SIL International

 

We finally arrived in Dallas.  This was our goal for the US part of the trip.  But to explain that, I have to back up a bit.

Dave has been volunteering with SIL International on the Mapping Team for the past four years or so.  Each week they have team meetings over Zoom.  When we started planning the trip to Steve’s wedding, we thought we might return home via the US.  And where should we go?  Why not stop to see some of his colleagues where they live, scattered about the continent.  Then the team leader decided, why not have a series of meetings and training sessions and gather everyone together at the head office in Dallas.  And that’s how this has come about. 

We arrived just in time for coffee break, were introduced to the team, and then continued to get everything sorted before joining everyone for a Texas BBQ supper.  It was a buffet style line where you ordered your meat and then got sides in separate bowls.  I had pulled pork and brisket with coleslaw and potato salad as sides.  Dave had the brisket and sausage.  They also brought around freshly baked dinner rolls. It was all very filling.

The next day we had a tour of the campus. We are in a gated community, the International Linguistics Center, which hosts Dallas International University, and several faith-based organizations including SIL International.  SIL International is a global faith-based non-profit that works with local communities around the world to develop language solutions that expand possibilities for a better life.  This would be through literacy, education, linguistic research, developing language tools and, most importantly, Bible translation. 

A copy of the Bible in all the languages it has been translated into so far. 

Dave’s role in this organization is part of the mapping team that updates the Ethnologue, a database of all the 7,000 plus languages of the world. This database helps in the decision making of which minority languages are viable enough to pursue further in creating a written form for literacy development and scripture translation. As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time in a few years that the team is meeting in person. It’s exciting to be here to interact with the rest of the group, both formally and also informally.

All the languages of the world listed on this wall.

My involvement is through Wycliffe Canada and they arranged a volunteer opportunity for me.  I am helping out at the Boutique.  This is a free thrift store for the people living on this campus.  This would include staff, students, returned or furloughed missionaries, RV park volunteers, and retired missionaries.  

The first day I was put in the sewing room.  That was a bit of stretch for me as my sewing skills are really quite basic.  It was ok when the mending involved sewing on buttons or fishing out the lost elastic in a waistband!  The next day I was given the task of reorganizing the fabric shelves.  I overheard someone saying, “Wow!  Who cleaned up in here?  It looks great!”  Those were encouraging words.  

We are located right on the edge of Dallas.  It occurred to me that the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as it is known, has twice as many people as all of Alberta.  It feels a bit overwhelming at times and has led to a few adventures.  More to come in the next post….

Six States Six Days

 

Our last day at JAARS ended with the Scripture Celebration but earlier in the day I was able to go into Waxhaw one last time and be a tourist for a bit.  The city has an historic downtown and most of the old buildings have been transformed into antique shops or artisan shops. Unfortunately I ran out of time to explore them all. There might have to be a next time!  

South Carolina 

Before leaving the south, we wanted to try out the southern tradition of BBQ.  The Improper Pig came recommended and off we went.  With all the choices, we settled on charcuterie, a bit of everything.  It was delicious.  I guess it’s about the sauces and this place had about 6 to choose from – some vinegar based, some tomato based, and some soy based.  We bought a bottle of our favorite to take home.  

Georgia

We left first thing in the morning and headed through South Carolina into Georgia.  The first hour or so was on wiggly-waggly country roads, which led us onto the interstate. 

     
  

This is kadzoo.  It's a vine that's very invasive and covers trees, powerlines, everything.  

I don’t imagine there’s ever any good time to go through or around Atlanta.  We’d hoped to get there before rush hour, but…. It took nearly two hours to cover about 20 miles.  

By the time we got to the McKinney campground, not too far from Atlanta, we were ready to sit down. When you get to the most beautiful camping spot, all is forgiven.

Many years ago, Dave was in Cameroon with CESO and was hosted by Jerry.  When I went along in 2010, I also got to know him.  Who would have imagined that we would have a chance to see Jerry in Georgia!  He came up to the campground to join us for breakfast, and then we continued on down the road to meet his family at his home in Dallas, Georgia.  What a wonderful time of reconnecting and visiting.  And to top it off, his daughter cooked up a meal of ndole and fried plantain.  It was so delicious. 

Alabama

We continued on down the road a short distance and found Safe Haven campground in Alabama.  Now it was not anywhere as beautiful as yesterday's campground, but it was by a lake.  There was a restaurant within walking distance that came recommended by the campground hostess.  This was our chance to try some catfish!  Along with that, we had delicious shrimp, fried okra and hushpuppies. 

Sunday morning we stayed for church at the campground. The preacher was an African-American evangelist based out of Augusta and he set up under a shade tree to preach the gospel with all the enthusiasm as one can imagine.  God is good. 

Mississippi

We continued on down the road and found a campground in Roosevelt State Park.  The site we had booked was not very suitable.  In fact, the entire park had very narrow roadways and sites with the ground sloping away very quickly.  Since the campground was half empty, we decided to choose another spot, and found one that was manageable, right along the lakeshore.  It was a very peaceful evening.  

The next morning, we realized we’d been invaded by tiny ants and we packed up quickly and left. We’d been driving past the signs for Waffle House in every second town and so thought this would be the day to try them out for breakfast.  

We stopped in Vicksburg, right on the shores of the Mississippi River.   Vicksburg was an important city in the Civil War.  But what interested us more was its importance and relationship to the Mississippi River.  We toured the Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum and learned a lot about the efforts to manage the river for navigation and flood control.  If you ever look closely at a map of the river you’ll see it meanders all over the place, and after flooding doesn’t return to its previous beds.  Engineers have tried to straighten its path by creating cut-offs, building locks, and levees.  So many levees were breeched in 1927, causing one of the worst flood disasters in America.  The rebuilding and mitigation efforts worked and the 2011 flood wasn’t as devastating.  After the museum tour, we went to a little coffee shop for lunch. – adult lunchables!  

Vicksburg has some beautiful historic buildings and we probably could have spent another whole day there, but it was time to move on. 

Louisiana

We crossed the Mississippi River into Louisiana and drove almost clear across the whole state before stopping for the night in Shreveport.  It was a good night for a KOA campground, complete with a swimming pool which we took advantage of even before we cooked up supper.  It’s definitely still summer around here.

We left early in the morning, and decided to try out another American institution, the Cracker Barrel.  It’s part gift shop and part restaurant.  We had a very filling breakfast, and didn’t even realize until supper that we’d somehow missed out on lunch.

Texas

After breakfast we were on our way, continuing along the I 20 to Dallas.  This was our goal.  We had hurried our way across the southern states for Dave to join his colleagues in meetings that were already in session.

We arrived at the SIL International Centre without having to battle the rush hour traffic, although keeping up with traffic at full speed, 75 mph limit, is also very stressful.  

Once we set up at the RV Park on the Centre, Dave checked in with his mapping team colleagues and it was off to the races, as it were.  I hope to have an opportunity to do some volunteer work, hopefully in the boutique. We'll see how it all pans out.

 

Charlotte, NC & Columbia, SC

 

I felt like I needed a normal shopping day, not one with gift shops and tourist traps. We went to Charlotte to a shopping common with many familiar chain stores and also many names we hadn’t heard of.  Although the forecast was for rain all day, it let up and we wandered from store to store, enjoying an afternoon of not being a tourist.  In contrast to our shopping commons at home, this one had so many trees and plants, making it feel you were also in a park, not a retail common.

For lunch we went to Chick-fil-A.  I’d heard so much about this place, we had to give it a try.  It was quite tasty for a fast-food place.  

From there we went to South Carolina, (only a few miles away) to go to Hobby Lobby.  This was another store I’d heard a lot about.  Wow!  It’s got an impressive amount of crafting supplies.  What made my heart glad was to see nativity scenes and related craft supplies.  No, I’m not that excited about Christmas yet, but just that the Christian Christmas is also included is wonderful to see.

A group of ladies, who were my former ESL students, and I used to get together for lunch on a regular basis in Edmonton.   But people move on, or simply move.  Ligia and her family moved to Georgia a few years ago.  We’ve kept in touch with WhatsApp and, since we were in the area, we thought we should get together.  What seemed simplest was for us to meet in South Carolina for lunch, just an hour's drive for each of us.   Our husbands came too and the four of us had a wonderful lunch and visit while walking along Main St. in Columbia, SC, the state capital.  Our knowledge of American history is rather spotty.  This city had many statues and plaques to remember various moments of history, especially about the Civil War and the Emancipation of black slaves.  There was a lot to learn.