Technology serves the Wapishanas

Since the dedication of the Wapishana New Testament in November 2013 enthusiasm has run high as evidenced by steady sales in all the villages. Wapishanas didn’t just want a book in their hands; they wanted to understand what they had heard for many years in English. That is why they also responded with eagerness to the announcement during the dedication that we would be doing an audio version of the New Testament. Several men even auditioned for speaking parts.

With no technical recording team available to go to the Wapishana area to do the audio recording, we were left with only on option available – work in Georgetown. This was the only place in Guyana where reliable Internet was available, and where we could experiment with fairly new concept called “virtual ” recording, recording through the Internet. Needless to say, we were in the dark as to how all this would happen.

The Catholic Church came to the rescue when the Bishop offered us the use of their TV/radio recording studio—CTV. Bev and Kaye arrived in Georgetown early in January to set up and communicate with Faith Comes by Hearing ( FCBH), a nonprofit organization in New Mexico dedicated to providing funds and technical know- how for producing dramatized audio recordings of the Scriptures in languages around the world.

The recording began January 20^th with the arrival of several Wapishanas from the interior of Guyana. Their journey was a two-day experience begun with trepidation. It included 16 hours on the rough trail to the big noisy city of Georgetown. Some arrived looking like scared rabbits! But several recounted to us that they were doing this for the Lord and their people. The Wapishanas brought their little bags—much easier than the four computers and five sets of headphones that Bev and Kaye carried among their plethora of boxes and suitcases!

Learning Curve.

Routine helped us survived the learning curve. Each morning we hopped in mini buses and met at CTV. After a Wapishana song and prayer, two computers were set up in different rooms. We logged each one onto the website called Virtual Recording, clicked on record, and clicked on the Wapishana language. Lines to read from the Wapishana New Testament appeared on the screens. The two Wapishanas put on headphones and read their assigned Wapishana lines. Two others listened for mistakes from a script of the Wapishana NT.

It looked as easy to do. But each Wapishana put on his/her headphones for the first time and clicked on the icon to begin reading, stage fright took them by surprise. They made mistakes, so repeating the recording soon became another routine.

Each of the 14 Wapishanas had his/her own special part to read. Some were narrators of books, others the characters that spoke like –Jesus or Peter or Paul or even Satan. Some parts took six weeks, others only a week or two. While Bev handled the daily communication with FCBH engineers, Kaye became drama coach, helping them sound evil, gentle or angry. What a surprise to learn they could do it! While accustomed to working in their fields from before sunup to after sundown, their voices could work four hours a day at the most.

The website also had a review function, where two other Wapishanas listened to the lines that had been read, and noted any errors. Then Bev reviewed the error lines and reset them to be recorded again. Through the weeks as each chapter was finished, it was sent back to us to view in its entirety.

The stress of inconveniences, such as slow internet, computer “glitches” and noise from nearby road and building construction tested our patience daily. But it was more than compensated for by the providential set-up of a cell phone tower in the south Rupununi December 2013! We had direct communication with individuals in the villages for the first time in history! We could notify readers by phone as to when they were needed in Georgetown. Those in Georgetown also worried less because they could call their families back home.

Praise: All four laptop computers worked well.

There were good relations with those working at CTV,

Who had such servant attitudes during our unavoidable interruptions to their work!

The readers kept in good health and all voices held out, with reading ability improving drastically.

The recording took only 3 months, less than expected.

There will be a 6-month wait while FCBH engineers fine tune the recording, including adding music. It will then be available to Wapishanas on CD, MP3, and a preloaded solar charged player. More on this in our next letter. In the meantime technology is already serving Wapishanas. Translator and reader Juram  Browne visited another village with a computer and small speakers we loan him. Below is a text message from him:

“On Sunday in church at Barbaraum we listened to three chapters of the audio recording from the computer. The believers were paying very very close attention. Some were following along from their New Testament while the chapters were playing… They were so happy and said they were very encouraged from listening to the chapters. Guys, your labour was, is and will not be in vain. Prayers offered financial support, time sacrificed to do the audio recording are a great blessing to the Wapishana people. Whenever you write to your supporters overseas, I would like you to mention some parts of my message which are encouraging.”

In October 2014 we will have new challenges, dubbing the Wapishana into video of the Life of Christ (Luke version), and recording/editing Wapishana songs for a revised hymn book. Both will take place in the Wapishana village of Aishalton, southern Guyana. There will be a recording engineer present this time.

Pray that Olive and Laurus will be available the next few months to help out Bev make the translated book of Luke fit into the dialogue for the video. Pray that Kaye will gain a good working knowledge of recording/editing the songs using a program called Audacity. Pray for the logistics involved in working in Aishalton.

In God’s strength and wisdom,

Beverly and Kaye Froehlich