Kenya stories...

... that I know you will all want to hear.  I will try to be descriptive yet brief.

There will be more stories that I will be telling as I go through footage and remember more.  Here is one that was not recorded in any way that I would like to share.

Also, ugali is the cornmeal doughy stuff that Kenyans eat all of the time.


Becky was sick in the morning.  Something about feeling nauseous and tired.  I feel like it was more the later.  I left with all of my equipment in the back of an old 1986 Volkswagon Passat that was painted bright green at 7:30.  We had been filming farmers around the rural area for a couple days and the rain hadn't helped the dirt roads.  We bounced through the mud, getting stuck twice, on our way towards some specific farmers that we had lined up to interview.  The first interview went well.  When we asked her to show us around the farm and her homestead she was embarrassed yet proud.  I think the embarrassment came from the camera I was holding.  I am sure that people found it to be a bit excessive, but I had to do my best to make it look natural and organic.  I had spent the last two and a half weeks carrying around the large tripod, camera bag and strange looking camera with the large, fuzzy mic attached and was used to how silly it must have looked.

Our second interviewee also found the camera to be more off-putting.  Martha was a middle aged woman who was rounder than most.  Though middle aged, she kept referring to herself as "old".  Much like people in the early 20th century, Kenyans don't believe in smiling at the camera.  When people see a DLSR photography looking camera, the pose, not knowing that I am taking video.  The interview was fairly quick and after her stone-faced remarks were made, she also took us around to see her farm.  She had a bit more to show.  Their family had lived on the farm for the past century as far as she could tell.  Her forefathers had hand-dug a well over 50 feet deep that had cool, fresh water inside.  This place had become a hub of comfort for the neighborhood because of the security that well brought.  It was also far enough away from the eucalyptus trees that the well maintained its water level.  Her grove of eucalyptus was planted a bit over two years ago.  They were some of the first farmers to start with Komaza and the trees were large and healthy.  The trunks were strong and thick and the branches reached high overhead, a good fifteen to twenty feet, bringing shade.  The air smelled fresh and alive and as it moved through the tops of the trees you could hear the leaves grace each other.  She obviously took pride in her tree farm and it showed.  Every time I would turn the camera towards her to try and catch a more candid moment, she would turn to me and pose against a tree, leaning her weight against it as if to say, "We are strong".

We finished the tour of the farm with her picking some fresh cassava for us and teaching us how to eat it raw.  She led us back to where we had left some of the other equipment by her house and I started packing up.  As I was putting away some of the reflector stands from the interview she and our guide/translator started speaking Swahili very quickly.  After she was done speaking she turned to us and gave us that strong look again.  Our translator turned with a smile on his face and announced that we would be having a late lunch at her house later.

After we communicated that we had one more interview and that while she cooked, we would quickly go and get that done, we left for the last farmer's house.  This was an impromptu interview and it was very informal.  She didn't want to be interviewed as much as she wanted to show us her farm and how well it was doing.  Again, she stood tall and proud with her trees.

We had to push start the car again and so we arrived at Martha's house sweaty and dusty.  She led us to some arranged seats and stools around a short table.  Our interpreter and driver became increasingly excited because they knew, unlike their Mzungu companions, that Martha had graciously taken one of her chickens and cooked it and that we were in for quite the treat.  Martha wanted to show that she was well off and also honor her guests that had come from so far.  She told us that "welcoming and feeding visitors brings blessings on her house" as she took a pitcher of her clear well water and poured it over our hands into a basin, cleansing them from the dirt of a hard, sweaty day.  I felt extremely comfortable and safe there.  She brought the chicken and the ugali and set it in front of us.  Lime was cut and the juice was dripped over the chicken with a bit of salt.  Water was then poured over the chicken to create a type of chicken lime broth after the chicken was removed and put on another plate.  This was for dipping the chicken in and also the fairly tasteless ugali.  She made us stop before we ate and said a prayer, blessing the food and those who ate it.  Afterwards we timidly looked at her and each other and then reached for the food.  It was delicious.  The chicken was meaty and rich.  The ugali complimented it quite well and soaked up the flavors of the lime and chicken like a sponge.  We ate communally, as brothers, as Martha watched with a small smile on her face.  Matt, our Komaza representative, ate little because he doesn't like ugali much.  I think it was because he was afraid of getting sick from the untreated water.  I didn't want to offend anybody and so I drank up after taking a good look through the glass and water to look for unknown particles.  I had brought my camera to document the experience, but it didn't feel right to bring it out.  This was not moment where technology needed to barge its head in and greedily snatch the light, colors, people and soul of the moment.  No, it was a moment of reverence. We were participating in a type of cultural sacrament.  I would not ruin that to get an extra four gigabytes of information.  Instead, I would take the wing that was torn off from the chicken plate, ignore the small feathers that were still embedded in the skin and start to tear away the small bits of tough flesh while rolling a small ball of cornmeal in my right hand.

When we left I shook Martha's hand.  I made sure to grasp her hand strongly, put my left hand on my right forearm as a deep sign of respect, look her in the eye and say, "Asante.  Asante sana."  I had become part of her, and her, a part of me through that simple meal.  Through that Kenyan sacrament.

Writing is not my form...

... and that is why I am in Africa.  I do video as some of you regulars know and I don't write too much.

But today I am at the Heathrow, London UK airport and it is midnight and I have been here for almost 10 hours now.  Our flight starts checking in at 5am and so one of us has to be up to watch our luggage and stuff since it is all with us right now.  I am glad for Costa coffee houses that stay open 24 hours and though noisy, they are relatively safe and comfortable.

We are here today because we missed our flight to LA.  How did that happen?  Well, there was a mishap with our luggage.  It was left in Entebbe Uganda for some reason (I don't know).  We had three of the four check in's but were missing the fourth.  They told us that it would come up in time for our flight, so we put our trust in them.  Luckily the luggage missing was mostly just dirty cloths.  Our trust did pay off, but too late.  We arrived at the customary early time (2 hours) so that we could check in.  Since there are multiple terminals at Heathrow, we had to go to one to go through the long and arduous process of getting our bag back.  After we did we had to catch another train to get to the right terminal and then get all of our stuff up to the check-in station.  We were about 20 mins too late when we got there.

I started to freak out a bit while Becky stood in disbelief as if I were telling some sick joke.  We kept calm enough to understand what the United help desk was telling us though.  We would check back in the morning, at 5am, to see about a flight leaving towards Chicago then route back to SLC.  This routing would get us back about 10 hours later than the original flight but would get us back on Wed.  That was the good news.  He was even kind enough to book our flight to SLC from Chicago and give us our boarding passes.  This left me optimistic that we would be put on the flight to Chicago in the morning despite having "stand-by" status.

So here we are, in the airport at midnight with some other stragglers.  Everybody looks tired.  Becky is sleeping on the table and I am trying to pass the time.  This is the first time that I have missed a flight, but I don't know how we could have avoided it.  We did our best and luckily it will probably only cost us those 10 hours in the US and possibly some jet-lag sleep (I do have to work on Thurs and Fri).

Well, hopefully this will wear me out so I will sleep the way home and be alright.
We will see.

I will have to share stories...

... later.  We are in Oxford now and it is really cool.  Everything has worked perfect.  What a great trip.  We will see you all very soon.

Uganda...

... we are here and safe.  We don't have much access to the internet and we won't be able to upload pictures of ourselves as the computers have super viruses and we have to use internet cafes.  That sentence was probably backward.  Anyways, we are in good hands and are looking forward to filming here and then coming home in about 10 days.  So, love you all and lots of hugs and stuff.  We are good and look forward to sharing it all with you.

Thanks!

tp

Done with Kenya.........

... and moving on to Uganda.

Becky and I have completely enjoyed our stay in Kenya.  The people have been wonderful and Komaza has helped make our stay here very comfortable.  I have enjoyed working here and I feel I have captured some great footage that will make a great short documentary.

I am also excited to move on to another project.  Having worked almost every day and thought about the same thing for about 2 weeks, I am a bit burnt out.  A new place will suite me and will help stimulate some more creativity (I hope).  We leave tomorrow morning at 7am (10pm MST I believe) and we will get to Entebbe, Uganda at about 7pm at night.  We have a 5 hour layover in Nairobi and we hope to meet a friend at the airport.  Suchi came to Utah in April and we did a short video interview for a possible project for the Tipping Bucket.  He is based in Nairobi and is actually the Stake President here for the LDS church.  We hope to get some lunch and enjoy some conversation.

If not, I have my iPod.

Another thing that will be nice about Uganda is that I am not going to have to form the documentary in my head as we are shooting.  For Komaza, I feel responsible to develop the approach, style, pace, and narrative of the whole piece.  The pieces in Uganda are going to be short and about a specific thing and so pretty much all I have to do is let the camera do the work and document it.  It will be a neat chance to make it look as good as it can and I won't have to worry so much about the other stuff.  I still will because I am more or less a perfectionist, but the pressure will not be there.
The bad thing about Uganda is that I don't expect it to be nearly as organized and comfortable.  I still don't know who is picking us up from the airport or where we are staying.
Note to parents: Don't freak out.  I have telephone numbers and we have money.  Anything that we spend because of lack of organization should and will be covered by HELP.
We will really only be there a week though so we don't have too much to worry about.

I look forward to sharing our experiences with you and posting some videos.  Coming home will be good but also strange.  I feel that we have adapted to Africa quickly and quite well.  It will be fine though.  We adapt and move on.

I am also really enjoying watching the World Cup here with people from Africa.  I am glad that I am not in the USA where the World Cup is just a 30 sec update on the evening news.

I know what you want...

... you want some actual pictures from Kenya.  Though I don't have much time to write, I will post some screenshots I grabbed this morning from the footage we have shot just in the past few days.

Enjoy!

So, those are some pictures.  Sorry they are low quality, but that is what the internet can handle here

We are very good here and are still loving it.  We are sad that our time is almost up but other great adventures await as well.  Also I am STOKED to get back and start editing these.   

Loves and such,

Travis 

We will give you a Kenyan name...

... tomorrow. Or that is what they said earlier today.

Becky got her Kenyan name and I should get mine tomorrow. I got this from the neighbors from across the street of one of the Komaza houses when we were visiting them for lunch today. They were so kind. We had a great time. I think it was the most fun I have had yet in Kenya.

While we ate communally some cornmeal and lentil soup/sauce stuff (delicious for reals) we did our best to understand eachother. Our Komaza friends, Rajiv and Leah were helping us and being very nice. I got permission to film around (take pictures they call it) and because our camera looks like a photo camera I guess that works. I started slowly, taking discrete pictures and then some video. Some of the kids wanted to see the screen after I took the pictures and that turned into showing them video which turned into some of them running and waving in front of the camera which turned into them dancing and singing in front of the camera and then getting all of their friends from around the area to do the same. We then had 10-15 children running around us dancing, singing, rapping, cart-wheeling, shouting and having a great time.

Needless to say, it was super fun and I got some great footage. We helped out on the small plot farm of our hosts for a bit and they laughed at how inept we were at working. We had a really good time.

Anyways, we have a tuk-tuk waiting and we have to go.

Cheers and good night from Kenya.

Wait until you see these videos too, you will probably pee your pants either out of pure happiness or because you drank too much water.

Lovin' it...

... here in Kilifi. The weather is nice and things are good.

We started filming on Wed and on Thurs we went out the Ganze. Ganze is just about 40 km outside of Kilifi and is one of the poorest places in Kenya. We talked to some of the people that work with Komaza about what Komaza does and their stories and it went really well despite some setbacks.

The setbacks always turn into experiment times for me. I love playing with the camera and trying new things or just filming things around me. When our car broke down at night on the way home from Ganze I was able to practice long exposure takes with neat star stuff. When we were waiting to go somewhere I filmed a giant millipede with the macro lens. It is so much fun. I have the perfect job for me.

That is all for now. I am alive and well and so is Becky. We will post more soon.

First post...

... from Africa!

Okay. Just so you know, Becky is a much better writer and is way more interesting to read than me. I am still practicing and Africa will probably help me.

Well, we made it! London was long and the flights were longer but once we were here, it made it totally worth it. I am going to upload video as soon and I can get to it. Also, the internet is not that great so videos will probably happen infrequently (same with pictures). I am loving Africa though. When we were leaving the airport and I was looking out the window and watching the homemade pushcarts with huge piles of everything on it and the motorcycles with two people carrying large gasoline tanks on either side (for gas or water or something) and the people with bicycles riding on the highway it reminded me why I enjoy coming to third world countries. There is so much to learn from these people. They thrive on almost no income and little resources. I say "thrive" not because these people are rich or even have everything that they need, but if any western person was put into the same circumstance we would not last. The people in the so-called "third world" are much more resourceful and ingenious than anybody that I know of in the western world. They know so much more than we do. Everybody here speaks at least two languages, English and Kiswahili, and possibly the speak more. Though they may not have degrees and certificates, they can assemble and dissemble almost anything mechanical with just a few tools, they know how to farm, fix, harvest, breed, butcher, grow, negotiate, innovate and create.

Seeing this all around me is inspiring. If western culture could see the example of the so called "developing" countries, there might not even be a need for that "developing". If we used all that we had as wisely as many of the people here, we wouldn't have nearly the amount of problems that we have currently. I am excited to learn all that I can from them and be able to capture that with my camera. Thanks for your support and we will write soon and as often as we can.