Our Translator, Julie!

Julie Nabiryo has been a prime discovery in our efforts to get the manual translated.  Julian and I actually met her on the first day we were in Kalisizo when we bought Cokes from her mom’s shop, but it was just this past week when we realized that (a) her English is great (b) she’s only in Kalisizo for a few months before she starts at Makere University in the fall and (c) she’s planning on studying Electrical Engineering and has completed A levels in physics, biology and chemistry.  A.K.A.: she’s perfect to translate our manual for us. 

Over the weekend, we left Julie with one page of the manual, a very unedited version of page 3.  We were planning on printing out a longer chunk of a more recent version, but at the moment we reached the printers the power went out and we had to settle for a page that I had been taking notes on while we were teaching circuitry.  We took the translation to the youth center during work today, and it was kind of confusing what they felt about it.  It was clear that Julie translated incredibly intelligently, and had the appropriate way to designate things that aren’t in a Lugandan vocab (i.e.: photon, electron, etc.), and in fact the versions were basically identical translations of each other.

The complaint that the youth had was that the Lugandan version was more confusing and that it seemed pointless to have a version like that.  However, I think ultimately their point was that it was confusing to just get the Lugandan version and start reading, that it should be coupled with someone who knows what is going on to explain it.  To them, that person is us, so you need a translator anyways to explain it.  But several of them have said they would like copies to be able to read and remember all of the material (because there is a lot to remember!) outside of the classes, and only two members really read English.  Also, once they start teaching others themselves, then it will most likely be incredibly helpful to teach a class from a manual in that language.  Ultimately the point we ended on was that the translation should be provided, as well as an English copy.  Which is what we were planning on anyways.

The first person we asked about translation had been Anita, the program director for the Foundation for Sustainable Development interns in Masaka, and she said the translator that she knew charged 15,000 shillings ($6 USD) per page.  Our book is currently 30 pages, but with about fifty percent of those pages being diagrams and pictures.  Julie is translating this section (which follows basic electronics through the node and its construction) for 150,000 shillings ($60 USD) and based on the length of the second section (which will address the specifics of establishing an internet/computer café) we’ll probably add on top of that, maybe 50,000 shillings or so ($20 USD).