Swamped but still alive

Wah, even more than a month this time. I'm absolutely swamped with work these days. The 3rd World Congress preparations are taking soooo much time up -- way more than I anticipated. But hopefully things will be on track for the actual Congress in November. There are lots of difficulties as we still are trying to get everything funded. Hope we succeed.... I went to Brasilia last month for a 2-day meeting with the other cooperating partners and we got a lot done, but there are so many details related to putting on a conference for 3000 people and 300 kids. The commission I'm participating on is more related to child participation and child protection during the Congress and that is a huge undertaking. I think it will go well though.

The other big thing - the Kenya workshop for December - is also going really well. I went up to Maine this weekend to meet with some of the speakers/presenters from the different organizations that are going to be there and it was great. They were all up there attending a big conference called PopTech. (Which I couldn't afford! But they were on a fellowship). The guys are all super nice and really knowledgeable, so I think the workshop is going to be great. We're working out the agenda right now, trying to make sure that we are making it fun and informal, interactive, and also the most relevant possible for the situations that people are working in within Africa. So, how can we use social media and new technology in places where there is no electricity or no broadband? We need to be sure that we're not talking the whole week about stuff that can't happen. And that is the challenge we're posing ourselves -- what social media and new technology is relevant and useful to achieve greater impact in our existing work. I'm really excited for it.

One of the other things that I got finished was the proposal for the 6th World Summit on Media for Children. I have to wait for internal approval, and then we can submit it to the 6WSMC to see if we will partner on the child participation/child protection/social media & youth outreach aspects. That would be a really interesting partnership that we're really well suited for, so I hope it goes through. It took me forever to write the proposal with everything else going on.

The YETAM trainings are all complete, and I got the Rwanda videos on the external hard drive last week and we have a great intern names Ayla working with us to upload them and subtitle them on dotsub.com. The other things we're working on for YETAM are getting the dummy website going with AK our web company in Dakar, and then working on a curriculum for Africa and then one for 'western' or 'the north'. We're also looking at the follow up with the different groups and partners in the 3 countries. Julie resigned to spend more time with her son Noe, and her last day is on Friday, so I'm inheriting her workload! ahhhh. Once the Rio Congress and the Kenya meeting are over, I will then just focus on YETAM and a couple other things, but not so many big projects at the same time. If we are successful with the funding for the next year, then very soon we'll get going to plan next year with Ghana, Cameroon, Mozambique and Kenya.

OK well more later when there is something more interesting with photos and videos -- like maybe from the Brazil Congress!?

YETAM, WCIII and Kenya coming up

OK almost another month has gone by already since I got back from Rwanda, and I've been bad at blogging.... things are chugging along with YETAM. I'm still waiting on the external drive with all the materials on it from Rwanda, but Julie's gone to Mali to start the training there, and the Senegal films are all finished now also. They need translation still though.

We have selected the YETAM website provider and they are going to start working on designing the new pages. In the meantime we finally finished the 4 virtual visits at www.planusa.org/maps so now Togo, the DR and El Salvador are up there. We're waiting on the DVD that will be sent out to schools to be finalized -- it has the 4 virtual visits that are ready along with the curricula that we developed around them. We sent a mailing out to 9000 current events teachers about the virtual visits and DVD/curriculum and got about 500 responses back - which is quite good!

I also sent an email out to people about the 4 completed ones and we had really good feedback. More and more countries want to do something similar or to post them on their home office websites, so that is cool.

On top of the YETAM project, the main things I've been doing are working on the Child and Adolescent Participation Commission for the World Congress against Child Sexual Exploitation happening in Brazil in November. I'm going to Brasilia next week to meet with UNICEF, ECPAT, Save the Children, etc. to plan for that, and then will go back in November to Rio for the actual Congress.

The other thing, which is really exciting, is the workshop we've been planning for in Kenya Dec 8-12. We've been thinking, dreaming, planning and now it's all really coming together. All the funding came through, and in the past week our list of external speakers has become an amazing group of minds. We will have Ken Banks from Frontline SMS http://www.frontlinesms.com/, Daudi Were from MentalAcrobatics http://www.mentalacrobatics.com/think/, Juliana Rodich from GlobalVoicesOnline http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/ and Ushahidi http://www.ushahidi.com/, and Erik Hersman from White African http://www.whiteafrican.com/ and Ushahidi. We're also trying to see if we can visit Google Kenya and have a speaker from there as well. There will be about 25 Plan staffers/partners and 2-4 Kenyan youth as well. So I'm really looking forward to the week. I think we are going to learn and plan so much.... really excited.

In the process, we are going to work with Ushahidi to pilot some of their technology and use it for our programs. Their platform combines SMS with mapping and they created it during the election violence in Kenya last year. There are lots of uses for it in the work that we do that we can begin to explore, and I think it will be really amazing!

Another project that is coming along is Plan's participation in the 6th World Summit on Media for Children www http://www.wskarlstad2010.se/. I wrote a proposal outlining how the child and youth participation and protection could be managed at the Summit, and they liked it a lot. So we are in negotiations now about how we can make it happen and secure the necessary funding and human resources to do it. In the proposal, I also submitted ideas together with Media Snackers on how to build in the whole social media angle of the Summit and they liked that too. I'm going to meet with DK from Media Snackers http://www.mediasnackers.com/ in New York this Saturday on my way to Brazil to discuss more and then we'll talk again with the chairman of the 6WSMC to see how to move it along.

So once again I think I have too much on my plate, but it's all tasting very good.

the strangeness of the familiar

Being home again has been really strange. Like that feeling you get when you step off a roller coaster.....

I'm back in the office today after clearing out my inbox from home yesterday, well almost clearing it out. I have about 25 major things to deal with still sitting there, but all the smaller, easier stuff is cleared through.

My flight back was easy and on time, but getting in a cab and arriving home is always really weird for me after being away for a few weeks. Things seem so flat here. Even if there was no hot water and we ate the same starchy food for 3 weeks, I think I prefer Rwanda to Providence, Rhode Island. Maybe I was born to live somewhere outside the US? hmmm. Someday.....

I've been getting emails from the team there in Gatsibo and should have an update from them today or tomorrow on how things are going. They will have the community event tomorrow where the kids will show what they've been doing over the past week, do a debate, and talk about what will happen next (commitment to follow up).

more later when I hear back from the Rwanda team!

YETAM Day 10: my last day in Kiramuruzi

The groups all worked again today finishing things up. The IT person from the Program Unit office is still here trying to resolve the issues with the computers. He fixed the USB port on the one and is going to purchase a CD player for each computer so that the software can be installed.



The Program Support manager visited today with the advocacy coordinator from Plan Canada. It’s very clear that there will be good follow up from the Rwanda office on everything coming out of the project. The Program manager was quite keen on the ideas that the kids and partners have come up with and commited to building Plan’s interventions around the topics/issues coming out from the kids’ work.

We worked until 3 and then I said goodbye to the kids. They gave me some really sweet drawings and letters to take home with me. Chrystel and I stayed at the hotel until around 6:30 and then we drove back to Kigali where I checked back into the Ninzi Hill Hotel and took my first hot shower with running water in the past 2 weeks - that sure felt good!

I got online to check in on my other life, and almost immediately Julie Skyped in and said that she was having trouble getting passports and visas sorted out for Noe (her small son who was supposed to come with her for the last week of training). It sounded like a big hassle for her to try to sort it out, so we agreed that she would not come. I felt that the team was really on track anyway, and didn't require us anymore. I think the important thing is the first week or 2 and by then things just roll along. Julie said the same thing happened with the Senegal training, so we agreed she'd cancel her trip. Though she was disappointed, I think it will be OK.

Around 10:30 Jacques and Olivier came to pick me up to go hear some live reggae at the KBC (Kigali Business Club). Really nice place and good music. We stayed pretty late and then walked back to the hotel and I crashed. Photo: Kigali by night.

Olivier, Joseph and Tony came in the morning to say goodbye. Chrystel took me to the airport around 2:30, (stopping on the way to pick up some Waragi to take home as a souvenir)!

My flights home were uneventful. I think I slept for about 16 hours! Picked up some coffee in Ethiopia airport and made it home to my house around noon on Sunday. I'm still exhausted, and with such lovely memories of the trip. One of my favorites of all time....

And now back to the grind!

YETAM Day 9: reaching the end of my time.... :-(

The groups continued working today on their different ‘products’. Chaka’s group will be ready with the community map by Wednesday. I spent a little time going over the maps that other groups had done in the smaller group so that the kids could see more how the computer works and what the virtual visit set up is and how the map will play into it. They are doing something more symbolic with the map that looks really interesting. They will make representations of the 3 kinds of lifestyle found in the district – the most ‘pure’, the medium developed, and the city type life. These will be combined into one map and they’ll also add drawings of the different things they saw out when they were surveying to prepare to draw the map. Originally we had worried about letting the kids join other groups but now it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Each group has solidified and they all feel proud to be in the group they are in. Photo: the rainstorm flooded my hotel room!


The theater group practiced with a dress rehearsal and we planned to film it but there was a huge rainstorm in the afternoon and we couldn’t go out to film. The video guys continued editing and filming, but we are still having some computer issues and the kids were not able to learn much editing today.

Tomorrow we will go over the ‘list’ of things that we need to accomplish by the end of the training to see where we are and so that next week Julie can ensure that we produce everything. This includes:

1 community map
15 community videos
5 drama videos
30 drawings/paintings
3 sets of 12 photos each by theme
3-5 music recordings/music videos of the kids singing
1 ‘making of’ video
25 ‘making of’ photos
5 testimonials for Nokia (30 seconds each)
1 follow up plan which can then be turned into a project to be funded by the website donations (i.e., the training center?)
Media coverage (local media when we have the parents/community presentation, and national media coverage plan via television, print and film festivals, etc.)
Report
Face photos/names/ages of all participants and partners/facilitators

Tomorrow is my last day here…. Photo with Chrystel, the Rwanda project coordinator.

We set up the sound system in the hotel courtyard and had a big farewell party in the evening. Photo: Bernard and Chaka setting up the music for the evening.

People went around and said good things to each other about how great it was to work together, etc. It was a really nice time. I'm really sad to leave! Photo: Joseph, my faithful friend and translator, and Patrick saying lovely things about me....

YETAM Day 8: visit from the Country Director

We arrived a bit late this morning. We brought over the desktops and set them up in the training center so that they could start editing today. The Country Director (CD) arrived around 10 and visited each one of the groups and talked to each of the partners. He seems quite happy with the project and open to the necessary follow up with the kids and through the partners. I was really happy about that. We relaxed most of the rest of the morning and after lunch I worked on some reporting. The arts group went back out to do some more community surveying. Photo: Mamadou Kante, the Plan Rwanda Country Director.

The main issue today is that the electricity was coming on and off which made it hard to work. The country office will send us a UPS that we'd accidentally left there for each computer for tomorrow morning. Photo: Saide, Jacques, Lauben and Bernard.



The monitoring and evaluation coordinator visited along with the CD and had a chance to talk with the different partners about sustainability of the project and follow up. Some good ideas came out such as how to respond to the kids requests for forming an association and how to offer them other kinds of training or good follow up and more depth on the skills they are learning in this workshop. One idea that is coming up from different sides is that it could be possible to open some kind of training center in the area, managed by partner organizations, to house the equipment and conduct further training in the 3 areas plus areas that the youth identify during follow up planning. Photo: the theater group getting ready show their work to the CD.

It was quite a good day and I feel like the follow up with all the partners will really happen.

At the debrief, people were happy with the results of the day. Amina said that the theater group had stepped it up somehow and all the issues with the play were resolved.

YETAM Day 7: rice, fishing and B-ing Kool

Today we had transportation so I went with the 2 video groups to film in the community. Olivier and Bernard went with one group to film one topic the kids had that was ‘we are developing and progressing, so they filmed different things that they see as progress. I went with Jacques and his group, along with Joseph for translation. We drove quite a long way with 21 people in the minivan. Bernard showed me the half-hour t.v. show that he does every Friday called “B-Kool” which covers fashion, music videos, and what’s cool. He showed me also some of the latest videos he’s made, one included Chaka as an angry father who beats up a guy for going out with his daughter. Photo: the video group for today.

Our group got out first and we filmed the dam which irrigates the rice paddies, and then Joseph and I stayed near the dam caretaker’s house while the others went off to film a couple other stories, like rice growing and fishing. We ended up waiting for over 2 hours for them to come back. But mainly Jacques figured that if I went, we’d get the crowd following me shouting muzungo again. I think this time it wouldn’t have happened and I would have liked to have gone, but it was also nice to stay up and sit outside for a few hours enjoying the fields, weather and sunshine. Around 12 the caretaker came out with a bowl of amazing food – cooked green bananas, beans, carrots, a small squash type vegetable all in a mild chili sauce. So delicious. Joseph and I shared it with the 2 girls who had stayed back with us. Photo: filming a rice grower in the storage shed.

Finally the group came back and reported on what they’d been filming, and that they had lots of great footage, with just one problem – that they’d dropped the camera in the water…. But Jacques figured it would be OK (and it was). We sat for another hour or so waiting for the car to pick us up and I learned a whole bunch of phrases in Kinyarwandan which was cool. Photo: fisherboy.

In the afternoon we mainly sat around while the groups worked. I met with Patrick from PAJER to learn more about what they are doing, and to talk about some things we could work on together and possibilities I had thought of for places/people I could connect him with, including possible ideas for collaboration with Plan. We broke at 4, took naps and met again from 7-9.30 to plan for tomorrow.

We are still adapting the schedules for the different groups. Amina still felt her group wasn't progressing as she had imagined, so different people were giving her advice. We reminded her that the goal is not having perfect theater students, but using theater to support expression, and that if there was something that the students were able to do that she should focus on building that up, not on making a long play.

Chaka explained how he’s making the map. It will be stylized showing the 3 different zones of Kiziguro – the very rural/not developed areas, the semi-developed areas and the town area. They are also working on drawing pictures of the things they have seen when they are out surveying for the map.

Tomorrow the country director is coming to visit around 11. We decided to have the video group focus on some photographing around the training center, the arts and theater groups would continue working. In the afternoon we’d have a debrief of all groups and the kids would move into new groups for Thursday.