Sandawe

Home is where you live (Sandawe, Tanzania)

Imagine having a daily ritual of walking a well to get water for yourself and your family. It is a shallow well, dug in the sand, in which water gathers very slowly. As the water table sinks in the dry season you have to make your well deeper and deeper and sometimes wait for hours until you can fill your buckets. When this proves too difficult you set off to get water from the village pump. Although you have to pay a small fee and the water tastes slightly salty it's better then nothing. When you arrive, however, the village pump is broken.

When the shallow wells are dry and the village pump broken, it is a serious problem. People have to walk further to neighboring villages in hopes there will be water there. This was the case in several Sandawe villages in late 2005. Since then, some pumps have been fixed and everyone is thankful that there has been at least some rain. But the water table is still much lower than normal and therefore the back-breaking task of digging in the sand to get water for families and livestock remains the same.

Even though there were a few rainfalls earlier this year, the Sandawe are facing a famine. At present, most people have absolutely no food left and not even seeds to plant. However, God loves the Sandawe people and desires that they hunger and thirst for the truth and come to Him with their needs.

The language of the Sandawe people is very different from their neighbors, as Sandawe is classified as a Khoisan, or click language. The Sandawe language is very complex and quite difficult to read and write. Adult literacy rate in the national language Swahili is 80%, but in practise very few Sandawe are active readers. Language work among the Sandawe is continuing at a slow but steady pace.

1. About the Sandawe -General information about the Sandawe people.
2. Sandawe Language Project - Find out more about this click language.
3. Pray - Support the Sandawe people through prayer.
4. Tanzania Info - Country information.

Jan 30, 2006 Translation gem of the month Written by Elisabeth H During the translation of Genesis 3 the translation team encountered a botanical problem. The only fig tree that is known to the Sandawe is the cactus fig. Its prickly, fleshy ‘leaves’ would certainly not have been chosen by Adam and Eve to cover themselves. So, instead of saying that they used the leaves of the fig tree, the Sandawe translation just says ‘large leaves’.

Jan 23, 2006 Translation Work Begins Written by Helen E After years of preparation, the team is finally ready to 'really' begin translation in Sandawe. The life-changing words are the reason this linguist wouldn't trade this job for anything. Read more...

Jan 23, 2006 Discourse Analysis Written by Helen E Find out what discourse analysis is all about and how it impacts the work of Bible translation. Read more...

Jan 23, 2006 Dust by Any Other Name.. Written by Helen E Good translation happens when the best word is chosen to convey the proper meaning. That's where dictionary work comes in. But how exactly do you transfer knowledge from walking dictionaries (people) to the written form? Read more...

Jan 17, 2006 Stories to Remember Written by Elisabeth H People don't really understand the truths of the Scriptures unless they are taught in their mother tongue. Read how one congregation had a life-changing experience together. Read more...