18 February 2011

Recent pics


With my new roomie

Group photo after a Sunday morning Deaf worship service

With some new friends from Tanzania and Ghana

Out to Ethiopian food with Ethiopian friends
Deaf team members from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uganda


13 February 2011

going for a walk

Even something as simple as a walk can be an adventure here. =) Ever heard of Acacia trees? Well, they look something like this...









So, last Tuesday, a dear friend and I went on our evening walk (normally, about 3km). When, much to my surprise and dismay...
THIS...












went through this...









and into this...









Which led to my THIRD trip to the hospital in only four months here. Ai yi yi. Turns out those beautiful African acacia trees, up close, look like this...








And, now that you know what acacia thorns look like... here's the kicker. This is the tree whose thorns were used to make the crown of thorns Jesus wore for his trial. They weren't no rosebush pricklies, my friends. They were the real--vicious--deal.

05 February 2011

God or Bigfoot?

While working through exegetical checking with one of our translation teams, we spent some time cleaning up the spatial-visual clarity of their translation. They asked me to watch a real-time draft as they practiced rehearsing it for filming. The signer got to the part where God is walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and calling, "Man, where are you?" when I burst out laughing. God, as portrayed through the signing, was walking, "Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom." with heavy, monstrous steps through the garden. 

Let me back up... Genesis 3:8 in the NASB reads: "They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden."

Issue? "They heard ... God walking in the garden..." From a Deaf perspective, they way you hear sound is by feeling it. So, intuitively, it made perfect sense that God's footsteps would have been heavy enough for Adam & Eve to feel the vibration and thus "hear" God walking in the garden. 

Problem? God is Spirit. And, I'm more than 99.99% sure that He doesn't walk like Bigfoot. ;)

When I pointed out the issue, we all had a good laugh. Shaking their heads, with big grins, they quickly modified the sign to something more accurate. But it provided good comic relief in the midst of a heavy day of work. =) 

I love this all-consuming, challenge, yet positively wonderful learning process. Pray for the translation teams, for the artists, for the consultants, and for our office staff. We feel the weight of "accurately handling the Word of Truth," and feel the enemy's opposition. But, wow, to be in this part of the process... it is incredible. He will upload the integrity of His Word... and it will go forth to bring LIFE. Amen!

04 February 2011

"have" vs. "have"

I spent all of yesterday in the filming studio with what I currently refer to as "my translation team" (ie: Uganda). (On Monday, my colleagues return and will take over, allowing me to go back to my previous teammates.) One of the challenges of having so many different sign languages on campus is the influence of the local sign language on their translations. All the teams have learned Kenyan Sign Language, which we use for communication across the teams, despite the fact they each have their own sign language they are translating into.

As we filmed re-take after re-take, I kept seeing one of my translators using the Kenyan sign for "have" rather then the Ugandan one. We stopped the camera and they signed the whole passage again. I thought it was a simply a code-switching error, which are fairly common with the overlap of languages. But, when we finished for the day, the team leader told me it was actually a bigger issue than I had realized.

In Ugandan sign language, there are two signs for "have." One is what I had been seeing them use for the last three weeks, and the other resembles the Kenyan sign for "have." Both can be used, but the connotations of each are completely different! The Kenyan-looking "have" is only used by a person or in the context of being prideful, boastful, or arrogant. Considering the context of our Bible passage, only the first Ugandan sign for "have" would have been appropriate -- it is used generally, but also (purely in contrast to the second) conveys humility and graciousness. The closest equivalent explanation to spoken English could be the tone of voice you would use when speaking (which is normally conveyed through facial expression in sign languages, but in this instance, is actually also packaged in the choice of sign vocabulary).

Welcome to the nerdiness of the things that I find very interesting! ;-) And, obviously... worth writing about...