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

ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT

home sweet home?

well, after gallivanting around northern ethiopia for 2 weeks, i came home to a new place. i was leaving the mother theresa room at chris & lindy's Livingstone guest house in Karen and moving into "deb's place" in Hardy (not far from the Giraffe Centre if you want to google earth it). deb's place is modest and is like an appalachian shack sans the banjo music. here are more pics...

it's turned out to be cozy and all i need. need the critical word here. would i love a double bed or a queen size bed instead of the skinny single? surely. would i love a proper fridge? sure. a washing machine? consistent electricity? a good internet connection? a dresser? a closet? of course, these would all be great. but it's probably more than i "need" and in africa  you get what you get and you don't get upset. true, it maddening working on a blog or doing a video edit session and suddenly the power goes out and all is lost (not saved), but such is life. i get roosters and exotic birds chirping in the morning instead of the WWII street sweeper that used to wake me twice a week in DTLA loftville, so it's all a trade off. deb's place is a 3 month tour and then i move to mark & su's 2 bedroom flat with an open floor plan and lots of flora and fauna on a 6 acre secure compound. you know it's secure when the 24 hour gate guy is in uniform! the new place is relatively huge, open, and beautiful. deb's place is relatively small and dark and it's all i need, but i'm glad it's not for life. (the white duct tape holding the drop down ceiling panels together is especially charming in it own way, a certain je nous se qua.). but it's home sweet home for now. my kitchen has served me peanut butter sandwiches and granola cereal, so far, with one fried egg sandwich off a dangerous looking propane stove. cooking will not be my strong suit here. the kitchen is the size of a small walk-in closet. hey, all i need, right?? and the new place is only three months away. sawa sawa!

work related stuff

so with over 3 hours of ethiopian footage to sort thru and cut together, and running around packing and unpacking and getting my new live/work situation sorted, it's been a little slow getting finished product cut for charity:water. but i'm uploading 3 clips today and have much more to do. i picked up an editorial asst/intern along the way (emily) who will be a big help, especially the busier i get. i did a 6 min vid for chris & lindy's year end report and it's been well received here. other NGO's (non-governmental orgs) have shown interest in a vid of their own. my next trip may be to Sudan and south sudan for a vid for Voice of the Martyrs. another adventure for sure. but the CW stuff is coming along, although i feel behind any implied deadline. need to finish everything by friday. that's the plan (internet and power withstanding). but once it's off my plate, i can do more travel for more work related projects. kinda cool. exotic places. more of africa to see.

holiday plans

i've been invited to an american family's house for a proper thanksgiving feast on turkey day, then looks like i'll be here for christmas then travel to joburg (johannesburg, south africa) for a few days on my way to a friend's place in cape town for a fortnight. while there, i'll try and visit katie taylor, a hollywood casting director who left it all to teach at a film school in south africa, north of cape town in stollensbech in the western cape. would love to spend a few days seeing what she is up to. then there is the remote chance my UK friends will have me up to their swiss chalet for a little skiing late january/february. so i should be busy outside of kenya over christmas and new years and into january. then come february, i'll move into my african bungalow in Hardy with a proper guest room and some space and a patio. very cool pad. commercial work may be forthcoming, but at the moment, the NGO vid business looks like it will keep me busy. plus salim amin has a screenplay i'll be reading and giving some notes on, a film about his father. an interesting project set to shoot here once funding can be found and a star or two is in place.

impressions

it's wild to think that only a month ago before i moved, i didn't know where i would live, what i would drive, who would be my friends, what part of town i would be in, what it would sound like at night, what it would be like driving on the left hand side, who my swahili tutor would be, how much rain and lightning there would be, and and and. but now the new life has taken root and i'm getting settled into my surroundings and have a solid toyota to drive and a cute shack to lay my head and cut my vids, and overall, a fantastic community of new friends and acquaintances. i'm discovering the cool places to go, and perhaps most importantly, i'm doing work for an NGO that i believe in (C:W) and on tuesdays i help chris deliver food to schools in the slums like kibera and kawangware (i'll deliver myself while chris is on furlough starting next week). i have been so blessed with a great life situation. i'm never homesick and the people i miss i'm excited will come visit someday. so far the great adventure/experiment has exceeded my expectations. i have no agenda for what the future will hold and i'm no longer waiting for my hollywood agent to call for an interview (for the first time in 25 years). i am present, i have a new set of problems, and the discoveries are new all the time. it will take a lifetime to outgrow africa. and i'm excited to start exploring the neighboring countries like zambia and zimbabwe. maybe i'll even drive to cape town from nairobi! that would be insane! via joburg. and vic falls. there would be so much to see! hmmmm...

jacken

and lastly, i am taking swahili lessons daily from 4-6pm at the karen blixen coffee gardens with a great swahili teacher named jacken whose been teaching for 25 years. it will a lot of work, but i love using my brain learning something new and i haven't felt subconscious learning something new in a long time. i'll get a pic of him for next time. he has such a great face. i hope to be street fluent by december!

 the new work station (shot from my bed).

 always reminds you're in africa when you're dodging livestock. this is near a large shopping mall in Karen.

 the new improved freshly serviced and now bull-bar equipped Prado! thanks to mandeep my mechanic.

 the duct tape on the ceiling adds a certain charm. and maybe keeps the critters out??

 my propane stove. camping indoors.

 my fridge on the bottom and a micro.

 the one stop kitchen. not one ceramic plate. hmmm.

 the bathroom has great windows that open with privacy, so it feels like an outdoor shower. small but does the job.

 the neighbors duck. yes they leave droppings, but i didn't get this in DTLA so i'll take it!

 my long driveway to the street and the locking gate to the compound.

 my appalachian shack. but it doesn't leak. and it rains so hard! the barking dog next door is part of the "you get what get..." part.

a little paint, a little touch up, who knows???

well, all for now folks, things are good and getting better by the week. sorry this post is somewhat mundane. you can't discover skull and bones every week!

african hug, y'all...

kwaheri!

ddm