alright.
this could very well be my last post while in africa. i leave this evening for home.
the last week was very.....interesting. i saw some of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen before. Lets see, where did i leave off?
We bussed from the desert town of dar es salaam to the town of arusha in central and northern tanzania. there, we met with a maasai man named joseph saningo. joseph is the founder and leader of a group called the maasai pasturalist initiave, ,focused of land conservation and ecotourism management. he took us to his village north of arusha about 4 hours, a drive which took us by mt. kilimanjaro and many other small peaks that were quite beautiful. at this area, the only people you saw were the tribal maasai wearing their red and purple cloth and carrying spears and completely covered in beautiful beads and earings. we left the main road (in a land cruiser) and trekked straight through the bush, a very semi arid climate with small trees, volcanic rocks, and hills. there wasnt much of a road anywhere we were going,, it really was just an excursion through the wild. ocaasionaly we would come across local maasai herding their goats or cows, and occasionally camels. after a very bumpy ride and 4 or 5 hours or so we arrived in a small maasai village where joseph lived. as soon as we got out of the car the children came running up to us yelling this and that and the women came up to us trying to sell their beads (something that never really stopped at all throughout the duration of ythe trip.) we were ushered into a small clay hut and served tea, chappata bread, and a strange sort of cracker.
the town was in a very lazy sort, the maasai were reclining under the trees in the shade making beadwork or sleeping, or, in our case, staring across the road at us. a few mangy looking dogs ran by, chickens that looked like they hadnt been fed for days squaked at us. as i sat on a small bench near the hut a lady came by carrying what looked to be goat entrails. she casually held them up, dangling white and greasy, took a knife and cut opened what was apparently the stomach of the goat, and pulled out whatever meager food the goat had been eating. the inside of the goat stomach looked a bit like a sponge, or a brain or some sort. i passed an uneasy glance over to amanda (a vegetarian)...we were a bit apprehensive. the lady through the entrails into a bowl of water, apparently to be discarded or maybe used for flavoring. with that lovely scene, i took a walk around the villege, introducing myself in the limited maasai that i could speak, and even making a few friends. one man, the brother of joseph, offered me a gourd to drink from. since it was roughly 200 degrees outside i agreed and took the gourd, but stopped short when i realized it was full of hot lumpy milk - more along the lines of cottage cheese. because its rude not to drink when your offered i tried to take a sip but was unable to follow through because the smell was overwhelming. the man, barack, laughed and took back the gourd and downed it himself, with the clumpy milk escaping his mouth, slowly running down his face and dripping onto his red cloth. we turned back around, with 20 children follwing at out heals and holding our hands, and we were surprisingly ushed back into the small hut were a steaming bowl of something was put before us. i looked down and realized that whatever spongy stuff this lady was cleaning was now in my bowl. it was goat stomach.
i fished around the stomach at first, nibbling on a few potatoes and sipping the broth...and then when the lady told me "eat, eat!" i took some of the spongy stomach and tried to chew on it, unfortunately this proved futile. the stomach was of the same consistency as rubber, and the pungent smell was overwhelming. honestly, the soup smelled like goat dung. i took my hand and tried to tear a piece off with my teeth but i couldnt do that either, so i ended up just swallowing the piece whole.
the next few minutes were a combination of me trying to smile, nod,listen to the casual conversation around me, and not throw up at the same time.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
The Slave Caves of Zanzibar
Hello all.
Its been 5 days or so.....
Well I am now in Tanzania working on the Flamingo Documentary. I am in a town called Dar Es Salaam, which is a very arabic influenced city. For fun, you can go to Google Earth and check it out, its right on the Indian Ocean.
Her in Dar it is very very hot, and very humid. The people are nice but there are, as in all africa, many people trying to rob and rip me me off. but i deal with them...lol.
So far we have interviewed the director of Birdlife International, the CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, the Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Tanzania, a maverick journalist named DEO trying to get to the bottom of the Natron Flamingo Controversy, and tonight leave for the desert to talk with 2 or 3 Tribal Masai Warchiefs near the Lake, and also a field expert who basically lives in the desert working on wildlife research. Also, last week we had a surprise chance meeting with Chris Magine, who is the African Director of the Royal British Society for the Protection of Birds...we just found him sitting downtown Dar Es Salaam smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, and he kindly engaged us in conversation and it just happened to turn out that he was here from England working on the EXACT same project as us...the Lake Natron Flamingos...so how crazy is it that we just ran into him/ So he agreed to interview and it was fantastic!!!!
Also, we had an interview scheduled in a more expotic location....ZANZIBAR!!!!!
About 3 days ago we took the ferry across the Indian Ocean to the famous Island of Zanzibar. Unfortunately, once we got there our contact was unable to meet with us...but since we were already there we stayed for an extra day....AMAZING!!!! The Island is so beautiful, I would suggest going to Google Images and just checking out the beaches, as well as a place called PRISON ISLAND....I met a guy there in Zanzibar who spends his days building ancient Dow boats and sailing around the ocean to the islands, and he finds wood and carves masks and sorts...extremely nice guy. Well he asked us to ride his dow boat out to the island and he gave us a tour and let us go snorkeling in the reefs around the island..and all this was completely unexpected or arranged!!!!
We stayed in a place called STONE TOWN, the coolest architecture in the world......
I think I want to live in Zanzibar.
Also, we went to see the Slave Caves, where the British Slave masters hid their slaves...it was really dark, wet, and creepy inside the caves...there were even remnant of rustly chains and things. I also saw a millipede twice as thick as my thumb and about 10 inches long. yummy.
So Zanzibar actually turned out to be quite a nice experience even though we didnt get the interview.
Now I am back in Dar Es Salaam and we are trying to get ahold of some Masai people near Arusha and we are bussing out there tonight or in the morning. If you didn't know, Arusha to very very near to the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro.
I am very tired, sun burnt, and more tired. We are staying in Dar at a filthy run down hostel downtown...so the people around this area are quite creepy. In Zanzibar, there was no power or running water so we couldnt shower or anything for several days, and coming back to the mainland it was well over 110 degrees with no clouds, its like a desert city.
Everywhere I go Im meeting more people who have more stories to share and its just crazy!
When we were walking through the forests in Zanzibar Island, we ran into a Norwegian couple, the husband teaches English at a rural university in Malawi, he was very very smart and told us to bus down to Malawi and stay at his place and see the extreme poverty of this country, where there are even less Mzungu's (white people) than here. Of course we cant do that.
I suppose I will be back soon...i dont even know what day it is today, i think sunday.
Cheers to all, and hopefully you'll get a Masai Trek update in the early part of next week!
-ben
Its been 5 days or so.....
Well I am now in Tanzania working on the Flamingo Documentary. I am in a town called Dar Es Salaam, which is a very arabic influenced city. For fun, you can go to Google Earth and check it out, its right on the Indian Ocean.
Her in Dar it is very very hot, and very humid. The people are nice but there are, as in all africa, many people trying to rob and rip me me off. but i deal with them...lol.
So far we have interviewed the director of Birdlife International, the CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, the Professor Emeritus of Ecology at the University of Tanzania, a maverick journalist named DEO trying to get to the bottom of the Natron Flamingo Controversy, and tonight leave for the desert to talk with 2 or 3 Tribal Masai Warchiefs near the Lake, and also a field expert who basically lives in the desert working on wildlife research. Also, last week we had a surprise chance meeting with Chris Magine, who is the African Director of the Royal British Society for the Protection of Birds...we just found him sitting downtown Dar Es Salaam smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, and he kindly engaged us in conversation and it just happened to turn out that he was here from England working on the EXACT same project as us...the Lake Natron Flamingos...so how crazy is it that we just ran into him/ So he agreed to interview and it was fantastic!!!!
Also, we had an interview scheduled in a more expotic location....ZANZIBAR!!!!!
About 3 days ago we took the ferry across the Indian Ocean to the famous Island of Zanzibar. Unfortunately, once we got there our contact was unable to meet with us...but since we were already there we stayed for an extra day....AMAZING!!!! The Island is so beautiful, I would suggest going to Google Images and just checking out the beaches, as well as a place called PRISON ISLAND....I met a guy there in Zanzibar who spends his days building ancient Dow boats and sailing around the ocean to the islands, and he finds wood and carves masks and sorts...extremely nice guy. Well he asked us to ride his dow boat out to the island and he gave us a tour and let us go snorkeling in the reefs around the island..and all this was completely unexpected or arranged!!!!
We stayed in a place called STONE TOWN, the coolest architecture in the world......
I think I want to live in Zanzibar.
Also, we went to see the Slave Caves, where the British Slave masters hid their slaves...it was really dark, wet, and creepy inside the caves...there were even remnant of rustly chains and things. I also saw a millipede twice as thick as my thumb and about 10 inches long. yummy.
So Zanzibar actually turned out to be quite a nice experience even though we didnt get the interview.
Now I am back in Dar Es Salaam and we are trying to get ahold of some Masai people near Arusha and we are bussing out there tonight or in the morning. If you didn't know, Arusha to very very near to the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro.
I am very tired, sun burnt, and more tired. We are staying in Dar at a filthy run down hostel downtown...so the people around this area are quite creepy. In Zanzibar, there was no power or running water so we couldnt shower or anything for several days, and coming back to the mainland it was well over 110 degrees with no clouds, its like a desert city.
Everywhere I go Im meeting more people who have more stories to share and its just crazy!
When we were walking through the forests in Zanzibar Island, we ran into a Norwegian couple, the husband teaches English at a rural university in Malawi, he was very very smart and told us to bus down to Malawi and stay at his place and see the extreme poverty of this country, where there are even less Mzungu's (white people) than here. Of course we cant do that.
I suppose I will be back soon...i dont even know what day it is today, i think sunday.
Cheers to all, and hopefully you'll get a Masai Trek update in the early part of next week!
-ben
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Ghosts of the Hills
It has been several days since I have last written anything on my blog. The days have been busy, the days have been hot, the days have been emotionally pulling and very hard to get through, but I did and thats what matters.
As you all knew I have been in Rwanda in a small village called Kibungo in the south Eastern part of the country.
I have been working on a short film documentary over reflections from the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
For those of you who dont know anything about it - shame - you can go to a site like wikipedia and learn about it.
for 100 days in 1994, the 2 main ethnic groups in Rwanda, the TUTSI and the HUTU turned against each other (of course there is more to it than that though) actually mainly the HUTU turned against the TUTSI and had one mission...to expterminate every tutsi alive. In rwanda at the time, the tutsis nade up about 15 percent of the entire population. So after the presiden twas murdered and the UN was forced to evacuate the country, it turned into a planned Final Solution for the Tutsis, and propoganda from the hutu was comparable to the Nazis. Over night, the hutus turned on the family, neighbors, community, everyone. For instance, if you were a tutsi family, and your neighbor was a hutu, he would come over to the house, pound down the door, take his machete and violently kill the ENTIRE family. The Hutu men who were diagnosed with HIV AIDS would rape the women, they would take babies and smash them up against cement walls, I heard stories of women getting their eyes plucked out and then thown onto a highway where they would get ran over....wells were filled with kids and then the hutus would throw rocks on them till all of them were dead..even if you were a hutu who was sympathetic you would be found and killed. If you were a hutu and didnt want to be a part of the killings, they would just kill you and move on. So the tutsis were forced to flee into the jungle to hide but the hutu would send savage dogs after them. Families were separated, communities were burned down....in one instance, the WHOLE village went to the local Catholic church to hide from the killers. inside the church were 1000s of women and children, the men banded together and went to try and fight the Hutus. All of them were huddled inside the church, most of them with severe wounds already. The priest of the church was scared of what the hutus would do if they found him hiding the tutsi families so he went and told the hutu rebels that his church was filled with tutsis....the rebels came to the church, and with grenades, guns, knives, rocks, machetes and fire, killed EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE CHURCH. today, the church is still there and all the bodies are still there. The clothes have been removed and placed in a single room and the thousands of skeletons still litter the sanctuary of the church......a nightmare....this lasted for 100 days.
So the people I interviewed were survivors of this genocide. One old lady, maybe 70 years old, lost all 7 of her chiuldren, her husband, all of her husbands family, all her siblings, all of her relatives, and every single person in her entire town. Of the thousands of people in her town, she was the only one still alive.
The reconsiliation process has been amazing to hear. a lot of the killers have come out ad confessed their crimes and asked forgiveness from the families they killed. They serve a sentence in prisonm then do lots of community work, and then have been able to integrate back into society. I was amazed at this but it makes sense. This country depends on neighbors and friends to survive, its mostlky farming. So they have to forgive and keep on with life.
Remember the old lady i was talking about? Well, the hutus that murdered her family came to her and asked forgiveness....the killed EVERYONE. and they asked forgiveness. The Lady accepted their apology and forgave them. So the hutu family GAVE this old lady 2 of their own children. And since all the ladies children were dead, they offered to replace them with 2 of their children. SO now, this old lady takes care of 2 children who were born from the family that murdered all of her family. Can you believe that? And the 2 families now co-exist, are neighbors again, and the husband who did the killing is still in prison but he gets out and comes visits quite often. They have a good relationship now. The Old LAdy talked a lot about how God tells us to forgive, so why shouldnt she?
I think we americans can learn something from this.
Think to yourself.....have you not forgiven someone lately? Or for a long time? And is the reason something pitiful? (in comparison to this, it likely is pitiful) So if this lady can forgive thses hutus, then surely we can learn to forgive as well......when you see this old woman talk on cameram you are probably going to cry.
So we did about 15 interviews with people who had these crazy stories that blew me away...and what was fascinating was that most people didnt talk about the actual details of the genocide, but about how they are forgiving and rebuilding...i guess to them, thats whats i,portant and they have put the rest behind them....
Also, we did another story film about an even trelated to the genocide. Since the Hutu and Tutsi have been fighting for over 50 years, many rwandans have moved to Tanzania and other countries.
In 2006, the tanzania govt. said "ALL RWANDANS HAVE TO GO BACK HOME OR BE PUT IN PRISON" These are people who haved lived 50 years in Tanzania. So were loaded into a truck, lots of times separated from their husbands, and thrown onto a patch of dry land in the hills near the border.
These people, some of them who in Tanzania were very wealthy, now have no home, 5 kids, no husband, no water, nothing....they are living in tents up in the hills.
We went and talked with them as well. A gentleman from Kibungo named Ernest has put together a program that for 2000 US dollars, he can build a house for a refugee family. Last year, a couple from Colorado went with ernest and saw the camp, were told that 2000 dollars could build a house, went home, and in a few months had raised enough money for ernest to build 18 houses for these returnees (the familied with the most need - number of kids, no husband, health problems) were given top priority for the houses.
Right now, in this returnee camp, where the kids are the nicest, sweetest ever...there are 104 families....104 familes. of those 104 families, 18 live in a small cement house now, thanks to Peg and MArk from Colo. so that leaves 86 more families living in a tent smaller than our bathrooms. And it only takes 2000 bucks to give them a home.....so when I found that out, the camera waqs turned on, and a film to help raise awareness for these people was made. Im thinking Ill be able to raise some money for these families
IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN HELPING, LET ME KNOW AND LETS GET THIS ROCK ROLLING EVEN BEFORE THE FILM IS RELEASED. 2000 bucks.
By the way, for water.......the children are given a yellow jerry can. They walk 4-5 hours to the water source, nasty stagnant water, every day to get their mother water to cook with. They dont bathe, they cant. They cant even drink very much. Yes, 4-5 hour walks in the blazing hot of the hills, every day, and half of that walk was carrying heavy water. We took the camera and followed some of the kids. I thought to myself....how do I justify living like I do???
The old man of the returnee camp (who happened to be a TWA PIGMY, found out why we were filming, and he was so happy for us, he gave Amanda a cooking pot he had just made out of clay. That was a big thing. He siad this....many people might visit us and feel bad for us...but what do they do? Nothing. Will you please not forget us?
So yeah, my mind and heart is in this mess of confusion right now.......please comment if you have anything to say, Ive already been contacting places to start fund raising for houses for these people.
Today i leave for Tanzania to help stop the destruction of one of the most beautiful birds in the world...the Lesser Flamingo.
Cheers,
-ben
PS I will be coming back here. Nothing will stop me.
As you all knew I have been in Rwanda in a small village called Kibungo in the south Eastern part of the country.
I have been working on a short film documentary over reflections from the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
For those of you who dont know anything about it - shame - you can go to a site like wikipedia and learn about it.
for 100 days in 1994, the 2 main ethnic groups in Rwanda, the TUTSI and the HUTU turned against each other (of course there is more to it than that though) actually mainly the HUTU turned against the TUTSI and had one mission...to expterminate every tutsi alive. In rwanda at the time, the tutsis nade up about 15 percent of the entire population. So after the presiden twas murdered and the UN was forced to evacuate the country, it turned into a planned Final Solution for the Tutsis, and propoganda from the hutu was comparable to the Nazis. Over night, the hutus turned on the family, neighbors, community, everyone. For instance, if you were a tutsi family, and your neighbor was a hutu, he would come over to the house, pound down the door, take his machete and violently kill the ENTIRE family. The Hutu men who were diagnosed with HIV AIDS would rape the women, they would take babies and smash them up against cement walls, I heard stories of women getting their eyes plucked out and then thown onto a highway where they would get ran over....wells were filled with kids and then the hutus would throw rocks on them till all of them were dead..even if you were a hutu who was sympathetic you would be found and killed. If you were a hutu and didnt want to be a part of the killings, they would just kill you and move on. So the tutsis were forced to flee into the jungle to hide but the hutu would send savage dogs after them. Families were separated, communities were burned down....in one instance, the WHOLE village went to the local Catholic church to hide from the killers. inside the church were 1000s of women and children, the men banded together and went to try and fight the Hutus. All of them were huddled inside the church, most of them with severe wounds already. The priest of the church was scared of what the hutus would do if they found him hiding the tutsi families so he went and told the hutu rebels that his church was filled with tutsis....the rebels came to the church, and with grenades, guns, knives, rocks, machetes and fire, killed EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE CHURCH. today, the church is still there and all the bodies are still there. The clothes have been removed and placed in a single room and the thousands of skeletons still litter the sanctuary of the church......a nightmare....this lasted for 100 days.
So the people I interviewed were survivors of this genocide. One old lady, maybe 70 years old, lost all 7 of her chiuldren, her husband, all of her husbands family, all her siblings, all of her relatives, and every single person in her entire town. Of the thousands of people in her town, she was the only one still alive.
The reconsiliation process has been amazing to hear. a lot of the killers have come out ad confessed their crimes and asked forgiveness from the families they killed. They serve a sentence in prisonm then do lots of community work, and then have been able to integrate back into society. I was amazed at this but it makes sense. This country depends on neighbors and friends to survive, its mostlky farming. So they have to forgive and keep on with life.
Remember the old lady i was talking about? Well, the hutus that murdered her family came to her and asked forgiveness....the killed EVERYONE. and they asked forgiveness. The Lady accepted their apology and forgave them. So the hutu family GAVE this old lady 2 of their own children. And since all the ladies children were dead, they offered to replace them with 2 of their children. SO now, this old lady takes care of 2 children who were born from the family that murdered all of her family. Can you believe that? And the 2 families now co-exist, are neighbors again, and the husband who did the killing is still in prison but he gets out and comes visits quite often. They have a good relationship now. The Old LAdy talked a lot about how God tells us to forgive, so why shouldnt she?
I think we americans can learn something from this.
Think to yourself.....have you not forgiven someone lately? Or for a long time? And is the reason something pitiful? (in comparison to this, it likely is pitiful) So if this lady can forgive thses hutus, then surely we can learn to forgive as well......when you see this old woman talk on cameram you are probably going to cry.
So we did about 15 interviews with people who had these crazy stories that blew me away...and what was fascinating was that most people didnt talk about the actual details of the genocide, but about how they are forgiving and rebuilding...i guess to them, thats whats i,portant and they have put the rest behind them....
Also, we did another story film about an even trelated to the genocide. Since the Hutu and Tutsi have been fighting for over 50 years, many rwandans have moved to Tanzania and other countries.
In 2006, the tanzania govt. said "ALL RWANDANS HAVE TO GO BACK HOME OR BE PUT IN PRISON" These are people who haved lived 50 years in Tanzania. So were loaded into a truck, lots of times separated from their husbands, and thrown onto a patch of dry land in the hills near the border.
These people, some of them who in Tanzania were very wealthy, now have no home, 5 kids, no husband, no water, nothing....they are living in tents up in the hills.
We went and talked with them as well. A gentleman from Kibungo named Ernest has put together a program that for 2000 US dollars, he can build a house for a refugee family. Last year, a couple from Colorado went with ernest and saw the camp, were told that 2000 dollars could build a house, went home, and in a few months had raised enough money for ernest to build 18 houses for these returnees (the familied with the most need - number of kids, no husband, health problems) were given top priority for the houses.
Right now, in this returnee camp, where the kids are the nicest, sweetest ever...there are 104 families....104 familes. of those 104 families, 18 live in a small cement house now, thanks to Peg and MArk from Colo. so that leaves 86 more families living in a tent smaller than our bathrooms. And it only takes 2000 bucks to give them a home.....so when I found that out, the camera waqs turned on, and a film to help raise awareness for these people was made. Im thinking Ill be able to raise some money for these families
IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN HELPING, LET ME KNOW AND LETS GET THIS ROCK ROLLING EVEN BEFORE THE FILM IS RELEASED. 2000 bucks.
By the way, for water.......the children are given a yellow jerry can. They walk 4-5 hours to the water source, nasty stagnant water, every day to get their mother water to cook with. They dont bathe, they cant. They cant even drink very much. Yes, 4-5 hour walks in the blazing hot of the hills, every day, and half of that walk was carrying heavy water. We took the camera and followed some of the kids. I thought to myself....how do I justify living like I do???
The old man of the returnee camp (who happened to be a TWA PIGMY, found out why we were filming, and he was so happy for us, he gave Amanda a cooking pot he had just made out of clay. That was a big thing. He siad this....many people might visit us and feel bad for us...but what do they do? Nothing. Will you please not forget us?
So yeah, my mind and heart is in this mess of confusion right now.......please comment if you have anything to say, Ive already been contacting places to start fund raising for houses for these people.
Today i leave for Tanzania to help stop the destruction of one of the most beautiful birds in the world...the Lesser Flamingo.
Cheers,
-ben
PS I will be coming back here. Nothing will stop me.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Genocide
connected to the internet from a friend of a diocese in Kibungo.
Today was a long drive through rwanda. Very cramped, very packed.
Made it to Kibungo and filmed 3 families who survived the genocide. Heard their stories. They are amazing. Most everyone here had a family member slashed apart by a machete or shot in cold blood. One man we talked to lost 4 of his 8 children, his HUTU neighbors killed them. Another man fled from the intrahamwe into the jungle for a few weeks and was almost killed 3 times. finally he was rescued and was sent to a refugee camp. He thought his whole family was dead, but at the camp he suddenly ran into his wife and kids.......the stories just go on and on.
Have to go. Tonight I will go outside into the jungle a bit and find a place to sit and watch the stars, if I can.
I am in a very rural area right now.
Rwanda is beautiful.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rwanda - kigali
OK stayed in Kigali today i could not find transport out into Ntarama.
This is a very clean well kept city, much nicer than nairobi and kampala.
This morning I visited the Genocide Memorial Museum......Seriously wow.
This genocide is so recent, everyone in the city nearly remembers it. i cant even begin to talk about the images and stories I read today...it is much to difficult. Several people going through the moemorial just broke down and cried.
This subject is so intense that we will find it difficult to bring it to film, and will have to be quite careful.
i leave for kibungo in the morning to a refugee camp.
-ben
This is a very clean well kept city, much nicer than nairobi and kampala.
This morning I visited the Genocide Memorial Museum......Seriously wow.
This genocide is so recent, everyone in the city nearly remembers it. i cant even begin to talk about the images and stories I read today...it is much to difficult. Several people going through the moemorial just broke down and cried.
This subject is so intense that we will find it difficult to bring it to film, and will have to be quite careful.
i leave for kibungo in the morning to a refugee camp.
-ben
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Into Rwanda and the Rainforest
Very quickly,
I am now in Rwanda. It rained all day.
I took a beaten up bus for about 11 hours across the countryside of Uganda to get here.
Crossing the border was quite intense....the Rwanda military was out in force and i dont think they liked me too much.....whats new.
Everything is French, even the keyboard, so typîng is slow.
So far i feel safe enough.... the town i am in, kigali, was the center of the genocide of 1994. if you have ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, it takes place here in this town.
I must leave it is very dark out and its rainy and i am not sure where to go now.
I hope to find a bus into the deeper rainforest to the east tomorrow...and we start shooting genocide memoirs in a small town Ntarama.
Cheers,
ben
I am now in Rwanda. It rained all day.
I took a beaten up bus for about 11 hours across the countryside of Uganda to get here.
Crossing the border was quite intense....the Rwanda military was out in force and i dont think they liked me too much.....whats new.
Everything is French, even the keyboard, so typîng is slow.
So far i feel safe enough.... the town i am in, kigali, was the center of the genocide of 1994. if you have ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, it takes place here in this town.
I must leave it is very dark out and its rainy and i am not sure where to go now.
I hope to find a bus into the deeper rainforest to the east tomorrow...and we start shooting genocide memoirs in a small town Ntarama.
Cheers,
ben
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Filming Success, Emerson's Genius
Hello.
This could easily be my last day of constant updates, as I leave in the early morning for a remote region of Rwanda, however, it seems as though internet cafes are popping up everywhere.
Today I spent ALL day at the cancer clinic filming and interviewing.....like I said, this is all very hard to take in. The nicest little boy in the world, maybe 8 years old, had Burkitts Lymphoma and his face was the size of a watermelon almost...I mean its just crazy.
But I will give a more thorough update at a later time.
For now I want to share with everyone some notes from my nightly readings of Emerson....(thanks to my good friend Josh Moore for really introducing this guy to me)
These few quotes are some that really hit home over the last week of traveling and, sometimes, just sitting on the edge of a forest knoll thinking about life in general.....
"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men - that is genius."
"The only reward of virtue, is virtue: the only way to have a friend, is to be one."
"To be great is to be misunderstood"
"In the woods, we return to reason and faith."
"A friend may well be the masterpiece of nature."
Yes, so I had underlined these passages from random collections of Emersons writings (Nature, Friendship, and Self Reliance). I thought I would share them.
Also, I might add that after the very depressing few days here in Uganda, after today I did feel like the was certainly some HOPE for the future of these kids...the film will explain that in greater detail....
Also, hopefully sometime later this evening I will have the chance to change this from an email blog to an actual plog page blog, which will be much easier to access and share.
There is no doubt in my mind that I will be returning to this region to do follow-up work.
Also, just to let you all know, if you've been following international news, you might have heard that in the last week there were some attacks in Ntarama, Rwanda. Yes...this is exactly where I am headed in the next 2 days. Just to give you all some comfort, the contacts I have there, in conjunction with the nearby refugee camps, are VERY WELL INFORMED and have let us know the absolute safest way in to the country. So, i could have just left that all out anyway but I figured some of you might have already heard of those attacks. So dont worry, Ill be fine.
Also, I am very sunburnt...apparently the Malaria medicine I took makes my skin very sensitive...but the good news is that it has all turned a dark brown except for on my upper chest where I wore a wife-beater one day and forgot (stupidly) to put sunblock right under my neck in....So literally my skin there is very nearly purple. Luckily, after seeing children today with softball size lumps growing out of their eye sockets...I realized any pain I feel from this burn is really nothing.
I should have some pictures up soon I hope. so far the internet speed has been unable to support picture sharing.
(Also because I added some people to this list just now this would be the first time you would have read any of this odd-formed email type blog. I promise I will get all the old posts viewable soon.)
Sula Birungi!!! (Tribal Ugandan for Good Bye!)
-ben
This could easily be my last day of constant updates, as I leave in the early morning for a remote region of Rwanda, however, it seems as though internet cafes are popping up everywhere.
Today I spent ALL day at the cancer clinic filming and interviewing.....like I said, this is all very hard to take in. The nicest little boy in the world, maybe 8 years old, had Burkitts Lymphoma and his face was the size of a watermelon almost...I mean its just crazy.
But I will give a more thorough update at a later time.
For now I want to share with everyone some notes from my nightly readings of Emerson....(thanks to my good friend Josh Moore for really introducing this guy to me)
These few quotes are some that really hit home over the last week of traveling and, sometimes, just sitting on the edge of a forest knoll thinking about life in general.....
"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men - that is genius."
"The only reward of virtue, is virtue: the only way to have a friend, is to be one."
"To be great is to be misunderstood"
"In the woods, we return to reason and faith."
"A friend may well be the masterpiece of nature."
Yes, so I had underlined these passages from random collections of Emersons writings (Nature, Friendship, and Self Reliance). I thought I would share them.
Also, I might add that after the very depressing few days here in Uganda, after today I did feel like the was certainly some HOPE for the future of these kids...the film will explain that in greater detail....
Also, hopefully sometime later this evening I will have the chance to change this from an email blog to an actual plog page blog, which will be much easier to access and share.
There is no doubt in my mind that I will be returning to this region to do follow-up work.
Also, just to let you all know, if you've been following international news, you might have heard that in the last week there were some attacks in Ntarama, Rwanda. Yes...this is exactly where I am headed in the next 2 days. Just to give you all some comfort, the contacts I have there, in conjunction with the nearby refugee camps, are VERY WELL INFORMED and have let us know the absolute safest way in to the country. So, i could have just left that all out anyway but I figured some of you might have already heard of those attacks. So dont worry, Ill be fine.
Also, I am very sunburnt...apparently the Malaria medicine I took makes my skin very sensitive...but the good news is that it has all turned a dark brown except for on my upper chest where I wore a wife-beater one day and forgot (stupidly) to put sunblock right under my neck in....So literally my skin there is very nearly purple. Luckily, after seeing children today with softball size lumps growing out of their eye sockets...I realized any pain I feel from this burn is really nothing.
I should have some pictures up soon I hope. so far the internet speed has been unable to support picture sharing.
(Also because I added some people to this list just now this would be the first time you would have read any of this odd-formed email type blog. I promise I will get all the old posts viewable soon.)
Sula Birungi!!! (Tribal Ugandan for Good Bye!)
-ben
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