As reported last week, I've pretty much finished the outline for the Tenwek Video and this past week has actually been all about shooting.
Monday was a preparation day, I worked on interview questions and got some old lights down from storage in the "studio space" which is more of a garage these days. I set up the lights and checked to see what worked and what didn't. I also went through a few more old photos and such. In the evening John and I went to town to pick up some batteries. It was a long day and I still had to pack my things at the house.
Tuesday morning we were to leave at 9 AM once John was finished with his radio program. Due partly to my own lateness we didn't get going until about 9:30 and with a few stops on the way we rolled into Tenwek at about 11 AM. We got to work as soon as we were there trying to follow up on making appointments to conduct interviews. Most of our subjects were not available that afternoon so we decided to take a field trip. We went to the home of Rev. Ezekiel Kerich, the former hospital administrator, and were warmly welcomed to his home. We had been unable to contact Ezekiel ahead of time, so it was very nice of him to receive us and agree to be interviewed. I also learned at that time that his wife Anna had been one of the original African nurses who were hired and trained on the job to help the first missionary nurses, and she also agreed to be interviewed. John and I stayed there for some time and had tea with the Kerich's before returning to Tenwek.
Wednesday morning we were supposed to meet with Geoffrey Langat, the hospital's CEO, at 8:30. I was very proud of us being on time and fully equipped. Unfortunately, Geoffrey was in Nairobi and wouldn't get back until around 11:30. This was not really his fault he had been called at the last minute for a meeting, but it required quite a lot of shifting of our schedule. We did manage to re-arrange another interview that was scheduled for later in the day and then also got a hold of a residency student who came as soon as he was available.
Lunch time was a good chance to meet several of the visiting staff which is both fun and annoying. The fun part is in socializing and seeing what has brought various people to Tenwek, the annoying part is having to explain to each of them individually what I'm doing here and where I'm from (that's a good 10 minutes itself) and all the other questions that need to be answered. I guess it's only fair because I ask them the same questions, but it's a pain to go through it 3 or 4 times during lunch.
In the afternoon we did 3 more interviews. We started with Barbara Pinkley at the School of Nursing, then in the CEO's office we did one with Jonathan Bii, the director of Community Health and Development, and finally with the CEO, Geoffrey, himself.
In the evening I went to see the Roberts family, career missionary eye doc and family, who said they had some old photos of the lab work at Tenwek. I got over there at about 6:00 and they had already finished dinner, but Jenny asked if I wanted to eat there, so I got some beans and rice and remembered just how much I love this staple Kenyan meal. I mean really it sounds so plain but tastes so good!
Getting back on track, Dr. Ben Roberts invited me to join him and several men, both visiting staff and Kenyan interns, for a Bible Study at 8 PM. So i hung out and played with the kids a bit and then joined the fellowship. There was something really relaxing and unique in that BS (Kenyan abbreviation for Bible Study and NOT something else). It was one of the few times I've ever been in a BS where everyone shared and we had a really great discussion about 1 Samuel 24 which is one of the most interesting passages in the Old Testament. For those who can't think of it off hand, it's the passage where while chasing David in the wilderness King Saul goes into a cave to "relieve himself" and of course the cave turns out to be the one David is hiding in. Based on that brief description it doesn't seem like there are too many practical life applications but we found several from the whole text.
Thursday we started by interviewing John's brother Rev. Frederick Makibior, who was the first Kipsigis missionary to another tribe and worked alongside a group of WGM missionaries among the Maasai people. After finishing that interview we returned to the CEO's office to try and catch the Bishop of AGC before a hospital board meeting. We were still setting up when he arrived, but he graciously allowed us to talk to him for a few minutes before going into the meeting.
The plan was then that we would wait for the meeting to let out and interview Rev. Nathaniel Korir, who has served on the board since like 1964 or something. If I'd known how long the board meeting would take I would have planned to use that time to shoot something else, but John and I just waited patiently. We did have two interns come by to do short interviews telling about working at Tenwek, but otherwise we waited. The board meeting let out at around 2 PM and then they all ate lunch. Once finished with lunch we were still unable to interview Nathaniel because the entire board was heading to the visiting staff quarters (aka guest house) to dedicate the new wing. So John and I were requested to attend and film that event, we left our lights set up in the CEO's office and ran our cameras and tripods down the hill to shoot the small dedication service, then dashed back up the hill to finally get our interview with Rev. Nathaniel. This was possibly one of my favorite interviews once we got it, but it was a long time in coming.
After Rev. Nathaniel's interview John left to return to Kericho for a celebration of his son's college graduation so I was left to lug our equipment on my own to the next location. I went to meet the head chaplain, Rev. David Kilel, in his office. The office turned out to be too small for a regular 3 point light set up or even just 2 lights. I wound up with just one light casting long dramatic shadows, but it looks rather nice. David has served as head chaplain since around 1975 so his interview was also very enlightening.
The last stop of the day was at Dr. Russ White's office not for an interview that day, but set up the lights for one at 7:30 AM on Friday. Sadly for me, his office is right next to the CEO's office which was back across the hospital grounds and up on the second floor. So there I went lugging all my equipment back up the hill and finally the stairs. (Yes, you're supposed to be pitying me now.) Fortunately, I got into his office just before he was called away for 3 surgeries. Left alone in the Medical Superintendent's office I listened to the rest of the James Taylor Live Album he had playing through his iPod and imagined him sitting at his desk and how i would light the scene. Right as I was finalizing my lighting scheme and checking it in the camera all my lights went out. As power outages are far from uncommon in Kenya I didn't really mind at first, but then I realized that the power was on and then only items in the room with no power were on the 110 volt circuit (Kenya standard is 220 like Britain, but with a lot of items coming from the US many places are wired for both). I realized that I must have overloaded the circuit breaker and the big problem now was that I had to figure out how to re-set it when all technicians were off for the day. Thank God, a lady came in to work in one of the other offices and she was able to call the technician who was on-call. A few minutes later he was there and able to fix my problem without any trouble. Knowing the Russ would be in and out of the office during the night I used scotch tape to mark the places where my lights and tripod belonged so I could set them off to the side a bit.
Friday morning I was up bright and early to be to Russ' office at 7:30. When I arrived he was there just finishing straightening his desk. I reset my lights, plugged in the microphone and we were on our way. Things went great through the first question, then just as Russ finished his answer the lights went out again. Russ knew where the circuit breaker was and so jumped to go flip it back. When he came back he switched off everything he had plugged into the 110 so my lights wouldn't overload it again. We took on the second question and once again just as Russ finished his answer the lights went out. While Russ was out flipping the breaker again I decided I could sacrifice one light for the sake of moving smoothly through the rest of the interview. I think we got 2 more questions answered when the lights again went out. I was stressing. However, this time it turned out to actually be the electricity going out for a moment. With Russ back in his chair we resumed and had no more power failures, although we did have 2 people come by and interrupt us, but finally we made it through the interview.
After finishing Russ' interview I attended and filmed the dedication of the new Tenwek Hospital sign. For any who are freaking out like I was about them tearing down the familiar yellow sign bearing the slogan "We Treat, Jesus Heals," the good news is that this new sign does not replace the old one but sits along the road just before the old familiar one.
Coming out of the sign dedication I only had one interview left that I knew I NEEDED to get and that was all set up to happen in the evening so I found I had some extra time to shoot some general hospital footage. I set out therefore and just looked for interesting angles to shoot the buildings or grabbed some shots of people. This took me up to lunch time where I joined some of the other visitors for spaghetti.
In the afternoon I met with a friend of our families who now works at the hospital. We sat and talked for about 2 hours before I took off in pursuit of a little more footage and then returned to my room to prepare for the final interview. This last interview was with our field director, Jim Vanderhoof. It was one of the simplest and shortest interviews I had because really i just needed to have him read a few comments from my outline so I could throw in something other than narration at the beginning of the video. We did just a few takes on each of the 3 short paragraphs and then I packed the stuff up.
With Jim's interview down and the sun setting it was time to relax a little. I again was invited to join the Robert's family and other guests for dinner. It was pizza night in celebration of Isaac Robert's birthday. It was a very relaxing evening which was exactly what I needed, a small breather before a long Saturday...
On Saturday morning I caught a ride with Vanderhoofs back to Kericho. We had to leave at 8 AM in order to be here for the Bible College's graduation service. Being a photographer I was volunteered to film the event. The ceremony had a large guest list and many of those guests had to make speeches. I couldn't help but be reminded that this is a major differnce between US culture and African, In the States we would have ONE guest speaker and a class representative. Here there's a speaker for the day, class reps from both the 3 and 4 year courses, a few board members, The chief guest (the former president in this case) and about 3 other politicians. Most shocking to me is that several of the politicians speeches were merely, "congratulations to the graduates and let me tell you all about my political agenda." They had nothing to do with the event we were there for. I guess I'm not fully used to everything in Africa.
The graduation service went from about 11 AM (it was supposed to start at 10) until about 4 PM. I stood through most of it and taped about 2 hours worth. When I finally got back to my house in the evening it felt VERY GOOD to sit and watch a movie.
Okay, so on to the week ahead or half through at this point. I've finished logging the footage I shot last week (that is writing down what each shot is and where it is on the tape) and spent all day today working on interview logs where I write down what each person says in their interviews. This is a very tedious process amplified by the fact that I'm a slow typist and easily distracted by the millions of other things going on in our office. However, I'm proud to say that today, Tuesday, I made it through 1 and 1/2 tapes out of the total 5 interview tapes. Once i finish this process I'll be on to capturing footage and assembling the story with interview clips and narration. At this point I'm feeling like i will probably end up doing the narration myself which makes me a little nervous. It's not that I'm intimidated by microphones, but I don't think I have a very dynamic presence and so I fear that the final product may suffer. There's still some time before we'd be recording the narration so I hope to come up with a plan B or figure out how to put some excitement into my reading.
Well that's the report for now, God Bless.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Done writting!...?
The truth is I'm always rewriting my videos right up until I deliver them to the client, BUT this week I've finally arrived at the point where I feel like I've gathered enough information and organized it into something of a cohesive outline and so next week we're off to Tenwek to start SHOOTING!!! I really love shooting, the power of going to places and seeing what it's like and preserving that very moment in time. It's so empowering. There's also the joy of meeting people and learning all kinds of things about them, there's really nothing like shooting a video/film.
So I guess we're starting with the end this week. Nothing like a good non-linear blog post, but let's jump back now and see what's been up this past week.
It was actually monday evening where I received a few emails that helped me fill in the last gap in my timeline. As I added those last few details I realized that I could basically finish my outline on Tuesday and then I would be ready to make up a list of interview questions and people to talk to. So Tuesday I sent an email to Tenwek's CEO to see if filming would work out for next week. In the mean time John and I made up our plans for traveling to Tenwek and what we'll each be doing in the meantime. John is at a crusade this weekend and then will be at the graduation ceremony for a Pastors School in Kaboson, about 2+ hours on the other side of Tenwek. I in the meantime have been working to compile a list of intervews and have been sending a few emails to find out when people are available.
Through out the rest of the week John and I have also been continuing to work on scanning more slides, negatives, and photos.
My evenings have also been rather interesting, last Friday our field directors, the Vanderhoofs, brought me an up-grade for my video editing soft ware. I had ordered this about a month ago so I was very happy to finally receive it. As excited as I was to get the software I was a little uneasy about installing something new right before editing a major project like this Tenwek video. With the software I also got a training DVD to help me learn to use it better. I was very excited to see that the DVD had a chapter highlighting the advantages of the new program over the old one and at the same time showed me that the interfaces are generally the same. So in the past couple days I've been carefully proceeding with the necessary steps to replace the software on my computer. I think it's almost all ready to go so on Saturday I should be able to start working through the training DVD!
As I've typed it out this last week looks pretty short and yet full of exciting developments, I guess that's about how it felt too. And now, since I put the end at the beginning, I don't know how to end so I'll just stop.
God Bless,
Jonny
So I guess we're starting with the end this week. Nothing like a good non-linear blog post, but let's jump back now and see what's been up this past week.
It was actually monday evening where I received a few emails that helped me fill in the last gap in my timeline. As I added those last few details I realized that I could basically finish my outline on Tuesday and then I would be ready to make up a list of interview questions and people to talk to. So Tuesday I sent an email to Tenwek's CEO to see if filming would work out for next week. In the mean time John and I made up our plans for traveling to Tenwek and what we'll each be doing in the meantime. John is at a crusade this weekend and then will be at the graduation ceremony for a Pastors School in Kaboson, about 2+ hours on the other side of Tenwek. I in the meantime have been working to compile a list of intervews and have been sending a few emails to find out when people are available.
Through out the rest of the week John and I have also been continuing to work on scanning more slides, negatives, and photos.
My evenings have also been rather interesting, last Friday our field directors, the Vanderhoofs, brought me an up-grade for my video editing soft ware. I had ordered this about a month ago so I was very happy to finally receive it. As excited as I was to get the software I was a little uneasy about installing something new right before editing a major project like this Tenwek video. With the software I also got a training DVD to help me learn to use it better. I was very excited to see that the DVD had a chapter highlighting the advantages of the new program over the old one and at the same time showed me that the interfaces are generally the same. So in the past couple days I've been carefully proceeding with the necessary steps to replace the software on my computer. I think it's almost all ready to go so on Saturday I should be able to start working through the training DVD!
As I've typed it out this last week looks pretty short and yet full of exciting developments, I guess that's about how it felt too. And now, since I put the end at the beginning, I don't know how to end so I'll just stop.
God Bless,
Jonny
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A Quick Review of The Purifiers
It's been about a week now since the night where I was just worn out from work and couldn't get on the internet and so I turned to the pirated DVD I recently purchased in Kericho. I was looking for something relatively short that did not require a lot of dedicated attention, so in looking at the 5 films on the disc I settled on The Purifiers. If you've been reading along with my blog lately you already know where this review is going.
"The Purifiers" is a kung-fu movie set in Sydney, Australia. In fact, it's a kung-fu movie with an Asian population of basically one. The plot is rather simple, the Purifiers and several other Karate-gangs have divided the city into territories that belong to each group and the others do not cross them. The Purifiers are a Karate-gang of of vigilantes going around fighting thugs and then leaving them for the police to pick up. We soon learn that the other gangs are not so saint hearted and do the more typical gang thing of running drugs, exploiting people for money, causing general fear and dismay. When one of these rival gangs calls a meeting of all the groups the Purifiers put in their appearance but they turn down the offer to unite with all the other gangs and take over the whole city, controlling all drugs and money from the top down. As you've probably guessed this doesn't sit well with the other gangs who set out to hunt down the purifiers and either change their minds or eliminate them. What follows is a series of intense dialogue exchanges followed by a vignettes of good old butt kicking. As our heros fight their way through each gang to the top baddie to settle the score.
I give the movie a 50% grade for delivering on what it's trying to do. Some of the fights do deliver the fun action that the filmmakers are looking for, some come close but have just one or two moments that fail, and some fights look like they were running out of ideas and money so they just threw in a piece of trash. Hence, the most memorable fight is the one that happens in pitch dark where the two villains have glowing sticks, as soon as the fight started I was pulled out of the film and told myself exactly how the hero would triumph. The next day this was almost all I could remember of the movie.
As my pirated DVD includes absolutely no trustworthy legal information (except the ironic FBI warning tagged on the beginning of the disc) I have no idea when this movie was made, and I only knew one of the actors, Dominic Monaghan. For the many of you who don't recognize "Dom" by his name you may remember him from a small series of films known as "The Lord Of The Rings" where he plays the hobbit Merry. He was also on the TV series "Lost" for several years, but I think he's been killed off by this point.
Overall I'm going to reprise what I said in an earlier blog post, there's a very good reason no one reading this has ever heard of the Purifiers. If it comes free along with a movie that's actually really good, as this one did, then it's not a terrible way to kill a few hours if you're really bored. Another option is to let your 10 year old kids watch it as it's almost on a production level of a good Power Rangers episode.
"The Purifiers" is a kung-fu movie set in Sydney, Australia. In fact, it's a kung-fu movie with an Asian population of basically one. The plot is rather simple, the Purifiers and several other Karate-gangs have divided the city into territories that belong to each group and the others do not cross them. The Purifiers are a Karate-gang of of vigilantes going around fighting thugs and then leaving them for the police to pick up. We soon learn that the other gangs are not so saint hearted and do the more typical gang thing of running drugs, exploiting people for money, causing general fear and dismay. When one of these rival gangs calls a meeting of all the groups the Purifiers put in their appearance but they turn down the offer to unite with all the other gangs and take over the whole city, controlling all drugs and money from the top down. As you've probably guessed this doesn't sit well with the other gangs who set out to hunt down the purifiers and either change their minds or eliminate them. What follows is a series of intense dialogue exchanges followed by a vignettes of good old butt kicking. As our heros fight their way through each gang to the top baddie to settle the score.
I give the movie a 50% grade for delivering on what it's trying to do. Some of the fights do deliver the fun action that the filmmakers are looking for, some come close but have just one or two moments that fail, and some fights look like they were running out of ideas and money so they just threw in a piece of trash. Hence, the most memorable fight is the one that happens in pitch dark where the two villains have glowing sticks, as soon as the fight started I was pulled out of the film and told myself exactly how the hero would triumph. The next day this was almost all I could remember of the movie.
As my pirated DVD includes absolutely no trustworthy legal information (except the ironic FBI warning tagged on the beginning of the disc) I have no idea when this movie was made, and I only knew one of the actors, Dominic Monaghan. For the many of you who don't recognize "Dom" by his name you may remember him from a small series of films known as "The Lord Of The Rings" where he plays the hobbit Merry. He was also on the TV series "Lost" for several years, but I think he's been killed off by this point.
Overall I'm going to reprise what I said in an earlier blog post, there's a very good reason no one reading this has ever heard of the Purifiers. If it comes free along with a movie that's actually really good, as this one did, then it's not a terrible way to kill a few hours if you're really bored. Another option is to let your 10 year old kids watch it as it's almost on a production level of a good Power Rangers episode.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
A Quick Review of Elektra
I think I'm going to start writing short reviews of "new" (as in new to me) movies I've seen...
Some of you may remember Elektra from it's dazzling previews a few years ago, there were all these great shots of the girl from Alias in a rather revealing bright red outfit fighting a host of somehow strange looking enemies. As it died in the box office I doubt many of you actually saw it.
This film is exactly what the previews looked like, Jennifer Garner (the Alias girl) stars as Elektra, reprising her supporting role from Daredevil which had been released just a few years prior. Elektra works as an assassin for hire who is so good she whispers in your ear before she kills you. The problem comes when she is given an assignment to kill a young girl whom she has just befriended, a rare pleasure for an assassin. Now Elektra, the girl, and her father are on the run from a horde of demons who look like people but blow up into a cloud of smoke when they die. If this plot line sounds cool to you then congratulations, you are very in-touch with your inner 13 -year-old boy. That's who this movie was made for and it delivers on the very core level of a pretty girl kicking butt on the baddies. We're never given any real motive for the demons and why they want this girl, or what value she has. We're never told how we actually know that the demons are bad (other than being called demons) and Elektra's blind former trainer and his friends are the good guys. But we join Elektra as she runs from one surreal fight to another.
Don't get me wrong, I did have fun with this movie, my 13-year-old-self got to come to the forefront for a few hours, but you have to go into it expecting what you'll get. Otherwise you'll just be left baffled.
Some of you may remember Elektra from it's dazzling previews a few years ago, there were all these great shots of the girl from Alias in a rather revealing bright red outfit fighting a host of somehow strange looking enemies. As it died in the box office I doubt many of you actually saw it.
This film is exactly what the previews looked like, Jennifer Garner (the Alias girl) stars as Elektra, reprising her supporting role from Daredevil which had been released just a few years prior. Elektra works as an assassin for hire who is so good she whispers in your ear before she kills you. The problem comes when she is given an assignment to kill a young girl whom she has just befriended, a rare pleasure for an assassin. Now Elektra, the girl, and her father are on the run from a horde of demons who look like people but blow up into a cloud of smoke when they die. If this plot line sounds cool to you then congratulations, you are very in-touch with your inner 13 -year-old boy. That's who this movie was made for and it delivers on the very core level of a pretty girl kicking butt on the baddies. We're never given any real motive for the demons and why they want this girl, or what value she has. We're never told how we actually know that the demons are bad (other than being called demons) and Elektra's blind former trainer and his friends are the good guys. But we join Elektra as she runs from one surreal fight to another.
Don't get me wrong, I did have fun with this movie, my 13-year-old-self got to come to the forefront for a few hours, but you have to go into it expecting what you'll get. Otherwise you'll just be left baffled.
Multiple lifetimes flashing before my eyes...
That's kind of how this week feels, multiple lifetimes have been flashing before my eyes. At work this week I've been getting about as much use as possible out of our new scanner. I can run up to 5 slides at a time through the scanner and they take about 20 minutes to get scanned. So by the time I rename the scanned slides and put them away, then get the next 5 sitting "on-deck" I have 15 minutes to keep on with the rest of my work. So in those 15 minute spurts I've been organizing the information I've gathered, and compiling my facts onto a coherent outline. I am proud to say that this writing is nearly done. I now have a story that flows all the way from 1935 to 1997 and some helpful facts that are beginning to fill in this last remaining 12 years. Let me take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the very busy people who have been responding to my nagging emails trying to figure out what's happened these last 20 years. I doubt any of them have time to read my humble blog, but there's a thank you note out in cyberspace anyway.
So that's basically what my work days have looked like all week; scanning slides, reading emails, looking facts back up in my reference books, writing the outline, writing emails with more questions... etc. etc, so on and so forth. Therefore I'll skip each day's report.
Knocking work out I feel like I don't have a lot else to say, the internet has been working about 50% of the time lately so I try to take full advantage when it's on and fill my time with other stuff when it's not. I'm told the company is working to hook us up to a fiber-optic line which will be great when it's done, but their projected finish date is some time around august! I guess until then we just have to put up with the internet coming and going as it pleases while they un-hook things and plug them in somewhere else.
Monday night I had a real treat, Ken and Carolyn Wade (fellow WGM missionaries based in Kericho, but usually ministering somewhere else) had me over for dinner. Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatos, and Chocolate Cake for desert! I think I kind of pigged out a bit. As a bit of payment for the treat I worked to help Ken figure out some trouble they've been having with Facebook and uploading photos. Let's just say I got the sweet end of that deal.
Tuesday night I got out my pirated DVD and watched a plotless fighting movie. It was fun for what it was, but there's a definite reason that you've probably never heard of The Purifiers before.
The other evenings of this week have mostly been filled with a bit of web-surfing and working a little bit on the video research. Nothing real exciting.
Today has been fun but quite tiring. I started with Laundry which with an interuption of at least 30 minutes took me about 3 hours. I was very happy when i quit! Then I walked to town using the new shorter route i learned last week on my way back from church. I'd say it cuts 10-15 minutes off the walk. I knew today was going to be a big shopping day so I used the back-pack that my friend Mark left behind after visiting along with my cousins. The advantage there is I could carry a water bottle in the side pocket and I kept my hands free after getting my fruit and veggies for the day. I still wound up carrying 2 bags home in my hands, but that's better than 3 or 4.
The Wades had helped me on Monday also by finding another meat store in town, or rather a small grocery store that has 2 meat freezers that take up the majority of the floor space. So I picked up some lunch meat and a chicken there. But the true surprise find of the day was green apples at the market for 25 shillings.
I didn't get home from the market until 3:30 PM and was quite tired of walking so it was a joy to just make a quick sandwich and sit down with some of the guys to start watching Lord of the Rings. We're going to finish the second half later tonight.
Well I guess this post is going to be about as short as this week seems to have been.
God Bless,
Jonny
So that's basically what my work days have looked like all week; scanning slides, reading emails, looking facts back up in my reference books, writing the outline, writing emails with more questions... etc. etc, so on and so forth. Therefore I'll skip each day's report.
Knocking work out I feel like I don't have a lot else to say, the internet has been working about 50% of the time lately so I try to take full advantage when it's on and fill my time with other stuff when it's not. I'm told the company is working to hook us up to a fiber-optic line which will be great when it's done, but their projected finish date is some time around august! I guess until then we just have to put up with the internet coming and going as it pleases while they un-hook things and plug them in somewhere else.
Monday night I had a real treat, Ken and Carolyn Wade (fellow WGM missionaries based in Kericho, but usually ministering somewhere else) had me over for dinner. Fried Chicken and Mashed Potatos, and Chocolate Cake for desert! I think I kind of pigged out a bit. As a bit of payment for the treat I worked to help Ken figure out some trouble they've been having with Facebook and uploading photos. Let's just say I got the sweet end of that deal.
Tuesday night I got out my pirated DVD and watched a plotless fighting movie. It was fun for what it was, but there's a definite reason that you've probably never heard of The Purifiers before.
The other evenings of this week have mostly been filled with a bit of web-surfing and working a little bit on the video research. Nothing real exciting.
Today has been fun but quite tiring. I started with Laundry which with an interuption of at least 30 minutes took me about 3 hours. I was very happy when i quit! Then I walked to town using the new shorter route i learned last week on my way back from church. I'd say it cuts 10-15 minutes off the walk. I knew today was going to be a big shopping day so I used the back-pack that my friend Mark left behind after visiting along with my cousins. The advantage there is I could carry a water bottle in the side pocket and I kept my hands free after getting my fruit and veggies for the day. I still wound up carrying 2 bags home in my hands, but that's better than 3 or 4.
The Wades had helped me on Monday also by finding another meat store in town, or rather a small grocery store that has 2 meat freezers that take up the majority of the floor space. So I picked up some lunch meat and a chicken there. But the true surprise find of the day was green apples at the market for 25 shillings.
I didn't get home from the market until 3:30 PM and was quite tired of walking so it was a joy to just make a quick sandwich and sit down with some of the guys to start watching Lord of the Rings. We're going to finish the second half later tonight.
Well I guess this post is going to be about as short as this week seems to have been.
God Bless,
Jonny
Sunday, July 5, 2009
What a week
This past week was a bit of a doozie. Of course, it started with some difficulty with the internet which resulted in me not getting last weeks post up until Tuesday. But there was a lot more going on at the beginning of the week than just that. Some of you may know that my mom had been in the hospital for a few days and was finally able to get out on Sunday. Really everything was fine, I knew she was only there for some tests, but being here with no internet access, I was really feeling cut off from home and knowing what was up. I did hear Sunday night that she was out of the hospital, but hadn't heard much else in several days.
Monday I spent in the office mostly on my own. The power was out most of the day so I couldn't continue with the videos I had been watching when I left on Friday. Instead I started through several folders of slides. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the slide folders I had stacked up had lists in the beginning stating what the images were. These were a huge help especially since we don't have a light table for viewing the slides and instead I would have to hold each page at a somewhat awkward angle to use the light from the window. (I guess this would have been my technique any way since the power was out.) By the end of the day my neck was getting tired of the up-and-downs required for this process.
John had been away at a crusade over the weekend and came back late in the afternoon. The electricity came back on when he arrived so I declared his arrival as the blessing that brought the lights back. When he arrived I was preparing to be done for the day, so we didn't get too much more accomplished, but we decided to sit and talk about the project on Tuesday and evaluate where we were.
On Tuesday morning John had some errands to take care of so in the afternoon we had our meeting. We discussed the fact that we were behind on our proposed schedule and also acknowledged the fact that we needed to focus the project a bit more than we had originally talked about due to time and recourse constraints. That refocusing meeting turned out to be really great and from there on we have been able to push ourselves and our pre-production work. We've been able to come up with a script outline that has us now up to the late 1980s.
So the day on Tuesday was great. When I got back to the trailer that night the internet was finally working. I called in my email and was happy to see an up-date from my mom, but it came with some bad news as well. My Uncle in the US had been taken to the hospital sometime on Sunday. Three more messages soon followed giving details of a blood clot near his heart, his condition worsened, and finally he had passed away. WOW, seriously I went through the 4 messages almost as fast as I've just written them and, unless you're a VERY slow reader, you just read them. Not even an emotional rollercoaster that was more like an emotional cliff dive! Thankfully, I know that my uncle was a strong Christian man so I have no doubt where he is now, but it was still like having a rug pulled out from under me. It was a rather emotional end to the day, and I felt the distance between myself and the family back home.
On Wednesday I was back at work, John and I continued working on our script outline and accomplished quite a lot. In the evening my friend Michael came over and we watched a movie, which turned out to be just what i needed at the end of a long hard day, and in working out my emotions from the previous day.
Thursday John and I had a real victory as we installed and tested out the new hard-drive and slide-scanner I had brought. I am pleased to say both are working quire well. Not a lot else to say on hat day.
Our number 1 goal for Friday was to figure out how we could digitize some of the VHS footage John had in the library. For a while it was very discouraging and we could not figure out what to do. I have to admit I gave in to the frustration quite quickly and had trouble thinking of where to turn, but thankfully this is one area where John really came through for our team. He kept going through various settings dialogue boxes until he found 1 or 2 items that turned out to be the key. So in the end it was another victory for us as we began reviewing and capturing the tapes.
In the afternoon John had to go for another crusade so I finished in the office on my own. In the evening I went to church in town for a meeting with the Young Professionals (YP's), a newly formed group aimed at post college/pre-marriage and family adults. We had some nice fellowship and also "swallow-ship" of Mandazi's and Chai. The message this week came from the senior pastor who spoke on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Specifically she touched on the 2 greatest commandments to "Love the Lord you God with all your Heart, Soul, and Mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself." The unique thing that popped out to me was that she pointed out the 3rd person we are to love in that verse. We talk a lot about loving God and almost as much about loving our neighbors, but we often for get to talk about how we aught to love ourselves! Just stop and think on that for a moment. Pastor Joyce pointed out that we are not necessarily supposed to be proud or selfish, but we need to be happy with who we are and what we do. Really, how can you "love your neighbor as yourself," if you don't love your self?
Getting back on track... Saturday was the 4th of July, which to me is a holiday, but to the entire rest of the population of Kericho, is just another day in July. So there were no big cook outs and no fireworks displays. My day started with laundry...uh...woo hoo? While I was bent over washing some clothes in my basin, minding my own business, this mal-tempered bee swooped in and maliciously stung me in the back of my neck! It was totally uncalled for! Thankfully, I am not allergic and so I think I will survive this episode of "when animals attack" but it was still an unpleasant experience.
I didn't let the sting totally ruin my day though, I finished my laundry and took the long walk to town, which really got my blood pumping, in pursuit of some groceries. That expedition had about a 50% success rating. There were a few items I didn't find, most notably meat. Last time I was in Kericho I would get all my meats from an ice-chest in a certain corner of the store which was not there anymore. I asked a man who just shook his head and said they don't have it. Don't know what happened, but now I'm going to have to start having my meat purchased and brought to me by other missionaries. A little disappointing and this requires a lot more pre-planning to find those coming my way and let them know what I'm going to need.
On something of an up-side, I decided with it being a holiday I would break my rule and buy a DVD at the store. I hope no one from the FBI reads this because it is definitely a pirated disc with 5 movies on one.
When I made it back home I cooked myself a hamburger (a good 'ol piece of Americana) and sat down to watch Elektra. Not the best movie I've ever seen...Maybe we'll just leave it there, but it was a fun ride on a saturday afternoon. Michael came over and I was really feeling I'd make the holiday an excuse to take it easy so we watched 2 more movies during the day. All in all a pretty good celebration, except for that dumb bee.
This coming week I hope John and I will be able to digitize most, if not all, the slides and photographs we are going to need for the Tenwek video and also get the script nailed down quick enough that we can arrange to go around and shoot the footage we'll need.
God bless,
Jonny
Monday I spent in the office mostly on my own. The power was out most of the day so I couldn't continue with the videos I had been watching when I left on Friday. Instead I started through several folders of slides. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the slide folders I had stacked up had lists in the beginning stating what the images were. These were a huge help especially since we don't have a light table for viewing the slides and instead I would have to hold each page at a somewhat awkward angle to use the light from the window. (I guess this would have been my technique any way since the power was out.) By the end of the day my neck was getting tired of the up-and-downs required for this process.
John had been away at a crusade over the weekend and came back late in the afternoon. The electricity came back on when he arrived so I declared his arrival as the blessing that brought the lights back. When he arrived I was preparing to be done for the day, so we didn't get too much more accomplished, but we decided to sit and talk about the project on Tuesday and evaluate where we were.
On Tuesday morning John had some errands to take care of so in the afternoon we had our meeting. We discussed the fact that we were behind on our proposed schedule and also acknowledged the fact that we needed to focus the project a bit more than we had originally talked about due to time and recourse constraints. That refocusing meeting turned out to be really great and from there on we have been able to push ourselves and our pre-production work. We've been able to come up with a script outline that has us now up to the late 1980s.
So the day on Tuesday was great. When I got back to the trailer that night the internet was finally working. I called in my email and was happy to see an up-date from my mom, but it came with some bad news as well. My Uncle in the US had been taken to the hospital sometime on Sunday. Three more messages soon followed giving details of a blood clot near his heart, his condition worsened, and finally he had passed away. WOW, seriously I went through the 4 messages almost as fast as I've just written them and, unless you're a VERY slow reader, you just read them. Not even an emotional rollercoaster that was more like an emotional cliff dive! Thankfully, I know that my uncle was a strong Christian man so I have no doubt where he is now, but it was still like having a rug pulled out from under me. It was a rather emotional end to the day, and I felt the distance between myself and the family back home.
On Wednesday I was back at work, John and I continued working on our script outline and accomplished quite a lot. In the evening my friend Michael came over and we watched a movie, which turned out to be just what i needed at the end of a long hard day, and in working out my emotions from the previous day.
Thursday John and I had a real victory as we installed and tested out the new hard-drive and slide-scanner I had brought. I am pleased to say both are working quire well. Not a lot else to say on hat day.
Our number 1 goal for Friday was to figure out how we could digitize some of the VHS footage John had in the library. For a while it was very discouraging and we could not figure out what to do. I have to admit I gave in to the frustration quite quickly and had trouble thinking of where to turn, but thankfully this is one area where John really came through for our team. He kept going through various settings dialogue boxes until he found 1 or 2 items that turned out to be the key. So in the end it was another victory for us as we began reviewing and capturing the tapes.
In the afternoon John had to go for another crusade so I finished in the office on my own. In the evening I went to church in town for a meeting with the Young Professionals (YP's), a newly formed group aimed at post college/pre-marriage and family adults. We had some nice fellowship and also "swallow-ship" of Mandazi's and Chai. The message this week came from the senior pastor who spoke on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Specifically she touched on the 2 greatest commandments to "Love the Lord you God with all your Heart, Soul, and Mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself." The unique thing that popped out to me was that she pointed out the 3rd person we are to love in that verse. We talk a lot about loving God and almost as much about loving our neighbors, but we often for get to talk about how we aught to love ourselves! Just stop and think on that for a moment. Pastor Joyce pointed out that we are not necessarily supposed to be proud or selfish, but we need to be happy with who we are and what we do. Really, how can you "love your neighbor as yourself," if you don't love your self?
Getting back on track... Saturday was the 4th of July, which to me is a holiday, but to the entire rest of the population of Kericho, is just another day in July. So there were no big cook outs and no fireworks displays. My day started with laundry...uh...woo hoo? While I was bent over washing some clothes in my basin, minding my own business, this mal-tempered bee swooped in and maliciously stung me in the back of my neck! It was totally uncalled for! Thankfully, I am not allergic and so I think I will survive this episode of "when animals attack" but it was still an unpleasant experience.
I didn't let the sting totally ruin my day though, I finished my laundry and took the long walk to town, which really got my blood pumping, in pursuit of some groceries. That expedition had about a 50% success rating. There were a few items I didn't find, most notably meat. Last time I was in Kericho I would get all my meats from an ice-chest in a certain corner of the store which was not there anymore. I asked a man who just shook his head and said they don't have it. Don't know what happened, but now I'm going to have to start having my meat purchased and brought to me by other missionaries. A little disappointing and this requires a lot more pre-planning to find those coming my way and let them know what I'm going to need.
On something of an up-side, I decided with it being a holiday I would break my rule and buy a DVD at the store. I hope no one from the FBI reads this because it is definitely a pirated disc with 5 movies on one.
When I made it back home I cooked myself a hamburger (a good 'ol piece of Americana) and sat down to watch Elektra. Not the best movie I've ever seen...Maybe we'll just leave it there, but it was a fun ride on a saturday afternoon. Michael came over and I was really feeling I'd make the holiday an excuse to take it easy so we watched 2 more movies during the day. All in all a pretty good celebration, except for that dumb bee.
This coming week I hope John and I will be able to digitize most, if not all, the slides and photographs we are going to need for the Tenwek video and also get the script nailed down quick enough that we can arrange to go around and shoot the footage we'll need.
God bless,
Jonny
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