Mofu-Gudur

Overnight Wed night in Mokolo was VERY comfortable. The hotel had good food, cold Cokes, Fantas, and Djinos (local carbonated fruit drink), hot water for showers, electricity, and air conditioning if we wanted it. It is safe to say we all rested well. It is always interesting to me to find this kind of luxury in remote places. We were not the only guests either. There were a few Germans and also Cameroonians staying the night. Omelets, bread, coffee and tea, and we were on the road to Mofu just after 8am.

The drive was a short 30 minutes, which was the reason for the overnight in Mokolo. One of the first things I learned upon arrival is that Mofu-Gudur ends with an “r”. Somewhere along the line I had missed that. The locals casually refer to them as the Mofu people. As we were driving it was interesting to immediately see slight external differences in the homes differentiating the Mofu from the surrounding Mafa. Typical Mafa homes are round, made of mud brick with thatched roofs that come to a distinctive tall point at the top. The Mofu have both round and rectangular homes made of mud brick with thatched roofs that come to a shorter point. I’m sure these nuances seem minor to most of us, but I’m also sure that they are important distinctions locally. Again here, as in Tchouvok and the surrounding Mafa region, the “rooms” are built separately and connected by stacked rock walls to create an open inner area. There are around 60,000 Mofu-Gudur speakers.

The Mofu translation office is located next to the home of the original SIL family that worked on the New Testament translation. I believe Ndokobai said the Mofu New Testament was dedicated in 2009. Now the Mofu translation team is working on Old Testament translation. Their translation consultant is the same as the Tchouvok, and you may recall is currently living in Dallas. I understand that they have already drafted Genesis, I and II Samuel, I Kings, Esther, and Ruth. Their experience working with solar power and computers was immediately obvious. Their solar power system had five panels to charge batteries which then operated two computers, office lighting, and occasional appliances. I understood them to say that their batteries were approaching 6 years old, but there was no noticeable problem at all. We ran their two laptops, two netbooks, and the satellite modem all day with no problem. Once again our work began with Bob and Halilou testing the operation of the netbooks with the local setup. Although all of the netbooks we brought had been tested prior to our departure, it seemed that all of them required a significant amount of troubleshooting and repeated setup before they were working reliably. We’ll need to dig into this a bit more during our debriefing when we get home. Both of the Mofu laptops had recent anti-virus scans, but installing the email program on them turned out to be problematic. The first laptop had multiple setup challenges. The second laptop setup never did work. Eventually we just decided to work with what was working in order to get on with the training.

Because the Mofu team has been together longer and using computers longer, there were more of them for us to train. The translators and literacy team included Clement, David, Jean-Pierre, Justin, and Nicolas. The President of the Inter-Church Committee, Alphonse, also joined us. As a brief aside, Alphonse has an interesting testimony. He did not attend school as a child and was completely illiterate until he was a young adult (perhaps in his twenties). After he learned to read, he decided to attend theology school. He earned his degree and is now a pastor, evangelist, and leads the inter-church committee for Bible translation. As in Tchouvok, Ndokobai and Halilou did the BGAN and netbook training while Bob, Peg, and I monitored for omissions. Ndokobai and Halilou did a great job, and the Mofu team learned very quickly because of their prior experience. They did multiple setups and shut downs of the BGAN satellite modem, and later sent multiple emails with and without attachments using the email program. The only hitches were in the software setup. As a result, we finished the training by 1pm. After the typical graduation photos and circle of handshakes, we gathered our few remaining pieces of equipment (most has been left behind at each of our stops) and headed down the road back to Maroua.

After a late Cameroonian buffet lunch, we came back to the CABTAL/SIL offices and guest house for the afternoon and evening. I was immediately preoccupied with responding to a full inbox of emails. Peg shopped for dinner and made beans and fish stew accompanied by baguettes (bread not diamonds) from a local bakery. It was simple but good. She also found a small container of chocolate sandwich spread, which transformed the bread into dessert. Bob, Peg, and I had some interesting after-dinnner conversation about things we’d done and email topics on other Wycliffe Associates matters before we retired for the night.

Friday’s schedule is much lighter. Peg had appropriately allowed an extra day in case we encountered any unexpected difficulties during our travels or training. Since we did not, we have a relaxing day to catch up on communications, connect with people here in Maroua, and lunch with Ndokobai’s family at his home.

Rather than adding summary reflections here, I think I’ll wait another day or two and send a separate message. Bob, Peg, and I sincerely appreciate your interest and prayer support for our time here. I hope my travelogue has helped you feel something of our experience here.