Though Jenna and I told you about our project over the trip I feel the need to write it down. This will help you remember and will also help me to understand where I want to go with the project. Jenna and I are working on a video project for Salama Shield. This project seeks to encompass different aspects of Salama Shield’s programs through interview segments. These videos have two purposes. Salama Shield plans to use these videos to showcase their work to past and future donors to earn money for their programs. Salama also plans to use these videos as another method to capture their work for their own use in the future, so more as archivle sources.
The last two weeks Jenna and I have made good headway on our project. Before the trip we started an email conversation with two of Salama Shield’s employees in Toronto, and sent them our first completed video. They enjoyed our work. It encouraged Jenna and I to know that our work could be usable. It also gave me the feeling of validity in this project. I took video production in grade six and seven and I love watching movies, but besides that neither Jenna nor I had any real qualifications for this project. Besides our class the most useful thing I learned in university to help with this project came from reading They Say in Harlan County in Hist 433. Reading this gave me the idea to look at this project as collecting oral histories, but on a much smaller scale. The way Portelli organized the book also gave me a few ideas of how Jenna and I could arrange the clips we took.
When we arrived back from the trip we received an email from Luke, one of the staff members in Toronto, saying not to worry too much about creating a final product, or products. He said that instead we should focus our efforts on collecting success stories from the micro-credit and goat programs. This provided Jenna and I with a sense of relief. Our limited video skills would not need to be tested to create the overarching video to encompass the idea of Mbuntu, a complicated term for the community and the individual being inseparable.
The main problem with this task, though, comes in the unpredictability of the frequency of our trips to the field. Many times vehicles and/or staff are too busy to take Jenna and I into the field with them. Many of the families that the goat and micro-credit programs work with live deep in the bush. They often left school at an early age, or did not attend school, and are difficult to reach. These are often contributing factors that put the families in vulnerable situations in the first place. Because Jenna and I do not speak Lugandan or know where the families live we cannot get footage without an escort.
Even on the days we do go out we are unsure of the families we will visit, and their stories may serve to document how Salama Shield conducts their work, but may not be success stories. For example, one day last week Jenna and I were dragged along as Benon, the head of the Mbuntu department, interviewed families he deemed vulnerable, but because no one in their family tested positive for HIV/AIDS Salama Shield had not given them support yet. We also spent the afternoon following around a community member identifying new families that may or may not qualify for help. While the footage captures how Salama Shield works, and may prove beneficial for later use, it does not meet the direct needs of the project. Though our new designation pertains mostly to capturing footage, because we often have so much down time in the office, Jenna and I have since completed two more videos for a total of three. We have also labeled all of the raw footage that we have, as per Luke’s instructions. As of Thursday the 10th Jenna and I have recorded over ten hours of video.
From last Friday to Thursday Salama Shield’s founder Dennis Willims, his wife Rita, his sister Ingrid, his brother in law Paul and his two nephews Brandon and Ben were visiting. We were able to meet with Dennis and gain a greater understanding of the organization and Dennis’ vision. The ability to understand the history from the man who started it, and to hear how Salama Shield has grown increased my respect for the work they do. Watching Dennis work with the Ugandan staff and treat them with such respect gave me a sence that I worked for an organization where the founder did care and consider the workers family. This attitude stood a bit in contrast to that of his wife and sisters.
The wife and sister were here working on two separate projects. One project focused on collecting pictures and recipes for a cookbook they want to make, and the other project focused on distributing teddy bears, hats, and blankets to vulnerable families. For the cookbook project Ssenga Namuli, one of the Salama Shield employees, hosted a traditional Ugandan banquet. To prepare everyone took turns through out the day cooking. When we were helping Rita told us we would need to move slightly so that our hands would not be in the shot. If our hands were shown this would make it “not authentically African.” This comment stood in contrast too much of what ISL warned us about creating a single story. It also contradicted the cookbook itself, which plans to take traditional recipes and give them a western twist.
Jenna and I got another opportunity to work along side Rita and Ingrid when they went to distribute the hats and blankets. Jenna and I, but mostly Jenna, got to work with Benon and another Salama Shield staff member to decide which families we knew of needed these items the most. Ingrid and Rita also invited Jenna and I to accompany them to distribute the goods to vulnerable families. In the car Rita, the wife, asked questions that I was shocked she did not already know the answer too. She asked why families needed tin roofs and what the goats were used for among other things. These are fair questions to ask, however, when you visit Lyantonde at leas once a year and fund and promote the organization and the goat program I would think that you would want to or would have figured out the answers rather quickly. Jenna and I asked the goat question the first day. I politely, explained that the metal sheets were necessary to keep the house dry during the rainy season, and many people cook near or in their houses and the thatched roofing can catch on fire. She did not know a person can’t milk these local goats. I know that her husband started the foundation and not her, but it seems an intergrle part of both their lives, and it interested me that she does not take a more serious interest in the organization.
During this trip we were able capture few interviews that highlighted the successes of the goat and micro-credit programs. The programs allowed many of the families to build homes, shops, and to send their children to school. But, because of the desperate situation the families found themselves in they still needed basic bedding. One family Jenna and I had visited earlier, but due to battery problems we were unable to film the families story. On our first we saw how the family had no back door to their house, and the water that they drank looked like chocolate milk. When Jenna asked him the biggest challenge the family of 10, two parents and eight daughters, faced he answered bedding. I am ecstatic that I got the reactions of his and all the families to getting the blankets on film. The stories of each of the families also could move even the meanest person to tears. The resilience and hope in this community astounds me.
Jenna and I also worked with the Paul, Brandon, and Ben, the brother in-law and nephews, on their project. They are creating a CD and videos based off of the drama group’s work. The drama group raises awareness about HIV/AIDS through traditional music, dance and skits. I filmed a few of their performances, and on Wednesday I ran around on the side of and behind the group filming, as they paraded around town. The people in town laughed as I almost ran into about four parked cars and seven parked bodas.
Jenna and I are hopeful that we will be able to get more footage in the next two weeks, and if not Dennis gave Jenna another project she can work on, and I can watch all the footage and go through and cut out long pauses to make it less for others to edit in the future. Luke and his partner Lisa also want to skype with Jenna and I tomorrow, so we may have more work from them.
