Jan 26 2018

Thursday 25/2018.

Yes!!! Today I will begin my blog on a low note. Have you ever boarded a vehicle to a place you do not know but you know there’s a task you have to do over there? That was the case with me and a few others today. The day started well as we assembled in the resource center after breakfast for equipment set up and collection. Peter emphasized on time keeping and strict adherence to our main objective.

We arrived at Cham Gi Wadu shopping centre at around 10:45 am, picked up Madam Jane (one of the community project steers) among other community members. It was at this point that I realized we were heading to Osiata Church to meet the church members. When we got there, there was nobody around but the word of Wazungu being around spread all over and we had several members turn up with higher expectations as their faces could indicate.

We had our work done in our respective groups with a lot of ease since there wasn’t much to cover. With the help of Angelica or my expert as I call her, we captured the establishment shots with a lot of keen as we didn’t want to experience lots of difficulties when editing as we faced yesterday. In about an hour we were done and we had to rush to the bus for our journey of Leng’o Secondary School after being informed that the road we were to use was muddy and impassable in case it rained while at the place.

We left the bus about 2 kilometers away and walked towards the school. Mr. Mark Ouma, our interpreter joked that we were to walk for 11 kilometers, a statement that was harshly received by members on the bus. Some came to agree with him after our experience of climbing the hill to the school. I must say that Leng’o Secondary students are all physically fit judging from the hard time most of us underwent to reach the School gate. I had to come help Halima’s reach our destination as Geoffrey Kioko looked exited on seeing our helpless Hafsah running low on gas.

Our final place was Cham Gi Wadu market. Since it was a market day, we had to take some footages on the business activities that would help in our Community Asset Mapping. We however experienced one major challenge at the beginning as most of the businessmen and women didn’t want us to record nor take pictures of their operations unless we gave them some appreciations in terms of cash. Despite all that, Fiona Maswai, Halima Roba and Aron managed to hold interviews with men and women at the market. We later headed back to school and be served with our nice refreshments as we reflected on the day’s activities.

Kassim Mohammed.

Jan 24 2018

Wednesday 24/2018:

I woke up at exactly 5:20 am by my trap phone alarm for the morning prayers. I then had to do some washing as some of my clothes were dirty and I could not keep them anymore up to weekend since I am not sure if I will be available for cleaning. At around 8:00 am I was at the school waiting for my colleagues to join me. They walked in one after another ready for the day until 9:30 am when the Brighton University guys arrived.

Being the seventh day of the project, we were to edit the two day work that we had captured on Monday and Tuesday. The University of Brighton students joined us after they had their breakfast but unfortunately Hafsah didn’t make it with them because of illness; I felt my day wouldn’t be complete without a joke and strong exchange of words from my ‘customer’ Hafsah. Quick recovery dear. Back to the business of the day, in my video group, though we didn’t do much of editing but Angelica collected the establishment shots of the places we visited and opted to compile them by the use of iMovie on her laptop.

It was a nice experience to learn the basics of iMovie since it was my first time to work with it though I didn’t find it the best software for editing but may be it’s because I am used to Premier Pro. The work wasn’t done and we expect to complete it tomorrow with the seriousness and commitment it deserves.

I attended a lecture by madam Millicent Atieno at 2:00 pm as guys went for lunch. One will ask what the lecture has to do with this, relax and read my blog up to the end. The course unit is CMM 404, Development Communication and today’s lecture was basically on why the mass media is not appropriate for effective communication. It depends on ones understanding about mass media in this case. Mass media is controlled by elites and it’s commercialized, unlike the rural media that is liberating, indigenous and egalitarian. Some of the features of this rural media that made me see the lecture as a coincidence to what I am doing in the community are; Participatory, Gives a sense of belonging and develops and support cultural identity. A good example of rural media is a community radio station. Now tell me, is what I am doing in this project different from what I learnt today?

We had a short discussion on religion with Sam and Angelica; why do we exist? Sam argued on how he feels it is through evolution that we exist and that there is no Supreme Being that controls everything as my faith and Angel’s tells us. Katie seemed not happy with the topic that he requested us to either shut our mouths up or find another topic of discussion.

Our delicious dinner was served few minutes past 6:00 pm as we experienced a heavy rainfall that none of us expected.

Kassim Mohammed.

Jan 23 2018

CM4K FRIDAY MEETING

Being my favorite day of the week as usual I woke up early, dressed in my Friday prayer’s attire ready for the day. Today’s meeting was meant to start at 11:00 am after the arrival of the Cham Gi Wadu community members, it however kicked off slightly after 11 with the lecture from Peter. My concentration was too low as I was eagerly waiting for CM4K2017 video that was produced by Sam.

Yes, my time came and Peter played the video, it was amazing and more so interesting to see how a two weeks exercise was compressed to a 16 minutes documentary; Big up Sam! The Community members were asked to shed some light on their meetings they held back in the village with other members, the main concern raised was why the project is taking too long to kick off. Peter reassured them how the action plan is still on course. This proved how eager the community members are waiting for the radio station.

The main topic of the lecture revolved around mapping for community radio at Cham Gi Wadu. Mobile phones were to be used to create narratives on google about resourceful places, it was however interesting to find out that as much as I didn’t have a smartphone during the session, one of the members had one without a battery. We were split in three different groups including the community members to discuss several questions. The first session of today’s lecture ended at around 2 pm. We broke for lunch and resumed at 3 pm. We didn’t do much in the afternoon session due to the technical inch we experienced; phones could not connect to the geo-code on google maps.

Shoutout to Angelica Bozene, almost threw my laptop away for showing her a snake picture. It was funny to see how frightened she is to snakes even by their pictures. I realized that in some way I had scared her but as friends all was sorted out immediately and everything got back to normal.

By Kassim Mohammed

Jan 23 2018

CM4K Monday 22/2018:

We embarked on a journey towards Cham Gi Wadu divisional headquarters at around 11:00 am to commence our task of community asset mapping for the radio station. The whole trip was awesome with the kind of jokes cracked by the CM4K members in the bus including the marriage bonding between Sam and Fiona; I wander if the two can make a wonderful couple.

At around 11:30 am, we were at Cham Gi Wadu chief’s camp. We were warmly welcomed by the area chief Mr. David Otieno. Though everything wasn’t clear in our minds of what we had to do over there despite having been exhaustively lectured and put in three different groups by Peter Day at school, we tried still under his directions and instructions. The chief assured us of safety in his area and more so offered to walk with us for the rest of the day. In our interviews with David, he expressed his desire to see a radio station at his area that will greatly help in effecting his administrative duties. We were joined by several community members including Mrs. Jane and everything was really amazing.

The next place in our schedule was Kakwara Primary School. We arrived there some minutes to 2 pm. As the interviews went on with the school administration, I took establishment shots of the place alongside Angelica Bozene. Hafsa and Katty on the other side had their moment of fun with the lower Primary kids who opted to forego their lunch just to mingle with the Muzungus who were around. After the long session of conversations with the school fraternity, we boarded our bus to a different location with oriti (Bye) sounding from everyone’s mouth.

We headed to Omware Secondary School as we quenched our thirsts with sodas and afya drinks. Peter Day could take a second to recall that we had visited the place last year when we met the Kopala Water Spring group. We gallantly walked into the school with a warm welcome from the security officer at the gate. After a short period of consultation, a different program was introduced. We had to talk to the Journalism Club members at the school and show them the operations of our equipment. It was a wonderful interactive session that lasted for an hour with the exchange of views and ideas in small groups of CM4K members and Omware students.

The Omware Secondary School session ended in a style with Oliver Kalawai meeting the challenge from the sports journalist student Paul Odhiambo to commentate football of an imaginable thrilling match of Chelsea playing against Manchester United. Of course Manchester United could not be defeated and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. What a wonderful show it was!

The journey headed back to the University where the whole day documentation was backed up by Mrs. Isabelle Zattu as we eagerly waited for supper.

By Kassim Mohammed.