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. 

Shoes-April 2008

Recently, when we were planning for the musical in Ouagadougou where Karissa participates in the homeschool program with other MKs, we ran into a snag regarding footwear. The kids needed dress shoes but only a handful actually owned them-all the kids had were flip flops, the kind you wear to the beach. So the pursuit was on to find dressy foot attire. I took Karissa to the local African market where they have just about everything, including a nice shoe selection. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find any that fit her–any dress shoes, that is. We found a great pair of “almost Nike” tennies (she usually does all her sports in flip flops). In the end we bought a “dress” pair of flip flops for the musical. It was the best we could do. They were black plastic with a few black flowers on the strap, and as we say here, “Good enough.” And they were.

Last summer, I had run into a similar problem in Tamale regarding a dress pair of shoes for Karissa. After visiting about 5 places, we were low on hope. And then we came across the lucky pair. They were the kind of shoes that only desperation would purchase (in my mind). They were a weird color and not a very lovely style, but they mostly fit. We bought them with little hesitation. In the U.S. I would have walked right by them unless I chose to stop and gawk. But here we felt pretty pleased overall. For one thing, we could go home. Shopping in Africa is work! And may I high light again that they mostly fit.

Finally, back to those “almost Nike” shoes that we bought. I call them that because from a distance you see what appears to be the swoosh symbol, but when you get closer, it has an extra little bump attached to the swoosh to let you know that they are only mostly trying to copy Nike. Anyway, I really doubted that Karissa would wear them much but I wanted her to have them with the plan that we’d be upping her physical activities in school since she doesn’t seem to be as active with her friends. Well, those shoes have been used almost everyday since we’ve been back. She and her friends have been playing soccer in our yard. It must be exciting because, they may be at it as early as 6:30 a.m. and have even played it in the middle of the day in the burning sun. Have I mentioned that it was 109 degrees in the shade the other day-a day she was playing at noon. She doesn’t wear the shoes all the time. It’s usually 4 of them that play at a time so the goalies wear flip flops or no shoes and the 2 players grappling for the ball wear better shoes-the almost Nikes and a pair of sandals that I had washed so that I could store them away since they were too small for Karissa. They were put on porch to dry and now are back in use, not in storage. The kids rotate shoes depending on what position they’re playing-community shoes (like bowling shoes without the disinfectant spray between users). We may wear them out yet.

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

The English language is not easy to spell. Learning phonics helps with reading, but when it comes to spelling, it only takes you so far. You just gotta memorize what letters are going to make a word. This is especially true when it comes to vowel combinations. Karissa was experiencing some challenges in this area. For instance is it slepe, sleap, or sleep. Get the idea? So Christina gave her the assignment to make a list of as many “ee” words that she could come up with-other resources were welcome (books, dictionaries, parents). Then Christina took these words and created the following song. If you have access to The Godfather Suite (i.e. the soundtrack to the Godfather), then you can sing along with the music to the song that follows. Just trying to keep up will give your lips a workout-a fun workout. You might even learn something.

The “EE” Song to the tune of The Godfather Suite track 2 (don’t actually know the real music title)

Double E T makes words say “eet.”
I’m glad to meet you; you’re so sweet.
Crossing the street on feet to greet
Then washing beet juice off the sheet.

Double E R makes words say “eer.”
Peer at a cheery volunteer
Have a free beer and veer ’round a deer,
Then find a new career.

(musical pause)

Double E T makes words say “eet.”
I’m glad to meet you; you’re so sweet.
Doube E R makes words say “eer”
Peer at a cheery volunteer.

Doube E is quite useful when used with
a P (with a P double E) for words that say “eep.”
Creepy sheep keep their jeep in the deep of the
Lake lest it beep in the dark, at night when they sleep.

Go on a shopping spree.
Step on a bee in Tennessee.
Check out the jamboree.

Double E L makes words say “eel.”
Buy a green wheel make out of steel.
Feel an orange peel and slimy eel.
Then kneel to see your Reebok’s heel.

Double E N makes words say “een”
Geese for the Queen, look at them preen.
I’ve never seen a keener teen,
The keenest teen that’s ever been.

Doube E D makes words like deed, heed, proceed, and peed.
I need to feed my steed that he might succeed indeed.

Double E D makes works like freed, speed, exceed, and greed.
Come see a reed or weed; it comes from a tiny seed.

(repeat E T and E R)

Beetle and bleeding and feeble and fleeting and
Needle and kneeling and peeing and peeling,
Seeing and sleeping and reeling and reeking and
Beeping and bleeping and keeping and creeping
Freeing and fleeting and sneering and sneezing and
Breeding and bleeding and meek disagreeing.
Sleep for a week and fix beef with your leek
And climb an eery beech tree.
Then don tweed and fleece and have cheese out in Greece
And meet a Greek engineer

(repeat E L, E N, and E D)

Freezer, geezer, squeezer, tweezer, employee, refugee, referee, guarantee, breeze!
.All have double Es