Today we had an early start at 7am, 5am GMT+1. We all had breakfast again on the porch and discussed final plans for the workshop day ahead. Feeling excited and aptly prepared we made our way to the Hill Park Hotel around 9am. When we arrived at the hotel it was straight to the conference room for the first session of the day. Some great speeches from Willice, Peter, Cherri and Samuel sent a wave of inspiration into the room. It was great to see and hear all the different interpretations and visions for what community media could become, in particular Ii was inspired by what Cherri had to say about plans to create an online network hub that people can access and share knowledge from. What interested me about this idea was that anyone inspite of economic/social background would be able to gain access to the information to educate themselves as well as others about their own experiences and circumstances by uploading their own information.

After a short tea break we began with a skills and needs assessment workshop. In the group I worked with the most important issue for them was that the rural area’s that make up the majority of the Kenyan population are reached by the CMC projects. We discussed the physicalities of setting up a community centre, it was considered vital by the group that the indigenous population should be involved from the get go, adhering to and making the CMC relevant to their specific needs. After a lunch break me, Rosie and Laura conducted an introductory session on the equipment and software, my group seemed to really enjoy and get alot from the session in spite of already knowing alot about editing and filming. We came from the viewpoint that although most people could navigate the equipment and software reletively easily within the group, it was a useful excercise to be able to teach others who perhaps are less knowledgable about the software and equipment.The last portion of the day was spent introducing word press and blogging . I think everyone has now been warn out from all the hard work we have all put in. I’m very appreciative of such eager and interesting students and have learnt alot from them. I feel part of something that has the potential to exact real and lasting change.

Woke up at 10am to the sultry sound of Peter Day’s voice. We gathered ourselves in the Kenyan sun on the porch of the Hartebeest compound before heading out into Nairobi. Kenya is Beautiful! We travelled a mile or two down the road from camp, stopping in malls and shops to pick up necessities. Water. Sim cards. Flip Flops. We then taxi’d back to camp taking a backroot to avoid traffic (The Kenyan Rally Competition).

In the backstreets of Nairobi it becomes clear, the vast economic gap in the city. Back at camp we began preparing for the workshops the next day. I’m looking forward to seeing how students will interpret Community Media based on their individual cultural and social mores. Met with Willice and Gordon over diner, both incredibly exciting and interesting Men, Willice’s laugh is infectious. Bed now, will mull over the prep for tomorrow in my sleep. Looking forward to another wonderful day in Kenya.

Today was a most interesting and exciting day for us. The two productions we worked on today brought about some inciteful interviews and the students worked with excellent professionalism. I hope that my teaching was helpful and I certainly learnt alot about Kenyan culture from the aspirations of the students I worked with. The subject of the two productions were ‘youth unemployment’ and ‘developing CMC’s’. From the get go students engaged well with the mind mapping and storyboarding process during the pre-production stages in the morning, roles were given to each of the students to fulfill throughout the day these roles were Director, Producer, Interviewer/researcher, Camera Operator and Editor. Everybody settled into their roles well and acted with confidence in their positions within the team throughout the day. After lunch was the production phase, students used their planning in pre-production to full effect whilst conducting interviews within the Hotel. Once filming was completed and after a short tea break students got to work on post-production. Students have maintained the same high level of engagement with the activities and tasks from pre-production right through to post-production. This should make for some interesting and well refined final products. I have enjoyed seeing the process unfold throughout the day and look forward to watching the final outcome. Thank you to everyone for another successful day of work.

Sun 7^th July

10.00 – 12.00                      Video & audio practical from beginning to editing including story-boarding

12.00 – 13.00                      Break

13.00 – 15.30                      Video & audio practical from beginning to editing including story-boarding

15.30 – 16.00                      Break

16.00 – 18.00                      Editing content generated from workshops

Today was a really interesting first day that has not been without its challenges but all in all it was successful and both students and participants engaged impressively.

The scenario-based participatory learning workshop produced lots of passionate ideas and provided insights into the participants motivations to be involved in community media. The students will post their notes from these sessions soon. It was really interesting to see the Principal and Dean from a prestigous university wanting to partner with us in this & I am quite excited about this developing partnership. I am meeting them more formally today….so stayed tuned.

The afternoon practical session ran well…..apart from one or two technical glitches which unerved the students a little but it was not their faults and they coped really well with this. The one problem that could have been avoided had communications between ourselves and our lead partner for this workshop been more effective related to the editing software. We originally thought we were to be working with community residents with little or no experience but at some point the planning switched to university students who would work with this deographic. It makes sense but it meant we came prepared for one skills set and were faced with another more experienced one. That said the students were flexible enough to change focus and all is well.

We are looking forward to an interesting 2nd day when the participants start creating content. I’ll post the schedule later as I have to get ready to head off now.