June 2005
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Winter is definitely right around the corner here in Salvador.
The way you can tell is that we can now get by taking only two
showers a day instead of three. It’s so cool in fact that
we can work at the computer without melting, at least not immediately.
The summer-fall semester at ITEBA is moving right along and will
end around July 1. It has been a semester full of challenges,
frustrations, and gratification.
Part of the challenge for Bob has been teaching four courses
at once, at least two of which really require a lot of preparation:
“Intro to Theology” and “Emerging Theologies.”
Bob has Xeroxed whole books and bunches of articles for the students,
and he has to read everything several times to make it understandable
for students who as a group are not accustomed to reading or doing
theology. This has meant that Bob has been studying full-time,
seven days a week. The other two courses are “Intro to English,”
which requires no prep, and Hebrew I, which requires a lot. Bob
is using Moshe Greenberg’s classic Introduction to Hebrew,
which presents exactly the grammar and vocabulary one needs to
know to read the Joseph story. What makes this book such a desirable
introduction is that within a few weeks students get the pleasure
of reading that marvelous story. But Greenberg does not exist
in Portuguese translation. So every week Bob has to translate
this very technical material, put it into the form of a handout,
and then teach it to students who have no experience with a foreign
language and only a fuzzy understanding of Portuguese. It’s
slow going, and every sign of progress, however slight, has to
be held up and celebrated for purposes of inspiration.
The gratification comes from the fact that out of 21 Hebrew students
6 or 7 can actually read aloud and translate. Old-timers at ITEBA
say that this is some kind of record. The gratification also comes
from the two or three students out of eight whose aural comprehension
and pronunciation in English are getting good. Bob teaches the
English course bilingually so that students can constantly compare
the way things are said in English versus Portuguese, and the
method seems to be working. The gratification comes too from students
who are starting to think theologically and express themselves
in writing without having to Xerox someone else’s work.
The school system in Brazil teaches Xeroxing rather than writing,
and so it’s something of a miracle when a student writes
down his/her very own thoughts. The difficulty there is that students
can of course speak very fluently, but with few exceptions they
are weak in written Portuguese. Other teachers have noticed the
same problem so that there is growing momentum for installing
a remedial course in Portuguese. Sadly, there are cases of students
who somehow manage to conceal their language deficiencies until
very late in the four-year program, by which time it is almost
too late to deal with the problem.
Bob continues to be involved part-time with CESE, an ecumenical
agency that funds and supervises all sorts of social projects
in every corner of Brazil. His work has been mostly interpreting
for visiting delegations, translating international correspondence,
and planning the theological/adult ed component of CESE’s
annual fund-raising campaign in September. Besides that, Bob is
busy preparing for a series of lectures he has been invited to
give before the combined faculty and student bodies of three different
schools of theology on the subject of the theology of the city
in Deuteronomy.
Keiko keeps busy learning Tai-Chi Chuan, which she practices
every morning in the park. And of course she studies Portuguese
quite a bit every day too. Her aural comprehension has improved
greatly, and it’s only a matter of time (and hard work)
until her speaking ability catches up. Meanwhile she has a lot
of local women friends who speak mainly Portuguese and some English,
and they are a big help to Keiko socially, psychologically, and
linguistically. We really appreciate our friends here.
For those interested in Quilombo Zeferina, the community center
being built in the very poor neighborhood called Piraja, the news
is that the QZ is now open for limited use such as fund-raising
bazaars and such. If anyone wants additional details, email us,
and we’ll try to provide them.
Yours in Christ,
Bob and Keiko
The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
44 |
