Esalas in Mission

Nathan and I just spent a week in a workshop called Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills. The group that sponsored it usually facilitates it for those working in cross-cultural ministry. Only a few of us were North American or European. The others who attended were mainly Ghanaians from the Accra area, about half of whom are working in cross cultural ministry here in Ghana and all over Africa. (Ghana alone has 70 plus languages and cultures.) For us it proved to be a rich experience. Not only were we equipped in skills such as loving listening, confronting well, building trust, helping others manage conflict, maintaining margin and being an encourager, but we gained new insights into Ghanaian culture and relationships. We were amazed at the wisdom and insights that were expressed, and we quickly came to endear the other participants. While we were overflowing with content by the end, we’re going to miss spending time with those wonderful people.

As for how effective the workshop was-Nathan and I can now read each others minds.sometimes. For instance we were making plans for how to fill our stomachs after the workshop and we both thought of the same place to sup. Then tonight when we returned from dinner at a friend’s house and realized that Annaka and Aili didn’t have to be “put to bed” (the 45 min. version) since they’d fallen asleep in the car, we read each others minds to watch a TV show. For those who are not amazed, you just haven’t been around us to realize that our skills often lay in overanalyzing straightforward communication (what is he really saying?-he says he wants pizza but last week it was chicken so is it really pizza, or is he saying that because he thinks I want pizza.). So reading minds is quite a leap for us. Amazingly, this was not a topic at the workshop.

Hope your week is filled with meaningful communication.
Sarah

Nathan & Sarah Esala
nsesala@lbt.org
www.esalas.org

I have just been informed that we have been setting the latest trends in the fashion world for the summer. We’ve been doing it for several years now-pretty much since we moved to Ghana. I thought it was just a convenient way not to have to style my hair and yet fulfill local fashion requirements for northern Ghana. I now know that people have been watching and have decided that it must be proclaimed as a “must.” Have you figured out how the Esala women (and more recently Christina) have set the trend? Two words-Head scarf. Yep. We’ve been doing it here for a while. Now you can get on the fashion band wagon with us. Click here for MSN article.  So as you don your scarf (some call them “head bands” but that doesn’t sound very imaginative) you can smile, knowing where the trend really originated.  Esala headscarfs.

Shooting star is no longer with us after a traumatic trampling event that we will not describe. Unfortunately it was very rough on the girls. That happened while mom was still at home. Percy, however, is doing well. While Sarah was gone Karissa and Annaka and I transitioned Percy from sleeping, eating and drinking inside to an outside chicken. He now sleeps in the same room with his relatives though they do not fraternize much. But at least they do not attack him anymore. If they run at him, now Percy is smart enough to get away. That is partly why Percy is a bit of a loner. Still we are thankful he is surviving in the real world and we hope to find him well when we return home in a couple of weeks. By the way, one thing that helped aid the transition was watching an episode of the Dick Van Dyke show called “Never name a duck”. Read more »

Sarah and Aili arrived home to Ghana after visiting ‘home’ in the United States. They arrived in Tamale on Friday morning and we traveled to Ouagadougou for our quarterly homeschool coop on Saturday. So Sarah and Aili have gotten a bit disoriented with international time, and Aili with a different bed each night. I must say that I am glad to have them back. Here’s a little run down of how it went while Karissa, Annaka and I were ‘treading water’. Read more »

Nathan is holding down the fort in Nasuan with the two big girls while Sarah is at her brother’s wedding with Aili and Christina is visiting the Federwitz’s in Tamale.  I thought how can I get any work done? Is it okay to just tread water? Read more »

We (the entire family and Christina but mostly Karissa and Annaka) are the proud parents of 2 baby chicks. The first one I came across when I was in the back yard. He seemed half dead and had a significant bloody wound on his head. I tried to reunite it with his mother and he was promptly and violently pecked at again. I think I know where that initial wound came from. I thought, “we can’t do him much more harm than his present situation,” and now we have Percy.
Our other little chick is named Falling Star. I call her “Star” for short. She came into our lives after Nathan brought in the 4 eggs that didn’t hatch from the hens. He thought that maybe we could use them. I was skeptical since I’d had bad egg experiences before. I decided to keep the peace and just put the eggs on top of the fridge until I could dispose of them when he wasn’t looking. Well, I didn’t get around to it for a couple days and then I heard some peeping behind our front door which is next to the fridge. I thought it was Percy so was surprised and confused when I found a yellow chick instead of a black chick (Percy).
The first day of Star’s life had us a bit concerned. She didn’t seem to walk well (she did fall from the top of the fridge!) and wasn’t “thriving”-not that we know what that means for a chick less than 8 hours old. We kept her apart from Percy so he wouldn’t peck her. Well, the next day she was much better and now she and Percy get along quite splendidly. We put them outside to get bugs and let them roam inside when they need people. We’re having a pretty fun time with our accidental pets and have to remember to be careful where we step when they’re around because they love to follow whoever’s moving the most. You should see them in the kitchen when I cook-crazy.
I think that chicks for pets are great (if you live where I live). We get to enjoy the newness of them for about as long as that will hold our interest (2-3 weeks) and then they’re self-care. Ideal!
Have a great day! Sarah

 • Praise God for Christina’s creative teaching methods. Sheís developed tools to capitalize on Karissa’s strengths. This takes so much time, but I think she’s having fun. Karissa sure is. (If you want to check out one of her spelling songs, we’ve posted the “ee song.”

• Praise God for gaining momentum for Komba literacy. Pray that the translation/literacy team would be good stewards of the gifts that have been given towards literacy work, building trust between our work and the Komba people. 

• Pray for the people in this area who were affected by last year’s drought and flood conditions. Rainy season is just beginning for them to start farming, and there are still several months ahead that they must stretch their food supply. 

• Pray for the Komba Lutheran churches as they look to begin leadership training again. 

• Pray for us as we travel to and fro during May, June, and July for safety and sanity. 

• Pray for the Federwitz Family as David completes his thesis and they prepare for their transition back to Ghana.  

An article from our Spring 2008 Constructive Word Letter

Tutor News 

Sarah’s note: Christina was “amazing” at many things during our latest three week homeschool experience in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (FES).

She creatively taught her class of second graders and assisted me and the girls on numerous occasions, especially when Nathan was still in Ghana working on literacy before joining us. Thanks again to all of you who made it possible for her to come through your financial giving, and thank you all who help keep her here through your prayers. She still has mice for roommates, although she’s learned to empty a mousetrap without actually touching the dead mouse. 

An article from our Spring 2008 Constructive Word Letter

Christina’s Got the Moves

from the journal of Christina Riddle 

Our musical at FES was a smashing success.  Miss Heidi, the director, drafted help from the parents at a special parents’ meeting one evening.  I stayed at the Esalas’ house with the kids (okay, I was taking a nap) while Sarah went.  She came home with the happy news sheíd volunteered me to do the choreography.  That’s when we almost couldn’t be friends anymore.  Then she explained that Miss Heidi’s list had eleven jobs, but only ten parents were at the meeting.  Everyone had a job, she said, and only choreography was left, and everyone was bewildered, including Miss Heidi, regarding choreography.  So I was won over and agreed to choreograph.  Oy. 

Then Sarah described the nervous shock of the other parents when she volunteered me, her teacher, on whose good side she, obviously, wishes to stay . . . well, that was a happy picture too.  And choreography was fun because, after I created it, I got to teach it too, and then I got to direct it during the performance.  And this is one of my favorite parts of mission work:  In America, I never wouldíve been chosen for this task.  But because our resources are so few, my gift, meager though it is, turns out to be our best option.  Amazing. 

This is an article from our Spring 2008 Constructive Word Letter

The ABC’s of Primer Development

The Komba have a rich oral tradition that has met their needs for hundreds of years.  So to begin teaching people the awkward and challenging task of reading requires more than just the technical information of letter sounds in a book with lists of words. Nathan, along with the Komba language team, has sought to incorporate elements of the oral tradition to add richness to the rudimentary ABCs with the hope to engage people at these early levels of literacy so they will stick with it and develop their new skills. Here are some of the considerations that have been applied in the process of developing the early level primers. 

Artistry: Stories have been written that we hope will be interesting, captivating, funny, and even conflictual to peak the interest of the reader. They also need to make sense (vs. being abstract) and move to a resolution. This is a lot to ask for when combined with the need to follow basic rules of introducing letters one lesson at a time.  

We fully expect that the literacy process will merge the oral and literate worlds. We will actually train the literacy teachers to facilitate this. For instance, we might teach story telling and basic decoding of words and basic sentence structure at one level. The teacher might tell the story dynamically before the class decodes a simpler version through reading it. This will help the students focus on the skill being taught while not having to focus on the plot. As people acquire the basic skills, they will engage in more advanced reading at other levels. We hope that this emphasis on “artistry” will engage people in the literacy process so they can advance to these other levels. 

Basics: When you’ve been reared in a literate rich society, you tend to forget that people may need to be trained in how to a open book and read from left to right (at least thatís the direction we read in English). It is important that lots of pictures are used to help readers get the gist of the story as their mind is trained to interpret the information that their eyes are taking in–the symbols that represent sounds and form words. Writing is also taught and requires a different type of hand-eye-ear-mind coordination than the Komba aren’t used to using. 

Count: We had the above principles in mind but when it comes down to the nitty gritty of what order to teach each letter, good old fashion tedious analysis entered the scene. Nathan took several stories that have been translated and made charts for each sound (letter) in the words. Based on these findings, the order of the way the letters are taught was established. The most common occurring sounds are taught first with the less occurring sounds appearing in later lessons. 

As you can see, the technical and creative worlds have collided here in Komba land. Pray that God would bless these efforts in developing the primers so the Komba people can learn to enjoy their language in the written form. Pray for the team as they seek wisdom in what is the best way to approach organizing and implementing the training of teachers and the literacy classes. Praise God for the interest that continues to be exhibited by many villages for Komba literacy.