Documentary Production

Tuesday 28 May 2013
Production of a Documentary

I am back in Ifacara now.  The return trip took only 2 hours 20 minutes for the 36 miles, 25 minutes less than the trip to Mbingu last Wednesday.  This trip included six nuns and myself, no mechanic.  I was worried with the rough road there would be a flat tire or some mechanical problem from the rough dirt road between the villages.  Within 30 minutes of the trip, during conversation with sister Senorina, I mentioned my concerns.  Our driver was an elderly nun of about 60 who I had not met.  She has been driving for the convent for over 20 years and had been trained to perform light duty mechanical work including changing tires if needed in route.

During the trip, they stopped to chat with a couple women on the side of the road. After pulling away sister Senorina said the two women were of the Masai tribe.  She explained the Masai were a nomadic people who raised cattle and farmed having a nomadic range throughout Kenya and Tanzania.

The 6 nuns and I were invited by father Kayera to the bishop of Ifacara`s house for lunch.  Fried fish, sautéed pumpkin leaves, ugali (the flour and water mixture), rice and oranges were served.  After explaining my diet, I only ate the meat and vegetables.  I was offered beer, wine, soda or water to drink, drinking only water.  After lunch I had a brief meeting with father Kayera as he wanted to know more about myself and why I was in Ifacara, Tanzania of all the places I could have picked.  I explained to him my desire to have a civil engineering career with relations in environmental or water resources engineering with humanitarian organizations in a developing nations.  He was familiar with the three organizations I mentioned such as USAID, UNDP and World Bank.  

Father Kayera drove me to the parish guesthouse.  As he approached the left side of his truck to drive, I instinctively went to the right side as a passenger.  He had gone to the right rear door to open for me to place my backpack inside.  He looked at me strangely, laughing, saying this is not America as I immediately noticed my error seeing the steering wheel where I thought I was going to sit.

As previously discussed last week before my departure to Mbingu, father Kayera said he could give me room and board in exchange for volunteering with a project.  He later took me to meet the parish priest.  Upon talking with him and telling him my aspirations and having roughly 11 more nights in Ifacara, we discussed the possibility of designing a documentary with photos and videos using my camera to show to various religious and governmental organizations in the US for fundraising opportunities.  My first candidate to show such a documentary could be to the Unity church I joined in Greensboro last fall. Some of the members whom I had gotten to know were eager to hear about my trip and asked if I could do a presentation upon my return to the US at the end of the summer.

So far, I have hesitated to take any pictures due to the rampant abject poverty I have seen since leaving Dar es Salaam. I have been warned by some local people about taking photos.  I had researched, before leaving North Carolina, taking pictures of the general population could be very offensive and potentially dangerous, so I have refrained.  I mentioned my hesitation to father Kayera and the parish priest.  They are going to provide me various individuals including themselves to take me to the many humanitarian projects happening in the district over the next 11 days.  Locations may include people`s houses, water supply systems (hand pumps), schools, mental hospitals, HIV/AIDS clinics, the leprosy clinic, retirement centers, agricultural areas.  This is going to be very interesting and enjoyable to be able to be escorted to various places to document things I have seen as others will be able to see also through the lens of my camera.  

I have been situated in a simple room in the parish compound with meals provided on a schedule.  This close to the equator, I think only 6 or 9 degrees south, the sun has minute variations through the seasons with time between the rising and the setting of the sun.  The sun rises around 0630 and sets around 1830 year round.  Tanzanians use a different clock than in the US or other countries I have been to.  The beginning of day light, say 0600 is 0000 in Tanzania time, therefore 1200 noon is considered to be 6 hours after the beginning of the day or 0600, evening 6 pm is 12 o`clock Tanzanian time and midnight in the US is 1800 or 6 pm, and 2400 is back to the beginning or first light of the day.  In US time my schedule for meals will be breakfast at 0700, lunch at 1200 and supper at 1830.  In Tanzanian time the meals are served at 0100 for breakfast, 0600 for lunch and 1230 for supper.

During the evening meal at the parish center, I learned the inhabitants of the guesthouse were all priests of the Catholic Church 200 meters south of here.  They all had come to Ifacara to study various professions, several of them learning to be doctors of general medicine while others were doing research of equatorial diseases such as malaria and typhoid.  All 8 of the priests witting at the supper table spoke English.  I was thankful to be eating something completely different than a variation of a three egg omelet for breakfast, lunch and supper.

I ended my evening walking for about an hour through the village along the main road and a couple of side streets.  Sister Senorina had warned me about walking around at night and the dangers of me being a Mzungu (foreigner).  She asked if I was afraid to be by myself after hearing some of the dangers which could happen to me such as being harmed or robbed by the poor local inhabitants or taken hostage by the Muslims from my known associations with the Christians.  My response was that I could not be afraid of venturing out alone although I could be diligently and acutely aware of my surroundings and the people.  I said I was here to learn about the culture and its inhabitants, not to be sheltered with the fear something bad could happen.