*Micheal & Linda Buus (whose names are on the building) are from a church in Arizona that is First Love's biggest donor (as a church) and who established DOOR here in Nairobi. They are the ones who sold part of DOOR's extra land to First Love for Daraja House.*
Once again, I was blown away by God's provision of this place! It is full of modern video & editing equipment and all the latest technology...
....including green rooms for filming!
Each color of shirt has a different meaning/purpose. One is for the introduction, one is for when Jesus is speaking, one represents the narrator, etc.
Someone was even using Skype or FaceTime when we were there to sign to another Deaf person:
It is quite the sophisticated process to translate each single verse!!! First a verse (or section) is reviewed & reflected on for meaning. Then the designated signer from that country will sign & record their interpretation of that particular passage. Then a team from that country (usually 3-6 educated adults) will edit/analyze/add/delete/change sentence by sentence, sign by sign until they all agree that is the most conceptually accurate interpretation of that passage. Then the signer goes through further revisions for facial grammar, expression, emotive intent, etc. Final revisions are made to ensure Biblical accuracy and that the complete interpretation is true to the message. Then the signing portion is passed onto the graphic designers who design the background pictures, add pop-up words for important vocabulary, etc. And of course they have their own editing process.
It is still considered a rough draft until they send the videos back to their countries for another group of Deaf people from the community to review and offer feedback. You can imagine how tedious and lengthy this process is!! The Deaf teams live at DOORS for 9 mths. And that only produces a certain portion of the Bible (the 4 gospels, OT stories, the prophets, a portion of the chronological series, etc). They are considers missionaries, volunteering their time, but they do not have to raise financial support and are even given a small monthly stipend (in addition to full room & board being provided).
One of the best things about this place is that it generates employment for local Deaf adults. DOORS hires Deaf cooks, housekeepers, groundskeepers, gatekeepers, farmers, etc.
The first Deaf people I met were the gatekeeper and one of the farmers:
They grow most of their own food and have a fish farm and raise rabbits. As well as providing meat for themselves, they also sell extra fish & rabbits for additional income.
The Deaf rabbit keeper told me they can sell one rabbit for around $30 (which is ALOT of money in Kenya)! He also explained that they collect the rabbit urine to sell as an insecticide! I have never heard of such a thing but they mix it with water and spray on the greens (one of the country's staples which is similar to kale) to kill the little worms that destroy the plants. (Apparently the urine is not harmful to humans? Sounds safer than poisonous chemicals! ;) They get $20 for a 100 kilo barrel.
It is such a HUGE rush for me to communicate with Deaf people from other countries. We use a combination of Kenyan Sign Language, American Sign Language and Ugandan Sign Language. I absolutely LOVE the linguistic challenge! If I was speaking to a hearing Kenyan who didn't know any English and I didn't know any Swahili, we could stand there all day and never be able to communicate (unless we started acting, mining, gesturing, role playing). But it amazes me that within minutes of meeting a Deaf person in another country, we can be communicating and understanding each other! Some Kenyan signs are the same as ours, some are the same as in Uganda, and finger spelling the alphabet is the same (except for a few letters), so between those 3 things we had no trouble at all. They would quickly encorporate some of the ASL signs I was using and I would quickly pick up their signs. Their numbers are totally different (they use 2 hands), but I had already learned to count in Uganda (which uses the same system in Kenya). It's completely fascinating to me how the brain works within sign languages!!!
Here was one of DOORS interpreters, Irene, who was signing to the Deaf people what our hearing tour guide was saying to our group, as we went from room to room. I picked up a lot just from watching her.
There are no formal credentials, licensure or even degrees for interpreting. Colleges & Universities are not required to provide interpreters, neither are doctors or any other public service for that matter. All interpreters are volunteer, unless you find a Christian NGO (non-profit organization) that will pay you a stipend like DOORS does. Very ironic that it is the complete opposite in the USA...non-profit groups are the only ones NOT required by law to provide an interpreter.
Ironically,I had to interpret several different times, which I thought was ironic since I barely know KSL!
SASA is a women's group within DOORS of Deaf widows & single moms who make jewelry to support their families.
The ladies asked me lots of questions and were so impressed that I could answer them (mostly) in KSL!
Our team got to have lunch there and I really enjoyed chatting with a Deaf mother & daughter from Russia who are there for the 9 mths translating the Bible together so they can take th DVDs back home to their Deaf Community:
To learn more about this amazing ministry, goto: www.doorinternational.com Their website says this:
"Deaf Christians are a very small minority (less than 1% of the larger Deaf community), and tighten best qualified to reach their own people for Christ. With God's Word in their heart language, God can use them to change the Deaf world!"
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