Back row from left: man unknown; lady may be new literacy co-ordinator; next 2 men unknown; next lady unknown; Alice Musaga (a member of the literacy team, who trained with support from the Metta Bible Translation Steering Committee); Catholic priest; Grace who teaches in Njinibi and Bome (“solid, reliable and careful”); Rev John Fokwa, a translator, training in exegesis; (“puts himself in the back row, but near our pastor. He has importance. Relaxed, self-assured, kindly reliable, goal orientated.”) Rev Wyn Hughes; behind: Peter Munde now of the Metta Language Committee (MLC), a retired teacher who used to work for the National Cameroon Literacy Council (NACALCO) in the Metta community;
Next to the pastor: Bernard Fombo, Chair of the Metta Bible Translation Steering Committee (MBTSC); “a retired secondary school headmaster. He is Catholic, a small minority in the Metta area. It is typical of the wisdom of the Metta, that the minority group is given the most respected position, which does not mean that they have the greatest administrative power, or theological influence. It is an act of courtesy.”
Next slightly behind: another retired teacher, who is also member of MLC; Dr Anatole Lordon; next to him: Rev John Atoh, a translator, senior pastor; “respected member of church and community; vice-chair of MBTSC, senior representative of biggest church in the area.” next: member of MLC, who learned to read Metta and taught it to others; rightmost: Rev David Tende, Presbyterian pastor, who is also Presbytery treasurer and MBTSC treasurer. “A bit of a lad as you may guess from his facial expression, but very reliable in financial matters. He belongs to the main group, but puts himself at the end of the row.”
Front row from left: Prudentia, leader of the Njindom group; Catholic. “She is a lovely and respected person. Her husband is a secondary school headmaster who has supported her very strongly in her work. Never a leader in the group, she was a strong ‘stay’ and a very good reader of Metta, reading the translated portions in her church.” next lady unknown; next: member of MLC; next: Kwati, member of MLC, a retired school teacher, worked with NACALCO; next: another member of MLC; Theresa, literacy worker being trained for “Scripture-in-Use”. “She has some very hard experiences behind her.”(See Heath magazine April 2004) rightmost: Sylvia from Bessi Fomukong. “She also has some very hard experiences behind her. She reads and writes Metta as well as any in that whole group and probably better.”
Richard Tah took the photograph