Arua-06 report

AWR Staff: • Yves Senty (AWR-Europe Program Director) • Daryl Gungadoo (AWR Resource Engineer) Primary Objective: Deliver 200 MegaVoice Ambassadors + 1 Megavoice Scribe, along with training Secondary Objective: Gather a quantity of pictures for AWR-PR’s usage

October 2006 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Heathrow 4 Entebbe 4 General Media Re-purposing & Megavoice Practicals Visit of a Dubai 4 Arua training on Podcasting concepts. recordings part (Megavoice Sudanese Entebbe (Eagle Air) Adobe Megavoice Workshop: II. Scribe Refugee Camp (Emirates) audition, mic 1) deployment File naming usage). (first impression of Intro meeting techniques brainstorm. structure. megavoice usage in a village) 2) Training & Recording Studio Visit of local of spots, part I. Equipment markets… overview

15 16 17 Arua 4 Visit of Dubai 4 Entebbe. Dhabayya London Entebbe 4 Shortwave TX Dubai site (Abu Dhabi)

Preparation: It took a good week of preparation before departure. Apart from the medical preparation (updated vaccines, Malaria pills, etc…), we were most concerned by the possibility of being stopped at Customs upon arrival at the Entebbe (Uganda’s international) Airport. Beverly Koester who was our initial liaison informed us that any computer and computer related equipment was tax & import duty free in Uganda. However it was hard to link a computer to an Ambassador… On the Megavoice Database of pre-recorded test messages, we noticed a message about AIDS by the Ministry of Health, Uganda. So we populated 20% of the Ambassadors with this message, and added an AWR sticker to these, for easy recognition.

Oct 08 - Arrival: Many of our friends were praying for us on this trip. When we arrived in Entebbe, we prayerfully approached Customs… and to our relief, we were whisked through with no complications. We had to spend 1 night in Entebbe because our arrival time was later than the flight to Arua, so we stayed at a Bed & Breakfast, recommended by Beverly Koester.

Oct 09 AM – Arua: The next day, we caught the small prop plane to Arua. Upon checkin for the local flight however, we were queried as to the content of our suitcases (as the X-Ray machine revealed some “unusual” content. This is where taking the time to record the AIDS message from the Ministry of Health – Uganda, helped a lot. As soon as we played this message, they waved us by. As the plane to Arua was very small, the weight limit was 20kg, we were well over. We however got a substantial discount on the overweight payment, due to our “humanitarian” purpose. We landed in Arua (on a dirt runway), and was greeted by the whole production staff and by Beverly. We drove a few miles across Arua, to the compound where the South Sudan Field is based and after a few minutes of freshening up we started with an introductory meeting.

Oct 09 PM – Staff intro.: We had a tour of the facilities, and each of the participants introduced himself. Beverley Koester (the wife of the field Treasurer), in preparation for her permanent return, has recently delegated the responsibility of administering the “Message of Love” Studio Production team as well as the Bible Correspondence School, to Richard Lasu (pictured: Top-Left). However, the studio started with only Beverley and Samuel Sorre (Bottom-Left). They learnt by themselves the used of Cool Edit (later, Adobe Audition), and have become quite resourceful and proficient at computer usage in general. Samuel Sorre is not Adventist. He’s actually an Episcopalian Priest, and started by translating scripts back in 2001. For years he was the only “talent” available. Since 2001, he has single-handedly mixed the majority of the programs. Benjamin Mugabe (Center-Right) is the most committed of the staff (as far as staying at his job, and not looking for grander opportunities abroad). He is officially the press manager and also the technical support for computers and anything electronic for the field. Idris Suliman (top-left) and Stephen Kumuko Bangi (bottom-left) are employees of the Bible School, and spend their fair share in the Studio. Oct 10 General Training: We first spent time assessing the needs of the local staff, to custom-create our training material. We covered material based on popular demand such as: • Adobe Audition o Audio processing o Limiting/Compressing o Normalization o Filters • Mic techniques (positioning, feedback, etc…) • Recording Levels • Solid State Recording (using the Marantz) • (Briefly) Content (this is Ray’s specialty therefore it will be dealt in depot upon his visit, in 2007)

Oct 11 Media Repurposing: The concept of making available to other medium of communication, the audio files that are already produced for Shortwave broadcasting made perfect sense to the Sudanese producers. Naturally, Internet was very appealing to the staff, and we have come to the common agreement to start at least one podcast (in Juba Arabic) to judge the amount of potential Diaspora consumers we would have. We shall analyze the statistics over the next 3 month before deciding if we ought to add the other languages (Moro, Bari, Dinka, Zande, and later on Acholi).

One view of the Juba Podcast (in Apple iTunes) )

The current Juba Arabic podcast is history in the making, as there are hardly any web content in Juba because it’s not a written language. Access to the Podcast is available through : http://www.podnova.com/index_podnova_station.srf?url=http://www.web pasties.com/podcast-3875-998.xml http://odeo.com/channel/141363/view http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZ Store.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203162561 (for iTunes owners)

As of November 3, this is the distribution of the podcast subscribers: It clearly shows an interest in the “western” world by the Diaspora of the Juba Arabic language. Megavoice Ambassador: So as to have the Ambassador project be “owned” by the Sudanese producers (as opposed to something imposed by AWR or others…) we took extra time to have the producers come up with their own ideas on how best to deploy the 200 Ambassadors. This yielded some very interesting results, some that we could have never though of on our own. Initially we had the idea of having all the produced languages on one single Ambassador, however when talking to the producers we realized that the languages spoken are geographically delimited. Furthermore the field is divided according to these language zones. So our pre-emptive deployment plan needed a complete revamp. Taking into consideration, the current organizational structure of the field: Field -> Ministerial Director -> 15 District Leaders (zoned by language groups) -> 80 Gospel Workers After much discussion, as a group, we concluded that the best way to deploy the megavoice was through the Gospel Workers who are equipped by the field with bicycles and rove from village to village in their assigned geographical zone. There is a bi-yearly meeting of the District leaders at the field offices in Arua (next one coming up in December 2006). It would therefore be the opportune moment for the District leaders to be distributed the Ambassadors as follows: Gospel workers: 80 x 2 = 160 (2 per gospel workers) District Leaders: 15 x 2 = 030 (2 per district leaders) Field office & Studio: = 010 ------Total = 200

Depending on which “language zone” these Ambassadors will be used in, they would be pre-programmed (in Arua) with the needed language content. As each program is 30 minute in length, on the 64Meg model of the Ambassadors, we will be able to have 80 programs (40 hours). As each language is produced once a week, that amounts to about 1.5 years of programming! The team also came up with an accountability system that is based on a “Library system”. The Ambassadors will be borrowed by the listener for a predetermined period of time from the Gospel worker. An accompanying sheet of paper will track each program that is listened to. The form should be “illiterate friendly” so the listener just needs to tick each consecutive box. If more time is needed, it can be negotiated with the Gospel worker. The process is to remain free and not involve any compensation to the Gospel worker for borrowing the Ambassador. Language: Juba Arabic Date Lent: Return Date: Gospel Worker: Lent to: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Those forms shall then be turned-in to the District leaders who in turn will bring them (twice yearly) to the field office for tally by the studio / bible correspondence school personnel. Other items of note: • Although only 200 are being deployed at present (to test the demand of such devices), the Gospel workers cannot promis more in the future. • There will not be (warranty) replacement if any get damaged. • The borrowing of the Ambassadors is a free process

Oct 12 Megavoice Ambassador Content: For each produced language (except Colloquial English, as it was deemed not important by the team, for the moment), we recorded an Intro and an Outro Jingle. The script in English is as follows:

Intro: This device is the property of “Messages of Love” for Sudan, and it is free for you to use for a certain period of time, as determined by the provider. Pressing the top left circle button for over 5 seconds will turn-on the device. Pressing it again for 3 seconds will turn the device off. The Arrow UP & Down control the volume. The button on the top-right pauses & resumes the playback. The first row of Left & Right buttons skip programs by 10. The second row of Left & Right buttons skip programs by 5. The bottom row of Left & Right buttons skip to the previous or next program. If the device does not turn on (completely discharged), expose the back of the unit to the sunlight for 1 day to recharge it. Any further information on the use of this device, please refer to the provider… (i.e the gospel worker)

Outro: Continue listing to “Messages of Love” on Shortwave… (Frequency 9815 KHz, 31 Meter band, until 25 March 2007) Moru: Sun, Bari: Mon, Juba: Tue & Sat, Eng: Wed, Din: Thu, Zan: Fri For new frequencies (after March 2007), see provider… (i.e. the Gospel worker)

Studio Equipment Review: A major struggle that the studio is facing is the age (deterioration) of their equipment. Most of their equipment was inherited from the Cyprus studio a few years ago. Half of the channels on the EELA Audio mixer (Model S120-VCA). Currently they can only use one single mic for recording, due to the mixer failure. Although the Minidiscs, Casettes, CD Player works fine, the external sound cards for their computers are also defective.

This is a list of all equipment they’d need to operate adequately: • Yamaha MG12/4 Mixer • Adobe Audition 2.0 • 2x 1Gig Compact Flash Memory Card • 300 Gig External Drive (USB2) • External (USB2) multitrack sound card (like Edirol or M-Audio) • 1 Distribution Amp • USB2 PCMCIA Card (for their Toshiba Laptop) • 1 Gigabit 5 or 8 port Hub • External (USB2) DVD Dual Layer Recorder • Blank CDs, blank DVDs (hard to find locally) • Cable conduit (10meters) (see page number 14 for details on pricing)

Oct 13 Practicals: We spent the last training day working with the studio staff on practical applications, like using the Megavoice scribe to record on the Ambassadors, the Marantz solid state recorder, renaming files to AWR’s new standard, etc…

In the afternoon, we visited the main marketplace in the town or Arua. To our surprise, we noticed quite a few shacks that sold radio, many of them, Shortwave. The average price for a descent-enough shortwave radio was around 5500 Shillings, equivalent to about US$ 3.00. We even encountered an ambulant radio salesman and a radio repairman, to whom we showed the Megavoice Ambassador. He was baffled as to the fact that is ran only on solar power, and though that there’d be a good market for such devices…

FM is prevalent in cities (like Arua). There are of the 4 local FM stations in Arua, 2 of them are Christian. “Voice of Life 100.9 FM” is Protestant while “Radio Pacis 90.9 FM” is Catholic. We had the opportunity of visiting the strongest (and arguably) the most popular local FM station, called ARUA One on 88.7 FM. We were impressed to see the quality of the equipment used, and the workmanship in the infrastructure. Yves even has the opportunity to record a spot in French for Arua One. Oct 14 – Sabbath in a refugee camp: Mike Collins, the field president was condescending enough to drive us (on durt roads) to one of the closest refugee camps (about 3hrs north-east of Arua), close to the border with Sudan, in the east-nile valley, not too far from the town of Yumbe.

Upon arrival we were surprised to pull into a village formed by “permanent” thatched huts. As refugee camps go, we were expected people leaving under UNICEF plastic tents, but it became quickly apparent that these refugees had settled many years ago. After further inquiry we found that some had moved from Sudan over 10 years ago, and many of the children were born in the camp. There is no running water, no electricity, no septic tanks in these villages. The closest source of running water to this village, is the nile river, 20 miles east. However, some NGOs had drilled a few bore-holes in the area, so water was available only a few miles away, on foot. Refugee settlements seems to be grouped by language. This particular village was Acholi speaking, but most understood Juba Arabic (as a second language). AWR doesn’t yet broadcast in Acholi, but it’s on the production list of the Arua studio (and while we were at “church” some of the studio staff were busy recording Acholi songs). I brought an FM/SW radio receiver with me to see what I could pickup in such a remote location. Only one FM station came in faintly, and not in a language understandable by the village (most likely a stray FM signal from Congo). When I asked when was the typical time for the villagers to listen to radio if at all, they all replied unfalteringly: “Between 9 and 10pm”. Incidentally AWR broadcasts from 9 to 9:30pm, so we are right on !

The “church” in this village is overseen by a Gospel Worker. Morris Oteka also happens to live in the village, and uses a bike for his mode of transportation. There were over 100 children and the kids Sabbath school was held under a large tree. Literally a “branch” Sabbath-school. After the service, we were cordially invited for a meal in his hut. We learnt that a family usually owns a minimum of 3 huts: The husband & wife hut, the kids hut and the kitchen hut. They receive corn rations from USAID. Because of termite, Morris has to redo the roof of his huts about every 2 to 3 years. One of his tasks is to advertise the AWR frequencies to people of the village. We were humbled by the experience of hand-washing before and after the meal. In the afternoon, we went back to the church for an afternoon choir program as well as an opportunity for more pictures… We noticed that although they did not have electricity, they had a solar panel that charged a car battery, that powered a cassette player and an Amp. Through which, they would playback recordings of their choir through loud-speakers installed in trees. Kind of like a call to prayer. Current production method: Some contribution to the broadcasts are actually pastors in the field who record programs on Minidisc and send them to the studio in Arua to be assembled into radio programs. These people do not grasp recording concepts like volume, over-saturation, etc… and the staff in Arua ends up spending a lot of their time “cleaning” the audio for it to be broadcast ready. Adobe Audition 1.5 is a good help is time consuming.

Language Production: The studio in Arua, assembles the following languages (+broadcasting days): Moro: Broadcasted on Sundays. [30,000 (1982 SIL). Northern Sudan, eastern Nuba Mountains, Kordofan Province.]

Collocial English: Broadcasted on Wednesdays

Juba Arabic: Broadcasted on Tuesdays & Saturdays [spoken by most South Sudanese, but not necessarily their mother tongue. Also called Creole Arabic, Pidgin Arabic. Used as the major language of communication among speakers of different languages in Equatoria, south of Wau and Malakal.]

Bari: Broadcasted on Mondays. [420,000 spoken in Sudan (2000). Population includes 26,400 in Kuku, 18,000 in Nyangbara, 3,400 in Nyepu, 25,000 in Pojulu]

Dinka: Broadcasted on Thursdays. 950,000. [Total Dinka 2,000,000 or more. Southern Sudan, west of the Nile, south of the Sudan]

Zande: Broadcasted on Fridays (newly introduced, since the B06 broadcast schedule. 3 month buffer in place). [350,000 spoken in Sudan (1982 SIL). Southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo primarily, and Central African Republic in an elongated semicircle with Uele River as its base.]

Acholi: Upcoming language planned to be on air in 2007. [45,000 spoken in Southern Sudan, Opari District.]

For a complete map of Sudanese languages, see http://www.gmi.org/wlms/users/huffman/Huffman- Sudan_Langs-wlms32-100dpi.pdf Also see http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=SD for details

Infrastructure: Thanks to the vision of the previous field president (Beat Odermatt), the premises are very well built and provide ample space for the offices of the south Sudan field, as well as ADRA Sudan, 2 churches, 1 studio (segmented in 3), a library equipped with Pentium 4, Dell Computers, Dorm rooms for transiting students, and lodging for all expatriates, on a secure compound.

Internet Infrastructure: Surprisingly, in Uganda, it’s quite easy to have Broadband Internet thanks to a South African company (MTN) that has deployed on their regular cell phone towers, Wireless Internet repeaters. For an affordable sum of money (about $ 8-10 / month), one can subscribe to this wireless internet service. The measured bandwidth (while on site) was about 110k Upload, 512k download.

IBB Monitoring site: At first, the location looked perfect for deploying an automated Monitoring system for the IBB. However upon further examination, there are the negative aspects: • Interference with H.F. rigs o (for communication with the remote vehicles, the South Sudan field as well as ADRA uses a “ham radio” like short wave transmitter to communicate. They have allocated 2 frequencies: 7,845 KHz LSB for ADRA and 7,413 KHz LSB for the field. o The transmitting antenna is an external dipole. o When monitoring shortwave reception, any time the HF rig was keyed, the shortwave reception was essentially “jammed”.

• Grounding problems o The whole compound was build back when there was no electricity in the town of Arua, and the compound depended on a Generator. When “city”-electricity was put in, no special care was taken to proper grounding. This adds to the leakage of RF into many equipment on the compound, including Studio equipment. To the point that the studio has to halt recording until HF communication is terminated.

Field relocation possibility: The president of the field (Mike Collins) indicated to us that there would be imminent discussions with the North- Sudan field (based in Khartoum) for a possible relocation of the South- Sudan field back to the city of Juba. Incidentally the South-Sudan field owns infrastructure in Juba, however when the South-Sudan field relocated to Arua, the North-Sudan used the facilities and leased some space to some international NGOs (therefore it’s money-making for them) and are reluctant to relinquish the infrastructure back to the South- Sudan field. Nonetheless it is the wish of the field to eventually relocate back to Juba in the future.

Furthermore there has been interest by the field to start an FM station in the city of Juba, and some proposals have been worked out already between a local professional FM-installing company and the field. See the following 2 pages for the proposal (totaling US$ 80,000):

According to these documents it seems that a frequency request has already been lodged with the Ministry of Telecommunications of the Sudan:

Required Equipment List for current production: • Yamaha MG12/4 Mixer - £163.91 from Studio Spares • Adobe Audition 2.0 – £128.62 from Pugh • 2x 1Gig Compact Flash Memory Card - £13.84 x2 from Dabs.com

• 300 Gig External Drive (USB2) Seagate 300GB – £111.61 from Misco • External (USB2) sound card, M-Audio Fast Track- £132.19 from StudioSpares • 1 Distribution Amp, from AWR-UK spare old equipment • Adaptec USB2 PCMCIA Card - £32.89 from Misco • 1 Gigabit 5 or 8 port Hub, from AWR-UK spare old equipment • External (USB2) DVD Dual Layer Recorder – £88.11 from Misco • blank DVDs (100x spindle) – £23.49 from Misco • Cable conduit (10meters), from AWR-UK Stock

Sum: £708.50 (price in the UK, inc. VAT)

Current studio system diagram:

Proposed system diagram (incl. new equipment):

Data Stereo Balanced (XLR) Stereo unbalanced (RCA) Mono (XLR)

Picture Sources: A DVD of raw and high resolution JPEG pictures is being sent to Shelley for archival; however some pictures are also available online as follows: Daryl's Blog: http://dgungadoo.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_dgungadoo_archive.html Dhabayya TX Site (visit on Oct 16, 2006): http://picasaweb.google.com/gungadoo/DhabayyaTXSite Yves' Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/yves.senty/Uganda