Tboli lady

On May 15, 1953, shortly after President Ramon Magsaysay invited the Summer Institute of Linguistics to begin work in the Philippines, Vivian Forsberg and Alice Lindquist arrived in the community of Sinolon in Eastern Cotabato to start work as linguists and translators. The decision to send the two young Americans to work with the Tboli people was reached after prayer and discussion with SIL Philippines director Dick Roe. Little did anyone know that the two would be launching one of the most productive language programs in the history of SIL Philippines.

Last month, Vivian retired after 53 years with the Tboli, having worked actively in the Philippines longer than any other SIL Philippine branch member. (Her translation partner, Alice, had left Sinolon decades earlier to get married and work at another SIL assignment). Other SIL women like Lil Underwood, her co-worker until her retirement, have been working in the project through the years. Their impact on the Tboli community has been remarkable.

With an SIL team and some Tboli community members and children, Viv produced the essentials of grammar and vocabulary, and made literacy materials used to teach the Tboli to read. The Department of Education has invited Viv’s "children" to teach first grade Tboli students to read and write in their language, becoming one of the first "Mother Tongue bridging programs" in the country, a key program in SIL’s partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd). Today there are Tboli teachers in 10 different Tboli schools teaching first graders to read and speak Tboli as a "bridge" to learn the languages of wider use (Tagalog and English).

By Viv’s "children" is meant the 13 Tboli boys and two girls who had been assigned by the village datu to live with Viv and her co-workers in their house in the mountain village for protection and acceptance by the Tboli community. The youngsters helped with cooking, laundry and cleaning, collecting water, firewood, and gardening. In return, the translators taught them to read and write, and later on pay their expenses in school. They came to be called Viv’s "children."

As language helpers, these children helped in the translation of the New Testament (completed in 1979 and revised in 1990), memorized verses and shared the Good News with their parents (who they were also teaching to read). They helped with a Tboli hymn book, and many have gone on to become pastors and leaders in the hundreds of Tboli churches throughout the province. All the children have "grown up in the Lord," and many are now continuing Viv’s work as Mother tongue translators working on the Old Testament to complete the Bible in Tboli. In Viv’s words, "There are hundreds of little churches, and so far they are all using the Tboli New Testament and hymn book. The Catholics have been our best buyers of both. They are all eagerly awaiting the complete Bible."

In his annual report SIL Philippines director Greg Dekker said that the Institute has been serving the Philippines in "the documentation of Philippine languages, the provision of literacy materials, the translation of books of high moral value, the production of literature for use in vernacular school curricula and assistance with training strategies aimed at equipping Filipinos to sustain community development in important areas of daily life."

Over these 53 years, Greg continued, SIL has allocated personnel to work in more than 90 Philippine language communities. Personnel have spent as many as 45 years working with a single language community, and SIL members have authored more than 3,300 works related to Philippine research in anthropology, linguistics, literacy, and translation.

Greg said that programs undertaken by SIL in partnership with DepEd and other branches of the Philippine government "serve as models for other countries in the ASEAN region which could benefit from similar language development endeavors. Programs in First Language Education, formal and informal training in Translation, Applied Linguistics, Literacy and Multi-lingual education are examples of SIL’s efforts to benefit the Philippine cultural communities."

Viv and her team’s work is a model of SIL personnel’s commitment to their work and personal relationship with the people they serve. Viv is very proud of having helped in the education of Tboli children, spending her own money to have them earn college degrees. One of them became the first Tboli medical doctor, another, the first Tboli lawyer, then another the first Tboli commercial (Cathay) airline pilot. Some have become businessmen or traders. One became a two-term mayor and another a provincial administrator.

Viv, 82, had become so much a part of the Tboli community she lived in. At the reception the townsfolk gave her before she packed her bags, everybody was crying. Then a copy of the dictionary that Viv and SIL produced from the hands of the eldest community member down to the youngest. Viv could not hold back her tears.

SIL Philippines gave a farewell reception for the "first wave pioneer" at the presidential lounge of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport prior to her departure for the US. Viv was vibrant as ever, always smiling, exuding warmth, as she greeted peers and guests at her send-off party. Viv’s husband, Don Van Wynen, sat quietly in a wheelchair, enjoying the fuss over his celebrity wife.

At the send off party, John Wilson, SIL Philippines communications director, said that Viv’s life "has been spent in honoring God," and Flor G. Tariela, Philippine National Bank chair and SIL advisory council member, said, Viv lived "a life of great significance."

The book, Lady of the Tboli, by Doris Fell, talks about the work of Viv among the people she learned to love well.

Viv’s husband, Don, with his late first wife, had worked with SIL in Bolivia for 30 years. Viv and Don’s first wife were roommates while they were training with SIL 55 years ago, and Viv was even the bridesmaid at the Wynens’ wedding.

Vi said that Don proposed to her by telephone. "I said, ‘Why, I don’t even know the color of your eyes.’" She said yes, anyway. They got married seven years ago, at ceremonies held in the US. At the time, they were both 75 years old.

The couple will settle down in Dallas, Texas, where the main SIL headquarters are located.

* * *

THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (YWCA) PHILIPPINES celebrates its 58th year of founding on Sunday, with the launching of a coffee table book entitled A Gift of Faith: The YWCA Philippines Story. The book, we’re told, "reveals the hearts and minds of women from all walks of life bonded together by a service ideal rooted in a worldwide movement of women and girls anchored on a gift of Christian faith which has room for other spiritual persuasions."

YWCA Philippines is an offspring of what started in England in the early 1800s – that sort of volunteerism that links people and institutions into "a kaleidoscope of commitment and dedication to a service ideal" which empowers its members which include teeners, college students, young professionals and ageless women "to play a dynamic and purposeful role in national, regional, and international concerns" even as they "set a trail of dignity, independence, and personhood for others to follow."

The book chronicles the YWCA volunteers, from the association’s leadership development stage 1926 to 1941; to the Manila YWCA’s active outreach humanitarian services during World War II and through the post world war II period of human development and reconstruction. It also shows volunteerism at work during the Philippine political events of 1972-1985, during which local associations were mobilized for self-reliance.

Fourteen national presidents and their accomplishments are featured in the book. These are Dr. Josie Pineda, the current president; Justice Rizalina Vera, Sen. Leticia Shahani, Vilma Umengan, Dr. Ligaya Tankeh, Atty. Rachel Fidelino, Dr. Dolores Baja Lasan, Justice Flerida Ruth Romero, Luz Einsidel, Frime Zaballero, Nelly Mercado, Teodora Reyes, Rosario Villar and Aurora Gonzales.

* * *

My e-mail:[email protected]