auditions!
27.3.08
Yesterday, auditions started!
We held our first auditions at a church here in Tengeru. Today and tomorrow we have open call public auditions in Arusha. We have no idea how many people to expect so we've planned for hundreds. We're hoping to cast all our major and minor characters as well as extras from these auditions. Please pray for us as we go through the auditions and for the casting decisions that will be made following all the auditions.
Thanks!
Cynthia
~one love
posted by Cynthia at
3/27/2008 11:54:00 PM
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1 comments
it's got a name
25.3.08
so our Musical finally has a name:
Nipe Jibu
(pronounced Nee-pay-Jee-boo)
... it's swahili for: Answer Me.
It's a line from one of the major songs.
We've registered the domain.
Now I get to design the look of the title.
Eventually I'll design the jacket and cd, too.
posted by Cynthia at
3/25/2008 12:03:00 AM
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1 comments
Maasailand
22.3.08
Last week Friday at 12:30pm my friends Justina, Nadine, Davin, Richard, JoAnna, Joseph and myself headed down our road to catch the bus that would take us three quarters of the way to Maasailand. The bus ride was hot but uneventful. After almost 4 hours we got off the bus, where we met a few Maasai friends and their pastor. Along with half a dozen Maasia, we piled into the cab and back of the pastor's truck and drove deep into the country. After close to 2 hours of driving on gravel, sand, and riverbeds we arrived just a few minutes behind Jeremy, Christine and the kids, at the camp of our Maasai friends. Amongst a crazy mix of Swahili, Ma and English we set up camp and ate frozen hamburgers (the person on duty didn't think they needed heating) on buns with tomato and mayo (nice selection, haha... I don't like either). I was so hungry by this time that it really didn't matter. A few Maasai women prepared Chai made with goats milk to finish off the meal. After a little while we were invited to join the Maasai in worship and prayer. I arrived at the area by myself and as the firelight lit the area I saw about 75 Maasai, young and old, Little Natasha was strapped to the back of an old woman, Jacob was dancing around, my friends were holding children's hands as they all circled around the fire. It was beautiful. An older woman grabbed me by the hand to drag me into the circle and on my way I pulled in my Tanzanian friend, Joseph. It was awesome to share this experience with someone who felt just as out of place as I did. He also translated for me whenever Swahili was spoken. Oh, it was wonderful.
After a night of virtually no sleep, Saturday morning arrived. After a small breakfast of granola and muffins we went off on a walk to the office of MAPED which is currently being built. MAPED is an NGO made up of Maasai who are working to educate their people about Aids, Women's Rights, and other cultural issues. We arrived back at camp by noon and filled ourselves up on tortillas, peanut butter, jam and bananas (well, not bananas for me) and rehydrated. In spite of the insane heat, at 1:30pm we headed out again to visit 5 of about 25 huts within the Boma. We were joined by a number of Maasai children who took turns hold our hands, running and skipping. Basically, the huts are mud structures with a grass roof. As you move through the open doorway you enter the first room where there is a small fire lit in the middle. Off this room there is another space. As you duck through the doorway the first thing you notice is a tiny window which allows abit of light into the room. After your eyes adjust you can make out stools, a water filter, a few cups, an a few hard surfaces where people would sleep. After a few moments the women of the hut would bring in Chai and we would be told a bit of information about the family which lives there. It's so hard to keep track of all the names and families and figure out which women are wives to which man. I gave up rather quickly. After all, since I don't speak Ma and very little Swahili I couldn't communicate much. It's incredible to experience friendliness, affection and acceptance from people of another world without being able to verbally communicate. After a bland spaghetti dinner and some really good Chai, we again joined the Maasai in worship and prayer around the fire. This time we were asked to introduce ourselves and then we were taught how to dance... the Maasai way. Man, none of us got it. The way they shake their shoulders is impossible. We had a good laugh at ourselves, as did the Maasai. Probably, the funniest was Joseph because he's black and the choreographer for the Musical, but even he couldn't manage to get the movement down.
The next morning we had a small breakfast of a few muffins. There was granola but no bowls because they didn't get washed of the spaghetti as promised. Our entire team, but one who was busy socializing, helped out with packing up camp and then we were off. Six hours and a cold shower later I was feeling clean and reflecting on a great weekend.
posted by Cynthia at
3/22/2008 04:48:00 PM
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2 comments
wealth of apples
11.3.08
Every time I head out of the gates of Pamoja it's inevitable that I'll hear kids holler the phrase, "Give me my money". Unfortunately, it seems to be the second phrase learned after "Good morning, teacher."
Notice the possessive? Give me MY money. Sorry, honey I don't have your money. Partly this is a grammar mistake, partly this is a state of mind. Wealth is not considered the same here as in the western world. Let me use apples to explain.
There are 3 apples, I have 1 apple and you have 2 apples. If I want to have 2 apples, I go and find the apple tree and pick 1 more apple. With the mindset here there are 3 apples, ONLY 3 apples. If you have 2 apples and I have 1 apple but want 2 apples then either you have to give it to me or I have to take it from you. Interesting, eh?
posted by Cynthia at
3/11/2008 07:00:00 PM
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1 comments
step by step
9.3.08
... is so not my style of learning.
even more so when the steps require co-ordination.
Our new choreographer, Joseph and his friend, David have been trying to teach us some hip-hop moves. Oi! I love hip-hop music and I can definitely groove to it but actual moves... not so much. I can not remember more then 8 steps at once and I'm incredibly uncoordinated. I'm not actually that bad... no one else sees it though because as soon as I think/know someone is watching I instantly get "stupid" and then I get frustrated that I feel this way and can't do anything about it. It's like there is a switch in my brain that flips off. I was told that I just need to get over my self-conscienceness and be myself. I AM myself and you know, I'd love to stop being self-conscience, but I can't seem to stop that switch from flipping so I avoid any situation where this could happen. But this makes Cynthia a boring person and who wants to be friends with Boring and Uninteresting? So what the heck am I supposed to do? Why do I care?
How did learning a few steps turn into an identity crisis? :S
posted by Cynthia at
3/09/2008 11:34:00 AM
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1 comments
visual aids
6.3.08
All right so I've got some photos up on Facebook so I thought I'd post the external links here for those who don't use it. There aren't a lot of photos because it's quite hard to upload on such an unstable, slow internet connection.
Enjoy!
Pictures from October 15 - December 15th - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22902&l=dc989&id=510596859
Pictures from December 16 - February 15th - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25232&l=a13c9&id=510596859
posted by Cynthia at
3/06/2008 09:17:00 PM
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0 comments
the day
So I was talking with Justina, one of the girls on my team about our blogs. I was mentioning that I don't blog very often these days because I sit in front of a computer 8 - 5:30 everyday so I don't much feel like sitting in front of the computer yet again plus how exciting is it to read about someone sitting in font of their computer all day? For me the days seem to come and go as I design sets, oversee the set building team, design costumes, and plan decor and props. I've never been one to talk about work I don't know why. It's not like it's a secret part of my life. It takes up at least a 1/3rd of my life so why not share? So I'm going to do my best to share about the work I'm doing... why not?
Today, I spent my day working in SketchUp. It's a free software from Google that I'm using to draw the sets. There are 17 sets all together, 10 of which need to be designed and built. All of them need to be drawn in SketchUp so they can be exported into FrameForge for Storyboarding and Shoot Design. So far I have 9 out of the 10 designed and 9 of the 17 in SketchUp. Today I completed completed "Mama Tamu's House" set in SketchUp, "Wedding Dress Shop" set in SketchUp, worked on "Wedding Banda" set in SketchUp, worked on determining which props need to be found, built, or bought by the Set Construction Team, and sent out descriptions and files of a few of the sets to our Cinematographer, Joel, who is still in B.C. so that he can start planning Shoot Design.
We have a new face around here. His name is Joseph. He's our new Choreographer. He's an awesome dancer and I have no doubt that he'll do a fantastic job!
Today, Davin purchased the last of the red 1'x6" red dirt pressed bricks that he'll used to build the "Chai Pepe" set. It's exciting to see my ideas and designs actually become reality... it's a little nerve wrecking as well. :S There's 10 weeks to build the sets before we begin shooting. Yikes!
posted by Cynthia at
3/06/2008 11:41:00 AM
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1 comments
