YETAM Day 6: out to the communities

We decided yesterday to only take what we need to the training center instead of lugging tons of stuff over there every morning. The kids were in groups again today, and in the morning they worked out a plan for what they were going to film and then around 11.30 we started out. I went with Jacques and about 7 kids. We ended up walking to Lake Muhazi (where we'd spent the weekend) but reaching it from a different side, which took about an hour, and taking pictures along the way. The walk was along a very clean and well kept up dirt road with squarish adobe houses along the way. It was a bit uncomfortable in a few places as we gathered quite the posse of kids following us saying muzungo (white person) the whole way. It was pretty alright until we got to the primary school, which unfortunately was on break time, so then they followed us (well, me) for a couple miles saying muzungo, muzungo. A couple adults came out and took a picture of me which felt strange but I readily accept – it's a 2-way street. Photo: kids in the trees next to Lake Muhazi, taken by the video trainees.

At the lake the kids did an interview of one of the girls in the training explaining how they use the water from the lake for everything. You see lots of guys on bicycles with yellow jerry cans everywhere bringing water for cooking and washing. And you understand why not much washing is really done since the water is so scarce and from so far away.

After the interview, we sat awhile waiting for someone to come to collect water so we could film it. It took awhile because it started raining (pretty gently) and I guess it wasn't really water gathering time. Some cows came along so they interviewed the herders. Then a boat came across the water from the other side so they filmed that and interviewed the water taxi people, and people riding on the boat. Then finally some of the school kids who´d been trailing me came back with their jerry cans and went swimming and got some water, so the kids filmed that and we started the walk back. Photo: kids collecting water. Taken by the video trainees.

We came upon a wedding so we stopped and took some pictures and film of that too. Then Jacques said we should catch bikes back to the training center so we wouldn’t have to walk – it was already 2.00 and we’d missed 1.00 lunch. It took awhile to find 10 bike driver guys, and they all wanted to carry the muzungo. We finally had all 10, but then they upped the price, so Jacques decided we’d walk. And so we started walking. After about 10 minutes of the guys on the bikes following us as we walked they agreed to down the price to 200 Rwandan francs (like 50 cents in US dollars) each. They still all wanted to carry the muzungo, and finally Jacques told them ‘great, you can carry her, but she’s not paying’. He told me not to go with this one guy who’d been a bit obnoxious and found another one for me to go with. And we started out, 10 people on the back seat of 10 bikes with our drivers carrying us along the red dirt road, over potholes and up and down hills. We rode for something like 30 minutes before getting back to the training center. Along the way all I could hear was people shouting out muzungo this and muzungo that to the guy taking me. I could only imagine what they were saying. It was nice though despite being a main attraction. The breeze, the quiet little town with plantains and mango trees on all sides. I like this place. Photo: me on a bike!

We got back and they still had some lunch for us – yay! The 2nd film group got back about 10 minutes after we did, and the first thing Olivier said was that if I’d seen where they went today, I’d ask him to take me on a picnic there. They went to see the palace of the traditional king from the area. They got a tour of the place and interviewed him, etc. I can’t wait to see the footage. He and Bernard were quite impressed. They got about 4 stories out of it they said. So together with the water story, potential wedding (if they got good footage), their 4 stories, and the films (to be taken later) of Amina’s theater group, we’re well on our way. We’ll film again tomorrow morning and then start editing in the afternoon I think.

We went straight back to the hotel at 4 as everyone was tired. We met at 7 to debrief and plan for tomorrow. Some of the issues that came up were related to logistics – we walked for an hour to get to the place to take the video, and hopefully tomorrow there will be transportation…. The drama group isn’t progressing as quickly as Amina would hope because some of them have poor reading skills and they can’t remember lines. We are starting to pull together the report of what we’ve done up to now, and what we’re planning to do for the rest of the time to ensure that we meet all the goals.