Odds and ends : a celebration and a concert

This morning there was a visiting pastor, Pasteur Matthieu, that was part of an early translation team for the Djimini Bible here in the Côte d'Ivoire. He apparently retired last year, after being with the organization since the 1970s, and after his work as a translator, became a translation consultant.  Djimini is a Gur language, one of the four major families of languages spoken in the country. Those language groups are the Gur, Kwa, Mande and Kru language families.

I don't know what the occasion was that brought him by the Center, but he apparently lives in the north of the country, and they never really celebrated his retirement. The current Director of SIL, Côte d'Ivoire, also a pastor, was touched by his presence, had a number of old-timers sing his praises, and had a special prayer of thanksgiving for his life. She is shown in the foreground of the photo below. Her name is AYITE Ably Pierrette Espe BEUGRE, or, more simply, Madame la Directrice.

Praying for Pasteur Matthieu

Languages spoken in the CI

There was also a cake later on, which Laurel made, and one of his sons, an IT specialist, joined him for the impromptu celebration. He apparently has another son, who is German-speaking, as many of the early translators and linguists were German. This second son also has an advanced degree, and I think he may live in Germany. 

The cake with writing in Djimini

father and son

Upstairs in the party room of the building with a nice view.

That evening longtime SIL language consultant Cornelia Wuesthoff heard from a friend about possible concert by some nuns at the nearby Catholic Church, Notre Dame de la Tendresse, and 3 of us went to check it out. After all, it was just a short walk away from the Center.  We must have been thinking Gregorian chants, or possibly contemporary Catholic music accompanied by a guitar, or something... so the "concert" was certainly not what we expected. Yes, there were nuns--hundreds of sisters, in fact, coming from different religious orders from seemingly every francophone country in West Africa. All these bonnes soeurs had descended on this rather large, recently constructed, Catholic church located across from the American Embassy in Abidjan. In addition to the Côte d'Ivoire, the countries of Senegal, Togo, the Congo, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, etc., were all represented. It was a special Catholic music festival weekend with a definite African flavor. In addition to the sisters, there were also Christian musical groups from some of the parishes represented, and the sound system at the church was quite LOUD. We lasted about an hour, or so, before deciding to call it quits.

There were many religious communities represented

Each woman here represents a different francophone country

This group was from Burkina Faso

 

The concert began fairly soberly, but then became more animated as the evening wore on. [Click on the arrow to watch the brief videoclip].

Here's the group from Burkina in action. [You really MUST click on the arrow to watch this short videoclip! As you can see, the dancers/singers were definitely enjoying themselves].