Church

10/29/05

Long dreams… I watched Child Soldier last night. I am going to go to N Uganda, only for ten days, and I'm not going to shoot video. I'll leave that for the rich kids from USC. I'm going to shoot stills. Its what I'm best at anyway. But I am here, I'm so close, and there is a such a major problem, a different kind of problem than what is going on here. A problem that has apparent solutions but that needs international attention so that the government feels pressure to pursue those solutions. Because unlike the HIV/AIDS pandemic, this problem has political and military solutions.

Walking to church this morning I had a thought. Actually, a few, but one stood out. If I don't find the compelling story that I'm looking looking looking for, the story that would turn into the compelling documentary that would open people's eyes about the HIV pandemic in rural Africa, maybe I could fake it. Script it. I've got the sets, the costumes, the actors…. And I don't think it would be entirely unethical, because it would be a story that has happened, again and again, just, unfortunately, not in front of my camera. Like I'm going with my guy Robert to interview some orphans that he just learned about on the outskirts of the village. We get out there, they are maybe three, all young, all emaciated, the graves of their parents are fresh. They talk about the pain of watching their parents fall sick and die. They don't have enough food, they haven't been going to school, no one has come to take care of them. Then we go to their neighbors, their father's brother maybe, who should be the one to take them in now, and we find out that this guy is belligerent, he refuses to look at the kids because he believes they are cursed by witchcraft and that's why their parents died. So we come back another time, Robert starts gently counseling them, the camera is rolling on the outskirts the whole time, finally the man comes to accept that AIDS is real, and moreover, Robert convinces him to go and get tested. The camera follows. The results come back. He and his wife are positive. They don't believe it. But through gentle counseling the man and his wife come to accept their status, accept their brother's orphans (who are now being sponsored by our project, we have got them new school uniforms and books etc and they are going back to school.) Now this man and his wife even become outspoken councilors and even get other neighbors to go and test, change their behaviors to protect themselves…

I sort of space out in church. Not space out actually, just not pay attention to the service, as its all in Ki'Luo. I just stand when everyone stands and hum along to the songs, some I'm starting to know, and read along in the bible when someone tells me what passage we're reading. Other than that, I just follow my own line of thought, or read the bible. That's fun too, though I'm only half way through Genesis and Mathew (actually, I have the NKJV so its Matthew.) I skip around a little too, to read the good parts, the book of Job and the ten commandments and Revelations. Anyway, I was constructing my scripted doc in my head or thinking about how to get a bus to the war zone or maybe reading about Jezebel, when I heard my name and looked up to see everyone staring at me. The pastor had asked me, in Ki'Luo, to introduce myself. I suppose I should take it as a compliment that he assumes I would understand. I learned a trick a while back, all I need to do is stand, wave (both hands), and say 'hallelujah' and everyone will cheer and wave and say 'amen.' Short and simple. After the service as I was chatting with Robert and Jim and other elders, and laughing with Mzee Elisha, I saw Adrian, that little punk, peeking around a corner at me. When I caught him spying he ran away and I chased him down and tickled him into submission. It was the first time I had seen him since I have been back. If I could steal any child from here it would be him.

After lunch I went and met the KCHEP council at school, we checked on our birds and had a meeting. They are doing well, Robert has been delegating all sorts of tasks, and they are completing them. We drew up a budget for getting 50 hybrid broiler birds, and we are tackling the challenge of making a directory of all of the orphan and vulunerable children in the area. Shikuku and Mzee Elisha presented a list with 60 kids on it, all total orphans under 18. They haven't even started on the kids that have lost one parent or whose parents are just too poor to provide for them. It's a real challenge here.

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