We woke up nice and early today to leave by 7:15am. The continental breakfast started at 7am, but because it was serve a la carte we didn’t have time to sit down and eat anything. We met Jodianne (translator, linguist) in the lobby and headed out for the day!
(breakfast)
Our first stop was at a gas station, for gas of course, but also so that we could use an ATM there and grab something to eat as breakfast. Then we continued our drive to Portmore to pick up Lloyd (translator, pastor), and off to May Pen. May Pen is a central Jamaican city where Lloyd helped start a church. This Sunday, the plan was to go back to visit and to share with them about the translation project.
We met Reverend Reid, the current pastor of the church, and learned a little about the church and his ministry there. The service began with a time of praise and worship that was really cool. There wasn’t the typical mundane clapping that you’d find in a lot of churches here, but all kinds of different rhythms that worked together to create a new style to the songs that I’ve never heard before. We did know some of the songs and really enjoyed how the few people there were singing loud and confidently so that it sounded like the church was packed.
Then Jodi read Luke 5:17-26 in Patois and Lloyd followed with an entire message in Patois. This was the first time the people in this church have ever heard a sermon entirely in their own native language. It was neat to see and hear their reactions. It was obvious they understood everything they heard. And when I think about the reactions they may have had when listening to the King James Version of the bible, which they usually use…!!! It’s hard for me, as a native English speaker to understand the KJV! How nice it must have been to understand so easily for once.
It was hard for us to follow but since we knew what passage he was preaching from we were able to listen for similar words and were able to catch a lot of the points he was making. It was neat! Afterwards, Lloyd wanted to set aside a time for questions…questions about the passage or questions about the translation project. All the questions ended up about the project. The biggest concern was that they didn’t think they would be able to read the patios. So, Lloyd invited one of the ladies to try to read some of it. It took her a minute to switch her thinking from reading English to reading Patois, but before long she was reading her own native language for the first time! As more questions were answered interest continued to grow and no one seemed opposed to the idea of having a bible in their own language. Then they asked about the completion date for the project so they knew when they would be able to have a copy.
At first we didn’t really understand why there was so much hesitation to having to bible translated to the Jamaican language…from the Jamaicans! But, as I explained in the beginning of yesterday’s post, Patois has been given a bad name in the eyes of most Jamaicans and this project is going to help correct that view.
After church we enjoyed a delicious lunch/dinner at Lloyd’s home with his wife and Jodianne. We tried some traditional Jamaican dishes provided by a member of his church. He also gave us a tour of the new church that is being built/expanded behind his house. He is a very busy man!
(Lloyd, Marion, Jodi, Susan, David)
That evening we went to a local play called “Easy Street.” The play was a comedy about life in the “slums” of Jamaica. The comedians spoke mostly in Patois, so we were often lost in the plot, but got the general idea and also picked up on a lot of the comedy.
After the play we stood outside for a while, talking. Three young kids ran up to us and starred, and then ran away! It was funny. It was obvious that it was because we were the only white people around…we really stuck out. Up until this point we hadn’t seen any other white people in Kingston. I don’t like sticking out, but we were having a great time, so we didn’t care.
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