Pandita Ramabai, Bible Translator

Rama Dongre, later known as Pandita Ramabai, was born in India in 1858 into a Marathi-speaking family, belonging to the priestly Brahmin caste. There were no schools for girls, but her parents gave her a thorough education in the Sanskrit language. They were, however, very poor. During the great famine of 1876–78, both her parents died from starvation. Pandita went to live with her older brother and became well known for her intellectual abilities and teaching skill, to the point that the University of Calcutta gave her the title Pandita, meaning ‘wise teacher’, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1880 her brother also died and she married a friend of her brother; however, because he was from a lower caste, she was thought to have polluted herself. They had a daughter, and then her husband died too. At 24, she found herself destitute: an impoverished, orphaned widow.

In 1883, Pandita travelled to England for her studies and was invited to stay at an Anglican community. In the community’s London Rescue Home, she saw first-hand how women who had fallen on hard times were helped. This experience moved her enormously. In particular, the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 impacted her. Back in India, she came to know Christ. She wrote: ‘The Holy Spirit made it clear from the Word of God that the salvation which God gives through Christ is present and not something future. I received, I believed and I was filled with joy.’

Her new goal was to translate the Bible into her own language. A translation into Marathi had already been completed in the early 19th century, as well as subsequent revisions too. But Pandita thought that these translations relied too heavily on Sanskrit words and phrases and did not speak to women of lower castes. Her translation had a specific audience: uneducated women of lower castes. She learnt Greek and Hebrew in order to translate the Scriptures into Marathi, and completed her translation just before her death in 1922.

For more information, check out Wycliffe Bible Translators' article about Pandita Ramabai her life and work.

The Imagination of a Small Child

The family I met with yesterday has two girls of school age and a small boy (he's about 2 1/2). The small boy was very happy to see me, to tell me that he plays basketball, and to show me how he can drive a train by straddling his dad's guitar case and making all the train noises. He drove that train all the way to the Philippines. 

Later, when I was in his sister's room as she told me what she had been doing in school, there was a small voice coming down the hall, saying over and over, "Penguin, penguin, penguin..." When I turned to look, the small boy was standing on a blanket, holding the front part up in front of his legs with the rest trailing behind. He was shuffling along like a happy little penguin. When he got to us, he smiled and said, "I'm a penguin!"

He loves the story of David and Goliath and, using his sister's headband as a sling, pretended to throw a stone at me. I fell backwards on the couch and stayed very still. The small boy laughed and then said, "Wake up, giant!" so he could get me again.

Almost Done

I've finished 7 weeks of home education facilitator meetings and I have about 2 more weeks to go (a bit longer since one meeting is going to be May 6th and one is unconfirmed because someone in the family has pneumonia, but for the most part there are only 2 weeks left). I tell myself that it's only about 2 months twice a year that I'm really, really busy, but that still seems like a lot when I'm in the middle of it.

Part of it is that the rest of life doesn't stop for those few months. I still have Sunday School and history class and Wednesday morning homeschool kids and all the regular stuff of life. It's usually moderately busy anyway; it just gets really, really, really busy now!

On the plus side, I have summers off (except for a bit of tutoring to keep me from getting bored). Of course, I have a list of projects for summer, but I'm ignoring it for now!

Just a couple more weeks and life will slow down again.

Monarch Song

When I teach my tutoring student, I sometimes let him watch a video that goes along with what we're learning or that just amuses me (and him). We watched a clip from a movie showing someone learning about the concept of writing for the fist time; a video about Gutenberg's printing press; some VeggieTales about grammar (Schoolhouse Polka with Larry); the St. Crispin's Day speech from Hamlet; and various bits and pieces that I've found. We particularly like some of the songs from Horrible Histories and one of our favourites is the Monarch Song. We've listened to it enough that when I hear the name "William" I start to sing in my head "William, William, Henry, Steven, Henry, Richard, John!"

For your entertainment:

 

 I like the lyric one because it's easier to follow the song, but the updated one includes Charles III:

 

From the Kids

A conversation with a 7-year-old boy:

Me: What do you want to do when you grow up?

Him: I'm going to have a job.

Me: What type of job?

Him: You know, a job, like dads do!

Me: Dads do different types of jobs. I don't know what job you mean.

Him: Yes you do! Like dads have jobs and they go to work.

Eventually we got to the idea that he wants to be in construction like his dad and build a skyscraper. Also, his dad now works in the office, which led to his final plans.

Him: When dad is old and I'm taller than him, I'll take over in the office.

A conversation with a 6-year-old girl whose mom is trying to get her to tell me that she finished a level in swimming:

Mom: What did you pass recently?

Her: I don't know.

Mom: When we were at swimming on Monday, you passed...

Her, thinking very hard: Um...a hula hoop!

So Many Books

Recently someone died (I didn't know him) and he left his extensive theological library to GraceLife. We sorted through boxes of books a couple weeks ago (piles of yes, maybe, no but someone else might want them, and never books, as well as a few "we don't need them in the library so we'll take them" books). We didn't have a chance to get them into the system or figure out where to put them all, and there were piles on the tables and boxes on the floor. Today I was up in the library and discovered that there are MORE BOOKS! I think the first load was around half of the total. We didn't have this many books when we started the library.

I am absolutely thankful for the books and the man who thought to leave them to us. Not only are they a blessing to the library and church family, many of them will be excellent to have around when we start a branch seminary. I'm just not sure what we're going to do with them all! We need more bookcases and more time to properly sort, catalogue, and shelve them. Probably more help too. 

And to think, I was just planning our next shopping spree to get new book!

Roof Work

The roofing people are doing work on the roof of my building. This is all well and good, but their scaffolding is right outside my bedroom window. From my desk in the "office" (that small space between the living room couch and the dining room table), I can watch the men when they go up and down. (I could watch them from the bedroom as well, but I'm keeping all those blinds closed.) It's a bit strange; my apartment is on the second floor, so I never thought I'd have to worry about someone right outside my windows. They may be renovating all the balconies on my building this summer as well, so that will mean workers everywhere.

It's worse for my downstairs neighbours. Most of their windows are blocked by the wooden walls they erected around the scaffolding and their patio is mostly shaded by the walls as well. At least I can open my living room blinds and have some natural light while I watch the workers going up and down.

Blood Work

I saw the doctor a couple weeks ago (nothing major; just a bad knee from a couple falls and some "I am getting older and need help dealing with the symptoms, especially the one where I don't sleep enough"). My doctor, of course, sent me for blood work, because that's what doctors do.

Today was blood work day. For those who may be wondering why it took me almost 2 weeks: Today was the first day I was free enough to book an appointment. I wouldn't go without one; when I was in the waiting room, I heard them say that the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. 

My issue with having blood taken: I have small, rather hidden veins. Only once has someone been able to get the blood on the first try. Today it took the phlebotomist two tries. First she tried in my left arm (the right one is even worse) and finally found a vein and stuck in the needle, but the blood was flowing slowly and eventually gave up. She tried to find a vein in my right arm but that arm was having none of this "blood work" nonsense and all the veins hid too well for her to even try poking me with a needle. In the end, it took warm water compresses on my arm and then my hand before she was able to get a good vein on my hand and, with the other phlebotomist switching vials for her, was able to take my blood. They actually took extra in the second vial just in case the blood stopped before they had enough in the third one.

The ladies were very nice and apologized for having to stick me twice, but I assured them that I was used to it. The worst was the time I had to be poked three times (each arm and a hand), so they did well!

And that was my adventure in having blood taken.