Sometimes I fly in a small MAF plane to Alduba, center for the Banna Literacy and Translation Project. This is the airstrip.

This is the plane.

Colleague Fred VanGorkom oversaw the building of our translation office, adding a 'guest room', where I can stay when I visit.

Banna translators David, Getu ('gay two'), and Ayke ('I Kay') work well together.

I use a program called CARLA (Computer Assisted Related Language Adaptation) to get a rough draft in Banna from the Aari Scriptures. Then David, Getu and Ayke revise it to make it 'good Banna'. I use the revised drafts to write more rules into CARLA, so that 'she' will produce a better draft of the next Scripture portion.

Since June, 2002, Donna Clawson has been on site at Alduba to coordinate the Banna literacy and translation work. By the end of January, 2004, we hope to have a system to communicate with each other by e-mail when I am in the USA. Update (6/23/04): We now have e-mail communication between Longview, Washington and Alduba by shortwave radio. We have to keep to 'plain text', but I can send CARLA drafts directly.

Mark's Gospel has been published in Banna, and we have a revised draft of Matthew and 1 Corinthians. I am currently working on a CARLA draft of 1 Corinithians. Donna and the translation team have drafted Genesis without a CARLA draft, but they still find the CARLA drafts helpful and want me to produce them as quickly as possible.

David has been with the team the longest. He is hearing impaired due to an ear infection after he was grown. With the help of a hearing aid he can hear quite well, and God has gifted him in language. We rely on him to recognize mistakes in spelling and tone-marking.

Getu is a musician, artist, and very good on the computer. It has been a joy to watch him grow in his understanding and commitment. He the lay-pastor of the local church in Alduba.