Heinrich told me a story about his Lopit “grandfather” the other day, and I can’t help but share it.
Heinrich and Doris brought these crank-turn tape players from Germany, and dug up some old Latuka language (not so far from our dialect) recordings from Look, Listen and Live. The LoPeeps love them. Unfortunately, it’s not a very stable medium and they often switch out the Gospel tapes for their own ancient tapes they got from the refugee camps in Kenya, so we’re looking to go in a different direction. But that’s beside the point.
Apparently, this old man—self-declared grandfather to HK—really digs the players, but couldn’t for the longest time get the turning thing down. He just couldn’t do it. So a whole bunch of monyemiji and Heinrich sat with him a whole afternoon at the mangot and tried to teach him how to crank it. He finally caught on. (Heinrich said one of the main obstacles was his inch-long fingernails, which Doris graciously clipped for him.) Now all he wants to do is turn it, turn it, turn it, all the time and listen to the tapes. And he tells everyone he can do it himself. I think only Heinrich’s smile upon that declaration can rival the old man’s!
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