FILM DUBBINGS

The first two weeks of work on film dubbings have been completed. A whole team of people is participating in the multi-voice recordings. Many have been involved in similar projects previously. At times the work is very tedious for all as attempts are made to get a "take" that has enough volume and yet correct pronunciation and intonation. One man who was the voice of several characters is from a town very far away from Niamey, where the recordings are being made. He finished his parts yesterday so that he can do some other work this week before starting his 12 hour plus journey home. Another man, who is also from a far away town, developed a bad chest cold. For the past week he's not been able to read his parts. With a doctor's advice and some good medicine he should be able to read this coming week.

Various difficulties have occurred of a mechanical nature, including a tripped circuit breaker. The location of the "box" was in question. It was thought to be on the outside of the building but none of the keys given fit any of the locks on the box. A "chance" meeting with the man who built the studio made known the exact location of the correct "box". The offending circuit breaker was turned the correct way and there is power in the recording booth again.

I've enjoyed getting to know the various people who have given their "voices" to these projects. Two ladies came yesterday that I met for the first time. Madame H has an important position working for the government. She showed me a picture of her youngest son, an 18 year old who she's very proud of. I didn't have a picture of my 18 year old nephew who's his auntie's pride and joy but I plan to when Mme. H fulfills her promise to visit me. Mme. H gave me a challenge to live up to. After I brought her and the other lady who read for the recordings, to a place where they could more easily get a taxi home, she said that my heart is as big as my Hausa name. The name that I was given when I first came to Africa (because my legal name was uncommon and difficult for anyone to pronounce or remember) means the daughter of the chief, or princess. A Hausa friend told me she could imagine that the old man who gave me that name saw that I talked and laughed with people a lot, as a chief's daughter would do. I've always liked that name (it's also what the Pharoah's daughter who took baby Moses from the Nile River is called) but it has new significance now. I want to be generous in sharing what I have with people here and sharing my time and laughter too.

I'm very thankful for the privilege of living and working in Niger and for all who make that possible.

God bless you.

JEANNE also known as "Gimbiya"

DUBBINGS COMING SOON

dub


provide (a film) with a soundtrack in a different language from the original : the film will be dubbed into French and Flemish.

The above is the dictionary definition of "dub" that applies to how I will soon be spending 6 weeks of my life. In a couple of days the SIL translator in the photo at the left will arrive in Niger to work with his team and Audrey and me, for the purpose of recording soundtracks in the Kanuri language for two films, one on the book of Genesis and the other on the Gospel of Luke. Kevin and his team of Kanuri speakers recorded the soundtrack for the JESUS film last year. This film has been well received by Kanuri speakers in eastern Niger. The translation team believes that two more films will encourage those who are interested to keep learning more. The Kanuri, like the majority of the population of Niger, have a mainly ORAL rather than literate culture, that is they are used to listening to stories being told to them rather than reading books. Only a small percertage of the whole population of Niger enter into and finish the public school system that is in French. These films will reach many that are not able to read and will touch the hearts of those who can read too as they will be in their MOTHER-TONGUE. French speaks to their intellects but Kanuri touches their hearts. The Kanuri team, Audrey and me will work for 6 solid weeks on these recordings. When they are done they will need to be sent to the VERNACULAR MEDIA SERVICES in North Carolina for quality checking. There will be more work to do after we get them back again.

Audrey will go to the USA for the holidays. I will spend Christmas with my friend Phyllis Erickson at the Bible school where she teaches. Her nephew is coming on Dec. 18th. He and I will travel by bus to the Bible school. I once taught at that school too. It will be good to connect with those that are still there who know me. The the chance to speak Hausa all the time will be good for me too. It's hard for me to speak Hausa without French words mixed in I use French so much in Niamey. Out come blank stares when Hausa's not so pure in Aguié.

Last night I met with a group of men who were interested to hear a program called GOD'S STORY in Hausa. It's the message of the Bible in story form. The teller changes his voice to sound like the snake and to sound like various characters which makes it great to listen to. The men were not bored at all. In fact, one of the younger guys told me that he came as fast as he could to join us. He didn't find out we were listening to the story on my boombox until just as we were starting. He said that the story is so important that he wants to learn it so that he can tell it to others. I don't believe that this young man is a Christian. I will need to find more means to let him and other hear the story until they know it so well they can tell others. I could use a small generator to power a CD player. I need wisdom to know what God wants me to do. It's very exciting that they were so interested. They were only 4 that stayed for the whole story but their great interest made up for what they lacked in numbers.

It's still hot and sticky here. We're hanging in, waiting for the cool, dry harmattan winds to come. They are LATE this year.

Till next time,

JEANNE

Zarma Recording Corrections, Studio Management, and Sowing Seeds

Last week Audrey, Pastor Hassane and I "finished" the recording of 27 Bible stories in the Zarma language. Audrey and I went over the recordings with the help of a Zarma speaker named Adams. We were able to correct mistakes in the recording and to improve the quality using ADOBE AUDITION software. When we recorded the stories nearly everyone at SIL Niger was involved in a TRANSLATION PRINCIPLES workshop. The two translators on the Zarma team were there. As I see the situation now it may have been better if Audrey and I had also attended the workshop and done our recordings afterwards as we have corrections to make now that would have been far easier if at least one of the translators had been with us during the recording. We have learned a HUGE lesson. It's more work for us all now but we trust that God is bringing good from this.

Even as we are working out how and when we will make our final corrections there have been two other teams that are using the studio. The Fulani team finished yesterday. Tomorrow morning the Tamajeq team is planning to start. They expect to work on Saturday too, recording the gospel of John. We are planning to make our corrections on Monday, possibly working all day as our reader is the director of a school and he has many preparations before the children return. I noted that the toilet at the studio was broken for the second time. Hopefully the plumber will come soon to fix it. We've had it fixed once already since I started to manage the studio in the last month.

After church last Sunday a young man who came to church with me on Easter stopped me and said that he needed money to travel. It was his polite way of reminding me that I hadn't given him the money for some handmade batiks that I took to the USA to try to sell. I wasn't able to sell them and was still hoping to. I told him that I wasn't able to help him at all. One of the people that I took home from church had lunch with me and borrowed my computer to check her email. Afterward I showed her the batiks and she thought that she should buy the table cloth and eight napkins as a gift for her parents. They were missionaries in Niger and such a gift would be very special for them. I was just amazed that after the fruitless efforts I made God sold this tablecloth and napkins for me. A, the artist who made them, was very happy when I was able to bring him the money so he could travel too. I chatted with him about where he was with God. He has been going to an Assemblies of God church. We talked about the possibility of getting a MEGAVOICE player for him to be able to listen to Bible stories with since he's not able to read or write. One of my colleagues at SIL has one that he's selling me. It has a program called GOD'S STORY on it in 7 of the languages of Niger, including his own language and the mother tongue of wife. Pray for A to grow in his knowledge and understanding so that he will be able to help his wife and others to faith in Christ too. I'm asking the Lord to multiply the MEGAVOICE player that A will receive so there will be many other Tamajeq men who will hear and decide to follow.

SIL TRANSLATION PRINCIPLES WORKSHOP AND ZARMA RECORDINGS

August 19, 2009

Greetings on a sticky rainy season's night in Niamey, Niger.

Yesterday, I was among several people who took pictures at the closing session of a workshop on translation principles. No, the lady in the photo is not me. We are often mistaken for each other. Linda Watt is in charge of helping the language teams with the planning of their programs that lead up to the completion of the translation of the Bible in local Nigerien languages. Linda and I met at the US Center for World Mission. She says that I told her to go to Moody Bible Institute and to join SIM. She did both and met her husband in SIM. In the next picture are two guys that are both named Theodore. The one on the left is a young man that I thought might be a good match for a young lady who treated my dog and cat while she was working for her brother-in-law, a veterinarian. She became my good friend after she saved my dog's life (when he ate so much sand that he became totally plugged up). With a bit of suggestion to both of them and the power of God, they are now happily married and studying to become part of the work we do at SIL in Bible translation and Scripture promotion. It's been great fun having them around. So much for my resume as a "matchmaker".

Last week, my colleague Audrey and I started to record Bible stories in the Zarma language that are being read by the director of a private primary school near SIL. It's been challenging work for me, as I have less experience than Audrey. It's become even more challenging since she got sick at the end of last week. Every day I hope that she can do the editing and I can have an afternoon off but I am still editing. I like making a less than great recording sound good so I haven't minded too much. I have gotten to know my helper, Adams, quite well. I found out yesterday that he's had training in ethnomusicology. Contact with him may be very helpful as we try to find ways to help the churches use more traditional music in worship and other activities involving the use of the Scriptures. It's very helpful too that Adams' mother tongue is Zarma. We don't have many contacts with Zarma Christians. It seems like we at SIL may be good friends for him and he has already become a good friend to us. I asked him if he could help me with editing on the suggestion of one of my SIM colleagues. We were trying to buy bread in the bakery and chatted while we waited. David still doesn't know how the Lord has used him in helping to bring Adams across my path. He's been very helpful in finding the mistakes in our recordings. I could never have found them all without him. God may have more for him to work with us on in the future too.

We had good rain yesterday and the day before. There's mud everywhere around town. We're tracking it in our houses and cars. It's not a bother here (at least not so much) when we know the crops are growing and the air is so much cooler.

I just got back from running to the store with my new friend Aileen. She's teaching at Sahel Academy (math and high school biology). Adjusting to Sahel and Niger is quite a lot and when she gets home it's not easy for her to still have the energy to buy food and cook it. We stopped and had a bite a our favorite Lebonese restaurant.

I'm going to leave you on this note and go home. If I want to do anything on the internet I'm at work late these days as our home connection is down. No one knows when it will go back up.

Thanks for reading this. Send me all you questions, comments and anything else you would like to say. I would be very happy to pray for you. Thanks for praying for us here.

JEANNE

Report of the last 7 months for the SIL spiritual retreat

skip to main | skip to sidebar Sunday, July 26, 2009

What follows in the text of what I hope to say at the SIL spiritual retreat on Tues. We have a time of reporting on what the last year's been like every year. We pray for each other after someone gives their report.

On the 10th of December, I’d had enough of living in the land of financial crisis and left for Niamey. SIM had agreed to let me come with 80% of the officially required budget for Niger. My bags were loaded with recording equipment that actually arrived at the same time I did. Mary Johnson and Nancy DeValve (SIM) teamed up to have my house ready with nice things to eat in the fridge. Never the less it was a shock to see the house that Hazel, Meredith and I had previously shared together. There was a fairly wild young dog that Hazel adopted before she left. The size of the yard handled one large dog all right. With two racing each other around there was sand everywhere. I would have to get help to put things in order. The dogs took over Hazel’s garden. I was back on a reduced budget. How would I pay a gardener? There were broken things that had to be fixed. Managing the house alone wasn’t easy for any of us when we had short times on our own. I could quickly see how having to be there managing it all alone got to be a bit much for my friend. I hung in there with it all until February when I made the decision and plans to move back to an apt. block that is owned by SIM about ten minutes’ drive from the center. After 19 months in the US moving was a big cross cultural challenge. It was the first non SIM owned place I ever lived in so I didn’t know the first thing about how to deal with the land lord in the context of moving out. I was at a handicap that I didn’t know existed in that the copy of the lease I had was missing the last and most important page (which said what had to be done before everything was moved out). God and the landlord were gracious with me in spite of my obvious mistakes. I’ve decided that SIM is really quite a nice landlord. The dogs had to be put down. Someone said they would come and get them but didn’t at the last minute. It was hard to take them and know I would never again see the one I raised from a malnourished puppy found in the street.
Nouhou and I went to a SU workshop in Togo in January. In February Audrey (a SIL short term worker) arrived. In March we gave a two day training on working with a prompter to a group of actors that perform dramas in Zarma.

Building a mobile studio was a part of our planned activities. We hit a bump when we learned that there wasn’t enough money left to buy the materials. This led me to make some efforts to sell more of the CDs with Hausa Bible story songs on them that were produced last year. There are still stocks left. Pray that we can sell them. There have been people who have told us the CDs won’t work on their players. Others returned them because they really want a VCD. We were able to buy the materials for the mobile studio, all from the Katako market. We had a dedication of the studio that was attended by church leaders and others from different missions. Those who came were surprised that with so little money local materials could be bought and used to facilitate the recording of quality materials.

Tim Wright, from the Baptist studio left for a year’s furlough recently. I have the key to the studio and an agreement that we made for SIL to make use of it. With Tim’s departure a request came for a small recording project. I have just had what may be another to be done in August. The Kanuri project is planning to have the GENESIS and LUKE videos dubbed beginning Oct. 9th going into December. Busy days are ahead.

It’s hoped that the stories that the Zarma team have finished can be recorded before the Kanuri work starts in October. Other organizations are asking for audio materials in Zarma. I had the opportunity to pass on some good audio material in Tamajeq to a group of jewelers that work near my apt. They liked it so much that they recited a list of things they learned and have been telling friends to come and listen. The friends are copying the material and even more are hearing it. The possible project coming up in August may be the recording of the gospel of John in Tamajeq. My jeweler friends are thirsty and I’m ready to get the water ready in a form that they can drink it.

JEANNE

STEPS FORWARD AND BACKWARD

This is Saturday, July 25th. I planned to come to the SIL office to finish setting up our mobile studio. I didn't think of the possibility of the SIL workers that would need to clean the large conference room where I was working on the studio setup in preparation for our spiritual retreat that begins on Monday. Now I will have the joy of starting all over again from the beginning. This is the studio that was designed by Audrey Boone, a SIL short term worker who's helping me this year. I did manage to have the frame assembled and was working on the walls (made of foam mattresses tied on with nylon ropes) when I decided to leave yesterday afternoon and come back today. 

The spiritual retreat begins on Monday. One of the two speakers will be Pasteur Kimso, the present of the Alliance of Evangelical churches in Niger. The other is a Pasteur Jacques of one of the Baptist congregations. Their messages will be in French and about the topic of leadership. It should be a good time of fellowship and hearing the Bible taught with Western and African colleagues present. The director of SIL Niger and his wife are here. They are normally based in Nairobi, Kenya. I've seen them once since I returned in December. It seems like it will be good to touch base again with them. 

This week I've received not a few emails from Kevin who is working in one of the translation projects here. He's based in the UK now and will be coming back in October to record voices from the language he's working on to be dubbed into a film on the book of Genesis and another on all of the gospel of Luke. He's getting the scripts ready for the people that will speak the parts. Audrey and I will be the recordists and will edit the recordings before the cassette is sent to the Wycliffe center in NC for quality checking. This project will occupy Audrey and me for several weeks. It will be stretching for us in different ways. We have lots of things to work out in how we handle the various tasks together as a team. I'm trying to get everything in place so that we can start recording some stories that another translation team has ready so that we will have some experience under our belts before Kevin's project starts in October. 

Since my time in the US and Belgium I've enjoyed chatting online with my niece Anna (who usually contacts me on skype when she's bored-this is my delight and never a problem) and a supporter Sheila who's a missionary in Belgium. I got to know the young Christians that Sheila and her husband Kerby are discipling and am praying for them so it's good to hear how they are doing. 

We've still not had very much rain. The air is humid which means I take lots of showers. Haven't got up to the max of 6 per day yet. They keep down the heat rash. 

All for now.

JEANNE

TECHNOLOGY

My plan was to put a picture that was taken of me when I was in Belgium recently in this space but I can't get to the place where picture should be uploaded. This is simple. I just did something that was a little more difficult. I configured a modem to the new adsl connection that is in my apt. and will be used by me and my 3 neighbors. They are all impressed that I knew how to do that. I follow directions fairly well. They could do it to if they had wanted to try to.

Our new mobile studio had a dedication this week. I was concerned that those we invited might not come, which was actually pretty much the case. We invited the president of the alliance of churches. He called to say he would be late as they have a studio too that they were dedicating the same morning. They finished early so he came with many of the other officers of the alliance. We didn't invite any of those people and it was great that they came. God blessed us by their presence and I believe we exposed them to the idea that good recordings can be made with materials that can be bought right here in Niamey. We also introduced them to MEGAVOICE players. Many in the group said they had not heard of them before. There are things one has to do before being able to start the recording process in real life in Niger or so it seems.

Otherwise, the weather is hot and humid. We aren't getting rain really. We had a big dust storm that spread dirt everywhere last night but no rain.

Thanks for reading this and for your prayers.

JEANNE