diff --git a/mediagoblin/globals.py b/mediagoblin/globals.py
index 59a94558..80d1f01d 100644
--- a/mediagoblin/globals.py
+++ b/mediagoblin/globals.py
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 In some places, we need to access the database, public_store, queue_store
 """
 
+import gettext
+import pkg_resources
+
 #############################
 # General mediagoblin globals
 #############################
@@ -16,6 +19,12 @@ database = None
 public_store = None
 queue_store = None
 
+# gettext
+translations = gettext.find(
+    'mediagoblin',
+    pkg_resources.resource_filename(
+    'mediagoblin', 'translations'), ['en'])
+
 
 def setup_globals(**kwargs):
     from mediagoblin import globals as mg_globals
diff --git a/mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html b/mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html
index 44d26a65..fa78bda2 100644
--- a/mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html
+++ b/mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html
@@ -19,9 +19,7 @@
 
 {% block mediagoblin_content %}
   
-  <h2>Welcome to GNU MediaGoblin!</h2>
-  {# <!-- THE FUTURE -->
-  <h2>{% trans %}Welcome to GNU MediaGoblin!{% endtrans %}</h2> #}
+  <h2>{% trans %}Welcome to GNU MediaGoblin!{% endtrans %}</h2>
 
   {% if request.user %}
   <p>
diff --git a/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.mo b/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.mo
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fb7046cd
Binary files /dev/null and b/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.mo differ
diff --git a/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.po b/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.po
index 0e242fee..3bec204e 100644
--- a/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.po
+++ b/mediagoblin/translations/en/LC_MESSAGES/mediagoblin.po
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ msgid ""
 msgstr ""
 "Project-Id-Version: PROJECT VERSION\n"
 "Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: EMAIL@ADDRESS\n"
-"POT-Creation-Date: 2011-05-12 10:17-0500\n"
+"POT-Creation-Date: 2011-05-12 22:28-0500\n"
 "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
 "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
 "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ msgstr ""
 "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
 "Generated-By: Babel 0.9.6\n"
 
-#: mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html:21
+#: mediagoblin/templates/mediagoblin/root.html:22
 msgid "Welcome to GNU MediaGoblin!"
 msgstr ""
 
diff --git a/mediagoblin/util.py b/mediagoblin/util.py
index ac977bdb..8c6ec6cc 100644
--- a/mediagoblin/util.py
+++ b/mediagoblin/util.py
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
 from email.MIMEText import MIMEText
+import gettext
+import pkg_resources
 import smtplib
 import sys
 
@@ -56,10 +58,18 @@ def get_jinja_env(template_loader, locale):
     (In the future we may have another system for providing theming;
     for now this is good enough.)
     """
-    return jinja2.Environment(
+    setup_gettext(locale)
+
+    template_env = jinja2.Environment(
         loader=template_loader, autoescape=True,
         extensions=['jinja2.ext.i18n'])
 
+    template_env.install_gettext_callables(
+        mgoblin_globals.translations.gettext,
+        mgoblin_globals.translations.ngettext)
+
+    return template_env
+
 
 def setup_user_in_request(request):
     """
@@ -196,6 +206,10 @@ def send_email(from_addr, to_addrs, subject, message_body):
 ###################
 
 
+TRANSLATIONS_PATH = pkg_resources.resource_filename(
+    'mediagoblin', 'translations')
+
+
 def locale_to_lower_upper(locale):
     """
     Take a locale, regardless of style, and format it like "en-us"
@@ -246,3 +260,20 @@ def get_locale_from_request(request):
         target_lang = 'en'
 
     return locale_to_lower_upper(target_lang)
+
+
+def setup_gettext(locale):
+    """
+    Setup the gettext instance based on this locale
+    """
+    # Later on when we have plugins we may want to enable the
+    # multi-translations system they have so we can handle plugin
+    # translations too
+
+    # TODO: fallback nicely on translations from pt_PT to pt if not
+    # available, etc.
+    this_gettext = gettext.translation(
+        'mediagoblin', TRANSLATIONS_PATH, [locale], fallback=True)
+
+    mgoblin_globals.setup_globals(
+        translations=this_gettext)