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.

Today we have completed our first day of teaching, and wow, what a day it was! Walking into the conference room everyone was silent. The formality was rather overwhelming  and I started wandering what expectations the participants had of us.

After formal introductions were over, we split the participants up into three groups so that each student could take a group. We started discussing community media centres (CMC’s), what the participants thought it was, what ideas they have for CMC’s, etc. I was expecting the same reaction that students have in the UK when a teacher asks them a question – no one wanting to answer and if they do they would keep it short – however I was pleasantly surprised. These participants were switched on, confident, and passionate. Listening to their ideas, experience, and their culture was an eye opener for me, and it was very impressive. Their passion and ideas started making me think about how we can utilise our time to meet their requirements, however these participants had big dreams that we were not capable of fulling with the time that we had, in addition to our resources, however it felt good to know that skills that we can teach will hopefully enable the particpants to teach other citizens, and extend their knowledge. I started to think about what motivates people to engage in communities, is it the injustice witnessed, the passion for change and growth, the circumstances that one is surrounded in, of maybe the realisation that everyone needs to work together to help one another.

For me the afternoon wasn’t as successfiul. We taught participants how to use video hardware and then editing software. I found that I wasn’t clear in my directions and when faced with challeneges, it taught me that you can plan as much as possible, however the unexpected may occur. Although today has been a mixture of ups and downs, I am going to apply what I have learnt today to the workshop tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

Just getting the best best feedback from the rapporteurs of the group dialogue. Students have done a great job of facilitating the workshops. They will blog the results later tonight.

Sat 6th July
9.30 am Introduction & welcome – Willice Okoth & Dr Peter Day plus Laura Gorman, Rosie Way & Callum McNulty.
10.00 – 12.30 Community media needs assessment – scenario-based PLW (Depending on numbers attending participants will break into groups to consider a needs assessment statement; identify their community media hopes and needs & start to develop plans for a community media centre in Ngong.
12.30 – 13.30 Break
13.30 – 15.30 Introduction to media equipment & software
15.30 – 16.00 Break
16.00 – 18.00 1) Creating a community media blog and social networking, e.g. Twitter & Facebook; 2) Generating posts on the blog which can include pictures, video & audio

After the minor mishap of a shampoo explosion in my suitcase we finally arrived at Hartebeest Campsite. After a long flight and lots of food and drink i couldn’t wait to sleep and wake up in Kenya when we could actually see the surroundings! We ventured out to a few shopping centres to find some missing essentials and some Safaricom sim cards to be able to contact home- not as simple as you’d imagine! 8 hours later most of our phones began to work…
Sat down to do some planning when we got back from shopping and it suddenly dawned on me that the work we’d been leading up to was starting tomorrow. Feeling nervous, anxious and excited all at once at first, but running through the tutorials and our plans for the first day of the workshop just made me think, bring on tomorrow!

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.