africa blog

THE STABLE AWAITS!

25/3/2012
well, a week from now i should be all settled in my new digs. the fabled Stable in the Huth compound in Hardy. a little 2 bedroom cottage, cement floor, nice bathroom and kitchen, dutch doors, front and back yard/space, a small bbq, outdoor table, cool cozy pad. and having custom furniture made this week, going for a rustic cowboy-safari kinda vibe. buying paint, getting it prepped this week and hopefully things will be sawa sawa by monday or tuesday.

2/4/2012
now it's monday...the painters are inside brushing away and i'm in the patio waiting for the electrician. things are finally shaping up here at The Stable. it used to be an old horse stable, and now it lives literally 50 feet from another set of stables. must be 6-8 beautiful horses in these stables. and big. amazing. you can hear their hooves clopping by during the day and their neighing as well. hard to believe after 6 months of bumping around, i finally have my own permanent crib. and it's poa sana...very cool! cement floors, slanted corrugated steel roof, nice kitchen, 2 bedroom, nice bathroom, front and back patio, horses next door, great neighbors on the compound, all in all, an idyllic divine hook up! tailor made for this COTW/ranger/cowboy. lots of trees and foliage, very lush, and after last nights heavy rains (the first of the wet season), everything this morning feels fresh and clean.

i'm a little nervous on the paint selection, i ended up going espresso dark and a salmon pink. long story, but it is what it is. hope it's not too halloweeny, but the so far it's bold and for me a lot better than the basic white o white on white! as one friend described..."it's very creative". ha. it certainly is dramatic. and if i hate it, i can always buy more paint i suppose. still, you like to get it right from the start. the new issue for today is i want to seal the floors before i move in but the paint store is out of Transeal. bummer. wanted to start on that and get 2 coats down before i moved in. i glossed sealed the floors in my loft and it was awesome, so i hoping for the same here.

on the govt permit front...the last 2 weeks has been all about the film commission signing off on SLingshot. they wanted my degree or diploma in filmmaking. hmmm. how do you explain that 1000 days on set teaches you what you can't learn in school????? my law degree is useless. i thought i got an AA degree from saddleback college in TV/film production, but apparently i never graduated. alas, it's all the bureaucratic rigmarole that goes on here. and it's everything takes time!!!!!!!!!!! oy!!!!!!!!!! so still after 3 months now of trying to become legit, i'm in limbo, waiting on somebody with a rubber stamp that says i can pay taxes! and so it goes!

work wise i've been busying with more pro bono work in the meantime, polishing up some stuff for Heshima; a new one for Turning Point NGO in kibera, and then easter sunday i go back to Encounter Mara safari camp in the mara for 4 nights, shooting more masai, some beauty food shots, more tents, and lots of game (we never got ellies on the last trip). the funnest part about this trade out is that lorella my prod. coordinator gets to fly down with me...and she's never been on a plane! so that will be loads of fun. plus i love being in the bush and i get to see nina and eche again. we fly out after church easter sunday. fly back that friday! looking forward to that trip!

so this week it's all about getting the stable painted, wired, and sealed. then it's all good to move in. and i imagine i will be living here quite a long time. one little scare was my man godfrey who is making loads of rustic furniture for me in a little shop on ngong road took my deposit then needed more for fabric, so i was out $840 cash to this guy and he disappears! gone for 3 days. no one has seen him. well, lorella finally tracked him down and apparently he's been sick. whew. i hope that's it and that he can finish this week. i was afraid he had walked. took the cash and dashed. but for today we're back on track. i think! the electrician is running on african time...over an hour late so far and no call-no show. you can choose to be upset or go with the flow. so i'm flowing.

kinda slow pic-wise these days, next blog will have pics of the stable, but for this week, i wanted to show you more of kibera. it's a mega slum with no running water, and the power it illegally ganged from house to house. i certain side of africa that is real and has it's own strange beauty. there are cells here, but not many laptops or other electronic devices. no wifi. no tech, but very high on community and human interaction. it gave me pause high our high-teck world is essentially isolating.

before the pics, late me say the wet season has arrived and the rain here is its own character in the african story line. it rained an inch last night. and is currently lightly raining with lighting and thunder. it's very primal. profound. and element i have missed during the long dry season we had. i love the clouds, the colors, the sounds, the smells. but that it africa...always sensory!

enjoy. the pics here were taken with my iphone during the CNN shoot in kibera.