sorting

i have divided and subdivided every moment of footage i took on the trip. i divided everything based on where it was. then into whether it was for B roll, interviews, who the interview was with, kids singing, kids laughing, shots of the homes, on the road footage, and basically any other category.

the way im going to go about this first rough draft is to first start cutting down interview footage. and once the interviews form the backbone of the doc answering questions and giving info, ill then add the extra fun stuff.

but going through the interviews is going to be quite time consuming, each professional interview lasted about 30 minutes each. so im going to have to pick the parts i think are crucial and who is most qualified to give certain pieces of information.

so, that work will start tomorrow!
i just got back from coaching my last lax tournament so now one job is done i can begin fresh tomorrow; but first i think ill hit up a neighborhood yard sale for house stuff for the school year! i love my housemates :D

done with shooting!

7/8 So I went to film and interview Dr. Jane Stephens today. It went really well. I filmed at the Amani offices and got great B footage of necklaces and bags and scarves. I asked her how Amani got started, how New Life Homes and Amani are connected, how someone can get involved with Amani/NLH, and to explain how the shop and bead shows play a roll in all of this.

I then got lunch with Paige!!! She took me to a wonderful gluten free pizza restaurant http://sticksandstonesclayoven.com/home.htm which was very yummy.



I think im about done with footage!


7/9
We had our first bead show! At the Imperial Embasy hotel in Durham, there was a huge Nigerian Health conference, and we got to set up a table. We laid out tons of scarves and necklaces, I even brought a few pictures of the kids to display as well. We sold a few things. Paige and I managed the booth. I got an interview of her describing how bead shows are a nice way to raise support for NLHs and to get the word out.

I gotta start throwing this footage together soon!

^ Kazuri

this is mataha. its mashed potatos and corn pured with spinach... another tastey and glutten free kenyan dish.

food

this is ugali, its made from corn, and kinda tastes like grits. but what you do is you pick it up with your fingers and mash it down and then use it to grab the stew... its yummy and gluten-free!

 

 

 

 

 

above are some of the gifts, i wont say who they're for, but it shows the amazing work the women at Amani Ya Juu do.

 

I got my mom a table runner, which actually matched just perfectly with seat covers and the green walls :)gifts are the best

home!

I'm home!
Mama made a gluten-free pizza with pesto, cheese, and spinach (my favorite) for a wonderful welcome home dinner. I heard all about her and Paulina's trip to Puerto Rico and Paulina's week as a work crew volunteer for the Great Escape (a church middle school retreat).

Its so nice to be home, though it took a bit to realize I could have ice, drink the tap water, eat raw veggies, could wear shorts, and that it's 95 degrees as opposed to 70.

Our last day in Nairobi was great! Paige, Ashley, Hannah, Kaitlyn, and I hit up 2 Amani stores. One called Amani Ya Juu and the other Kazuri. Amani Ya Juu: "This product has been sewn by African women in need. These women have learned to work together because of their faith in God who provides a higher peace" http://www.amaniafrica.org/ so I went crazy at this store because the cause is wonderful, everything is handmade by women in need, and their stuff is great! So many gifts for so many people!

This is actually our second time at Kazuri. This is where the beads, pottery, and jewelry are made by Kenyan women in need. This is where we get 2nds, or the beads that have chips or scratches, for free. Using the 2nds, Amani makes jewelry and sells it. Proceeds then go back to supporting New Life. Here I got some nice painted mugs for friends.

Traveling was pretty easy. Nairobi airport was crazy! But after that all was pretty smooth. We even paid tribute to our safari by going to a restaurant called Giraffe in the London airport. (we even got cute Giraffe drink stirrers). I'm pretty on schedule with the time of day, the red eye flight helped.

Today I'm still doing Amani work. I uploaded a ton of pictures to children's files and uploaded videos. I have a interview with Jane (head of Amani) and will film on Thursday at the Amani store:

Amani Market-Open Tues-Sat!! 
Where to buy Amani jewelry? The Amani Market at 3288 Robinhood Rd, Winston-Salem, NC.
We have brilliant Amani totes, Kenyan scarves and accent items from the open-air Nairobi market. 
Open 12-6 Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri and 12-2 on Sat. with new items everyday. So much to chose from to give, to wear, and to delight in. And it all goes to the babies in Kenya!

In Indianapolis, visit IndyAmani, open Thursdays 10-2 at Plaza de Timbres, 9135 N. Meridian, Suite B.

In Harrisburg, contact:harrisburgbeaders@amanichildren.org
In Cleveland, contact: Cleveland@amanichildren.org
In Asheville, visit Old North State Clothing

Pasted from

This will certainly be a lot of footage to go through… but I'm so pumped to go relive everything!

Nyeri for 2 days, now in Nairobi again

So Nyeri was incredible!!! Beautiful mountains and beautiful N.L. Home with so many shining faces. We played with the kids all day Thursday, plus a birthday! I got great pics of the kids! I think the birthday boy will be excited later in life to see 'snaps' from his 2nd b-day. The kids were all pumped to get cake and sing. We went out to a fantastic lunch place with great traditional food. Ugali is this grit-like blob that you grab with your fingers and use to grab other stew-like food with. It's pretty flavorless, but super Kenyan. I really like Mahata, which is this green blob of mash potatoes, corn, and puréed with spinach. Excellent with Nile Perch fish fillet. All the food is so cheap! Then we usually finish it off with Masala tea, which kinda tastes like Chiai tea but its brewed in milk with added spices. So basically Kenyan food rocks.




Today we went to check out Mount Kenya. It was so beautiful. The day began cloudy but as we rose higher into the Adirondacks the clouds began to burn away into a perfect day. We drove out into this prairie and got to see tons of Rhions, Zebras, Warthogs, Giraffs, and Baboons. It was only $12 to get into the park so it was super worth the great views of the mountain and so sweet to see more animals. I've gotten so spoiled basically living in National Geographic!

After a long drive home, Ashley, Paige, Hannah, and Kaitlyn went out to eat and watched the Ghana game at our favorite hang out spot. So neat to hang with other Kenyas rooting for Africa!

Pictures to come! I havn't uploaded any from yesterday...

I interviewed Morgan, the ground leader of the Amani Internship, and she was perfect. She has explained Amani and our connection with beads and new life so much that her speech was flawless and will go great in the informational video.

So tired, long day tomorrow. We're traveling tomorrow! Ahhhh home is so soon!

Masi Mara, Kisumu, Nakuru

So, our internet over the past few days has been very limited to non-existent. But they have been an incredible past few days.

The safari was beyond amazing, to be up close and personal with lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, antelopes, and cheetahs. There was one point where we were parked next to a lion and his lioness no more than 10 feet away. Then, another male lion came on the other side of our van and started roaring at the other lion. So we were waiting for a lion brawl when the lion with his GF started walking towards our jeep because he saw Ashley’s red flannel, which is similar to the Masi colors (and they kill lions sometimes so the lion was pissed). It was beyond epic and of course billion times cooler than Nat Geo.

We agreed we came away different, which you don’t really expect from a sweet safari. But I appreciate wildlife and its habitat so much more now. Of course I’ve always been an animal and nature lover, so it was pretty amazing to be in this giant park, virtually untouched by man where the wild creatures still roam. We were torn at the beginning as to how we felt about riding around in a jeep to awe at the animals and whip out our cameras every time we saw something move. But having experienced it and observing other tourists flock around the lion pair was kind of an honor. I felt blessed to be sharing such rare moments that usually can only be seen on TV, and that I could try and capture each animal’s beauty to share with others. I also got some really fun footage of the Mara (the huge park we safaried in) and the animals we saw, including the Great Wildebeest migration (which is supposedly one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World) there were Wildebeest for MILES and they all walk in one line and jump across rivers to get to Mara fields full of grass. So we sat and ate lunch and watched them run.

After safari we headed to the Kisumu home. It’s a huge home and include a special needs unit, unique from all the other homes. We played with the kids all day and started our Personality Reports on the kids. Paige and I were charged to take pictures the whole time, which we gladly did. There are 4 people staying in Kisumu for the next 2 weeks each attempting to write 3 reports for every 2 days, and scanning archives and files. I got some great footage of the kids and the home. They LOVE it when I turn around the camera screen and let them see themselves on film.

After 2 days, Paige, Hannah, Ashley, Kaitlyn, and I ventured to the Nakuru home. This is a beautiful home with so much space for the kids to run since they’re older. We hung out with them at school, which is on the same property, and played with them outside. I got some fantastic footage of the kids playing and singing! They love singing. 4 little boys were on a swing singing their little hearts out, everything from “I’m in the Lords army, yes Sir!” to “mary had a little lamb”. They were precious! One boy particularly loved the camera and gave a beautiful singing performance of “Jesus loves the little children”. This is absolutely going in the video.

The video. So I have soo much footage and it will be interesting to see how it all comes together. My hope is that the information and facts will be clear; such as how Amani and New Life are connected, the goals of each, interviews with the founders, and intern’s experiences. So I’ll certainly have my work cut out for me when I come home!

I can’t upload pictures at the moment because my computer died, so I’m on Ashley’s but hopefully by Friday.

It’s been an amazing past few days and I can’t believe its almost over.

I can’t wait to come home too ☺

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in Nairobi_ day 7

Off to New Life Home again! We continued with our psyco-social observations and reports. We have almost finished all the crawlers! So far we about 20 uploaded into our online archives. These case summaries, psyco-social reports, and pictures will be sent to international and local families looking to adopt and they will go towards arguing before the Kenyan Adoption Board who determines whether the baby is free to go with the families.

In the morning, I met with Rhoda and interviewed her in her office. I asked questions like "what is your role here at new life," "what are the biggest challenges you face as a social worker," "briefly explain the adoption process from new life's point of view," "how is new life different from other orphanages in kenya," "what do you hope to gain from us 11 interns working here and at various other homes"
She was very informative and answered the questions really well! The interview will be very helpful when putting together the doc.


I also was recruited to help write case study summaries but I had to decline because we had to hand write them, and my handwriting = chicken scratch and very illegible. But what the others who had pretty had writing did was take a baby's folder full of stuff (police reports, baby foot prints, birthday cards, legal papers, court committals, good Samaritans letters, and anything relevant to the child) and they summarized everything into case summaries… all on notebook paper. So that's partly why we're here. Because we are putting everything into accessible and electronic files. This way upon request, parents can view appropriate files (copy and paste are wonderful) and they can be easily printed out for case/adoption files.

In the afternoon we headed over to Little Angles with Rhoda. This is the adoption agency that is partnered with New Life Homes. They are the ones who receive adoption requests and applications and deal with the legal processes. They screen and interview parents and do the home visits to check up on the kids during the 3 month foster period once the babies are cleared for adoption. I also filmed this, and it was super duper cool to hear the process first hand from the baby lawyers and other social workers.

After walking home, we stopped by Yaya (our grocery store) to pick up last minute groceries before we start traveling on Sunday… because tomorrow we will be going on a Safari!!!!! Hooray!!! We leave tomorrow and come back Saturday night so I won't post again till then. I'm so pumped to see National Geographic and Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in real life! We get to hang out with the Maasai people (google them, their sweet!) and see all the typical animals. More details when I return :)

It's been incredible to get to know the adoption process.. . New Life averages about 1 kid per week being 'identified' which means a family has expressed interest which is sweet. But what will be sweeter is that with our work parents will be able to get their babies sooner.

Before we came here, at orientation , we watched this documentary following several adults trying to find out birth records and any family history they have. It really put into perspective that without these files in order, the New Life babies and babies in homes all over the world don't have a connection to their roots, history, or a feeling of completion with their story. These babies have rights, a right to know their family medical history, where they were born, their original/given name, parents info, a birth certificate, and why they ended up where they did. Every time work gets a little slow or monotonous, its encouraging to know that I'm fighting for someone who can't but who will later find these files priceless.

Well, its off to bed for me! I gotta back up and upload photos and videos. I'm all packed for the safari and camping. I'm going to the Lenovo store tomorrow with another intern who's school computer is broken. Since this is kind of a heavy on the technology job, computers are crucial. --> what was the one thing I forgot on this trip… my computer charger. But thank goodness several other people on the trip have school computers!!!!


Ok so also, all 11 of us were in one apartment living room watching the world cup and went absolutely nutz when USA scored. If the rest of the Kenyan complex was wondering if we were american, they know now!

I have so much great footage, I can't wait to start going through it. I filmed some more babies at New Life today, and interviewed some of the other interns. I love film!!!!! Here are some pictures too :)

In Nairobi day 6

Today was a long day full work and reward. We woke up early and headed down to New Life armed with a pen, notebook, and camera. We first reviewed Drew's psycho-social report according to age. So I went over the various check lists for 2 year olds for movement skills, language and cognitive skills, and social and emotional skills. The boy I chose is a spunky 1 and a half year old who's crazy independent and energetic- so we get along well. He's super ADD and he bounces from one activity to another really quickly. We have fun together :)

Rhoda (the Nairobi New Life Social Worker) and I rescheduled our interview for tomorrow at 10 am and in the mean time I wrote a bunch of questions for her to answer. Morgan and Kaitlyn went out to get a few scanners for the various homes ad we began scanning in previous medical and legal documents for the kids.

There's so much work to be done here and all the other homes!

I got to talk to a lot of workers today and tell them about why we're here at what our goals are. They are always very grateful at the end of the day, but after realizing we're here not just to play, the caretakers were willing to help in every way. I talked to them to find out back story and the personality of Ricky.
I basically feel like a mix between a private investigator (going through old medical and legal hard copies and files) and an advertiser and personal advocator because ultimately our goal is to get these kids adopted!

Everyday its amazing to wake up and know that the work that we are doing is really going to change the lives of these kids by getting them adopted quicker.

I have also looooved getting to know the New Life Staff and volunteers. It's so sweet to hear everyone's stories, where they've volunteered and visited, and what their views are on certain issues. Today I talked with a student from Uganda named Leah. She's also 20 so we got talking about everything from Facebook to International Business to Mother Tongue and Tribal languages. Everyone is very interested (including myself) to see how this documentary/info vid is going to turn out. I've gotten really fun footage of the kids at New Life School and the Ark, both older groups of kids. The screen is full of faces. So it will be a different feel when I film calm(ish) babies and toddlers.

I'm feeling random:

I love my guitar!! Such a great buy :)

The biggest challenge yet, not swallowing water when I'm in the shower!

I found gluten-free frosted flakes… yum…
Still lots of rice and beans and veggies for me :)

I can't wait for life story time- this is where a few of us will sit around and tell the entire stories of our lives… starting from when/where you were born and everything leading up to today. It's amazing to see where people have come from and what shapes and connects us.

PS I can't wait for our safari on Thursday!!!!

PSS I would love to stay for a few more weeks!