Happy New Year!!

From Zoetermeer, Holland

Paco Bonsang and his family wishes al KFI and HKU students, teachers and staff, Geert, and all other friends and partners of KFI, a great and inspirering 2010!!

Paco

pictures of Nairobi

The more richer part of the Midlands, centre of Nairobi








A Big Matatu














Small houses for the railroad workers













Lucas and his parents














Me and lucas parents

Paco in Nairobi

This weekend i went to go with lucas to Nairobi. He had to do on saturday a shoot of a play in the French Cultural Centre, in the centre of Nairobi. He had asked me to join him this weekend and I thought that i would liked that.

So on friday we left school around 1 o'clock and went to Arusha town to take te bus to Nairobi. The ride was bumpy because of al the work on a new roud an we had ride on some small stone, sand and mud (because it rains now a lot arround Arusha)
After 2,5 hours of driving we where finnaly by the border. By the border we found out that my visa was expiered 3 days earlier. So they say that i had to pay $400,- because i stayed for almost 3 days ilegal in Tanzania. After a long talk, they even took the passport of Lucas, we did get our passports back without having to pay. Then the bus was already gone and we had to get a stamp, and in my case a visa, at the Kenian boarder. Lucas run to the to try to stop it and, stupid me, run also to the bus but i crossed acedently the kenian boarder so i was agian illegal but now in Kenya.
Lucas and i run back, get out stamps and a visa toke a taxi and drove to a stop where our bus was. So the ride was not that good because also on the Kenian side the road was bad! A lot of people where working on it under supervising of the chinese..

After 2,5 to 3 hours we where finally in Nairobi centre. There we walked from the bus stand to the Matatu stands, DalaDala's but then with 9 chairs and you're not alloud to stand in the matatu. And those matutu's are crazy. Full of DVD screens, loud music, crazy lights and they drive fast my god!!
So after the matutu ride we were finally by the parents of lucas where we slept the weekend. They are really nice parents, so warm, good hostpitallity, good food and a nice bed.

On saturday we went to the town and walked a bit before we went the place of the play. Because it was a holliday, this day was the celebration of the independence of kenya, it was not crowdy on the street. So we walked towards the banks but we forgot that they were al closed so i couldn't get dollars for a new visa to get into Tanzania again. So after walking and talking at 11 we were back at the centre and the were preparing for the shoot.
I met good people of the Kenian film industry, cameramen and 1 women, soundmen, producers and the director of the play.
They had to shoot the play twice so we were al day in the centre, we only get out for tea and for lunch and between the two play's we get some fresh air.

After the show it was raining so one cameraman gave us a ride back to our place. We went also to his studio somewhere in the ghetto, his name is Pato and is company is called Ghetto Film, and we brought some equipment back to a big guy, Robert, somewhere else in the ghetto.
After we were back we had a good meal and we talked for al long time to the parents of Lucas. It was nice.

On sunday we had to go the another part of town for lucas to get a letter of his tv company to get acces to see satelite tv in his new hous here in Tanzania. His parents drove us there but not before we had a good breakfast, took a real african shower ( trow some hot water over your body above a bucket with soap and you're clean) and make some pictures (the first i toke in Nairobi)
I even get a present and Jaimie, mom and dad, you're invited to come over if you are sometimes in Kenya. She told me that i became one of her son's now and thats why she had to meet my Dutch parents and ofcourse my girl friend.
After visiting this company we went in to a mall and bought some grocery's, I toke some money and we took the bus back to the centre of town, also called the midlands. When we arrived there we went to a kind of postaloffice because Lucas had to sent 2 dvd's to Uganda and then we walked a to town and by a pizza place near our busstand we took a coke and pizza.

After that we went home on the same bumpy road. But this time a had no big problem by the boarder, i only had to wait 5 till 10 minuts to change Kenian Shillings to Dollars, and to get a Tanzania visa, we stayed this time only 45 minutes by the boarder instead of 1 hour.

So Nairibo. What a crazy town. By afternoon and night it's crowdy, big difference between the rich an poor, it can be warm but also chilly, chaotic, especially by the matutu stands, and dirty, there's trash everywhere outside the Midlands. But it was great! i really enjoyd it! And i go back for sure to see my new mom, brothers, co workers and more buildings, places etc of the big city that really never sleeps.

So asante sana lucas for this great experience we go with the 6 or 4 of us ( my family Jaimie and Meriam) again on this great adventure!!

see you badea!

Sinterklaas at KFI

And here is another update. This time we update you about our last weekend.
Friday we went to go out for dinner in a place called Khan's. This place is a Pakistani BBQ restaurant in the middle of Arusha town.
The food was very nice. The three of us (Joosje Chantal and me) had the mixed grill and Colinda had some extra Naan bread. together with the meat, we could take as much salad as we liked. It was in order of not spicy to very spicy.
We had really a good time and the food was, like i sayed before, very good!

At saturday we had a total different party, Sinterklaas visit us at KFI!! During the day Joosje and me had to job of baking speculaas en kruitnoten, we called them peppernuts, at moivaro lodge. Unfortunatly the oven was broken so we couldend bake anymore. But the good news was also there. Kim the woman of Jobortunity, gave us permission to bake in her small oven. We made the 2 kinds of dough at our geusthouse and after that we went to Kim's place in Arusha town. We had a big challenge because te oven was really small!! And we had made a lot of dough. So at the and we just toke one third of the dough to make the kruitnoten and we diceded not to make speculaas.

Chantal and Colinda went that day to town to buy equipment for our Tanzania Sinterklaas. When the came back, Chantal decided to help dress the school and make the stage. She also dressed Sinterklaas. We had already decided to have dinner with al students and staff and after that everybody had to preforme for Sinterklaas.
So when te stage was build, Colinda's hair was painted in the saloon, Joosjes hair was cutted by Colinda, and when I finisheded making the sateh sause, we had dinner. We had half a chicken per person, vegtables, salads fruit en soda's. So you could imagine how nice this food was.

After dinner the preformeces started. We started first with our big act: Mambo nr 5. I did the playback and the girls did the dancing! It was realy cool haha. The students realy liked it i guess becaus the screamed an laught a lot! After that the students did there act's. They were also nice, intressting and funny. After the show we al started dancing of the music of DJ Abisae! Till 1 o'clok!

At sunday the girls went to go the family of Levina. But i think they can talk better about this trip because i wasn't there.

So this weekend was fun. We had a good laugh nice food and a great time. This week Joosje and Chantal have to finish there work because they're leaving to Zanzibar on Saturday. So tomorrow is there farewell party. I'm going tomorrow afternoon together with Lucas to Nairobi. So after the weekend you'll here from me agian

I have to go to eat lunch now so see you badae

Kwaheri Paco

Goat slaughter Marangu and Lingo

Hello everybody!!

Yes i know, were late again with writing a blog but okay i'm tell you our latest adventures even though there from 2 weeks ago...

It al started on friday the 20th of november. We had a small celebration for al students because they worked so hard on there different projects. Because of that, Sam decided that we had to slaughter a goat. So that's what they did. The Massaai guards together with some of the students were slaughtering the goat and separated the normal meat from the organs. The organs were boiled in some water with sold, and the meat was been cooked by mama Mery. The massaai also toke the goat blood cleaned it a bit, put some sold in it and saved it in a small bowl.

The soup they made from the organs was actually quit nice, Joosje and me were the only 2 of our group who tasted it. We discovered later that between the organs also small pieces of poo were floating and i'm afraid that i swallowed a piece...

after they made this soup with organs, the put some meat in the bowl and the blood. They cooked it for a while and after that they put in the soup. Agian joosje and i took a zip and tasted it. I took some more because i liked it.

During luch we had to eat cooked banana's with the goat meat in a souse. The girls didn't liked it, also the vegetarian option and I thought it was someting i could eat. It was not good but nice.

At the end of the afternoon we leaved school to go away for the weekend in Marangu. Marangu is a place in the neighborhood of Moshi. It is a very nice green place with a lot of water. On friday evening we arrived in our "small" guesthouse. We had a kitchen, 2 rooms for only stuff like plates, glasses etc, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a dinning room and a living room. It was a big nice place. The guides also had to sleep in our house but that was in this place not a big deal. The girls sleep with the three of them in one room, and i had the master bedroom with my private bathroom.

The weekend was super cool! We had some nice walks, we saw some waterfalls and learned a lot of the Chakka people who are living in this place. Unfortunately on saturday Colinda had to go home because she was getting sick. (during this writing she is feeling much better)

On saturday our second guide (Alfred who organized this trip) came to visit us. Paul had taken us on friday and stated also with us.

Our guesthouse was hired from an older woman called Mama Stella. She was such a great person. She helped, actually she toke our cooking part over. But the food, my god, the food was so good!! We really enjoyed it!

On sunday we had to leave but we had lunch, also very nice, by a hot spring somewhere in the dessert. We had a swim and a good laugh and after that we had to go home. But with the feeling that we just a good small well deserved vacation!

And on monday there was a new adventure who was waiting for us, called Lingo! 3 people, JP, Marie Claire and Tony, of IDtv came to KFI to make in 5 days a lingo pilot for the Tanzania tv market. They even toke Lucille Werner to KFI to make Lingo popular in Tanzania.

The students were placed in different groups and had to work in these small teams. We had to only supervise them and when things really went wrong we had to help them. They even learned how to operate the real lingo computer.

The students had the build a set, come up with al the 5 letter words, make a jury, learn how to operate the computer and take care of the sound and lighting.

At wednesday afternoon they had to shoot the first pilot option. This didn't go as we had planned and JP decided that thursday morning they had to shoot the pilot. He asked me to help Timothy by de technical part of this project. So we hang the lights connected the sound and they recorded the show only in 4 hours instate of the the 9 hours it took last time ( in march of this year)

Friday they had to show the episode of lingo to Lucille and a lot of partners of KFI, the neighbors of KFI, the students and some clients. They had to work a night long but they could only show the roughcut. Before JP showed the people the episode they watched our film about the importance of making documentary here in Tanzania called Each One Teach One.

After the viewing we had a party and all students, staff and guards get the new Lingo t-shirts.

It was nice but they have to do a lot of work these weeks. But we know that they will finish it.

In the weekend we chilled and had to go shopping ofcourse. On sunday we went to Moivaro lodge for a swim and relaxing at the swimming pool

So this was our story about the last 2 weeks. I might have forgotten something so when we'r back we can tell you a lot more.

So speak to you soon!

greeting from the staff students and the members of our Tanzania group

Paco

haha

I just now notice I forgot to write something. Also the guy holding the goat is not Gideon. Gideon is the one cutting the goat.
Anyway, we (Chantal, Joosje and me) visited Gideon in Masailand. It was a great experience, we danced with warriors, witnessed a goat slaugthering, milked a cow and the best part of all was getting to know Gideons family. They were so incredibly sweet and we enjoyed every minute over there. Also spending time with gideon again was something I'm ery thankfull for especially because we almost lost him a couple of weeks ago. His appendix burst open and he almost lost his life because of that. So all in all a fantastic experience..

love and peace to all

op bezoek bij onze lieve rafiki Gideon

From a distance

Hi everyone,

first I need to apologize for the fact that it has been ages since I wrote something on this blog. I'm sorry, I have been very busy.
The weather over here has gone mad I think. One day it is over thirty degrees celsius, the other day rain comes poring down and then it is really cold. The Africans like the rainy days, we Dutch love the sun.. haha big cultural difference.
Anyways we are having fun, although Paco has been sick for a couple of days now. Yesterday we went to see doctor Msawe. A big, huge African man, who can't stop showing all his knowledge to us. haha He thinks mzungo's ( europeans) don't trust African doctors and that's why he tells us all about the human body. But he gave Paco medicines and we now pray he will be better real soon.
Last week we went to the circus, which was amazing. 90% Tanzanian performers who can do freaky stuff with their bodies. We had a lot of fun especially the ladies (me included) we saw beautiful, muscled, black, flexible, handsome, talented men!!!! The other students ( the men who were with us) also had a lot of fun, hearing us screaming. See the pictures:)

So this is a short update. I will try to keep u posted of what's going on at this distance..

badea + busu

Enjoying our weekend

This weekend we had finally some time to relax and enjoying the weekend. Saturday we went to go out for dinner at our favorite pizza place in Arusha. We took three of our students, Levina, Ezra and Alex with us and also Msechu our creative director with us. We had a good and nice meal.

After dinner we went to the circus called Mama Africa! This was an African circus. We heard from people we spoke last week that this circus was very good. We wanted to know for our self and so we went to the circus. For Msechu and Levina this was the first time that they went to the Circus.

The show was great! Damn these people were flexible! There were snake people; a lot of good acrobats, dancers and music. The atmosphere was just so nice! We were so impressed by al the tricks. It was just great. We had a great time.

And because of that we decided after the circus to go out. We decided to go to a place called the Masaai camp. Also at that place we had a good time. We had some drinks, we laugh a lot and we were just having a good night.

Sunday the three of us ( Joosje Chantal and me) decided to relax at the swimming pool of Moivaro lodge. Because it was quit we could sit on different beds by the pool. So we choose a spot and jumped in the pool.

It was a good and relaxing day.

So now we are fully loaded for this week and today we can start fresh at our meeting with the people of SVVT.

Speak to you soon

Greetings Paco

Update!

Hello everybody

Our apologize for our far too late blog.The last two weeks we had a very busy schedule and also internet and the power supply didn't help us by falling down.

So that's why I give you an update from the last 2 weeks.

Last week Joosje and I went 2 days to Maasailand. We had to be there for a new project for KFI: the 24 hour Maasai Experience. This experience was founded by a Dutch woman called Ester. Joosje and I had to supervise Eldad, student of KFI, who had the job to film this experience. This 2 days were so nice! We had a good time with Ester, we slept in a Boma (the small houses of 1 Maasai man and all his wives) we eat a slaughtered goat and had a lot of fun with the crew. The next day we went on a hike to the top of a small mountain. The view was magnificent!! Really cool!!

In the same week Chantal (together with Msechu) had to go to Moshi every day, to supervise the project of Change Beats. One of our students, Goodluck, had to film this project. In this project Dutch youth went to go to Tanzania to make music with the local youth and musicians. It was a 2 hour bus ride from our house to Moshi and back. So you can tell she was totally broken but still laughing and enjoying here self.

Last friday our teacher Ben van Lieshout arrived at KIA. He stayed for 1 week here in Tanzania. He was here to check our project, give a lot of advise and he even gave a lesson!

In the weekend we chilled and went out for dinner. Sunday we toke Ben to NgoroNgoro NP.

This place was beautiful!! We saw a lot of animals, Maasai ect. We saw even 3 elephants before we entered the park. They were just crossing the road!! They stood very close by our jeep!! So cool!!

We had a great time!!

During this week Colinda, Joosje and me had to supervise different projects. We read the script of SVVT, help to find a better subject for Mambapoint and supervise the Thomsom Kilitrek and the Deloittetrek.

Today Ben left Arusha, he's going back to Holland and the students have to continue there assignments. We gonna take a look at the edits of the Maasai Experience and finally burn the Deloittetrek.

So this was the update, hope we informed you well

Greetings from the whole group

Paco

And Chanti is also working very hard!!!!!!!!! :D You go girl!

Safari to Moshi

Today Joshi (Joosje) and I went with some of our students to Moshi. We had to go there for the Mambapoint project about Albinos.

Because Moshi is not that close to KFI we had to go by bus. It was a 2 hour drive on a bumpy road in a bus which was almost falling apart.

Once we were there we had a nice lunch, pilau and rice with kuku. During lunch I was eating with my left hand. One of the students asked me, why I was eating with left instead of eating with right, what is a tradition here in Tanzania. I explained to her that I'm left handed and I'm not able to eat with my right hand ;-). But from now on I'll eat with my right hand.

After lunch we had a meeting with a Dutch man who had some relations with albino's. The students had a small interview with him and two albino's. The conversation was hard to understand for use because they had to speak Swahili and our Swahili is not perfect yet.

The students of KFI had a hard talk with the albino's because they want to get their benefit out of the report the students are making. So they tried to explain that there was no financial benefit possible, but more a social benefit. It wasn't as easy as we expected. We still have a long way to go. A lot of work has to be done to finish this project.

During our way back we had just a pleasant ride as we had in the morning. We can't feel our asses anymore, but we are still happy and smiling. Five minutes ago we had a great meal, chipsmayai! So now we are ready for a good night of sleep.

Usiku mwema!!!

Yoshh and Paco

NIMEFURAHI

Hi everyone,

a short update....

I'm happy:) I know I'm a cliche but again I fell in love with Tanzania and its people. As Paco said we had a warm welcome and it feels like we never left.
We started yesterday, we mostly supervise different groups. One group is going to make a documentary about albino's, another group is going to film in an orphanage and next to that we are preparing a cameraman who is going to climb the Kilimanjaro thursday..So lots to do but so much fun.
I'll stop writing for now and I will go back to the sun, showering with a view onto banana trees, hanging out with students, watching movies, eating avocado's and rice, playing cards, washing sand out of my hair, teasing Paco ( he is the only boy in our group) and well.... waking up in a beautiful country..

cu soon

x Colinda

And Were Back!!!!

MMMMMMAAAAAMMMMMMBBBBBBBOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Finally friday we arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport! After waiting for almost 1,5 hour to get our business visas, we were enthusiastically welcomed by the students, Joosje, Chantal, Sam en Meschu. After hugging screaming and laughing with each other we went to go to KFI. At KFI was the welcome also very enthusiastic. We had dinner and then we go to our guesthouse. WE chilled some time and then we went to go to bed.

In the weekend we've chilled played some cards and on saturday we did some grocery's in Arusha because in the weekends we cook for our selfs. We had pasta with hamburgers on sunday and on saturday we had bread with peanutbutter, some cucumber with tomato's and a bami soup.

Today it's monday and our first lessons are gonna start ( the first lessons of Colinda and me) We supervising some project like Mamba point and a documentary for the Dutch organization Vrienden van Tanzania (friends of Tanzania)

I'm also teach Sam, Meschu and Timothy how the new equipment works and make a list of the new equipment.

So thats it for now

speak to you soon.

Greeting

Paco

We're coming!!

Hi everyone,

Paco and me are going back to Tanzania. (Chantal and joosje are there already) We are leaving today and we will arrive in Arusha tomorrow evening. I just want to say that we will keep u posted of everything that is happening to us, the good, the bad and the ugly..We also hope to enlighten, shock and entertain u with the movies and photo's we create over there.
I hope u will feel free comment on the things we write.

talk to u soon
Love

kilimanjaro.hku.nl

Check the site..

Leaving tomorrow

Hello everyone!

We are almost leaving! It feels really weird to have to say goodbye tomorrow. We did some preparations for the goodbye party and of course today was the day everyone had to show their documentary. It was a real nice viewing and we have the feeling that the students learned a lot here. We of course also learned a lot from them in this project. It's so nice to see them being thankfull for everything. This blog feels really like a goodbye blog. Maybe for me (Alette) it is, so goodbey!

byebye!

Anne and Alette

Viewing

Hey,

Today all groups had to finish their projects. I tried to help all groups with sound and music, but I had not enough time to do everything they wanted. The presentation was planned at 14:30 but because of lack of time we re scheduled it one hour later. We watched 3 documentaries and it was very clear that the level of their work increased during the last 6 weeks! Great to see. All students used the theory about music and sound. After presentation all avm students and us sat together and discussed the results. Now the groups are discussing what can be better. Tonight they can re-edit their projects. We are off to town for our last dinner together! Tomorrow we are already on the way towards Kilimanjaro Airport...

Badae

Arie and Joseph

Almost finished......

Good evening,

Today it was the last day to edit the final movies which the students were making the last two weeks. At 15:00 hour the viewing began and we saw some really good and interesting thinks. I'm proud on them. They really did a good job! I also had the feeling that they really learned a lot these weeks that we were here.
Tonight we go eat a Pizza in Town to celebrate the time here and enjoy for the last time the people, smell, and sounds of Arusha City.
Tomorrow we will say goodbye to the students which will be quite painful. Last 3 weeks we really build up a relationship with these students and had a lot of fun!

See you in Holland!
By Sanne

Better...?

I'm back at KFI. Last night I had a good night of sleep. Now let's hope my healt will stay good until I arrive in Amsterdam.
Today I will assist the students in mixing the documentary's. So this is actually the last service I can give them!
Tonight more on this blog...

Badae

Joep

Camera assignment

...

was it a joke

There are people who, when they shower, like to catch water in their mouths. I'm one of those people. I don't know why I do it, it is just a habit.

At our place here we have this big water tank. When we want water we switch on this button and the tank will fill up. Now, the thing is that when we arrived here, the previous group warned us for the showers. They told us that there are little worms in the tank and that sometimes they fall down on you while you shower.

You see my problem. Everytime I showered in this place I feared the worms. I didn't open my mouth once and that was quite the effort because I really like to catch the water, but the thing is: IT NEVER HAPPENED!!

So either I was lucky or it was a really good joke!!

thx group one. See u soon:)

Hospital visit

This morning we had an excursion to the hospital. It was an impressive experience. I (Anne) expected a big building, but instead all departures were in different small buildings. The man guiding us around showed us every office. Sometimes the doctors were treating a patient while we came in. Privacy matters are not as strict as we are used to. The maternity ward was most touching. Comparing this with the health system we are used to, we should be very grateful. After this excursion the directors and editors went back to their edit. We teached the camera students that film is just a couple of frames or pictures after one another. To illustrate this we helped them to make a small book with still images. I can't really explain this so therefore I will post some pictures. Tomorrow in the afternoon we planned to have the viewing of the documentary's the students have been working on for two weeks now. A lot of work has to be done so this is going to be a long night for them.

See you in a few days!
Alette and Anne

Winter in Tanzania!

The temprature outside is 24c but for the Tanzanians it's so cold. Did you know that the students covering their head and feets and wearing trauses and pents? Even in school they dress like this!

Joseph kept me awake this night because he had to volmit every hour.. Pole sana Joseph (i'm sorry for you). Besides his illness he is really sad because of the unfinished work he could deliver to the students. Hopefully he will be able to work tommorow..

Everybody is busy with the editing process, because tommorow we'll have the viewing if everybody finished their projects. The day after tommorow we have to leave allready....... With pain in our harts we'll leave this beatifull place.

Tonight I made a photo documentary of the shops near Moivaro road, have a look inside:


Regards,
Ari

Maasai Ari & Joseph the composer

Njadje?!

Safi sana! Accept the power went on and off, we had a productive day.
Joseph composed some music for students projects and I was writing reports and had some meetings.
Abisae, the director of some documentaries had many questions to Joseph. At the end of the day Abisae came out the musicians room very happy because he had composed some music with Joseph. He even bluetoothed the music to his mobile phone and let it hear to everyone!
I want to add a funny picture which is made yesterday evening. As you might know, I am a great fan of the Maasai occupation here in Africa. I bought some Maasai sheets and I was dressed by the Maasai students and guards of KFI. This is the result:


Poa kachizi caman Maasai! (cool like a Maasai!)

Joseph & Arie

Got a little lost

Hi!

Today we expected to go to hospital for an excursion, but it turned out that today is a special holiday, only one day. So we wanted to teach the lesson we prepared for tomorrow, but evveryone was busy editing their project. Anne was ill this weekend, so we decided to go to Arusha to do some shopping. It was a real adventure. We got lost one time and we had a hard time buying things cheap. After all we bought some really funny and colourful stuff like dresses, candles and teacups. But the real adventure started on our way home. We found out that we totally forgot the time and we were almost an hour late for lunch, so we took a Dalla Dalla in a real rush, of course the wrong one. It took a long time before we were back where we started, Arusha town. The second Dalla Dalla we took was also a wrong one. Finally we met Sam and he put us on the right Dalla Dalla. Now we are really hungry, so we are going to eat now!

Alette and Anne

photo's

It is almost time to leave :(( Yesterday we had to say goodbye to Edward (the one giving me a kiss) He is a Masai, so we had him dress up in his Masaiclothes and made pictures of him. He has become a very dear friend of mine and I cried my eyes out.

As You can see we also had a shooting yesterday. I went really well and now it is time for them to edit. We have 3 and a half hours of material so they have their work cut out for them. Especially now the director has become sick, he's now going to hospital because he may have malaria. Which is very common around here, so it is nothing to worry about really.

I hope u will enjoy the pictures. I know have to prepare an edit lesson. So Cu soon

dancing in Massai Clothes!

Hello Everybody,

Today I gave a lesson in creative thinking for all the cameramen. They really enjoyed it very mutch! they had to make 10 shots about a subject but they we not allowed to show the subject itself. So the groups had to guess what the subject was..
The students though of it like a competition, which made them really motivated!

Just yet Arie had put some Massai clothes on...and all the other massai student became happy and also put the massai clothes on. After that they came back to school and they al went jumping and making noises. It was really cool to see. Suddenly you realize that they are living really close to nature!

Tonight we have a sleeping party by the lady's. So we will sleep all together in one room. We are looking forward to it!
By Sanne en Colinda

Funeral

Arie and me went to the funeral of the grandmother of Msechu. She past away last night. We went together with Sam and a couple of the students.  We took the daladala to usa-river and then we had to walk for an hour. It was a very nice walk to the house of Msechu’s grandmother.  There were a lot of rice plantations in that area and in contradiction to KFI area it was all very flat. The funeral was impressive. It was a Muslim funeral, there was a lot of singing while the men where digging the grave. All the women weren’t allowed to be at the grave locations. Very strange in our culture, but at that location it didn’t bothered us much. Here this is normal. After the funeral we went to the former house of the grandmother. Al people got some Pilau (rice dish) and a cup of (very sweet) black tea. Enough in our stomach  for the walk back!

It was an impressive day!

Badae

Arie and Joseph

 

Weekend

Mambo!

It's been a busy weekend. Most of us went to town to buy souvenirs or to go to church. I (Anne) was not so fortunate and I had to stay in bed most of the time. I felt very ill but. My plan was to go to the house for abandonned children in Arusha with Eldad and meet his family afterwards, but I was not able to. Today I am back again. Alette and I prepared our last lessons, sitting in the sun. For some groups this was their last shooting day. Others are busy in the edit room. For the remaining students Sanne had a little assignment. Four nights left. This night the HKU girls are going to sleep at the KFI. We are going to enjoy our last days to the max.

Greetings Alette and Anne

dreamhouse

One of the reasons I like filmmaking so much is the fact that You visit so many different places. I went to, Sibusiso, a center which helpes disabled people. It was very impressive, they do so much for those people. In Tanzania disabled people are often discriminated and the mother of the child is also stigmatized. In this center they help the child aswell as the mother. They both gain confidence and will be able to contribute to society. We went there because my group mant to make a documentary about disabled people to give them a voice and let everyone know that with some help they could be very happy. I'm very rpoud of my students and hope it will be a great documentary that will stir things up around here.

The manager of the center is a very passionate Dutch lady and she showed us her house. This is it and it is my dreamhouse!!

more news tomorrow

Only one week to go!

Hello there!

Yesterday night we went out for the first time in Arusha. We went to the Via Via, a club, real populair by white people. We danced all night and had a lot of fun.
This morning I (Alette) unfortunately found out that the director of the group I am supervising with making a documentary about food, has Malaria, so this project is getting harder and harder. It's a challenge for me to finish this...But I still like it here and we are getting closer everyday with the students. We feel like we still can teach them a lot. Only one week to go, time goes fast!


Anne and Alette

Lord of the Rings

Shikamoo!

Today Joseph gave lesson to the editors about music instruments, ensembles, music locations and music characters. After Theory he played Lord of the Rings, for me and the students it was the first time to see such a fantasy movie. We realy enjoyed watching the movie. Its nice to see the faces of the students in some parts of the movie.
The rest of the students went out because of shooting their documentaries. So it was another easy and quit day at Kilimanjaro Film Institute.

Marahaba.
Joseph & Ari

Research and hamburgers!

Hello Everybody!
Today we started with a discussion about reasons why students don't go to school in Tanzania. After that we had an excursion to a special school organized by volunteers which was really cool! I took a moment to meet the students there and everybody was smiling and laughing about everything I sad. They asked me if I could teach them some English sentences......so that's what i did.
After the excursion the groups went on research for tomorrow. (they are going to shoot) After my group came back I talked with my group about the synopsis of the film project and we made a checklist for tomorrow so everything is clear.

I'm really curious for what they will film tomorrow and how the film will be!

Now we will go to Arusha City and eat some hamburgers (hopefully) and after that we will discover the nightlife of Arusha...
So i'm very exited!
Usiku Mwema Sanne

Research

Hello everyone! Tomorrow is the first shooting day and therefore today it was all about researching. We wrote a nice synopsis and I think it will be a very nice documentary. Unfortunately the budget doesn't allow me to join my crew when they are shooting. Below this you will find a picture of my group during the brainstorm session. Greetings Anne

Thursday at KFI

Mambo,

Today was a day at the office. We both worked on different things, especially work concerning Internet! Arie answered a lot of email. Joseph prepared his class for tomorrow. Also he edited his recorded samples. From the beginning of our journey he carried a SD recorder everywhere. 

Every recording will be in the sound design library I gave and made for KFI. So now they have some local sounds!! Tonight we will have dinner at “viavia” in Arusha. Really nice place to have dinner and a drink…… and dance!

Badae

Arie and Joseph 

Here's a documantary directed by Abisae.. enjoy :)

Online again!

Mambo!

Today we are connected to the wordwideweb again. That's good, because the students just started the researchphase of their documentary project. The subjects of their documentary are things like food, poverty, disabled people etc.. This project should be done at the end of next week, so that there's enough time to really make something of it. We are really curious what comes out!

Today I taught the students about how to write a synopsis. It's real fun when the students get the hang of something. I am also very surprised about the questions being asked by the students sometimes. I learn a lot from them!
We get closer to the people here everyday and we don't wanna go home jet! Only nine nights to go....

Ciaoie!
Alette

Traveling/Disappointments/Internet

Mambo!

We're back again.. We haven't had internet for two days. KFI had to pay first before we had internet running again. The prices for internet are much much higher in Africa, comparing to the Netherlands. To have internet for a month costs usd 200,-!!
When I get into the airplane again next Friday (!!!) I'll take a LAN cable with me so I can plug it in Holland..

So this week.. Sunday we went to Moshi to scout locations of shooting the day after. My job was to supervise the production of this project. A project where we had to film Cyprian, a famous musician in Tanzania. Everything went well. I good conversations with the director about the aspect of time and creativity of shots. At the end of the day we had a beautiful sight on the biggest mountain of Africa!
I'm really in love with all kinds of transportation in this beautiful country. On our way towards Moshi we hopped into a "Coaster", a big dalladalla bus. On our way back to KFI we catched a big Dar-express bus. Busses with big subwoofers, images of everything on the windows and always music.. See pic.

Finally we had the day of shooting on monday. At 06.00 am we stood on the side of the way to start our journey towards Moshi (takes about 1.5 hours). On the set everything went well untill I received a phone call of Sam. We didn't have permission to film Cyprian! I was totaly suprised, confused, sad and realy frustrated! We planned everything so well, but there was a big miss communication in the organisation where we planned to film.. We all went back to KFI. I was broken and tired of this day.

On tuesday we met the new person for KFI communications, Patricia. We (Sam/Ari/Joseph) had a good conversation and told all the good things about KFI and the students. At the end of this meeting we showed some work of the students and we had the idea Patricia was really impressed!

Now we keep on the good work. This week more research and then new documentaries about interessting subjects! Follow our progress on the blog!!

Kwaheri,
Ari & Joseph

Selecting music for movies

Hello everybody!

Today I started with a class about how to select music for film. I gave the students a couple of "rules" which they can use when they select music for a fiction or documentary. For instance: Do not use very melodic music while there is dialogue. After my presentation, with demonstrations of all the rules, I gave the students an assignment. They had to select music for fragments of 4 different movies. Unfortunately Final Cut Pro (the video program) wasn't very cooperative today so the assignment had a little delay. Tomorrow I'll repeat my class for the group. During my stay I realized that it is very good to repeat your lesson at least once!
After the class I'll present the students assignment from today....


Bye,

Joep

Hi everyone!

I think the pictures speak for itself, but I want to add that this was an amazing experience! Today we are going to Moshi to meet Cyprian (the rapper) and prepare the shooting day tomorrow. So longer blogs will follow...

Ciao!
Alette

T.I.A.

This is Africa! Pics made on safari at the Ngorongoro crater..

Ngoro Ngoro

Today we went to Ngoro Ngoro crater. It was beautiful!! But now we are all so tired, we left this morning at six o'clock and came back at KFI around eight.  It was a three hour drive to and from the parc, but boy was it worth it!!  I will show u guys the pictures tomorrow because now I'm even to tired to stand on my own two feet.

I just wanted u to know that we had a great, no let me rephrase that, fantastic day and now we are all going to bed.

Cu tomorrow

x

Today was a very special day for me. One of the students invited me to come with him to his house and celebrate the birth of the baby of his sister. It was one of the most impressive things I ever encountered. Mainly because the family were very honoured to have a Msungoo (white person) visit them. They were so lovely and I was one of the stars of the celebration. I even had to join the ceremony and give a speech ( something I find very difficult, but now I really enjoyed saying thanks. )

You are seeing a picture of me with one of the traditional masai guests.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Ngoro Ngoro National parc. Something I really look forward to. Eventhough we have to be ready at six O'clock in the morning :(

Sunday I'll write more about the lesseons we are giving and what I think about being a teacher. For now I only want to say:

My experience at KFI TANZANIA is turning out to be one of the best things ever happening to me.

Final assignment group 1 (part 2)

And the other 2 movies!

Badae

Joseph Arie Joep and Arjan

Final assignment group 1

Hello,

Here are 2 final assignments from group 1. Two more will follow.


Bye,

Arie and Joseph

Slumps excursion today

Mambo jambo?

Today we had a very smelly day, we visited the slumps of Arusha. We saw, as you can see at the picture, woman washing their clothes in dirty water. It was an impressive excursion after an interesting discussion. We noticed that the students are really passionated about politics and they had a very strong opinion about the president sleeping on the road(?).

The last time we visited Arusha it was quiet, because it was sunday. But today it was really crowded and busy, so that was a nice surprise. There was a huge market with second hand clothes and a LOT of shoes. It's weird to think that some of these clothes are coming from our country.

After lunch the groups edited the material that we have shot yesterday. We saw really great things and are curious about the final results.

It's finally time to relax now,

lala salama!

Alettie and Sanne

Trip to A-town and prepare for next project

Mambo vipi!

Joseph and I decided to skip todays excursion. Because of the fact we already visited the slumps of Arusha and we have to prepare for our safari to Ngorongoro this saturday, we went to change cash! First we took the dalladalla to the city centre and after that we walked our way to the shopright (to buy some western chips) and to the bank.

When we came back we prepared some things for the next documentary on monday. This will be a documentary about the live of the Tanzanian musician Cyprian. It will be a tuff day were we have to film at seven different locations (!!) But we'll manage. Tommorow we will discuss with the crew and on sunday we have to scout the shooting locations... Joseph edited some audiofiles which he had recorded last weeks.

Another more sad story of today was that the new football (Joseph and I, with help of group1, bought this morning)had a leak after landing in the bushes at KFI... Hopefully we can get another one..

Badae! Joseph & Ari

Foutje bedankt

each 1 teach 1

Hello everyone :)

Today we discussed four different modes of documentary's. During this lesson we learned a lot about the differences between our cultures. For example we watched a movie about a farmer and the KFI students thought it was about the cows. In this film there's snow and the students thought the cows would freeze to death. We watched the movie Machine of the Night too, a movie about the nightlife of Amsterdam. The student saw bandits and people trying to steal because they are very poor. Everyone who has seen this film will probably be very surprised. 

I will add a picture to this blog. As you can see this is me and my group of students during a brainstorm session.

Xx Annie

First day teaching!

Hi Everyone!

This is the first time I write something on this blog. It was also the first time for me to teach the KFI students. Fortunately it went very well. The students are really motivated. Anne and I taught them about different kinds of documentary modes. I thought it was really exciting, because it was the first time and you never know how the students pick it up, but it went very good.

In the afternoon we gave the assignment to make a short documentary item of a special mode, for example the participatory mode. I went with some students to some little shops, like a small butcher. The subject had to be money, the students that I went with, had to make something in the educational mode. Money is ofcourse a sensitive subject for a lot of people here, so it took a long time before my students could film somewhere.

I am really glad the sun is shining all day and I am really looking forward on teaching tomorrow again!

Ciao!
Alette

end

After a week of beautifull story's and a lot of films I will go to zambia to meet the Kambisa group. It was a big learning experience for us all and I want to thank all KFI & HKU students and Sam and Mesechu! And I will keep reading the blog to follow you all.
Asante.

iris

Movie

Hey,

Here's the movie of my class from yesterday! 6 hours compressed to 2,5 minutes!

enjoy

Joep

Video

Hey!

Today was Filmmusic Day! The class was all mine. Iris and Arie made a lot of footage which I'm editing right now. Tomorrow I'll place this movie on the blog. I hope you can get a good feeling what it is like here in the KFI and what it is I'm teaching. So see you all tomorrow!

Bye

Grtz Joseph

usiku mwema!

today....

what did we do actually? we had an excursion and laughed, discussed, drinked, singed, enjoyed the weather, falled almost in the water, became vegetarian (as long as we are here......), watched movies.....people, animals, nature.

we lived an Afrikan life!
in josphs lesson we singed which was so mutch fun. de class was split in 4 groups and every group had an different part to sing. and after learning each part we singed all together.
over an hour we will see the film: king kong......I'm looking forward to see the faces of the afrikan students....their reaction to movies is so beautiful. totally in another world.

saterday we will visite the ngorogoro nationale park. people say it's the most beautiful park in tanzania.

looking forward too the next day!
Sleep well!
Sanne

Discussion, excursion and JAWS!

Mambo vipi!

We had a nice visit at Kephas house again today. The new group could see how the farmer life is like.. First we had discussions about the lack of machines in the agricultural culture of Tanzania. Weird if you compare all our cows, chickens, porks etc in big "accomodations" to that few cows Kephas and a lot of other families have in this country.

After our excursion it was time for Joseph to teach about film music. Really interesting class for all of us! After some introductions we had to see Jaws, the students really enjoyed watching. Now we have to sing!!!

Later more..

Ari

Hard to say goodbye..

After a nice day we had to different kinds of emotions to deal with. First we were happy that the new group introduced themselves! After that we had the viewing of the last assignment group 1 gave to the students of KFI. We have seen four different documentaries about poverty. It was nice that the first group had the opportunity to see their afforts back in these documentaries. The KFI students did it really well!

After this viewing it was time to say goodbye.. The HKU students where really emotional after getting some thankfull words and nice presents. See the pictures below! BAADAE, Ari