Follow-up, Ewe. Fri, Dec 5, 2008.

12/05/2008. Follow-up. I received a phone call from a man with whom I spoke while in line at a Kroger grocery store over a year ago. I forget what all I gave him back then. On the phone, he said he was looking for an Ewe bible. I said I'd try to help him out, and get back with him. He gave me his name and address.

I found an Ewe New Testament online here as 27 PDF files. There does seem to be a print version in existence, but it was not available.

There is also a free audio Bible in Ewe, but the distributor wants you to install their special software in order to download it. I'm very skeptical of that, and don't want to install that kind of software out of fear it may contain a computer virus. You should not have to install special software in order to download an audio or MP3 file. Something's fishy there.

So I downloaded the PDF files. They are double-spaced, and not efficiently typeset, as they are intended for reading on a computer, not for printing out. Printing them out would be over 800 pages. Even duplexing (double-sided printing) would be 400 sheets of paper.

So I decided they needed to be "two up" and duplexed, which would reduce it to 200 sheets of paper. The paper would be held to be read in landscape mode, with 2 virtual pages on each side of the sheet, and printing on both sides of the sheet.

I first went to Staples, and they said they could not reformat it for me, that they could only print it as it was in the file. The best they could do would be double-sided printing, and get it down to 400 sheets.

Later, I decided to go to FedEx Kinko's and see if their printers were smart enough to be set to do "2 up" printing (and duplexing) without having to reformat the files.

I was helped by a very knowledgeable customer-service rep at a 24-hour store, and he was able to do it. So we got it down to a little over 200 pages, I 3-hole punched it, and bought a binder.

On the way home, I stopped at the missionaries apartment. The man's address was in our ward. I gave the missionaries the Ewe New Testament printout, a CD with the Ewe New Testament PDF files on it, an Ewe copy of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet, Twi and English copies of the Book of Mormon.

The next day, I got a call back from the missionaries reporting that they met with the man, gave him the material, and had scheduled an appointment to meet with him again.

More follow-up here.