Today was the first meet with the students of Kenyatta University; the guys are pretty awesome! After a pretty intense game of ‘cheerleading rock paper scissors’, including around 20 students going wild, it made a good icebreaker to get to know one another. Following the game Peter held a lecture discussing what defines community and empowerment and then a discussion led by Fred about SEMA Media, what they do and who they are.

The day carried on and we found our groups and began talking about the problems that are in Kenya and in what way can we depict it through video. We spent a good hour or so talking about problems locally such as the biker crime, alcohol abuse and so much more. After debating and discussing which would be best we decided on tribalism, Nairobi has over 40 different tribes living around the area and it has seen some conflict over the years, it has caused tension between the communities and disrupts the students working lives and communication with one another. It also hinders peoples career life causing unemployment due to tribal relations, what we are going to reflect on is the way that tribalism could be a dying out thing in the younger generations and to examine both the negatives and positives of being within a tribe. As this is a fairly soft topic among a lot of people we are going to create a short drama based production to coincide with the interview production a fiction based / docudrama.

Oscar and I spent the night reflecting on what we had spoken about during the day and the project that we have coming up. Getting a head of the game we wrote up a script and a plot line for the drama production we will be shooting, basing it loosely on Romeo and Juliet we will show a mixed tribal marriage and its repercussions with family and the community, which then will link in to the interviews we will conduct tomorrow.

We had the exhibition on today, we showed all the work the diverse groups made over the last couple of days. We had the photography exihibition on joy and happiness, the video drama and documentary on tribalism  and our podcast on food and hygiene. All the projects represented issues raised by the community. The Kenyan students raised theses topics and we collaborated together on how we could use media technologies to inform the rest of the community about these issues and potentially offer  

 solutions on how to tackle them. 

I am impressed by how I was able to connect with the Kenyan students over just a couple days. We went from strangers to friends by working together on a meaningful project. The connection produced by teaming up to work towards a common goal really fostered a strong bond amongst us which I am really impressed by this. To me, this proves that when individual work together towards a common goal produces sense of community to attempt to deal with challenges experienced by the community. To me this is the beginning of the path  towards sustainability. 
 (Photograph of Nairobi traffic)

wow, how time flies by. We are our last day at KU and this is the big day for editting. I have basic skills doing this, I hand to train everybody else to know how to use Audacity. Being able to explain how to use audacity has a good way to learn in more depth how to use the software. It was challenging to work in room where there was a lot of noise. We had two computers to work on and 8 Of us to work on editing which was too many. We have use an informative and comical tone for our show. I noticed the  

 importance to speak clearly and avoid repetition when talking in the recorder as it just adds much more work for editting. The structure of the radionshow was underpinned by four main points that we fit in an order that was interesting for the audience. It is interesting to work produce something on behalf of the audience which must grasp their attention. I think one of the key challenges in audio dealing just sound to grasp ones attention as opposed to visual methods which seem to require less ‘concentration’ for the audience. So it is vital to make it worthwhile for the audience to listen to the podcast. 

We arrived at Rongo University to meet with the students and staff to divide into our groups (photography, film and audio) to discuss our topic – The Luo Community. Jerry, the Dean of Rongo University gave us a brief understanding of the Luo people and how their culture is very much about living around Lake Victoria. He talked about the traditional dances that are performed by the Luo people and how it is used to keep their tribe alive and to educate people about their culture.  In the photography group Elle, Ali, Japhet, Geoffrey and I discussed together how we would like to approach this project and how we would like to capture the dancers, their routine and the relationship between the dances and the Luo community using a mixture of shots. Together we decided to focus predominantly on the dancers; their costumes/props, instruments, and movements, but also to identify the importance of the performance for both the Kagan (dancers) and the Luo people who are going to be there spectating. We also want to include other key aspects of the Luo tribe into the photographs, for example farming, fishing, and housing which will also be shown in the exhibition happening in Brighton at the end of April.

Today I woke up and my legs had been severely attacked by something. It looks pretty awful, I’m not going to post a photo because it looks like something off embarrassing bodies but I’m just hoping that it goes pretty rapidly as I will now be unable to wear shorts.

Today we were picked up by a big blue and gold bus and travelled 8-10 hours from Nairobi to Rongo. It was a long and tiring journey but the view was breath-taking. On the way we stopped off at the Great Rift Valley that runs through Kenya north to south. Although I took many images none of them could do the scenery justice.

(Above: The Great Rift Valley)

(Above: Me, Lewes, Oscar and Angelica on the bus to Rongo)

We went to the university to have some dinner then went back to our accommodation which looked nice from the outside but we quickly learned there were a few problems with most of the rooms, mostly bathroom related.

Today we travelled 8 hours to Rongo by a big blue and gold school bus sent by Rongo University. Although it was a very long and tiring trip to Rongo the journey was incredible. The scenery was breathtaking, especially while driving through the Riff Valley where we stopped off to look at one of the oldest Maasai landscapes in Kenya. We stopped off right at the top of the valley where we were able to look down onto the vast and deserted plain, that was covered with beautiful African trees like the Marula and Acacia tree, and also a lot of succulent plants. In the distance we could see two sleeping volcanoes, I took a few photos but they don’t give the scenery any justice. After a short stop we then got back on the bus and travelled for another 3 hours to a small village in Narok county where we had lunch (a very memorable lunch.. Where we all ended up giving our food to the stray cats and kittens…). A further 3 hours in the bus and we finally reached Rongo! We were invited by the University to have dinner on their campus before heading the hostel located 10 minutes away near Rongo town. Looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight. I am knackered!

Day 6 & a quick update – I’ve been in touch with Safi (the student who was refused permission to travel. Naturally enough she and her children are devastated but I will discuss everything with her when I get back and see what can be done for them for a future visit.

Well as day 6 was a Saturday I had planned on taking them to the Maasai market in the centre of Nairobi. It is a really intense experience and great fun. However, there were final tweaks needed in the editing of both the video and audio projects. As the guys were happy to stay behind and do that I arranged for our tour operator to accompany the girls to Nairobi City Centre whilst I stayed with the guys (and finished the small audio edits and exported it to MP3 format. No small task when you’re not used Macs, which don’t recognise the version of Lame we use. Anyway, I managed it eventually but it just confirmed my dislike of the Mac environment – oh and Keji your Mac is sooooooo slow 😉

Eventually all was done; the girls returned having had a good time and we were able to get to the exhibition just in time. In the event, as nice as it was for the French Embassy to give us the space for free, it didn’t really work out for the audio and video projects. The photography exhibition was OK although I think the photographers wished they’d been there a tad earlier to organise the actual presentation of pictures and accompanying narratives. There were a number of celebrations going on in the building and the noise from these made it impossible for people to take in the audio aspects of the podcast (everything) and the video projects. This was a shame but I think everyone enjoyed the exhibition as a social gathering at least. There was some nice food and drinks, speeches (well done Lola & Lewes) and before we made our exit there was dancing and a flurry of crazy selfie shots.

After some sad farewells and promises to continue the collaborations which we will do (I have extended an invitation for the Kenyan partners to submit content to the CM4K Exhibition in April. So watch this space). Everyone is having a bit of a lie in this morning ahead of a long trip to Rongo. Internet connectivity will be problematic there in all likelihood so expect blogs as and when, or as a great flurry on our return.

Well, that’s the first week done and dusted. It is been quite amazing. The students have worked harder than any group I can remember – very proud of them! Each year’s cohort have their own personality – not had a bad bunch yet (and fingers crossed it stays that way). Whilst not as manic and boistrous as last year’s bunch these guys are nice and I am enjoying working and socialising with them.

PS I’ll post some pics to this when I get a moment but for now it’s breakfast, final bits n bobs of packing and getting the sleepers up and about. 🙂

After a nice lie in this morning Elle, Lola, Lana, Keji and I were taken to Adam’s arcade (a local market in Nairobi) to have a look around and buy any souveniers and other traditional Kenyan things. I’m glad we had the chance to see a bit more of Nairobi today as the sun was shining and we all have had a very busy week working on our projects at KU. I think we all got some pretty cool things to take back home with us! By the time we got back to the hostel we only had enough time to pick up Peter, Lewes and Oscar who had been working on their project for the exhibition all morning. We arrived at Alliance Française in central Nairobi for the exhibition where Fred and some others from Sema had already started to set up in the morning. My first impression of the printed photographs hanging in the gallery was wow!. The photos looked great and we were all really pleased with the quality. The only slightly disappointing thing was that we weren’t really given enough space on the wall to hang all the photographs and the captions that told stories about the people. The venue was really busy as there were other events going on, so when it came to the audio and film groups to present their projects the sound wasn’t the greatest. But the exhibition still carried on and it was a really nice way to celebrate working with all the students at KU, and the people of SEMA with lots of food and drink. It was a little bit sad to say goodbye so soon to such a fun group of people, but I’m really looking forward to getting out of the city and meeting the people in Rongo. 🙂

Day 5 provided us with the first real glimpse of the Kenyan sun. I think we all hope that that is he last we shall see of the rain. Whilst it’s not like UK rain, being warm and in its own way quite pleasant at times – I think we’ve all seen enough of the rain back home to want any more. Also it was extremely heavy in some areas which meant water coming down from higher ground often found its way into urban areas and onto roads – causing even more traffic problems.

Once we finally made it into Kenyatta University, it was all systems go! Luckily most of the participants from KU & SEMA arrived on time and those who were stuck let us know. So it was time to crack on with the editing and preparations. One of the things you notice over the years is the length of time this stage takes and it is at this point that students begin to realise the enormity of the production planning decisions they made a day or two earlier during the exciting stages of early collaboration with people from different backgrounds. This has certainly been the case here but the students, to their credit, have not let this deter them – working at times to 2 in the morning to get it finished right. Truth be told I am very proud of them for their determined enthusiasm.

The Video team chose to produce two pieces, which they had hoped to merge although I suspect they will now be two standalone pieces. One will be a documentary on the issues surrounding tribalism, which was shot both on campus and in the community of KM. The other is a short drama dealing with the pressures and issues surrounding mixed marriages (this comes complete with its own wedding ceremony) through a tribalistic lens. Oscar and Lewes have been working flat out on this and have impressed me heaps. They are still at it now as I write this.

The radio crew have also been very adventurous. They have produced their own 30 minute radio show in podcast form focussing on the issue of food security and hygiene, which is receiving a lot of attention at the moment, especially in food outlets in poorer areas. This has been a very vibrant and energetic group and Lola & Keji have also been burning the midnight oil getting this just right.

The photographers have undertaken a number of community shoots and have produced literally thousands of some quite stunningly atmospheric pictures. Their topic is happiness and joy as an alternative way of perceiving Kenyan life. Students taking Communications for Development next semester will think about representations of poverty in this kind of way. They also went out and ran a participatory photography session in the local community and got some great process and product shots. I think they are just about ready to go for the exhibition later today at the Alliance Francaise in the heart of Nairobi city centre.

This will be our last activity in Nairobi this year as we head to Rongo University in Migori County tomorrow. When we get there the blog frequency will depend on network conditions which are not great.

All in all it has been a great week and the students have done themselves, their families, the University, CM4K & myself proud!

Postscript: One sour note when I woke up this morning there had been a call from one of the students who was travelling with her children to join us for the final week. She was meant to arrive this evening. She and the kids travelled up from Brighton on the 01.40 bus to Heathrow terminal 2 only be stopped at check-in and told she would not be allowed to travel. Apparently it is law that passengers have to have 6 months validity on their passports to travel. As we return from Kenya on the 1^st February, her passport falls outside of this law. Had we travelled back on the 31^st, she would have been ok! This is so frustrating. I was face-timing with her on Keji’s I phone and both she and the kids are absolutely devastated – to say nothing of the loss of money she paid on the tickets. I think she has been able to get a refund for the children as she paid at the airport but as for her own fair, etc I suspect it is lost. I felt so impotent 1000s of miles away and unable to help them. Such a shame!