Mmoloki, Banyatswang, Goemeone, and Malebogo

Well, I don’t really know where to begin. Here goes…

Our four twelve-year old kids from the local SOS Orphanage showed up today. Charles and I waited out front for them as Andy, Kelly, and Mitch worked with the other students on their scripts. (Which are absolutely amazing, inspiring, and even emotional.) The van pulled up and Charles started filming. Three girls and one boy timidly emerged. They were all very nervous and huddled together. Their parents had died of HIV/AIDS. I quietly approached them and sat down to ask them their names. They very properly responded, Mmoloki, Banyatswang, Goemeone, and Malebogo. I tried to repeat their names back and finally got some good smiles and even a little laughter as I tragically massacred the pronunciation. I then showed them the Flip video camera. Mmoloki (the boy) took it from me and went right up to one of the passing hotel employees and started filming. Just from watching me once. I then showed them the digital still camera and there was much laughter after they all got to see themselves in video and on the still cameras for the first time in their lives. They are all much, much smaller than our other twelve-year-old students. I think one of the girls might be HIV positive.

(Click on the new Shutterfly link to the right to see photos from today.)

We went to the conference room, but it was clear that they were way too intimidated to mix with the other students. So, we gave them some food and some juice. Kelly and I both forgot that we were supposed to dilute the concentrate with water so we ended up giving these kids glasses of the most foul tasting liquid they have probably ever encountered. They tried to be polite but it was clear right away what we had done. We fixed it.

I took them to the sitting room in my hut and Charles came along to film. We all five sat on the small couch and I put a computer in front of them. I explained that we were going to take the pictures and video from the camera and put them on the computer so that we could learn to make movies. I turned on the computer then asked Banyatswang to move the mouse over the Premiere icon and click on it to open the program. Their English is by no means perfect, but we can communicate enough to get ideas across. She took the mouse, just as I had done, and then picked it up and turned it around in her hand, looking at it like it was a real, live mouse. AHA. It finally dawned on me that they had never used a computer before.

So, we started with the basics. I taught them how to use the mouse, how to click, double-click, drag-and-drop, and right-click. To make a long and quite joyous story short, in one-hour, they were dragging video, images, and music into the Premiere timeline, editing clips, making decisions together about which clips should go where, and using the mouse and keyboard to watch their emerging movie over and over, every time laughing even more at seeing themselves on the monitor. I can’t think of any other words to describe that hour other than to say it was magical. Charles was almost in tears watching and kept saying, “Man, this is beautiful. This is beautiful.”

We learned about camera techniques and then I let them take a Flip camera and still camera back to the orphanage to film tonight. We had a good discussion about being careful with the equipment, and reminded them not to let either camera out of their sites. Rest-assured, they were treating these items like pure gold so I’m not concerned in the least. As Andy has learned from Gambella, orphans rarely, if ever, get the chance have something of their own. Kelly noticed how tightly the younger orphans were holding their Ferdinand books the other day.

Right before they left, I told them that we were making movies about our dreams, and asked them about theirs. Mmoloki wants to be a soldier so that he can have a family. Banyatswang wants to be a singer because she can make people smile at the orphanage when she sings, and “orphans do not smile that very much.” Goemeone wants to be a nurse so that she can cure HIV/AIDS. Finally, Malebogo wants to be a teacher so that “I can teach people to make movies like we are doing today.”

Needless to say, I think that was perhaps the most fulfilling hour of my life. Kelly is going to work with them tomorrow on their movie scripts, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing from her then.

Erik