Westpoint

Day 5 It's 2013. This year has been intense. Today I finally got to experience Ethiopian food. We took a walk to Ken's favorite place and sat on the porch. He pretty much ordered for us since we had no idea what to get. We got some meat dish and a vegetable dish along with some ethiopian coffee. The coffee was different from the lebanese. Still good, but I think I loved the lebanese coffee the most.

Please enjoy this demonstration of how to eat Ethiopian food by Ken Harper:

It comes out on one plate and there are no utensils. You use Injera, a sponge like bread to grasp the different parts of the dish. We learned there's actually a lot of protein in Injera?

Step 1: Tear off a piece of the Injera

Step 2: Grasp the food. (Can't go wrong, it all tasted good)

Step 3: Make a small pouch of said food that is able to be eaten in a bite or two.

Step 4: Make this face as you enjoy the deliciousness. Welcome to Liberia's Ethiopian food.

It's distinct flavors and textures and overall it was an enjoyable experience.

After lunch, Jess, Jim, and I called David and asked him to take us to various points around the city to scope things out and to start gathering some b-roll. David picked us up and took us to the first place.

It was a little hike down a rocky passage and it looked right out onto the cliff. We enjoyed the view and actually started taking some photos of some people that lived there. We met a woman and her two children  and we were able to photograph them. It was really incredible. I feel like all we have to do is just treat these people like they are humans. Living, breathing, real people. That's all they are. Just like myself. Just like your enemy, your president, your dentist. We feel the same things and we love the same way. So I don't understand how people can't see that. I also realized that I adore kids. I mean, look at his little face.

So we piled into the car and drove to David's second place: Westpoint. Westpoint is the poorest place in Monrovia. People live on top of each other all jammed into a section that borders the Mesurado River. There is only one road to get through and there are only a few strategic places a car can turn around. His little franken-car did incredible well driving over rocks and ruts.

David took us through the road and we were stared at mostly. The three of us are amazing at keeping our smiles up, encouraging people to remember that we are people too. Mostly we can get the kids to smile. They are excited to see us. We got out of the cab then and walked through some narrow allies where people were making bread, hanging clothes, washing babies and playing soccer. It's an area filled with the energy of kids and resilient faces on the adults. We walked to the edge of the river and the kids looked on curiously at us, not sure what to think. David climbed onto the colorful canoe that was tied up, floating in the river. Jim and Jess were a little more hesitant to step up there, so I of course climb up and start walking down it carefully balancing so my photo equipment didn't fall into the water and sink to the depths. The other two followed suit. I'm not sure if Jim let go of the mast the whole time we were on the boat, but I think we all enjoyed it because it was the first time Liberians wanted their photo taken. Two bold boys, maybe seven or eight years old, swam in the river and called out "FLASH ME."

We photographed them and they climbed into the canoe and started doing tricks and jumping off. I looked down into the water and drifting beneath us was garbage floating in the river; old tires, plastic bags, containers, just drifting silently under us only to be disrupted by the kids jumping and splashing into the river.

We shook hands with older guys and chatted with them. I laughed at the kids jumping in and was open with the people we met. As we walked off the canoe the kids on the land had warmed up and they wanted to be photographed too. So we all took turns shooting with our different lenses the different people. It was a crazy place and the kids were essentially playing in garbage, with garbage. They didn't care though. Boys swam naked still at an age where they are unapologetic to who they are. They gathered around for group photos and then raced  to us to look at them.

We spent some time with young fishermen, one of which tried introducing me to his mother. She ran away when she saw my camera. they were goofy and posed on each other and with us. Everyone we met there made us smile.

I hope my pictures can give you some idea as to what it was like. But like I have mentioned before, there's nothing like the real experience. It's an assault on the senses, I couldn't open my eyes wide enough and take everything in.

Finally David took us to the beach. We wanted to record B-roll of the sun setting over the water. There were a ton a people around us and we tried our tactic of allowing them to press the buttons and take some photos of us before we made some photos of them. These kids were super excited to show off their talents to us and see the different photos of each other. We got mobbed by all kinds of young kids talking to us.

I walked to the edge of the water and I remember thinking it was the first day of the year 2013. I started thinking about the different things I've seen in the 23 years I've lived and the opportunities I've been presented with. It was an introspective moment for me and I was very optimistic for myself and for the project we had agreed to tackle in Liberia. It's only the beginning.

Visiting Front Page Africa

Day 3

It was a day of relaxation. (sort of) We woke up around 11 and got ready to go out. We walked to a hotel and had some food from there. I had a kebab and it was different from the kebabs in Germany and Austria. Jess had hummus and it might be the best hummus I've ever had. I also had mango juice and Ken and Jess had this Lebanese coffee or something like that. apparently it was really good.

This is our new kitten friend. we take turns tossing him french fries. So sweet!

We hung out there for about an hour and a half until we found out they don't have internet. So we walked over to Dona Maria's, the pizza and ice cream shop.

We did some research on the journalists and picked people we will be following around and getting more of their story. I have Mae who is incredibly famous in Liberia. She's had to go into hiding a few times because of the controversy of her stories. We had "ice cream" at Dona Marias, but it looked like gelato and it tasted like the most fake strawberry thing I've ever had. like a lip balm and ice cream mixed together.

At around 5 we left to go to Front Page Africa and meet people and take a look around.

We met Rodney Sieh and Wade Williams, another journalist. We got to see the printing presses and shake hands with a lot of people who work there. We got an idea of what their days are like by talking to Wade. She's an awesome and inspiring woman who raises two daughters and works 10-14 hours a day a few days a week. She likes to do stories on governmental issues. Rodney has gone to jail a few times for various stories as well. Both are really inspiring.

After we stood and talked to them for a few hours, we left and stopped at a place for some food. They got my order wrong, so I'm not sure what I ate but it was chicken and potatoes and garlic wrapped up. it was delicious. We ate with David, our driver. Dinner discussions ranged from religion to New Narratives. This is a really good, insightful group that I'm with. After we got back to the hotel we went through our audio gear and tried to figure things out and synchronize everything.

Fingers crossed I don't screw up the audio. I'm a year ahead of the other two in school despite me being younger, so I definitely feel like it's on my shoulders.

We have stereo mics, zoom h4ns, lav mics, and a shotgun mic. We have the stuff, we just have little to none training. So I guess we'll see how everything goes.

A breath of Liberia

This place is amazing. Sitting on the second floor and it's completely open, like a treehouse. A breeze is blowing and you can hear the buzz of commotion below as people commute to work. A sign says feel free to read, offering books and there are games too. To my left, I look to a rooftop where a young man helps his mother hang the wash on the line. The sun is bright so it won't take long for the clothes to dry.

It's a quiet time. I'm not rushed to lug my back around the city following Mae and her stories. I'm not running to ingest images that I've taken of the day. Right now, time is paused and I am enjoying my cup of coffee in a grown up tree fort.

Day Ocho

Today is Wednesday which means the first week was almost halfway over. I just want to keep reminding you that we got less than two weeks with the kids, because it's much more impressive to know that they did this in literally seven days. Wednesday was the day that Sarah and I were teaching about storytelling. We drew them a story arc and taught them the key elements of storytelling. I was able to show them five minute clips which demonstrated the character, the problem, and the solution. They were able to identity each part of the story and I think that impressed the five of us.  

I mentioned yesterday that the "california" boys wouldn't be here for the second day. However, we got 10 new kids today. We were only supposed to have 25 at the most. We're all wondering what's going to happen tomorrow when the "california" boys are back and the rest of these kids come back as well. We'll have 32 kids then! We just decided to see who comes on Thursday, and those people who don't would just miss too much information to be allowed back.

Before we let them break for lunch, we wanted them to start writing a story. So we brought out these amazing dice which had characters and actions on it. They split into teams and then each team had to roll the dice and create a story using each one of the dies. The groups did a great job working together and actually writing out the stories.

 

After lunch we broke them into groups again and passed out "Kristina's cards." These were pictures I had drawn and colored that they were then to take and draw out a story. Oscar went around and sort of split their papers into 6 sections to start out storyboarding. The teams did amazing with this task and we were able to see some really great artists and watch their personalities slowly come out. Each day we meet with this kids feels like an incredible accomplishment. They are slowly coming out of their shells, especially the girls.

After we finished with the kids for the day, a huge crowd of girls gathered around me and were spouting off spanish to me, for which I awkwardly smiled and said politely, WAT?

Oscar told me they wanted me to ride with them in the truck back to where they live. I agreed and hopped in the truck. I asked Oscar to go with me so I wouldn't be alone and I might understand what the girls were all trying to say to me. They are the cutest things. I sat with my legs hanging over the back of the truck as everyone started pointing around the area and saying what things were in spanish. The scenery around us was stunning. Cerecaly is a place where it's flat but 360 degrees around you, you can see the mountains in the distance. Today there were blue skies, the grass all around us was green, and there were dozens of farm animals out grazing. Because of all the rain, parts were flooded and it definitely made the ride interesting, if not bumpy. My camera could not do the beauty justice.

Oscar and I got back and we had lunch and all of us got right into reports and planning. We're all pretty exhausted by night and we all sort of fancied a lazy night to just relax and watch a movie. It took about three hours though to set up one of our movies on our computer, to hook it up to the tv, and after ALL the trouble that it took we ended up watching a chick flick that basically no one liked (all while i convinced everyone it was a pretty good movie). Oscar said he liked it though.. kidding.

Also, meet Jerry's daughter, Allondra. She's the sweetest little thing.