What we did

One of the main things that we did was go visiting. Just about everyday we visited at least one family. A few times Machelle would go along and that way, we were exposed to more of the Guarijio language. (This is the only picture we have because Machelle snapped it as we were all saying goodbye. It isn't too appropriate to take tons of pictures, so we have very few pictures of adults.) This is Lorena, who just a few days after this picture, invited us to make tamales! Most everyone speaks Spanish well enough, but it is not their heart language. They speak Guarijio in the home and to each other. The only time they use Spanish is when they talk to the few mestizo families in the valley, or when visiting with us!
There is handful of believers. Every Sunday, we would get together for a little service. It was all in Guarijio - Dennis taught the Bible lessons. Dennis had a project for us to do while we were out there. He just finished developing a literacy program to teach the adults to read. He is in the process of teaching one of the main believing families how to read & write. So, he's been accumulating Country magazines and children's Bible story books. He translated the Bible stories and captions for photos in the magazines into Guarijio and printed them out on label stickers. We trimmed the labels to the correct size, then affixed the sticker to it's corresponding page/photo. It wasn't hard work- just time consuming, especially not knowing the language. A few times, we put the wrong sticker with the wrong picture and had to fix it up! So, now, when there are Guarijio readers, there is material for them to practice reading to get more proficient. The better they read, the better they can read the Bible! That's the motivation for literacy.

So, anyway, the picture above I took just as I finished the last Bible story book just before we left. There were a few kids visiting us. Tony 12yrs, Tichi 9yrs, Valentino 9 yrs. Tony is in 6th grade and quite literate, so I thought he should be able to read Guarijio, since all but one letter are the same sounds in Spanish & Guarijio. I showed him what we had been doing putting Guarijio words in the book as asked if he could read it. He said yes & sat down with his sister & cousin and read the story of Jonah to them! It was so cool to see that. As soon as the adults learn to read, they can read the Bible to their kids, teaching them about God!
We had a few visitors. Toward the end of our stay was when people started stopping by a little more freely. The kids liked to come over to color, do puzzles, play Uno, or play in our yard. They taught us a little Guarijio and it was fun to get to know them a bit.
One of the other main things we did was watch the Bender girls for 2 hours every weekday so Machelle could have uninterrupted langauge study time. The girls enjoyed getting out of the house & we enjoyed having them. We did lots of fun things: painted, colored, played house & farm, built "houses", painted nails, did crafts, went on walks & visited people together.
We also tried to learn a little of the Guarijio language to be able to communicate a little in their own language. We invited Esperanza over to teach us how to make flour tortillas and at the same time, learned some Guarijio - words & phrases about making tortillas and words & phrases for other random things.