Audio recordings

Man, am I tired. It was a long week in Tuva. Recording went from 10 am to 10 pm every day. On Thursday we were there until midnight. On Friday we traveled back to Abakan with Jim, and then caught the train.
We were on Platskart (third class) over night back to Krasnoyarsk. I have to admit that I am a bit soft, and I hate Platskart. There are 40 or more people in one carriage. The whole layout is open, so it is like sharing a bedroom with everyone. You can hear everybody's snoring. You can't get to sleep until late as people make noise til the lights go out after 11. The beds are not long enough or wide enough. My legs hung off the end, and I got woken up more than once when people brushed my feet as they walked past. Our train got in at 6 am, but the attendant turned the light on at 4:30 am and woke us all up, because she seemed to think we needed an hour and a half to get ready, even though the whole carriage was getting off at the end of the line. The majority of the time I have traveled on trains in Russia, I have traveled on Coupe (second class), which has four berth enclosed cabins with longer, wider and softer beds. I hate platskart and am determined to avoid it as much as possible in the future.



The audio recordings were a real success. Over the four and a half days of recording we recorded 24 testimonies in the Tuvan language; 19 worship songs in the Tuvan language, but with a western style accompanied by guitar; 7 songs by our guest star throat singer (some of them to gospel lyrics); 4 poems in the Tuvan language; 9 stories from the Good Book in the Tuvan language; the first 3 chapters of Genesis in Tuvan; 2 preaching spots; 1 translated story by Max Lucado.



It will now take 1-2 months of editing before the cds will be ready for distribution. Tuvans will be able to give them to the their friends as a means of sharing the hope that is within them. I am sure that many of the people down there will be on the edge of their seats waiting for the discs to be ready. But we want to put them together with quality and attention, so the process can't be rushed.





It was exciting to see so many Tuvans get involved in the process from many different back grounds. Some of them worked very hard on translation (before we arrived and during) and also editing. There is no doubt that this is a project that is fully owned by Tuvan people, even people who have come from many varied groups with in Tuva, so it should help the cause of unity there.



Not all testimonies will be used as not all people spoke clearly enough or with enough emotion. We will try to use as many as possible. It may require some more editing assistance from a Tuvan who could come up to Krasnoyarsk to help.

We did find a couple of people who read very well, not least the lady below. She spoke loudly and clearly, which was a real bonus. So Pakma (below) took on a larger percentage of the story reading load and translation editing.