Bakwe Archives - Page 4 of 8

Benjamin writes …

Bakwe' Mission on September 4, 2009

Benjamin and Perez

For me (Benjamin) everything is as crazy as remembered, for Scott, the different sights and smells are blowing his mind, “like something he is used to seeing in pictures or on TV.”

The translation work is going well, albeit somewhat slow. The internet connection both here and over in Senegal has been somewhat sketchy. Dakar is the capital city of Senegal, and has been having power outages during the past few days. This has led to some dropped connections every so often. The work is going forward, however, and Csaba will be done checking the translation through chapter 12 of Luke by noon tomorrow (Saturday).

Scott has been was able to help the local web administrator fix the internet connection by removing some faulty equipment from service. Scott has also been working on setting up the computers for the internet connection via a mobile phone modem. The connections are finally operational after a lot of work. He has been a huge help to Csaba as well in getting everything completely backed up and creating an easy restore process for the guys to follow when they have computer problems in the future.

I have been working helping Scott by translating things into French as he has been working to keep the internet going so that Csaba can keep the checking going. I have also been working on fixing the audio recording equipment that is damaged, and recording the Scriptures, and training Csaba’s Bakwé colleagues, Perez and Firmain, in how to use the new equipment. To date we have recorded Galatians, and James, and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and some of the Gospel of John. The recording quality is really high and the guys are picking up on the new mixer and software well. And for a real point of praise, I accidentally broke a piece of the audio gear today, but am able to get a replacement taken out by Kjell who is leaving 6am Saturday morning. So thankfully beyond the extra work of finding a replacement and arranging for Kjell to pick it up, things will be able to continue without any problems. God is very kind. I am looking forward to giving the guys additional training on the audio equipment tomorrow and next week.

So overall things are on track and going well. God has been prospering our work… and we are looking forward to being in the village after a few more days of Abidjan.

Benjamin, for us all

Computer down

Bakwe' Mission on August 28, 2009

My laptop’s hard drive died, so I am using someone else’s until Scott and Benjamin arrive on Sunday with another hard drive. Today I had to do the translation checking the old-fashioned way –on paper. It still works though; and, it doesn’t have batteries or need a hard drive! It does mean that I will have to type in all the changes and corrections I made on the manuscript later on when I get my laptop going again.

Lunch

Bakwe' Mission on August 26, 2009

One of the things I look forward to on these trips is eating rice and greens in the local cook shops. I grew up on the stuff in Liberia and my whole family really enjoys African food. Today I had rice and sweet-potato greens with beef!

A long day

Bakwe' Mission on August 26, 2009

Perez, Alexis and Csaba

After a breakfast of french baguettes and coffee, we began our first day of checking our translation of the Gospel of Luke into Bakwé. We are having it checked via Skype. The translation consultant is in Senegal and we (me and two Bakwé colleagues) are in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Amazing, the 21st century!

The first chapter has 80 verses!

An uneventful but long trip

Bakwe' Mission on August 22, 2009

I left Idaho on the 19th and arrived in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire last night, the 21st (my birthday). I was happy birthdayed by all the familiar sights, smells and sounds as I walked out of the airport and made my way to the guest house by orange taxi. Oh the smell of diesel exhaust and the friendly honking of car horns! I love it!

Spending the night in Geneva helped with the jet lag I guess; I feel pretty good. The real reason for going via Geneva was because it was almost $1,000 cheaper than going direct. Go figure! Anyhow, I’m here and ready to work. Got some groceries and worked on preparing for our translation checking session this morning. Côte d’Ivoire is 7 hours ahead of Moscow, Idaho.