi bacteria gets into the water you use for drinking or washing food. Therefore, typhoid fever is more common in areas of the world where handwashing is less frequent and water is likely to be contaminated with sewage. 

 Here's where it gets personal for us moving to Africa.

One study estimates that in Africa there are 50 cases per 100,000 people, predominantly in young school-aged children.  However, another study conducted in East Africa revealed 650 cases per 100,000 people, again mostly children under ten years of age.

What is the best way to prevent typhoid?
Clean water, hygiene and good sanitation.

It's that easy.

One of the great benefits of language development work in a community is the ability to translate training materials for local officials to use.  We can translate information about health and hygiene into the heart language of people and help prevent the spread of typhoid.  How exciting!!




http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/typhoid_fever/#vaccinated
http://www.jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/19745521/77
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/typhoid/en/

Cool video about Bible translation in Cameroon

This is what I will be doing...in Tanzania, of course.

Patrick in Ireland: A Vision for the Nations

Beyond the myth. Beyond the legend. Just read his own words...

 "I am greatly God’s debtor, because he granted me so much grace." --Patrick

I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.

And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.

Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

For there is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things, as we have been taught; and his son Jesus Christ, who manifestly always existed with the Father, before the beginning of time in the spirit with the Father, indescribably begotten before all things, and all things visible and invisible were made by him. He was made man, conquered death and was received into Heaven, to the Father who gave him all power over every name in Heaven and on Earth and in Hell, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe. And we look to his imminent coming again, the judge of the living and the dead, who will render to each according to his deeds. And he poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, the gift and pledge of immortality, which makes the believers and the obedient into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ who is revealed, and we worship one God in the Trinity of holy name.

According, therefore, to the measure of one’s faith in the Trinity, one should proceed without holding back from danger to make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, to spread God’s name everywhere with confidence and without fear.

Patrick 390-461 A.D.

Thus I give untiring thanks to God who kept me faithful in the day of my temptation, so that today I may confidently offer my soul as a living sacrifice for Christ my Lord; who am I, Lord? or, rather, what is my calling? that you appeared to me in so great a divine quality, so that today among the barbarians I might constantly exalt and magnify your name in whatever place I should be, and not only in good fortune, but even in affliction? So that whatever befalls me, be it good or bad, I should accept it equally, and give thanks always to God who revealed to me that I might trust in him, implicitly and forever, and who will encourage me so that, ignorant, and in the last days, I may dare to undertake so devout and so wonderful a work; so that I might imitate one of those whom, once, long ago, the Lord already pre-ordained to be heralds of his Gospel to witness to all peoples to the ends of the earth. So are we seeing, and so it is fulfilled; behold, we are witnesses because the Gospel has been preached as far as the places beyond which no man lives.  

Behold now I commend my soul to God who is most faithful and for whom I perform my mission in obscurity, but he is no respecter of persons and he chose me for this service that I might be one of the least of his ministers.  

And if at any time I managed anything of good for the sake of my God whom I love, I beg of him that he grant it to me to shed my blood for his name with proselytes and captives, even should I be left unburied, or even were my wretched body to be torn limb from limb by dogs or savage beasts, or were it to be devoured by the birds of the air, I think, most surely, were this to have happened to me, I had saved both my soul and my body. For beyond any doubt on that day we shall rise again in the brightness of the sun, that is, in the glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer.

For the sun we see rises each day for us at [his] command, but it will never reign, neither will its splendour last, but all who worship it will come wretchedly to punishment. We, on the other hand, shall not die, who believe in and worship the true sun, Christ, who will never die, no more shall he die who has done Christ’s will, but will abide for ever just as Christ abides for ever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit before the beginning of time and now and for ever and ever. Amen.  



Taken from The Confession of Saint Patrick, mid-5th century http://www.ccel.org/ccel/patrick/confession

The Tembo and Milia Saga: Part 2

The adventures of Tembo and Milia continue...

Remember, in Swahili,
Tembo means elephant,
Pundamilia means zebra,
and introducing...
Twiga as giraffe.

(if you missed part 1 of the saga, click here
http://gerthfamilytanzania.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-of-tembo-and-milia.html)

Oh be careful little translator what you say...#3

"gnashing of teeth"

Sounds simple, right?  But how would you translate these passages into the Keley-i language of the Philippines:

Matthew 8:12, " the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (ESV)


Acts 7:54, "Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him." (ESV- other versions say gnashed their teeth)

In Matthew 8:12, Jesus is referring to the eternal punishment of the wicked.  In Acts 7:54, the mob is about to stone Stephen.

In Matthew 8:12, the word translated "gnashing" is the Greek noun βρυγμός which means gnashing of teeth, used to denote extreme anguish and utter despair of men consigned to eternal punishment in hell; snarling, growling: in the sense of biting.

In Acts 7:54, the word translated "ground" is the Greek verb βρύχω which means to grind, gnash with the teeth; to bite, to chew.

 In the Keley-i language of the Philippines there are three words which could be translational equivalents:

[ngallidih] - movement of bringing the teeth together repetitively, the reason for the movement is suffering or pain

[keletket] - movement of bringing the teeth together repetitively, the reason for the movement is the person is asleep or drunk

[kalat] - movement of bringing the teeth together; to bite

Which word will you choose for your translation of Matthew 8:12 and Acts 7:54?  The same word for each passage?  Different words?  Why?

For Matthew 8:12 the translators chose [ngallidih] which includes suffering as the reason for the gnashing.  But in Acts 7:54, the speakers of Keley-i rejected any attempt of the translators to extend the meaning of the words [ngallidih] or [keletket] to include the idea of anger.  Therefore, the translators chose the basic word [kalat] 'bite' and inserted the idea of anger as the reason for the biting.

A rough English translation from Keley-i would read, "they were biting their teeth together in anger."  This preserves the meaning of the original language and is acceptable in the target language.

BUT THAT'S JUST ONE WORD!!!!!

Please pray for Bible translators around the world.



{this data was taken from Hale, Austin and Lou Hohulin and Heather Kilgour. 1981. Lexical sets and semantic neighborhoods. Notes on translation. 86.2-14.}