Solar panels

Scott and Benjamin installed a solar backup power system for the office when the city power goes off. The solar panels charge four 12 volt batteries. An inverter converts the 12 volts from the batteries to 110 volts, allowing the office to keep on working for several days if needed.

Kjell finished up teaching the small business seminar today at noon. He said that it was just great! This morning, as the class went over the data for a small corn growing business, they were really getting into it and starting to see what kinds of questions they need to ask before launching into such a business activity. Kjell said it was quite animated. I (Csaba) will have to ask Kjell to write up something to post here soon. But for now, here is a picture of Kjell with the participants on the last day with their certificates of participation in the seminar.

Cobra kill

We arrived safely in the village after a safe uneventful road trip, thanks to God. Just after we parked the truck behind the house, we heard a yell from Moïse, the night watchman: “Snake, snake, cobra …” We all ran down to where he had set a trap and caught five cobras recently. Sure enough, there was another one, still caught by the head in his snare. The young men ran around and got a long stick and whacked it thoroughly in the head. It was probably just over seven feet long. I’ll put up a picture here when I can get it uploaded.

Moïse took it home to eat. Later in the evening he brought over some for us. We tried it; it tastes like chicken! I’ve had it before, but for Scott and Benjamin it was a first! They thought it not too bad!

This morning we went out and greeted the village at 6am by going around house to house greeting people as they woke up. This is a Bakwé custom and very important to do. It was a misty, foggy morning. There were many people surprised to see four white guys going from house to house greeting! They were happy to see us. Everyone asked about Lisa and the kids and how they were doing. For me, it was good to be back and see so many familiar faces and everyone’s children who have grown so much since the last time I saw them.

We got back at about 7:30am and had breakfast of coffee and French baguettes before starting our work day. Kjell prepared for teaching the small business seminar that starts tomorrow. Scott and Benjamin worked on getting the solar powered back-up power system ready for installation. They were able to test part of it by the end of the day.

It is wonderful to have so much competent help! Today I mostly spent time visiting with people.

Scott and Csaba

My hard drive died after the first day of translation checking. When Scott arrived he lost no time in getting my laptop back up and running with a new hard drive. He recovered my data.

Scott is making progress configuring the new computer equipment we brought out.

Here are Csaba, Perez and Alexis working on checking their translation of the Gospel of Luke into Bakwé. Cracking jokes in French and Bakwé from time to time helps relieve the intense hours of focusing on verse after verse.

Tomorrow we should be done with chapter 12 by noon; praise the Lord!