Ikizu radio interview

There is a radio station, "Radio Mazingira", based in the main Ikizu village of Nyamuswa.  A couple of months ago, Andrew and I, together with one of our Tanzanian colleagues (and Zarya was along for the ride, too), visited the station to introduce ourselves and see what opportunities there might be for doing something with them to promote the Bible translation work.  They were receptive to having us do something, provided we pay for the air time.

When we were planning an event in a nearby village, we thought of the radio station and wondered if it might be good to do something there while we were in the area.  Upon contacting the folks at it, we learned that on Saturday and Tuesday nights, they have a call-in question and answer time, which they invited us to do.  Since our plan (at that time) had us arriving early Sunday morning for a church service not too far from there, it didn't seem too tricky to go a day early and add on a Saturday night activity.

After some last-minute confusion about what time the program began, the two Ikizu translators and I (Misha) arrived at the station.  None of us really knew what to expect, and we were a bit nervous about going on live radio.  We were ushered into a carpeted room where a technician and DJ were seated at a table with a couple microphones and computers.  Almost immediately, the DJ switched the programming from music over to our session.  He gave a quick introduction to what organization we were with and asked us to introduce ourselves.  Before we knew it, we were on air!

We said a bit about Bible translation in the Mara region as an introduction, and then started answering questions.  The DJ asked us some, and people called the radio station with questions for us.  Before asking their question, the DJ had them say from where they were calling.  The translators and I were all surprised by how far away some of them were.  We didn't realize what a big area we were potentially reaching that night!  In all our years at the project, getting the word out about the ongoing work has been an issue.  We want people to know that the Bible is being translated into their language, but it's shockingly difficult to spread this news.  Despite many trips to many villages over the years, only a small group of people in each village hear the message each time.  Doing a call-in talk show for 45 minutes on the radio was a really fun new method to try.  We were in the area for two days afterwards, and we met up with quite a few folks who had heard us on air, so something worked!  We're already planning to utilize this method for announcements about JESUS Film premiers and other big events in the future.