Gabriel, Take 3

i woke up today and didn't realize for a few hours it was my birthday.too sweaty, too overwhelmed by everything, too many trips to the bathroom.Friday. 9.28.07The last day in South Africa. Everyone was scrambling to finish their videos. I was splitting my time between the workshop, and shooting the meetings in the next building over where Pearson had compiled about 40 dignitaries, diplomats, and ministers of education from all over Africa to discuss the plight of the “girl child” in Africa and education. The highlight of the day was when our group of girls presented their videos. There was a lot of laughing and crying. It was a beautiful scene, seeing these disenfranchised girls speaking about their plight to the people who held the power to make a real change. When it was over, most of the girls were crying, hugging, and exchanging emails.

Saturday 9.29.07Flew to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We checked in to a beautiful hotel by the Ocean, courtyard surrounding a swimming pool….went out saturday night and danced till 4am. at first we were dismayed to see a large white crowd, but after a few hours they either vanished or became absorbed by locals. it was very much like an american dance club except for the wandering scantily clad women selling their wares. it took a little getting used to, saying no wasn't enough, sometimes i had to almost forcibly remove myself.Sundaywe flew to Kigoma. there was a mistake on the airline and Andy and James had to stay behind in Dar.

Erik and I arrived and met with the kids here at the Jane Goodall Institute. they are older, and much less sophisticated, education and English-wise. this is a dirt road kind of town, chickens, goats, ditches, smoke, sweat, and intense stares everywhere. the people live in shacks and mud huts. kigoma is on the bank of lake Tanganyika, the deepest lake in africa, and second deepest in the world.i'll skip monday and tuesday (erik has been great about keeping the blog, many great pictures, one of the girl's videos from Joburg is there, watch it if you haven't - it's intense) and skip to wednesday - we went to Gombe National Park, where Jane Goodall did all that famous research. we went out in search of chimps, which apparently are rare to see, and we were going to have to hike far and high, but we got lucky! after about 30 minutes of hiking we started hearing their crazy roars and calls and then all of a sudden we were surrounded. the guides all knew there names, one of them, freud, i think, was born in 1971. these were famous chimps, and i got some great close up shots of them, and even better close up shots of the kids watching them. most of them had never been to gombe, much less seen a chimp. lots of them had the cameras we'd loaned them for the movies they are making and were clicking away.today i started interviewing kids for the video. by the third one i figured out how to get around the whole english and swahili thing: instead of asking an elaborate question like what did you learn about using the computer? i just say "computer" and gesture as if to talk about it, and then they go off, feeling like anything they say is good rather than struggling through the answer and the whole time wondering if the understood the question in the first place.just now erik called me up and tried to cue the beginning of a happy birthday song for me that had been arranged, but it turned out no one knew what he meant. these things happen so often here, you think something is on its way, the vegetarian food, the coffee, only to realize much later it's not coming. it can be infuriating, but then there's all these other moments of gratitude and hilarity that overshadow everything.we had a great breakfast this morning with a bunch of little monkeys playing nearby and trying to grab scraps of food. tonight i hope to go for a swim at the hotel. they have an amazing pool, huge and on the top of the hill with the lake on three sides, all sky and mountains and water. little fishing boats paddling by backlit by the sunset.it's all quite beautiful and inspiring.they are setting up tables and chairs outside in the shade. i sense a party coming. apparently i should be prepared for speeches.thanks for the pictures and words.

yay.

gabriel, 35