As a part of our class we have been assigned a journal to write in as we go through the class and this experience. We handed our journals in during the last class period and frankly, I know mine has fallen short.
You can barely see Darla's hand journaling, but everyone must be in deep thought about the trip and the journey they will take. :)
I used to journal all of the time, but lately I can always find something more important to do during that time. My goal for the day/week is to write more in my journal about my fears, apprehensions, excitements and goals for my trip to Africa.
I also have trouble simply writing down ideas for my media portion of the trip in my journal. Writing down goals for that is a good thing to do, but I need to put more in my journal about how I can relate that to my life and this journey to Chogoria we are all on.
We will see how my goal goes! I hope to start today and continue journaling about this experience as we go. I am also making a goal to journal more generally more often. This goal might start with a new blog I am toying with creating.
Look forward to a post about some of the music I am learning and will be teaching to the rest of the class. Should be lots of fun!
On campus here in Jamestown, we are all hurrying to prepare for the many midterms and projects due before Spring Break. This means that we are now only a semester from leaving for Kenya, which means, this blog is about to get a lot more regular.
The goal right now is two posts a week, a reflection from the Wednesday before and pictures from that week's class. Since last week, I didn't take any pictures, we will have this informational post and then a guest reflection from Jacie Fabro, one of the students who is also going to Kenya.
If there are any questions you wish to have answered on the blog, feel free to ask them in the comments.
ALSO: look forward to
video blogs
a post about Villiage Hopecore International
AND a slideshow to show you all of what we have done
Thanks for following this blog and experiencing this journey with us.
I know I speak for the whole class when I say that it is nice to know there are people who are following us as we prepare.
In my hear, I am more than a child of war. I am talented. I am a musician. I am Acholi. I am the future of our tribe. --Dominic
Our last class was Thursday, February 2nd.
It was movie night, and after handing in our journals we watched "Wardance."
This documentary follows three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.
This documentary was an incredibly moving hour and a half. We were able to see the way children live in their culture in Africa. Of course, the movie took place in Uganda and we will be in Kenya, but society is very similar.
We will see families that interact like the ones in this documentary when we travel to Chogoria, but we won't see families in the same situations.
In the documentary, people are afraid of being killed and abducted. They are protected by men with guns and must live close together because there is danger in the areas around them. Chris assured us that where we will be in Chogoria is much safer and people there have not gone through as much loss because of war and unrest.
"Wardance" showed the three children triumphing over their circumstances. It showed them working hard to do well nationally with their music. It made us laugh, cry and think about our own lives and what you we working towards. What are our goals? What are we willing to work to achieve and overcome?
Listening to the discussion during and after the movie, I think the biggest thing the class took away from the movie was the immense strength the children had. They came from fragmented families, poverty and extremely sad and challenging backgrounds and yet they were able to find happiness and success. Do we have that kind of strength? Could we find that emotion and perseverance inside of ourselves? We will never know, but understanding how those circumstances change a person and change the culture is important for us to know before we travel there.
Next class, we will have speakers who lived in Africa for several year.
The Journey continues and we continue to learn things about Africa and things about ourselves.
Check out the video! I highly recommend this video to any one looking for a good watch.
