Purhepecha

Last Friday morning we left Cheranastico after working with the Purhepecha translation team for four days. Approximately 100,000 people speak this language in a number of towns and villages throughout the state of Michoacan. Brian visited this team almost five years ago when they were just beginning their work. Now they’re getting very close to finishing the New Testament and hope to send it to the typesetter in February, 2010. Then they plan on beginning the Old Testament translation.
Every translation team and project is different, but this was a very unique week for several different reasons.
The first difference was that all five of the translators have other jobs (mostly in education), so their translation work takes place in the late afternoon and evening, beginning at around 4:00. Another difference was that our lodging was in the same house where the translators work. We had the two bedrooms, and they worked in the living room. There weren’t any doors on the bedrooms, so Rachel and I got a first-hand view of exactly what it is that Brian does with a team. (Also, the bathroom was right off the living room. Since there was only a curtain for a door to the bathroom, we had to time our visits accordingly!)
On Monday, because it was a holiday, the translators worked off and on from 8:00 AM until 8:30 PM, so we had lots of chances to hear them in action. Tuesday one of the translators didn’t go to work, so he was there most of the day as well and was joined by a couple of the other translators in the evening. Wednesday and Thursday they started working around 3:30 and finished up around 10:30 (even later on Thursday).
Because Cheranastico is such a small town (3,000), there aren’t really any restaurants, but several people have small shops in their homes where they sell food. There was one place just up the street that sold the best tacos every morning. For 40 cents, we got a fresh-off-the-grill tortilla filled with the toppings of our choice. Just down the road the other way, a family sold tortas (Mexican sandwiches) and quesadillas every evening. So when the translators weren’t taking turns feeding us, we didn’t have far to go to find something delicious to eat.
Something else that was different was the number of people we met who had either spent time in the U.S. or had at least one family member who was currently in the U.S. Every time we went anywhere, we got asked where we were from. When we said the U.S., they wanted to know where in the U.S. I don’t think very many of them had heard of Iowa, but when we said we’re from the state next to Illinois, that sounded familiar! Actually, three of the translators had lived for a time in the Chicago area, one even graduated from high school there.
So now we have a bit of a break before heading to Chiapas. We're looking forward to our week in Acapulco. We'll let you know how we like it! Donna