HUNKERING DOWN

GITTIN 'ER DONE

well, after all the fun and games shooting camels and kids and wells in ethiopia, i had to come home and cut it all together. took about 2 weeks, but that project is in the can, as we say. Fedexing the 500gb hard drive to CW HQ in NYC and they will do titles and tighten as they see fit. my heavy lifting is done. about 16 videos in total, 2 of them 14 minutes each, with music and titles. a long long go. but i am out of the cave, diving into my swahili lessons full bore. lot's of pictures below (again, in random order) that i will caption accordingly, but stories first.

KISWAHILI

kiswahili is the language of the swahili tribe near mombasa on the coast. so i am technically learning kiswahili. (i know, big deal) Jacken is my tutor. he is great, and very animated. we meet at the karen blixen (out of africa) coffee gardens, aka, Tamambo everyday from 4-6p. the place is very beautiful and is a welcome break from my recurring cabin fever in my shack. but i got a desk now in front of my shack on the terrace, and i'm so geeked to have a writing surface! like a painter needs an easel, a writer needs a desk. and now i have one! very much loving that! my outlet! and my wifi works out there too. it's nothing fancy (not much here is) but it works great. again, back to the "it's all i need" theme. in fact, after the last blog entry, of few readers copped to needing more of the "i have all i need" modis operandi. too easy to be unhappy over things you don't have and probably don't really need. enjoy what you got! sawa? (okay?)

GOT WORK? (ddm of arabia???)

so now with CW (charity: water) off my plate, wondering what is coming next. so with nothing on my plate, time to do more homework for jacken everyday and crunch the swa! gotta a text from Ogilvy Africa about a prod. company maybe calling me. nothing yet, but nice to be thought of. also may be doing a project for Voice of the Martyrs in Sudan. and i'm chasing down a possible project in northern kenya about these nomadic tribes that travel by camel caravan. the story goes that you can tell which tribe it is on the horizon by the way the pack their huts and tents on the camels. and that kenya has the third most amount of camels in the world, and that there are 5 different deserts up there. it all sounds very cool to me!!! real camel caravans! i want to shoot it, i want to ride them, i want to be around that. talk about nat'l geographic channel! could be very cool! so fingers crossed on that journey and possible adventure. how sub-saharan! 

now for the picture gallery...captions below.

 here is the two bedroom place i'm slated to move into in feb. part santa fe, part cowboy, part africa. love the dutch doors and outdoor patio.

 dutch doors rule. cool wood siding. very home-steady!

 open floor plan inside. got my african cowboy makeover already in mind.

 nice writing area with a view of the sky.

here is the sky at sunset from my shack. always beautiful during the rainy season we're in.

 no dryer, so the hand-washed clothes are line-dried, unless it rains, which means you have to wait another day. or another. i feel like a farmer waiting on the weather to see what i'm going to wear!

 here is steven, my grounds keeper and the gate guard. he washes my car every other day without asking.

 steven has a kind face.

 this is the Talisman restaurant in karen. feels like kauai! open and lanai-ish.

 with a fire going one rainy morning for breakfast. love all the fires in afrika.

 i try to eat here once a week. talisman has a great breakfast. 

 lots of great booths and eating areas.

 more talisman. 

 very tropical feeling and good food. again, hawaii!

 nice and open.

 then there was the stampede in the roundabout the other day.

 cows gone wild!

 they completely stopped traffic.

 and banged my car as they passed.

 we all just looked at each other and laughed. we humans.

 there is nothing you can do. but as we say in africa, "it never gets old!" cattle at large and taking things over! too Far Side!

 ahhh, a proper desk! thoreau would be jealous!

 purple flowers in my front yard. so vivid~

 my kiswahili tutor, jacken. he is soft spoken, patient, and lovely.

 and animated when he's teaching! very glad to have him. 

 this is Tamambo. where we meet everyday, 4-6.

 peaceful and serene.

 also called the karen blixen coffee gardens.

 so chill.

 great place for a spot of tea. or a g&t!

 and a nice vibe~

 green and peaceful.

 then i went to the nairobi orchestra on sunday for some classical culture.

 i met a first violinist. a blonde michigander. we had dinner last night. but that's another story!

 here's our version of the galleria mall.

 art caffe is a cool hang.

 nice patio. lots of umbrellas.

 here is nairobi java house.

 i'm writing this blog inside the java house, wifi and a good steak and feta salad for lunch! and yes, a chocolate shake for dessert!

inside the mall. probably not what you expected! tres moderne! 


EPILOGUE/RANT


so things are going well and i'm still very glad to be here. kinda strange my whole future is waiting for me here, but that's what i signed up and so far i am not disappointed. it certainly is an adventure, with more to come (like going to rwanda to see the silverback gorillas soon!) and maybe going to camel caravan up-country. but the violinist told me last night she makes @ $30,000 a year as a music teacher but the kenya govt takes half of that in taxes. that's alot. from a music teacher? ouch. but it tells me the govt has money. so....can you kenyan leaders tell me where it is all going? the roads here are a joke. third world. yet your malls are contemporary. can you explain why the 6 hour drive to mombasa is a single lane road? imagine driving to san francisco from LA on a 2-way road!! ridiculous. and the roads in town are all 2-way single lane and backed up for hours. where are all the tax dollars going? is it all so corrupt as everyone says!? i'm starting to believe it,  and it's starting to cheese me off! the roads are so dangerous at night and the traffic so terrible, just so "The Man" can have a nice house and nice cars??? it's BS. this beautiful country is emerging and trying and striving but the business as usual government is holding it all back. much needed tax dollars for infrastructure go straight to politicians pockets. it's wrong and pathetic. we have wifi and lattes but the roads don't even have a line down the middle. it's seriously wrong. my addis friend salim amin says kenya needs a revolution to turn things around, the arab spring followed by an african summer. not sure this british colony is saucy enough to revolt, but something needs to change.


i'm working on a script now for my first film here...it's on corruption. and the gov't charges a duty and a VAT (value added tax) on the vehicles coming into kenya (mind you, a high duty charged on imported cars even though kenya doesn't even make cars!!) so the average kenyan joe cannot afford to buy a car, ever. a $3,000 - $5,000 new car from japan goes for $15,000+ here after VAT and duty. for what??????? more nice cars and homes for The Big Man?? again, it's BS. but what can we/they do????? i'm learning more about it, and maybe my judgment is wrong, but the signs around me say foul play. they are holding their people back. keeping them down. and losing millions of man hours every year as we all sit in traffic on poor maintained roads and zilch infrastrucure. there's a book i heard about yesterday. i'll tell you more when i get it. it's all about corruption here! 


well, that's my rant for today. hope you enjoy the pics. i'll try to keep them coming! also, shooting for a weekly update, but some weeks are slower than others. hope this was equal parts enlightening and entertaining. the pics say the most i'm afraid!


has anyone seen "J. Edgar" or "Melancholia"?? please give me your take if you have. two films i'd love to see!


well, off to Tamambo to meet jacken! more swa! after 2 hours, my brain is fried! 


cheers and thanks for reading! 


phrase for the day: unataka nini? - what do you want?


kwaheri! - peaceout!


ddm