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.