Ken and Mendy's blog

Goat climbs tree, surprises missionaries

2011-11-24T10:12:00.000+11:00

Imagine our surprise to see a goat climb the Tahitian Chestnut tree outside our front door!

Vernacular Scripture for the Kindle

2011-06-09T17:58:00.005+11:00

Translators are always looking for ways to get vernacular materials into people's hands. Now that the Kindle is only $114 (albeit with Buick ads) it's a reasonable option for distributing scripture and literacy materials for tribal or endangered languages. I don't suppose you'd buy one for every person in a village, but maybe one for each school, and put on it all the materials you've ever produced in that language, plus... (would you put English/French materials on it too?) Advantages: the screen is the prefect size; the battery lasts a long time; it's extremely easy to create a .pdf; it takes seconds to upload; none of the materials would go missing, they would never be ruined, the staples wouldn't rust, pages wouldn't fly out. Disadvantage: only one person can use it. What do you think? Post your comments on the blog.
Note that you can develop interactive materials for the kindle, and it also plays mp3s, but only randomly, and you have to know how to navigate the kindle to get to them.
Nuts and bolts of how to do it: since vernaculars use unusual fonts, the books need to be printed to .pdf files, which means the kindle cannot change text size, can't perform searches, won't hyperlink the table of contents, and won't look up words in the built-in dictionary. The books need to be printed to A5, or 5.5 x 8.5, to show up well, because the kindle shrinks .pdf files to fit the screen.

Santo Trip

2011-02-28T19:37:00.003+11:00

I spent two weeks teaching cultural anthropology at Talua for students in the B.Min. program. It was rewarding to see the lights come on as they realized the ways in which their own animistic background affects their Christian worldview. After that I went deep into the jungle. I passed the quonset huts Mitchner described, and could not miss the eerie "mile a minute" vine that was introduced by the military and has now taken over Espiritu Santo Island. We went through four language groups in 20 miles, to Angor village where I'm checking the Merei translation of Luke 19-24. Here's a picture of Angor village and the consultant check.

Bee fieldtrip

2011-01-31T18:29:00.002+11:00

Caleb said he'd like to see Pastor Gilbert's bees, so I called and asked if we could set up a fieldtrip. It turns out that Gilbert was going to feed sugar water to the bees the next day, so we all joined him today (despite the cyclone in the northern islands pounding rain on the kids in the back of the truck). See attached video for our trip. Gilbert has about 200 hives throughout Efate. Some agriculturalists rent the hives for cross-pollination. He's hoping to teach Tannese how to use their bees to make money with the sale of honey, but there's a steep learning curve, and it takes a while to become income-generating.

At the end, he gave us a bottle of "Gilbert's Honey" to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksH3nPu3BS8

Modern day parable for Vanuatu

2010-10-31T18:00:00.002+11:00

If Jesus were telling the parable in Vanuatu today, would he say, "Nobody puts new rice in old rice bags. If he does, the weevils from the old rice will spoil the new rice. Instead, they soak the old rice till the weevils float. And everybody knows that old rice is better."

Whale in Lenakel

2010-08-28T18:56:00.003+11:00

We saw a whale that's been hanging around just off Lenakel's coast the past few days.

How to connect the nintendo DSI to a video projector

2010-08-17T19:47:00.002+11:00

Caleb got the idea to project his nintendo DSi on the wall with our Elmo

Gas Station Prizes on Tanna

2010-08-17T12:28:00.002+11:00

The gas station (well, there are two now), is holding a promotion. Buy 5 litres, get a raffle ticket. Here are the prizes:
1st prize: 1 50 gallon drum of diesel
2nd prize: 1 young cow
3rd prize: large foam sleeping mat
4th prize: small foam sleeping mat
5th prize: 1 carton beer
6th prize: 25kg rice
7th prize: a basin
8th prize: machete
9th prize: 2 mother hubbard dresses
10th prize: 2 mother hubbard dresses

Blowhole

2010-08-07T17:51:00.002+11:00

This little video shows the lava bombs shooting right out of the blow hole.

Lack of a good definite article affects the meaning

2010-07-29T19:32:00.001+11:00

A, or THE? This is how my Tom back-translated our translation of Mat 13:44: 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought a field.

It SHOULD have said, "...he sold all he had and bought THAT field (that is, the one that had the treasure box on it." But our definite articles aren't that clear in Tannese. So, we had to make it explicit: "he went and bought the field that had the treasure."

15th Anniversary

2010-07-16T21:05:00.003+11:00

We had our 15th anniversary on Tanna (well, we had our 8th, 10th, 11th, and 14th there too). We had a wonderful meal at one of the best restaurants in Vanuatu, Tanna lodge: mushroom chicken, scotch fillet, pan fried poulet. The kids had their usual swim in the rough waves on the one of the only stretches of beach on Tanna that doesn't have a coral reef.

Best Buddies

2010-06-16T17:38:00.001+11:00

Abby and Kate have a best buddy song. Here it is.

Our new dog

2010-06-16T16:18:00.002+11:00

When Mendy and the kids came down to Tanna, we were met at the airport by Meriam and Eliud. They wanted us to take this doggy they'd promised Abby earlier. Its previous name is Sta (star), but we're going to call him Tobey, or maybe Toby. A good dog with just a little yapping. Should eat our unwanted leftovers (get the idea?) It's already getting fat.

Volcanic lightening on Mt Yasur Vanuatu

2010-06-13T19:51:00.002+11:00

You've heard of volcanic lightening? Here's a (poor quality) video of it on Mt. Yasur. June 13, 2010.

Ash from Mt Yasur

2010-06-05T16:41:00.003+11:00

The good news is 1) it stopped raining and 2) the wind is blowing the ash out to sea today. Here's a video of two eruptions.

2010-03-21T20:27:00.002+11:00

Caleb edited in a lightsaber, into a video
See it here

Jesus Film in SW Tanna language

2010-03-21T20:07:00.002+11:00

We dedicated the Jesus Film today, in the SW Tanna language. For the first time ever, people in SW Tanna were able to actually understand the film, since it was in their own language. See a brief clip on youtube here (It's of Zacchaeus- they love this clip here, it brings lots of laughter).

Hannah

2009-11-09T22:16:00.001+11:00

We had Hannah's party in Lenakel with the Stapletons and Greg Carlson. Here's Hannah opening her earrings. (And Caleb's typical joyful self).

Hannah on photoshop

2009-11-09T22:14:00.001+11:00

This was Hannah's first attempt (with my help) at photoshopping herself into a picture. It's her desktop image.

Birthday month

2009-11-09T22:11:00.002+11:00

Hannah loves that she was my 26th birthday present (nine years ago now). I just realized that I didn't post a picture from our birthday week. Here's MY cake. Hannah's was pink.

Hannah's Birthday

2009-10-08T20:12:00.002+11:00

Hannah's birthday will last as long as the presents keep arriving! Click here to see the 4 minute video on youtube where Hannah opens her music box. She said such nice things, I had to post the video!

Caleb made a video; making explosives

2009-10-02T15:49:00.001+11:00

Click here to see the video edited all by himself, adding music and titles.

Abby Reading

2009-09-27T20:55:00.001+11:00

I posted a video on our youtube channel of Abby reading a tough passage in the Bible. See it here.

Back from Literacy Workshop

2009-09-25T17:27:00.004+11:00

We're back from teaching 100 students how to read in their own language; they did a great job! By the end of the first day they were reading scripture portions.

I also posted some videos on youtube of out kids.

This one has Kate singing a song I learned at Out Door Ed (remember that) in 5th grade.

This one Caleb shot himself on a tripod. It's him on the zipline.

This link has Ken teaching kids in Yetap how to read their own language.

Caleb learning photoshop

2009-09-14T21:10:00.002+11:00

Caleb learned Adobe Photoshop in like one week.

How It's Made Bible

2009-08-09T20:50:00.003+11:00

I made a 1 min parody of How It's Made: the Bible. Click here for it.

Teaching at Enafa

2009-08-05T19:52:00.002+11:00

Abby and I went to the Southern Islands Presbyterian Bible College so I could teach for three days. The students were very engaged in the material, which was nice.

The highlight was the blue hole. You drive on the typical muddy north Tanna roads for 5Km past Enafa, and then hike through a peanut field, down the coral ledge, and dive 10 feet off the ledge into the water. Then you swim UNDER the small entrance into the cave. Once you're in, you see vivid blue water at your feet, light by the sun rays coming through the small hole. There were about 15 of us-- students at Enafa-- andI wondered how we'd all fit in the cave. Once inside, you realise that the cave is about 100 feet across and five stories high. I'd heard there was a hole at the top of the cave letting light in, but I didn't realize it was a 20 foot wide hole, which lets ample light in. We swam to the edge of the cave where you can stand on rocks. There, I noticed that the students had brought a can of white paint and were writing their names on the walls. Abby wrote hers, but a student came and changed it to "Hapi." That upset Abby for about 1 second, then she got over it. Sorry there's no pic of the cave- next time we'll get a cheap waterproof camera.

Since we dived off the 10 foot coral ledge, that left me wondering how we'd get up. The students scaled up the ledge just fine. Abby did fine. I couldn't do it. After hesitating and hesitating, someone said, "Do you want to go around the easier way?" Wheww!

It's also thrilling to stand at the edge of the hole at the top of the cave, looking down inside the cave.

I got sick towards the end of my stay, and this caused a theological problem for the leaders there, who figure that sickness is a result of God's punishment.

Camera works

2009-08-02T20:56:00.001+11:00

We haven't been able to take videos in a while, because the record button on our video camera is broken. Then Caleb had an idea, "Buy a battery for the remote and use that to control the camera." We'd never used the remote. We bought a new battery, and it still didn't work. Caleb said, "Let me try." He got it working. Here's our most recent video. 3 Girls singing

Church in Lenakel

2009-08-02T18:39:00.002+11:00

We went to church on the other side of the island, Loanpakel, today. That was so I could do dissertation interview #23, the second-to-last. This church doesn't have a person trained to preach, so they skip the sermon! Better than heresy, I suppose! Makes the church service shorter, too. After the service and the interview, they gave us a feast of yam, rice, beef, pineapple, grapefruit. Then we went to Tanna Lodge and swam in the pool and ocean. Caleb lost his bottom retainer in the waves, which devistated him. But he takes such good care of his retainers, we let reasurred him it wasn't the end of the world.

After swimming, we found a store open on Sunday, which was nice. I asked the shop-keeper if he was an SDA. He said no. "So, how can you work on Sunday then?" He said, "Mi go harem toktok blong heven, ale, mi kambak mo swet." Which I took to mean, "I went and took care of the heaven thing in church, and now I have to come back and work for a living."

Tomorrow, Abby and I are going to the Southern Island's Presbyterian Bible College so I can teach for a few days.

How much do you know?

2009-07-25T15:40:00.002+11:00

I am continually astonished at the proportion of cultural knowledge we LACK compared to the amount we KNOW, even after more than 6 years in a village. It sure makes me compassionate on those who move to American cities as adults, and have a hard time learning the language, let alone the culture. I think the language is easy compared to the culture! For example, I happened to ask Linda if there is ever a time when women blow conch shells. She said, "Oh, yeah, when they burn nases leaves." I said, "When is that." She said, "You know, when they burn the monapitang leaves that are bad." "When's that?" "Like, when there's a hot thing, and then a cold thing, and then the circumcision ritual is finished." "Huh?" "Well, they burn nases leaves, and whip the moms of the circumcised boys, and blow conch shells, and stamp out the fire. Then the circumcision ritual is done."

It's like, if I didn't know any of that, how much else do I not know?

Picture is of Linda Naug digging a taro hole with a "tap" digging stick.

Honey

2009-07-25T15:38:00.001+11:00

The men were smoking bees out of a banyan so they could get the honey. Abby, of course, wanted to eat the honey from the comb. But I saw it wasn't honey, it was bee larvae! "I want to eat them!" "No, Abby, I won't let you eat the bee larva." A kid in the village said, "If you eat the worm, it's good."

That's where I draw the line

New Video- God Bless America in Bislama

2009-07-22T14:14:00.004+11:00

Glad to have our internet back after a few days. Jacob, had an idea of translating "God Bless America" into Bislama. Here's my shot at it:
Click here for the video.

hike on yasur

2009-07-02T15:27:00.002+11:00

That's Caleb and Hannah up there. We discovered that you really need shoes and socks to hike this. There are long slivers of silicon (well, glass, really) all over the leeward side of the ridge.

Kite flying on Mt Yasur ashplane

2009-07-02T15:05:00.000+11:00

Good day for kites.

Mud

2009-07-01T16:37:00.002+11:00

"Kenny, did you go off-roading?"
"No, honestly. I only went to town."
"Kenny, go out there and look at your truck and then look me in the face and tell me you didn't go off-roading!"
"Seriously, I only went to town!

Jumping for Joy

2009-06-07T20:32:00.001+11:00

They wanted to PROVE they could hover in mid air. This picture proves it.

Village check of the Thessalonians

2009-04-26T19:37:00.005+11:00

I checked 1 and 2 Thessalonians today with two savvy men who live in Vila. Even though they are both readers, and both worked for the government for 30 years before retiring, they found checking the scripture to be unfamiliar territory, and were hesitant. However, after a few chapters, they got the hang of it. By the end, I didn't even need to ask comprehension questions-- I just read a verse, and they'd tell me what it means. I was pleased that the bit about the "hidden power of sinfulness" wasn't totally confusing to them. However, "Big House of God" just doesn't seem to work as an equivalent for "temple."

You can see a little video of our village check by clicking here.

Kate can ride a bike

2009-04-22T15:23:00.002+11:00

Kate can ride a bike now-- right before her fifth birthday. The video is on our youtube channel.

Rascals

2009-04-22T14:52:00.002+11:00

We awoke last night to a man in our bedroom, stealing our laptops. We screamed, he ran and went through the kitchen window. He got two laptops that are oldish and don't have much info. Thankfully, he didn't get a chance to get our good laptops with all our work on them. We didn't get a picture of him to post on the blog, but here's a picture of our new center manager Robert Harmon installing new security bars.

Trip across the island

2009-02-07T08:17:00.002+11:00

I drove in the mud across to the Southwest side of Tanna. Needed the winch to pull me up in five different places, and I came to the conclusion that if you need the winch five times, you probably shouldn't be driving. At one point, I was going up a steady incline that was too muddy, so the truck slipped. I slammed on the brakes, and the truck began slipping backwards despite me standing on the brakes. That's a terrible feeling! Jakob grabbed his girl and jumped out of the truck. I had him rip out the winch cable and wrap it around a tree so the truck wouldn't slip any further. At one point, the truck was bogged down in a river, the water was about as high as the tailgate in the back left wheel. Wish I had pictures, but, those times are so stressful, I'm not in the mood for taking pictures!

On the drive, I also so the first Digicel Cell phone tower to be knocked over and destroyed by the inhabitants of Yenfitana-- that is, the very people that the tower was benefiting destroyed it, after just one year of cell phone service. Actually, I'm surprised it took a year for one of those towers to get destroyed. Tried to take a pic of that-- very sad to see this huge tower laying on its side; but my camera battery was dead. Vanuatu's Mobile Force and police were coming up the track behind me to see if they could arrest someone for destroying the tower; but their truck couldn't make it up the hill.

Webcam Online

2009-01-24T11:45:00.006+11:00

Back by popular demand, our live webcam will do video feed during daylight hours Sunday January 25 (Vanuatu time) which means from about noon on Saturday Jan 24 till about midnight, in America. See what you can see! It'll show people coming and going to church in the morning, and will show the volcano if the weather is clear. The link is at nehrbass.info/wc.html

The kind of bike ride I would have done 20 years ago

2009-01-24T11:39:00.005+11:00

I finally got the courage to ride my mtn bike from the gate to the parking area of Mt Yasur (had to push the bike the rest of the way up the hill, to the actual rim)-- 35 minutes up, 10 minutes down. Saw some bike tracks from earlier in the day, but they petered out at the first major incline. Probably someone who didn't have low gears. Ask me tomorrow how my legs are feeling.

Got the moon

2008-12-15T23:03:00.003+11:00

Mendy suggested I look up on the internet how to take a picture of the moon. So, even though I'm not one for following directions, I am one for looking things up on the internet. The websites said to use ASA 100, f/16, 200mm lens, a remote release on the shutter, and a 1/100 exposure. I did exactly that, and here's what I got.

Harvest Moon by Mt Yasur

2008-12-14T20:24:00.002+11:00

I wish I could get a picture of the "rabbit" in the moon, which some myths in Vanuatu call "dirty handprints on the moon." Even though I couldn't get the craters of a yellow harvest moon, this 30 sec. exposure shows the moonrise next to Mt. Yasur on the day of the year when the moon is the largest. Yanemilen's church light is on, so the church is visible in the foreground.

Rivers, slingshots, and new words

2008-12-13T15:53:00.006+11:00

We hiked and scrambled for an hour up a river near us, with all the kids, to an abandoned village, with Killion as our guide-- Mendy said the river gorge was like paradise. On the way back, I got a new word for "cry for attention" and "give a piggy back ride" since Kate was asking for both attention and a piggy back ride. I also got the word for "to cut the end of a stick so it's sharp" and the corollary "to cut...so it's dull" because Hannah wanted a wild cane spear. I also learned some more about local magic. If you chew wild cane and spit it on someone's hair, it will grow like the remaining wild cane grows. If someone has poisoned you with sorcery, you tear a certain leaf into 10 parts, and drink them-- it will cause you throw up; and will rid you of the sorcery. I didn't know that their magical knowledge involved counting portions of leafs. Additionally, Killion told me about stone where you put a leaf before going hunting, and the devils in the hills will give you nohia-- a successful hunt.

On the way back in the village, I saw Stanley (in the picture) aiming his slingshot at a large green bird 50 feet up in a banyan (I couldn't even see the bird). He shot it and hollered "I got it!" About 40 people from the village rushed to see what he got. I hear it's tasty.

I chewed a Kava, and I liked it

2008-12-09T19:54:00.003+11:00

Well, okay, I didn't LOVE it! I'd tasted it before, but had never masticated and spit it out on a leaf to be drunk by someone else. So, I asked for a hunk at the nakamal, and got started chewing. The chief said, "Okay, spit that out for me, I'll drink it." Sorry, no picture of me with a mouthful of kava- they still don't want pictures of kava in our nakamal. The strange thing is, my chewed kava was light green, almost white, but all the other men had olive or dark green wads of kava spit. Mine didn't look right; but I guess it was okay, because all the men crowded around my wad and spoke their approval.

new videos on youtube

2008-12-06T19:11:00.003+11:00

We uploaded two more videos on our youtube channel www.youtube.com/knehrbass. Here's the link to the one about the bat (flying fox). And Here's the one with Abby washing the truck.

"School Closing"

2008-12-06T18:18:00.003+11:00

Schools throughout Vanuatu have "school closings" in December-- all day feasts and graduation ceremonies. (Like Australia, the school year is from Jan to December). Here's Translator Jenri leading a dance at the school closing in Isaka.

On a different note-- we finally have a water pump on the South side of our house, running to the toilet and bath-- after all these years! What a change! Our gravity tank took 45 minutes to fill the toilet. Now it takes less than one minute.

Mt Yasur

2008-11-30T07:22:00.001+11:00

We went to the volcano last night. I think it was my 21st time. Every time is interesting. This time, an eruption shot a stone over the heads of the friends I was with. They got it on video, and I'm sure it'll be on youtube.

Yasur's four vent holes

2008-11-30T07:19:00.001+11:00

Here's a pic of all four vents blowing up at once. This was done with a 1/13 sec exposure (3.5 aperture) and a 19mm lens.

via 2 satellites from Yanemilen, Tanna, Vanuatu

2008-11-27T20:40:00.003+11:00

This message is our first from Yanemilen, Tanna. As I write, I'm watching the volcano explode and listening to a radio station in Ohio. The new truck! The suspension is beautiful. You barely notice the bumps in the roads! No noises except the reassuring hum of the engine. I didn't need a/c, because it's a bit cooler on Tanna. We have better tires than on the last truck, bigger ones, and the engine is 10% larger, plus we have the full use of it-- so I've made it up the two big hills every time, whereas I'm sure, because of the mud, I wouldn't ever have made it up those before in these conditions.
Getting the house ready: we have the water running, power on, septic tank in place, no rat problem, apparently.

ship is going

2008-11-23T13:57:00.000+11:00

They actually got 13 trucks on the ship. Can you see ours?

Revelation, and comps

2008-11-19T21:10:00.003+11:00

I just finished two of my four comprehensive exams. That went smoothly. Actually, translating Revelation has been a bigger challenge. We had difficulty with "I hold the keys to death and Hades." (Rev. 1:18). For now, we have it as, "I am in charge of death. And I can open up the room/space of the dead." We also found Rev. 3:2 to be too complex to fit into one congruent thought. The phrase that says "Strengthen what remains and is about to die because I have not found your deeds to be complete in the sight of my God" must have the idea of completion/perfection, and both Jesus and God need to be examining the deeds. For now, it says: "but you must work hard to lift up again the deeds you did at first, because I haven't found a deed that you started and carried out until completion that is straight in my God's eyes." But, I want to break the sentence up so it flows better.

Caleb's art

2008-11-05T19:55:00.003+11:00

I don't know how Caleb did this; I know he did it with Picasa software. Now his sisters know how to do this too.

Mele Cascades

2008-11-03T13:39:00.000+11:00

Mendy and Hannah at the highest pool at Mele Cascades.

Inside a fall in Mele

2008-11-03T13:38:00.000+11:00

You have to swim underwater the falls to get here; it's one of the lower falls in Mele-- our kids' favorite place in Vanuatu. It's like Christmas getting to go to Mele! Note that we have an online photo album with many more pictures at picasaweb.google.com/nehrbassken

Caleb doing a flip

2008-10-19T18:06:00.001+11:00

While we're stuck in Vila waiting for the ship, we're swimming after work and school.

Look, a Poodle!

2008-10-18T16:28:00.001+11:00

Kate said: Look, a poodle!

4 Seatbelts

2008-10-18T12:43:00.000+11:00

Caleb is very safe in the back seat.

Hannah's Birthday

2008-10-11T13:01:00.001+11:00

One of our birthday gifts to the kids this year is building memories with their friends. Hannah took Renee to the "Fun Factory." Here, they're shooting an air powered canon. Mendy made her "dirt" for her birthday cake. For my birthday, we went and had a steak at Flaming Bull.

Dinh 1 to Tanna

2008-10-06T09:54:00.000+11:00

This is the beautiful, dependable ship that we have been waiting on since Sept 1 to take our truck to Tanna. There are eleven trucks waiting for it to be repaired. Supposedly, it can hold 16 trucks. After it goes to Tanna, sometimes it picks up native pine from Aneityum on the return trip. Then our friends on Aneityum get a cargo ship.

New truck- Ambulance for Tanna

2008-10-05T16:45:00.000+11:00

Here's our new Mitsubishi 4x4-- I wonder how many lives will be saved because of this truck. We'll be taking pregnant women and trauma victims to the hospital 1 and a half hours away, in Lenakel.

Decided to blog

2008-10-05T16:21:00.000+11:00

Since we now have reliable broadband, I've decided to post pictures and updates about our lives and work regularly on a blog.

Here's a picture of the satellite dish that supplies our broadband. We'll need to take it down and put it on the ship as soon as it leaves-- when will that be?

With our broadband, we'll also be able to post videos on a channel on youtube.com. Our channel is here.