Togo Trip
So, for anyone that reads this, I'd love to give my first update in far too long and let everyone know about the trip to Togo.
Well, first, we must understand it was two trips, one to Detroit for recording an Iraqi language, and a second trip to Togo. The trip to Detroit was a small amount of recording, maybe only 5 hours. The first interesting thing that happened was an interaction with the voice actor of this recording.
When we record the audio, it is separated into separate loops, and all the loops together compose the entire recording. The loops are timed and placed within the film so that they make sense; many of them have to be lipsynched as well. For the Detroit trip, it was all narration so it just has to fit into a general area.
The prayer of salvation at the end of the film, for the Detroit recording, was over by 30 seconds. That's a long time. So we ask them if they can shorten it, and they say, "Ok, give us 5 minutes."
They come back 30 seconds later, and immediately say, "Ok, we fixed it."
I'm thinking "wow, that was quick."
Then the 55 year old actor says, "Yes, the important points of the prayer are Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, the indwelling of the Spirit, and that it is all for God's glory."
So, I immediately realize that he is leaving out the primary part, forgiveness of sins. So, I say, "Do you still have the part about forgiveness of sins?"
The man looks at me, and without missing a beat replies, "I am not your little brother! I have a degree in theology!"
I'm like... wow. That was an intense answer. I assume that means he does still have that part in the prayer. As soon as he is out of earshot, my companion Schmidty says to me "You got served."
We laughed about that one for a while. It was a pretty hilarious thing to hear that guy say that to me. A simple "yes" would have done, but oh well. It's fine, I don't think he meant it as harsh as it sounded.
That story behind us, we can move on to Paris, where I lost my luggage, and further to Togo, where we arrived after 3 days of travel. Immediately upon arriving we went for drinks, and I had a "Malta" which is as thick as a dark beer like guiness, except non-alcoholic and tastes like Wheaties in a bottle. As a person would later say to me, "I like having a Malta when I'm thirsty and don't feel like eating dinner." It tasted... ok... but basically like Wheaties in liquid form.
The next morning I went to the market and got a nice pair of slacks and two button up shirts for $12.00, or 6000 CFA (Central African Francs, pronounced by the nationals as 'Say-Fuh'). That was a pretty good deal.
Following this, we took the 3 hour drive north to Atakpame, where we stayed for the course of the recordings. Our studio was made of about 8 twin size mattresses, a couple blankets that were closer to towels, and two bedframes balanced vertically and supported by some random boards we found laying around. It felt like I was in third grade making a tent or fort in the basement, just adult sized and made to sound as dead as possible.
The recording itself was my favorite part. I really enjoyed interacting with the actors, the national staff, and our dialogue director that coaches the nationals. We encountered a bit of terrible acting on the nationals part, but they were all we had that spoke the language. They were all great sports and did their best, and honestly I can't voice act either. But it made for some difficult lipsynching and some less than awesome quality product for a few of the parts, particularly Peter's laughter at raking in the hoards of fish and his crying seen at the end. He wasn't the best actor, had a nasal high voice, and it's a tremendously difficult part to act anyway.
Moving on, I will discuss food. Food was different than USA. The primary food of that area is Fufu, which is pounded yams. They are like eating playdough with no flavor. They give you enough that's equivalent to 3x as much mash potatoes as you would ever want, and they are 6 times as thick as mash potatoes. You eat it with your fingers, and you dip it into some sort of soup. The standard soup used is goat, and this can be goat leg, goat rib, or goat head. One time we ate and the goat was rotten, which tasted like the way dead fish smells mixed with a good load of vomit. I took a full mouthful of the stuff, had it in my mouth for a long time, and then spit it out. That is pretty rude for their culture, but actually the nationals were quick to admit that this was some bad meat (even though they ate it) and they apologized.
Other than that, the food was all edible, although very redundant. I was sick of it by the end. Plus, they make you take so much of it that it's ridiculous. I got constipated for two 4 day segments, which was ended by a vomiting session and a 7 flusher in the airplane on the way home. TMI?
Spiritually, the trip was very good for me. I continue to feel called to seminary and a pastoral type direction with my life, which was a big thing to realize considering that my mind was (and still is) open to missions.
Also, the trip showed me how to wage war against Satan. We had some really interesting things happen, mostly in the realm of computer malfunction. Now, computer malfunction is a pretty standard thing for anyone that uses a computer, right? But we must consider that I have been using this system for a full month before getting to Togo. Then suddenly, it starts doing weird stuff, like when I hit the record button it pretends to record but stops recording. After doing this for maybe 2 minutes, I say to the nationals, "Can we pray for the computer." Immediately the dialogue director, an elder in the Assembly of God church, puts his hand on the computer and starts praying very loudly. I have no idea what he said. But I prayed too, to myself, and afterwards the computer problems went away. That is a testament to God kicking a bunch of evil spirits' asses. Or maybe it was his angels or something. Regardless, I know firsthand that prayer answered our computer malfunctions, which is pretty freaky when you think about it.
I loved the trip, but I can tell you now I won't be doing this another year. I will miss it here, and especially the people whom I have grown very close to, but this simply is not my calling.
This was a long read, but I didn't want to leave much out (and I still did leave much out, I promise) and there are a variety of people that want to know. This will save me from telling a long story 500 times.
Much love to you all.
Bish
Well, first, we must understand it was two trips, one to Detroit for recording an Iraqi language, and a second trip to Togo. The trip to Detroit was a small amount of recording, maybe only 5 hours. The first interesting thing that happened was an interaction with the voice actor of this recording.
When we record the audio, it is separated into separate loops, and all the loops together compose the entire recording. The loops are timed and placed within the film so that they make sense; many of them have to be lipsynched as well. For the Detroit trip, it was all narration so it just has to fit into a general area.
The prayer of salvation at the end of the film, for the Detroit recording, was over by 30 seconds. That's a long time. So we ask them if they can shorten it, and they say, "Ok, give us 5 minutes."
They come back 30 seconds later, and immediately say, "Ok, we fixed it."
I'm thinking "wow, that was quick."
Then the 55 year old actor says, "Yes, the important points of the prayer are Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, the indwelling of the Spirit, and that it is all for God's glory."
So, I immediately realize that he is leaving out the primary part, forgiveness of sins. So, I say, "Do you still have the part about forgiveness of sins?"
The man looks at me, and without missing a beat replies, "I am not your little brother! I have a degree in theology!"
I'm like... wow. That was an intense answer. I assume that means he does still have that part in the prayer. As soon as he is out of earshot, my companion Schmidty says to me "You got served."
We laughed about that one for a while. It was a pretty hilarious thing to hear that guy say that to me. A simple "yes" would have done, but oh well. It's fine, I don't think he meant it as harsh as it sounded.
That story behind us, we can move on to Paris, where I lost my luggage, and further to Togo, where we arrived after 3 days of travel. Immediately upon arriving we went for drinks, and I had a "Malta" which is as thick as a dark beer like guiness, except non-alcoholic and tastes like Wheaties in a bottle. As a person would later say to me, "I like having a Malta when I'm thirsty and don't feel like eating dinner." It tasted... ok... but basically like Wheaties in liquid form.
The next morning I went to the market and got a nice pair of slacks and two button up shirts for $12.00, or 6000 CFA (Central African Francs, pronounced by the nationals as 'Say-Fuh'). That was a pretty good deal.
Following this, we took the 3 hour drive north to Atakpame, where we stayed for the course of the recordings. Our studio was made of about 8 twin size mattresses, a couple blankets that were closer to towels, and two bedframes balanced vertically and supported by some random boards we found laying around. It felt like I was in third grade making a tent or fort in the basement, just adult sized and made to sound as dead as possible.
The recording itself was my favorite part. I really enjoyed interacting with the actors, the national staff, and our dialogue director that coaches the nationals. We encountered a bit of terrible acting on the nationals part, but they were all we had that spoke the language. They were all great sports and did their best, and honestly I can't voice act either. But it made for some difficult lipsynching and some less than awesome quality product for a few of the parts, particularly Peter's laughter at raking in the hoards of fish and his crying seen at the end. He wasn't the best actor, had a nasal high voice, and it's a tremendously difficult part to act anyway.
Moving on, I will discuss food. Food was different than USA. The primary food of that area is Fufu, which is pounded yams. They are like eating playdough with no flavor. They give you enough that's equivalent to 3x as much mash potatoes as you would ever want, and they are 6 times as thick as mash potatoes. You eat it with your fingers, and you dip it into some sort of soup. The standard soup used is goat, and this can be goat leg, goat rib, or goat head. One time we ate and the goat was rotten, which tasted like the way dead fish smells mixed with a good load of vomit. I took a full mouthful of the stuff, had it in my mouth for a long time, and then spit it out. That is pretty rude for their culture, but actually the nationals were quick to admit that this was some bad meat (even though they ate it) and they apologized.
Other than that, the food was all edible, although very redundant. I was sick of it by the end. Plus, they make you take so much of it that it's ridiculous. I got constipated for two 4 day segments, which was ended by a vomiting session and a 7 flusher in the airplane on the way home. TMI?
Spiritually, the trip was very good for me. I continue to feel called to seminary and a pastoral type direction with my life, which was a big thing to realize considering that my mind was (and still is) open to missions.
Also, the trip showed me how to wage war against Satan. We had some really interesting things happen, mostly in the realm of computer malfunction. Now, computer malfunction is a pretty standard thing for anyone that uses a computer, right? But we must consider that I have been using this system for a full month before getting to Togo. Then suddenly, it starts doing weird stuff, like when I hit the record button it pretends to record but stops recording. After doing this for maybe 2 minutes, I say to the nationals, "Can we pray for the computer." Immediately the dialogue director, an elder in the Assembly of God church, puts his hand on the computer and starts praying very loudly. I have no idea what he said. But I prayed too, to myself, and afterwards the computer problems went away. That is a testament to God kicking a bunch of evil spirits' asses. Or maybe it was his angels or something. Regardless, I know firsthand that prayer answered our computer malfunctions, which is pretty freaky when you think about it.
I loved the trip, but I can tell you now I won't be doing this another year. I will miss it here, and especially the people whom I have grown very close to, but this simply is not my calling.
This was a long read, but I didn't want to leave much out (and I still did leave much out, I promise) and there are a variety of people that want to know. This will save me from telling a long story 500 times.
Much love to you all.
Bish
posted by Brian at 10:48 AM
1 comments
