Report Kenya 2010 – 3rd part

Publikováno 16.4.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

Jiří Pergl, Enterpreneur, Czech Republic

Report Kenya 2010 – 2nd part

19.1 Regions Laikipia and Nanyuki

We set this day aside to visit city magistrates in various areas of Laikipie where are we active. We informed all the mayors of our organization and what we do for the children in their province. We asked for a donation of a piece of land in the southern part Laipikie where they have rain at least once in a while. Why again and why another piece of land? I certainly can’t support a second orphanage. We need this land to grow food – vegetables, grains and beans to support our future children’s home so the operating expenses will be lower. As usual, all the mayors are excited and they will raise the issue at the city council, there should be no problem. By now you know a bit about Kenya from my reports. Unless we hold some official paper we should not get too excited. My gut feeling is that our chances are around 80%.

After some bureaucratic work and after an introduction of OMDC to the mayors (by the way, everybody who wants something from a mayor hast to go through three steps before he stands in front of him – we went almost immediately, without any complicated procedures) we go to visit some other locations where children are really suffering. I will again introduce these five kids to you with my new offering of our long distance adoption program.

Let me give you a small example of what we encounter here. We leave the main road and continue about 10 km inland. No road, we make our way through bushes, mud, dust, potholes that are half a meter deep and countless other obstacles. I nurse our Toyota Prado at 10 km an hour and than we arrive at… something. I have no clue – some wooden boards glued together with mud, grass, and plastic bags instead of a proper roof. Cyrus, who has seen quite a lot, goes inside to record it on video but is immediately back and he is throwing up. Outside we meet the HIV positive mother with a toddler, there is no father. The little girl we want to adopt is at school. We gave the mother a bag with food and went to look for the school. I have never seen any Masai as startled as those we met on our way. Speaking of which – we cover about 2 km in one hour of driving. We finally made it to the local preschool. Fifteen bewildered Masai girls aged between 3 and 4, together with their teacher, stepped out of a derelict shack and must have thought a UFO had landed. They had never seen a car, let alone a white man! So I was giving out sweets to confused children and putting them into their little mouths because their hands were so dirty. I took photos of a little girl named Elishiba Wambui Kairu and I will include her in our adoption program. After finding the main road again we continue back to Nanyuki.

There is a meeting ahead this evening. I invited all registered members of my organization ONE MORE DAY FOR CHILDREN so we could discuss what lay ahead and what we have already accomplished this week. Among our members there is a lawyer from Nanyuki, a female lawyer from Nairobi, a Nanyuki council member, three social workers, two assistants (Patrick and Cyrus) and the founders–Hellen and I. The doctor promised that he will collect blood samples from all our children so they can be tested and he will also give them an exam to find what other medicine they need. The lawyers discussed how to register OMDC in the north so we could build our children’s house and become active in all of Laikipia province. Patrick and Cyrus promised to make their nine-passenger vehicle they call Matatu available to use for the transport of Hellen and the kids. The social workers were discussing individual cases and then came my turn. Me and my English. Ouchh! I am old enough to remember when we had to learn Russian at school, some of you can perhaps relate, so my English is not textbook, to say the least. For the last ten years I have travelled the World and that is supposed to be the best way to learn. Even though I overuse infinitives and ignore tenses, so far I have always gotten by. So when it was my time, I, the President of our foundation started to speak. I have no idea where it came from, but I managed to give a fluent speech and ended with the pledge: “I promise that if Hellen and you succeed in getting the necessary paperwork, I will return in August and set the first stone in person. If I do not get money from sponsors, I will build our children’s house from my own funds.” Everybody applauded wholeheartedly and there were tears in my eyes.

20.1 Road from Nanyuki to Meru – rescue of 10 Masai girls

Together with Hellen and the social worker Josephine, who happens to be Masai, we announce to the Nanyuki governing body that the foundation ONE MORE DAY FOR CHILDREN will take care of the Masai girls and help them. That cheers up our journalist and he starts writing an article for a newspaper. We go to pick them up from the two orphanages. One other car comes with us because, as we found out, there are 11 of them plus 5 of us and that really will not fit into our Toyota. We come to pick up the first group and, again, I can’t believe my eyes. There are three little children, girls, the smallest is no more than three years old. Were they really forced to marry and have sexual contact? I am so mad I can’t even think straight and just want to punch somebody in the face. Easy, easy. This is not helping and it would only make the girls afraid seeing me this upset.

We seated the girls in our car and head north in the direction of Somalia towards the city of Meru. The reason? Josephine set up accommodations and arranged for a Catholic school for the 11 girls at the premises of the local children’s home. Josephine used to stay in this home and knows the director, a Catholic Father who was her teacher. He accepted the Masai girls, even though it was not for free. This home is sponsored by Americans and Italians.

The road from Nanyuki to Mehru is not bad. The pavement is full of potholes and obstacles that slow you down but much better than that terrible path to Doldol. The problem is that the road is full of drugged drivers that are tripping on stuff called MIRA. It is a flower grown in Kenya and exported worldwide for medical use. Locals chew it to bring them ecstasy. At least three times I barely avoided cars coming from the opposite direction swerving left to right. Often, I have to brake sharply or get out of their way completely so the girls in the back do not come to harm. Turning around to chase the car and kick the driver in the teeth makes no sense. They would not even know what was going on. One of the cars, a pickup truck fully loaded with construction material suddenly appeared in the opposite direction, coming from a fast turn at about 100 km/h, going sideways he straightens his vehicle, missed my rear view mirror by ten centimeters at 80 km/h and than stepped hard on the gas again. Madness.

Going about 40 kilometers an hour we aim for Mehru and I anxiously watch every car in our vicinity. Father, as everybody calls him around here, is waiting for us at the town’s end. He is from Tanzania and he is the director of a truly large complex for children. When we get there, we find that the accommodation and the schools are separated in to girls and boys areas. The complex can handle 750 children and is full. They are fully self-sufficient because they own the land where they grow grains and fruit, and they raise animal stock that provides them with life’s necessities. The children are from all around Africa but the largest numbers are from Somalia and Kenya. After a long inspection of the place and after seeing some of the domestic animals, which takes about 3 hours (locals just love to show you absolutely everything they have done), we go to visit the girls section.
I can’t help but think how strange this must be for our little Masai girls. After all that hardship, without parents, whose murders some of them witnessed, they will live here, among 450 girls they do not know, years–until they reach the age of eighteen. They have no possessions and all of a sudden they are thrown in the midst of turmoil created by the large number of girls of their own age. How will the other girls accept them? They would be separated, of course, they are of different ages. Oh well, I think they will go through many sad moments, but it is still better than staying on the street without food and water.
Anyway, they do not have to stay until 18. It could be they end up on the street again anyway, unless you help me with their adoption. I payed the first month for all 11 girls to stay in this complex. All 11 girls can be adopted into our program.
The specific information can be found at my web presentation www.omdc.cz in the section about the adoption of 11 Masai girls. When the time comes I would like to bring them to our shelter in Doldol. That’s where they come from and where anybody can visit them. For now it has to be the way it is. Best of luck my little girls…

After saying our goodbyes we leave the complex accompanied by 450 girls singing Christian song about school, work and God. Father says that if you keep to those fundamentals, your life on this Earth will be good. I shake his hand, and with the words God bless you, we head for Nanyuki. I spend the afternoon there with lawyers and organizing official sponsorship for adoptive parents from the Czech Republic. This is where my work ends. Work?
It is a lot more than hard work to me, it is a great pleasure.

I would like to conclude by stating that I managed to move our foundation one step further, perhaps two steps. We are known to all government members of the province Laikipia – Nanyuki. All of Kenya knows from newspaper reports of our help to the eleven Masai girls. Together with Hellen we got important people involved – lawyers, doctors and social workers. We established a functioning, furnished office in Nanyuki. We have moved significantly towards building the new children’s home in Doldol – complete documentation and drawings from the local architect are done and Hellen is working on getting a building permit as well as other paperwork necessary to begin construction. I helped 23 children improve their lives so they do not have to worry about the next day. I delivered food to 15 children that are waiting for the adoption and I gathered information including photos that will help in the process of distant adoption. Some of the children are hungry, some are HIV positive and some of them are orphans. I helped 3 children get a roof over their heads for the following six months and provided food for the next one to one and a half months. I paid the rent for the 12 kids you know from my previous visit; those children are also parentless. We saved 11 Masai girls from life on the street and I truly hope that people will help me with their adoption so they can stay off those streets. What to say in the end? Many thanks to all of you for the help you grant to our foundation. Thank you for reading my report all the way through to the end.

Weeks of Jiří Pergl

Professional skin diving

Publikováno 14.4.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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(In memory of Andrea)

At the beginning, it was coincidence, a short meeting and a simple question, as it usually is with interesting projects. Words became action and coincidence turned into an extraordinary set of photos. I photographed a job order where the main theme was a woman’s body; a nude woman’s body to be exact. For these kinds of projects, I usually choose the models myself since picking the wrong ones tends to turn against you at one point or the other. This time, I let the casting agency choose one for me. This small exception to my habits paid off in sense that I met a ‘perfect object’ for one of the most interesting calendars I’ve ever photographed.

This so called ‘object’ was called Andrea Absolonová and she was 20 years old. It all started with a question directed at her body and that it looks as if she was some kind of a professional diver. The answer was rather apposite. Andrea Absolonová was a multiple state champion in the Czech Republic and a bronze medalist of the European Championship in diving. Another question came to mind, regarding the reason why such a successful athlete has to earn money on the side being a model. This answer was no less apposite as the previous one. Andrea simply had to earn money to be able to afford rent for the swimming pool. Her situation then was not at all easy. After being denied an utterly clear and deserved nomination for the Olympic Games in Atlanta by public officials desperate to travel themselves, her main objective and goal was to qualify for the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

It doesn’t take long for a photographer to realize how to combine a young athlete, a conflict based on the short-sightedness of the bosses up top and the correct expression of an opinion into a common ensemble full of controversial photos. The idea was born; it was only a matter of capturing Andrea performing her ‘Olympic jump’ naked, with nudity symbolizing independence and the ability to break the bond with anything that can hamper human endeavor. The problem was that this kind of production costs money and someone has to pay for it, so I started thinking about who to offer these fairly demanding photographic images to in today’s world full of corny adverts and misunderstood artistic intentions. However, it did not take long. Fully explaining the idea, I managed to inspire the mind of Miroslav Houška, the former creative director of I.P advertising; perhaps this was even the beginning of trust and confidence in this company, since later on, I became the creative manager of the branch in Prague of this firm, already with a new name W.I.P. advertising – but that is a different story….
The final decision was made – a company calendar for the year 1999.

The implementation of the project obviously began with a conversation between me and the actress herself, Andrea, since it’s not common for professional platform divers to jump into the water in ‘Eve’s robe’ – naked. This part of the project was a total success, as both parties involved shared the ‘let’s do this’ attitude. The premises chosen for the execution of this project was the sports facility in Pardubice, where Andrea’s ‘home’ swimming pool was located.

Along with the creative director of the already mentioned advertising agency, I arrived to the place a few hours earlier, before the public closing hours of the swimming pool. Yes, closing hours, because I simply cannot imagine doing my job as a photographer in a fully operating swimming pool, especially with such an interesting and perhaps controversial project at hand.

For quite a while, I pondered about which photographic equipment I should choose for this project, especially since I deliberately wanted to exclude any kind of flash apparatus in order to maintain the feel of the lucid atmosphere. Kodak helped me make the decision, supplying the cine film Kodak T-MAX 3200 ISO. I picked this celluloid for two reasons; Firstly, for its unique ability to expose objects in the toughest luminary conditions. Secondly, for a relatively large amount of noise, supposed to create the atmosphere of a document and a report simultaneously. I brought along most of my photographic equipment as usual to make sure everything continued according to plan. I was ready for every situation, at least at that moment, I was sure of it. The bigger the surprise when I took out the first lens and realized it was misty and steamed-up from top to bottom. I tried the remaining lenses, but the same problem remained. Simply speaking, I did not realize humidity can cause such problems so I was slightly taken by surprise. It took me almost an hour to get rid of this small technical problem and press the shutter button for the first time. We finally began roughly around half past nine. Well, not exactly, as we needed to choose which jump will fit our cause the most and what level of height will suffice before anything else. We were also trying to decide between a 7 meter platform and a 3 and a half meter springboard. For larger proximity and better water surface reflection we went with the 3 ½ meter springboard. First tests and practice jumps were made with the swimsuit on in the presence of a video camera and all members of the team waiting for ‘that’ moment. Nevertheless, Andrea continued her jumps ‘dressed’ and was rather reserved, hesitating to take her swimsuit off. So, we sent all the redundant ‘producers’ away and pursued our goal. Andrea carried on with her jumps, but still in her swimsuit. I started to be a little nervous, but at the same time I didn’t want to be the one to give the ‘take everything off’ order. After the next jump, I was afraid that we have misunderstood each other when arranging the terms, so I carefully implied that now is the time for real action. Another jump in the swimsuit followed and I started to feel the whole project will become one large fiasco, only to gaze upon the spring board to see Andrea in the dress code we have arranged, finally being able to document a thirty minute performance of the most interesting jumps in Andrea’s life.

In less than half an hour, I captured roughly fifteen jumps and used up about ten celluloid films. Naturally, I had little time to think about any kind of arrangement in such swiftness of a human body, therefore I used motor-driven winding and was able to take almost 6 images per second. I used my favorite lens Nikor 85mm 1.8 D; a larger one would perhaps make great photos of a person standing on the platform, but would not be able to capture light conditions correctly. I stayed within the shutter speed frame of 250 to 500, wanting to keep at least F2.8 due to the light conditions; and for better movement I used a tripod with very loose articulation. Out of all my cameras, I picked my favorite Nikon F4. I made all calculations manually at three positions and made the respective diameter in the way that even the slightest reflection of water was visible on her naked body.

While picking out the best out of 400, we came to realize that the resulting 6 images were all on 2 celluloid films only. Perhaps even more interesting was the fact the three of those photos were captured consecutively and at the very end of the celluloid, images 35, 36 and 36A. Boldness and courage simply take you further. The whole photo shoot was a success and it continued with a billboard campaign in the Czech Republic and Austria, sponsored by W.I.P. Advertising Ltd.

After the calendar was done, I haven’t met Andrea for more than three years. Then one day, I met with a friend and found out that Andrea abandoned her dreams, closed the chapter of professional platform diving and became a porn star. She must have transferred her Olympic ambitions into this field, as she was supposedly well known world-wide. Even though it shocked everyone who knew her, Andrea lived her life as if there was no tomorrow. According to her friends, she was finally able to afford and indulge in her favorite adrenaline sports, a dog and a house, where she planned to establish her own ‘home’ with her partner. In the eyes of others, Andrea lived her life on full throttle. In 2004, some reporter stopped by and wanted to have a chat about Andrea Absolonová. I had no idea what it was about. He informed me that earlier that year, Andrea lost the fight with a deadly type of cancerous brain tumor. It was a very frustrating and sad afternoon during which I failed to speak a single word. The fact that I knew Andrea’s story made the news of her death even harder to accept. It has touched me and affected me for a long, sad period of time.



Adolf Zika

Taking Pictures of Landscapes – Cityscapes 1

Publikováno 8.4.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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Cityscapes of streets and scenery glowing with the setting sun are always beautiful and dramatic.

Taking Pictures of Landscapes – Cityscapes 1

Using the SCENE mode
Cityscapes of streets and scenery glowing with the setting sun are always beautiful and dramatic. The sunset light changes all the time, leaving only a short period when the light is perfect for taking the picture. If you take too long changing the settings on the camera, you may miss the right moment for a sunset scene. The [SCENE] modes will come very handy in such cases.

Use the [SCENE] mode’s [SUNSET] mode for twilight pictures of the city
The [SCENE] modes allow you to change several settings automatically to match the subject. Try using the [SUNSET] mode to take pictures not only of the sunset itself but also of city scenes illuminated by the sunset glow. The result will be beautiful pictures, slightly tinged with red tones that reproduce the look of the twilight scene.

Many times when you take pictures of twilight scenes, the sunset in the picture does not come out red enough and looks disappointing. The [SCENE] mode’s [SUNSET] mode emphasizes the red hues in the picture. So you will be able to get impressive pictures of sunsets. And you can still use the exposure compensation function even though it is a [SCENE] mode. By adjusting the exposure compensation towards [-] you can get richer sunset colors. You could take several pictures with different adjustment values to try different brightness levels.

The [SUNSET] mode emphasizes the red hues of sunset scenes


	Picture taken using Program Auto (P) mode		Picture taken using SCENE (Sunset) mode)

Combine with exposure compensation to bring out the atmosphere in the picture

Useful things to remember

Some camera models have the [ (White Balance Compensation)] function. By using it and adjusting towards RED you can accentuate even more the red tones in the picture.
The actual effect will depend on the subject but by setting the white balance to [Cloudy Day ] you can emphasize the red tones even more than in real life.

Functionality: Notifications on new contributions

Publikováno 7.4.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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We would like to introduce you to a new functionality of our pages.
You have certainly noticed that there is a new function „Alert when new contribution to the discussion“.

Thanks to this button, you will never forget a discussion that you are interested in and you will get a notice either in your Week of Life inbox or to your mailbox.

Week of Life notifications

If you want to change notifications settings where and how they should be delivered, go to My Account and choose User email tab (picture)

Week of Life notifications

In every row you can find one type of notification. Each type of notification can be set to your internal Week of Life inbox or to your regular email.

Week of Life notifications

If you turn off „Alert when new contribution to the discussion“, all notifications concerning new contribution to a discussion that you have followed so far will be turned off. List of all discussions that you follow is at the bottom of the page (picture). By clicking on the icon of the trash bin next to a discussion, you will turn off notifications only to that specific discussion.

Week of Life notifications

We hope that this new functionality will make the Week fo Life webpage more comfortable for you and that it will make your time spend on Week of Life more pleasant.

Have a nice day, Week of Life team

Searching for light amidst the darkness with kevin v. ton

Publikováno 30.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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kevin v. ton, Graphic designer, Czech Republic

Week of Life Masters is probably the most viewed and observed section at our portal – be it its fascinating photographic content or the ability to understand and fulfill all of the recommended rules and conditions of our project. This is the reason for the section not appearing on a regular basis, since we usually have to wait for someone eligible to appear. Someone who is worthy, based on the photos as well as their personality expressed, and brings forth such interesting material, worthwhile to observe, explore and obtain a few confessions from the author. Such description fits our newest acquisition, a graphic designer with a slightly mysterious name, perhaps a pseudonym, kevin v. ton. The decision process was long but we have reached a decision eventually and after reviewing his answers, we were able to confirm that our choice was spot on, not only thanks to the photos he has shared with us.

How did you get acquainted with the Week of Life project and what made you join its cause?

I found out more information about the project in the middle of October last year from my old friend from southern Bohemia. I came across some basic ideas of the project even before that, but nothing concrete or precise that would catch my attention. Only when my friend showed his upcoming week to me on the monitor, as well as weeks of other photographers portrayed on WoL , finding out that it was a project of Mr. Zika, have I decided to try it out myself. And indeed I started in the scope of the next 14 days. No one knew, not even my family, about me being involved in the project only until a few months later, when all the images were already scanned and the whole week was ready to be published.

The whole idea to merge results of the weekly artistic documentary visions of photographers scattered across the whole world ‘under one roof’ is not only unique, but also useful and necessary in my eyes. The possibility to see individuals from all corners of our planet living their lives in the scope of days and weeks makes us aware of their existence; people with their happiness and everyday issues no matter the color of their skin, the regime into which they were born or the economic prowess of the country they come from.

You work as a graphic designer. Can you be more precise regarding the field of graphic design?

Even though I consider myself as a photographer, I make a living mainly as an artist, draftsman, typographer and a PC graphic designer. Every job involving creative freedom is a challenge, be it a CD cover for a starting underground band or a corporate identity of a flourishing corporation.

As one of the few, you shot your first black and white week on a celluloid film. What led you to make this choice; was there any specific thought behind it?

I’ve been working with black and white celluloid film for almost a quarter of a century now and I still enjoy it very much. After so many years, I’ve managed to learn to carry around one or two of the elderly F3s from Nikon and an M-series Leica; each body with a different glass and a separate celluloid film. Most of the times, I use the Ilford Delta 400 and 3200 or the Neopan 1600.

I still have the feeling that it has unique characteristic features including the resulting visual image, hard to be superseded by digital technology.

Documentary photos and celluloid film shooting are like the groom with a bride – together, they can form a perfect couple, a family able to bring beautiful offspring to the world in the form of astonishing photos. Despite all that, I do use a digital camera and truly search for the charm it undoubtedly has. And thanks to the work connected with the WoL project, I’ve found it – the speed at which it processes and converts the documented data.

It’s quite pleasant to read and find out that there is still someone out there today to trust celluloid films and classic photography. Tell us what you think about the situation in the future and how will it evolve; will the analog world cease to exist or will it survive forever alongside the digital world.

A rather confounded question I must say, as if it concerned foretelling the future. Personally I am convinced that there are many more years to come when analog will go hand in hand with digital. And I certainly hope so. It’s a similar situation to what the good old LPs experienced in the beginning of the 80s when CDs emerged with the digitalization of music. Despite its massive withdrawal from the market, record-players and LPs are still being made and sold thirty years later. Luckily, there are still enough people that like their classic sounds of the records in spite of their ‘nuisance’ such as squeaking, cluttering or the necessity for manual turning of the record to listen to the other side. CDs no longer experience this, but don’t have that extra aspect a person needs as a human being; the element of randomness, the disturbance of stereotypes. The same applies to cine film or the celluloid material as a whole. What tends to be regarded as imperfection, I perceive as an advantage. Having only 36 images available, a person learns to apprehend each situation physically and emotionally, concentrate on the essence of what is at stake and be able to see the resulting image in his or her head before the whole exposure.

To stay simple and practical, another reason to ‘think before you act’ is simply that it takes a while to change the celluloid. For its characteristics, I usually choose the one applicable and corresponding to the given scenery. Frankly, scratches are the cherry on top. Plus, they can always be edited afterwards.

In contrast with the analog, digital allows for massive increase in quantity, but never with the guarantee of higher quality. In reality, it doesn’t really matter which camera you use, analog or digital. Content is the important factor, along with the message, the silent moment. The audience rarely looks at how the image was created; it’s just a technical matter. They either accept the image or they don’t.

When looking at your photos, it is rather obvious you are not afraid to work with dark situations, the atmosphere at night. Do you feel affiliated with black color or the other dark vibrant colors?

I don’t think there is any kind of special and stable affiliation with a specific color, not even black or any other dark color, or white for that matter, since we are mainly talking about my black and white sets. These two colors are counterparts, opposites, unable to live without each other; Jing and Jang. However, I do admit I savor the moment while searching for people in the shadows of the night, looking for the truth exposed by the light from the street lamps, the abandoned store windows, the blinking neon lights or the lights of the passing cars; the search for a human being in murky pubs full of smoke or in corners of a quiet town.

This kind of search for light I do like indeed – roughness of the world, authenticity, moments when the hyped up human desires and needs stand out from the dimness of the night.

The ‘grandmother leaning against the wall’ was chosen as a cover photo for the Editor’s Choice. The homeless under the lamp also cannot go unnoticed along with other similarly themed photos. You seem to have a social sentiment; do you enjoy taking pictures ‘below the main deck’?

I’m interested in human beings above all; their fate, their place under the sun, the fulfillment of a person’s dream as well as the consequences of his/her failure. I tend to look for the essence behind things, the essence of humanity. I seek a person, whoever he may be, wherever he lives, whichever profession he occupies. I seek the person within a person.

Your photos are emotional and frequently evoke reactions, being the main idea behind documentary projects. Would you consider Week of Life to have the possibility, the potential or at least a small chance to inspire emotions, feelings, thoughts in people in the future and maybe make the world a slightly better place?

Week of Life is a very fascinating project and has an enormous amount of potential in the documentary sense. As it goes with documentary projects, it’s a long distance run. And with Week of Life, the distance is infinite, unable to count how many times it makes the way around the whole planet. The possibility to view the world through the eyes of a colleague photographer, perhaps living exactly on the other side of our planet Earth, is simply amazing. If the high standard set will be kept above a certain level on a long-term basis, perhaps even kept higher than intended, and will not demean itself to more or less a shared family album with characteristic legends as it is with other social portals, it will become a magnificent photographic archive, a document so large in extent and uniqueness with no equal. Emotions, feelings and thoughts – something that WoL already evokes today and I am once again convinced that this photographic path gives us the possibility to get to know each other and remove all kinds of prejudice, traditional stereotypes and attitudes, contributing to the advancement of thinking of mankind and making the world a better place, even if it’s by a tiny bit.

Weeks of kevin v. ton

Taking Pictures of Landscapes – Snowscenes 2

Publikováno 26.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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Snow scenes in pure white can be very beautiful. It’s also not that hard to take pictures of them, but it may be difficult to capture that pure-white look.

Taking Pictures of Landscapes – Snowscenes 2

Using Exposure Compensation
Snow scenes in pure white can be very beautiful. It’s also not that hard to take pictures of them, but it may be difficult to capture that pure-white look. Try this technique to get the snow-white look in the picture.

Using Exposure Compensation to Bring Out the Look of Snowfields
Most cameras include the Exposure Compensation function. You enhance the whiteness simply by adjusting towards the [+]. But be careful as this may result in a picture with a look different than in reality. If you emphasize the white color too much, the whole quality of the snow may be lost so check the effect on the monitor while making the adjustment.
The Exposure Compensation function changes the brightness of the picture. Using it you can alter the impression of the picture or the condition or look of the subject. Snow scenes are one example of the subjects for which it is hard to adjust the exposure compensation. By adjusting towards [+] you can get a whiter, brighter picture but doing it too much can result in overexposure. To be on the safe side you can take several pictures with different adjustment values.

Changing the look of a snow scene using Exposure Compensation

Useful things to remember

Adjusting too much towards [+] can result in overexposure. On some models you can check for overexposure on the playback display after taking a picture, and other models allow you to check the white balance using a histogram while taking pictures.
Auto bracketing is very convenient to take several pictures at different adjustment values. The auto bracketing function takes a number of pictures changing the adjustment value automatically. This can be handy especially when it is difficult to find the best adjustment value. Open "Useful Tips: Using the auto bracketing".

Live weight

Publikováno 22.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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There’s always something happening at the Prčík household. Mr. Prčík is simply that sort of person who cannot spend his entire day in front of a TV or in a pub with a beer in his hand. This may be one of the reasons behind owning not only a pig, hen and goats, but also three horses.

his ‘animal farm’ obviously consumes a whole lot. Self-produced hay is long gone and therefore, it is purchased in bulk. It is then stacked in the hay-loft above the stable with a fork lift. It’s important to measure both height and length, so that the hay actually fits into the door. Physics plays its part here and so does the lever along with gravitation. The front of the tractor is light and tends to flip over when dealing with heavy loads. Initially, a 50kg weight is placed on the front axle to balance it out. However, with these heavy loads it’s not enough. So, most of the time, it was my wife Lenka who dropped in and assumed the role of the so-called ‘live weight’. This bale of hay however, extremely compressed and hence very heavy, needed an even larger weight to balance the tractor out, so I stepped in myself. My 80kgs next to the original 50kg weight was still not sufficient. The front wheels of the tractor still appeared to float in the air. What now?

Someone from the crowd said: ‘Well, it’s time for grandma (Mrs. Prčíková) to get on the tractor’. Naturally, it was an exaggeration for the moment and humor was the only intention. But who would have thought that at that precise second, she would hop on a platform and climb onto the front of the tractor without hesitation and any real problem. She lay down on her belly and presented herself as ‘live weight’ for the first time in her life. The bale of hay was under the roof in no time and grandma was able to climb down again.

Simply speaking, this was an incidental moment typical to life in the village, where everyone needs to be practical and deal with obstacles on their own, even if it means using your grandma as ‘live weight’.

Zdeněk Dvořák

New section: Authors´column

Publikováno 19.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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The author’s column is of a different nature than other sections of Week of Life. It’s that very part which should ponder about the essence and the endeavor regarding the viability of this colossal documentary project, with WoL surely deserving such praise, having witnessed many aspects of human life and different fates. The columns and their authors respectively, should derive their thoughts from this very idea, draw the energy from the photos themselves and thereafter process that and put on paper in a way typical of their narrative style, presenting us with advice, suggestions, the knowledge they’ve gained or simply ‘just’ their prudent ideas. These ideas should not only be educational, but perhaps also a little scientific. They should not be beneficial only to the people that are already a part of the WoL project, but also to those that somehow find their way here coming from a different world. Maybe then and as a result they will like it here JUST THAT BIT MORE and decide to stay.

The phenomenon of photography

Publikováno 19.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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Photography is perhaps the most characteristic phenomenon of our age. It’s irreplaceable in science, in the media, and has become so connected to ordinary life that we no longer ponder its multiple forms, functions and exposure. We have taken photography for granted, but at the same time, it has ironically become a significant part of our reality.
We can only assume that hopefully, the next generation will be able to absorb intellectually its indisputable role in the field of arts. They will no longer disparage photography as an artist’s means of expression or ignore it amongst other forms of art just because it has found practical uses and has been subject to mass dispersion throughout civilization.

Photography and architecture are by far the most loyal forms of art. Nevertheless, not every structure is an artistic masterpiece; the same applies to photographs. Both of these fields surprisingly have a lot in common; they create the space we flow in and determine its visual aspect. Both fulfill our needs and create new ones. Similarly, they have multiple layers of nature and character, as well as a debatable fate. We live within images, symbols and signs. Etymology explains the origin of the word photography in two Greek words: phos (light) and graphé (drawing / brush).

A picture giving face to the Great Depression,
author: Dorothea Lange

‘Drawing with light’, a person cannot resist this notion, symbolizing the genesis of a new image. No wonder we are predetermined to perceive and judge photography based on the mechanism known as artistic painting. Not only the philosophy but also the history of art is obsessed with this comparison variations of it. However, it is an attempt to pass judgment on and systematize something unknown by a proven entity. Photography is an individual factor in itself. It does not need to be compared to other aspects of art or anything else for that matter. The belief that photography is just a continuation of paintings is as pathetic as claiming that man has evolved from monkeys. Just as it was the case of human kind evolving in parallel with apes as relatives, the same applies to the evolution of photography and painting (i.e. the remark that photography is only a matter of the new modern age is short-sighted). People need to realize that the invention of ‘camera obscura’ and photography itself has come a long way.

The first photograph,
author: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Human nature urges us to document our existence and create, as well as to follow other significant instincts like destruction and reproduction. During the Paleolithic age, also known as the Stone Age, 2.7mil to 2 thousand years before Christ, stone was obviously the hit of the era. Our dear ancestors were amazed by stone and remained dazed by its technical possibilities. Everyone simply liked stone suddenly. ‘Stone for every family’ was probably the chant of the eldest and skilful homo habilis; the upstanding homo erectus, and, lastly, the reasonable homo sapiens. Who would have thought that ordinary stone would start off the evolution of our civilization in the direction of brighter tomorrows? The last stage of the Paleolithic era gave birth to the first cave paintings, 15 to 30 thousand years ago. This shows that humans already tended to create and document despite their limited skills and knowledge. Some of the conventionalized paintings illustrate that humans painted not only to document random things, but artistically documented their existence and reality to. They perfected their technique on clay, ash, and charcoal. Jumping a few thousand years ahead to the 7th century, it was even further perfected by oil. This is evident from the discovery by French scientists of a complex of caves in the Afghani Bamyan, where we witness the oldest oil paintings in the world—Buddhist paintings.

‘Drawing with light’

Not long after, a fair 600 years later in the 13th century, oil arrived in educated Europe. The further evolution of artistic painting is quite accurately known, since the history of art is taught in similar fashion all over Europe, and no one has really deviated from this Eurocentric precedent. Only a handful of bizarre philosophic-aesthetic theories stray away.
Where does the path of photography begin? 350 years before Christ, when Aristotle discovered the principle of camera obscura. 1,996 years later, in the year 1646, the first laterna magica was invented, and in the year 1825, Nicéphore Niépce developed the oldest known photo in the world. A rapid succession of events followed: In 1888, George Eastman patented the first box camera and introduced the first commercially successful camera designed for roll film to the market. He also registered the Kodak trademark. The first of the ‘easy to use’ products, Kodak Brownie N° 1 box camera, was advertised that same year.

In 1948, the legendary brand Hasselblad enters the market with its first product. In the same year, people were able to purchase a Polaroid with its ‘instant’ photos. 21 years later, Willard Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first CCD chip in Bell’s laboratories. Within the scope of the history of photography, this technology brings us to the present time, influencing the entire world. In 1994, the market was enriched by the first digital camera with CCD technology, distributed on mass scale: AppleQuickTake100. CCD technology – Charge coupled device – exploits the advantages of chip instead of celluloid film. In crude terms, the photosensitive circuit detects the light and converts it to an electric charge, which is then measured and converted to a digital image. This kind of system is composed of an enormous amount of ‘miniature cells’ catching light individually. The digital image is assembled from particular points – pixels; the more ‘cells’ a sensor has, the higher resolution of the resulting digital image. In other words, by this process we gain more data. As a matter of fact, the mechanism closely resembles the functions of the human eye. Thus, this is the reality of the present. The technological progress of the photographic camera cannot be confused with the history of photography, especially not with the artistic part. Nevertheless, it’s always an advantage to have at least the slightest idea about things that come across and affect our everyday lives.

A photo that destroyed one of the industrial sectors, author: Murray Becker

The purpose of technology is to help us and make our lives easier. Today, it is as easy as ever just to pick up a camera and practically take a picture of anything we desire. As a result, the practice of photography has changed compared to previous times: Comparing the present situation to the one a hundred years earlier, we come to the conclusion that in those days, the target situations to be shot by the camera were carefully chosen, composed and arranged. Taking pictures was more of an occasional event. The outcome was usually artificial—perfectly satisfying the setup and arrangement. Today, photos are not bound to some sort of responsibility for the result. The process of photography is not as elaborate anymore and is nowhere as expensive for the ordinary person, who now has the ability to afford spontaneous and imminent images. There are no boundaries for the creative mind. Therefore, the camera’s notation of certain situations can be far more sincere than before.
Lately, the trend has reached the situation where we hear negative evaluations and opinions about the present time; that photography is heading towards a decadent slope, that its value is degraded by postproduction, that it has become profane, and, finally, that its standard has dropped both on the amateur every-day level, as well as on the artistic professional level. Sentimental memories follow, praising the days when photography was ‘worthy’.

A photo that made surrealism real,
author: Philippe Halsman

Hardly anybody realizes that these beliefs lead to a dead end. The spiritual quality of photography is not based on the technology used, since technology is not the result but only the tool. According to what you desire, you are free to choose the respective tool. If you choose to take pictures on a large light sensitive glass with a box camera and would like to return to the wet collodion process, no one will stand in your way. On the other hand, if you chose to use the Hasselblad H4D-40 and take pictures in the RAW format in the 1880s, tough luck. The present day simply offers a wider range of possibilities, nothing more and nothing less. The photography of old cannot be considered better just on the basis of being more respectable, scarce and a matter of rare occasion, since people could not simply afford any other approach. The same applies to the present day. Photography cannot be labeled as decadent just because it has expanded on a massive scale. Present day photography can’t be discriminated against based on the technological-economic aspects resulting in its affordability. The conditions are far more favorable today than a hundred years ago, true, but it is surely not the decisive and relative criterion of the consequent aesthetic experience. The gifts of progress need to be utilized without guilt and remorse. And besides, mastering digital technology requires similar expertise as handling film does, if a person wants to accomplish truly top-notch results. You need your eye and a sensibility for light no matter what. A perfect photo always stands out, no matter how many people around us own a camera.

“…sentimental memories, praising the days when photography was ‘worthy’.”

The Week of Life project allows for a wonderful thing: it enables every one of us to illustrate our week, documented by photographs, in pure democratic fashion. It creates a mosaic consisting of individuals and their photographic ‘manuscripts’. These photos show who we are, what we do, what we consider important, what we like to share and disclose to others or on the contrary, what we indirectly try to keep in our private sphere. This indirect approach tells a lot about us: how we perceive things around us, how we ‘filter’ our reality, what is our inner order of values, how spontaneous we are, or the other way around, what our abilities are when it comes to composing with reason. Week of Life works as an all-round visual exploration probe.

Members of many cultures participate on this project. Every culture predestines how we view and perceive the world around us, be it in form of the language we speak and think in or the respective religion. For example, each society has its own perception of time and moreover, every one of us individually creates an attitude of one’s self. Personally, I identify myself with Heidegger’s conception of time and life as a ‘question of being’, ‘da sein’ to be exact. I consider his theory regarding the sense of being and creation of time as the most meaningful and concise. On the other hand, we can expect a Hindu, for instance, to distance himself from my views and beliefs as he or she lives in his or her own philosophical system, and so on. The perception of time is just a small raindrop in a pool of various factors that influence our attitude towards life. Let us compare, for example, the idea of beauty of individual societies, the notions of taboo within different cultures, various habits, the terms of social coexistence, the functional models of family life, etc. etc. All of this makes us who we are as well as determines our ability to reflect upon miscellaneous events and interpret them. Therefore, all of this is considered a factor when we press the shutter of a camera. We no longer need to paint the inside of a cave; we simply hang photos on our walls.
Therefore, Week of Life gathers testimonials in the form of photographs. And after some time passes by, it would certainly be interesting to examine these photos closely and perhaps come up with several comparisons. The individual pieces both directly and indirectly predicate the status of the society and its cultural development. The potential of the ‘Week’ is substantial regarding the essence of scientific visual studies.
Furthermore, it is extremely interesting to inspect one another, as well as ourselves, while gathering memories—moments rare as well as common, and so on. Most sets also include self-portraits, as though we follow some kind of an instinct to perpetuate ourselves. The way we approach our self-portrait has a lot to say emotionally in itself. One person captures only parts of his or her body – for example, his feet at rest or his own shadow or reflection. Another person will stand in front of a mirror naked and without hesitation capture him/her self ‘totally’. Many of us decide to conceive this photographic documentary in a specific style, which is ever more interesting, since we can monitor our own games and quirks.

A photograph that enabled genius minds to have a sense of humor, author: Arthur Sasse

Photography is a democratic medium. It captures positive events but also negative ones, as well as the occasional pathological phenomenon. Thanks to this medium we can not only inform others that we spent our vacation in the Canary Islands, but also show that children in the north of Kenya are dying of hunger and as a consequence of deadly diseases. Through the means of photography we can document such elusive moments as a snowflake melting the instant it lands on our hand. We can catch precious moments such as the first gasps for air of a new-born child. And from a different perspective, we can capture things of a cruel nature, for instance the immediate expression of a person’s face stunned by the sight of a war-infested city bombarded to ashes. A Photo never illustrates more than what really is happening in the world.

About the Author

My name is Stanislava Kopáčková and I’m 22 years old. I come from a little village in Central Bohemia called Obecnice. After graduating from high school in the city of Příbram, I continued my studies at the Faculty of philosophy of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, in the field of aesthetics. At present, I’m finishing my bachelor’s program and preparing for the Leaving Certificate Exam and the defense of my thesis, called ‘The insight into the aesthetics of culture of living by Adolf Loose and Le Corbusier’. I live in Prague and work here as an import manager at an advertising agency. As a model, I co-operate with artistic photographers in the Czech Republic as well as abroad. The person that has affected my life the most is my mother, who taught me everything I know and what it is that makes me who I am. On top of that, I have been greatly touched by photography, architecture and in the last year and a half, punk culture, and Harley Davidson motorcycles. I am fascinated by the systems of nature and its laws, by oceans, space, and life in primeval forests. I like to experience how things actually work. I like to travel. I like everything that is amazing: a well-built house, an ably tailored cloth, the furniture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the elegant automobiles of the 30s. My ideal plan for the distant future is to live in a warm remote place, with a house on the hill by the seaside, drink gin and tonic, raise grandchildren, relax in my private luxurious library, and tend to a herd of goats. Life is a journey with constant lessons prepared for us, but it all earns its meaning only when we have someone beside us to share it with and love. Otherwise it loses its significance. I feel at ease in the arms of the man of my heart. This kind of feeling cannot be measured or compared to anything else, perhaps only with having children. A person is condemned to existing; it is just a matter of understanding that it is a gift.

Report Kenya 2010 – 2nd part

Publikováno 18.3.2010 | Autor: Zdeněk Kamrla

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Jiří Pergl, Enterpreneur, Czech Republic

Report Kenya 2010 – 1st part

15.1. Nanyuki

In the morning we finished food-sorting and found we have no rice, beans, nor green grams (a kind of local green berry).
I guess we counted wrong, so we return to the center of Nanyuki and buy the rest of the needed supplies so everybody gets the same amount. While the boys are sorting the food, we go with Hellen to set up an account at Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya for all our transactions, such as money transfers from adoptive parents, money to be used for various purposes (school, doctor, hospitals, etc.) and also so we comply with the requirements of Kenya’s government, which likes nothing more than to oversee any transactions where money is involved. Just to set up an account for an organization like OMDC in Kenya you need five people. Only I and our lawyer can withdraw money. Others must undersign and supply photos, ID and documentation certifying where they live. One really funny part is that the bank does not make copies for you, and to do so you have to run to the shop across the street; the machine they have must be one of the first ones ever produced and it produces shabby copies. If the bank does not accept the result, only then will they use the new Minolta copier they have right there on the desk. We spent five and a half hours in the bank to start one account. Coffee or water? Are you mad? This is Kenya! The fact is that they fill in everything by hand, and they spend ages gluing the photos to the documents. This I can accept. But the copying ordeal really tested my resolve.
That afternoon, after a phone call, we went to visit a local architect. Why? As I said, I wanted to build new children’s home in Doldol and I intended to come trough. I put forth my idea to the architect about a home for 60 kids, including a school, church, kitchen, lounge, bedrooms, washrooms, and a fence. I proposed a U-shaped complex and he informed me that his take is 6% of the complete cost. Needles to say, I flinched. After a long discussion where I carefully explained exactly what the purpose of this project was, he finally had a change of heart and agreed to give us a discount and charged 55 thousand for the complete project. This does not include building inspections (only round stamps for revisions). He claims he also likes children, so I guess we are lucky. I agreed to give him a deposit of 50% (again from my own pocket) and I insisted he finish the whole project in 10 days (I am returning home then). He shook his head, but said it could be done. We shall see.
Now to the children’s home in Nanyuki. We brought a lot of sweets, lollipops and 20 children’s films on DVDs in English. No food here, as I mentioned, the government has started to care about this place and the kids don’t go hungry any more. There are two new residents here, little sisters Brenda and Grace. One of them got here 14 days ago terribly beaten, face bloodied and burned by the blade of a knife that had been heated over a fire. That really got to me and I will try to get the girls in our adoption program. Later we play some games, sing a few songs, take pictures together, pass the sweets around and all of a sudden evening is upon us.
A journalist from Daily News Kenya is visiting our resort and he wants to talk to me. He promises he will do everything to give our organization maximum exposure with the most important local companies (Telefonica Safari, Barclay’s bank and others) that have resources to help us. Hellen is going to take care of that in the future and she will try to get some donations and sponsors for the construction of our orphanage and eventually for its upkeep. The journalist and I talk about the Czech Republic and our plans here in Kenya. How did I get involved, and so on. He tells me about that slaughtered village near Doldol. All the newspapers in Kenya are now writing about this incident. About 10 little girls that survived the carnage and then escaped are mentioned together with some other girls who escaped from marriages they were forced into. Supposedly they ran for 200 km, some of them barefoot, without provisions and water. They made it through the territory of elephants, lions and other wild animals towards Nanyuki. Just before they reached the town, one of the local humanitarian organizations placed half of them into a children’s home in Nanyuki. The second half of the group is being cared for by an Italian organization that runs an orphanage at the outskirts of Nanyuki. Unfortunately both facilities are full and the girls won’t be able to stay there more than three to four days. Such a touching story. We should do something about this. We have already, together with our social worker, come up with something but let’s get to that bit later..
PS – The LG service center still hasn’t called…

16.1. Nanyuki and the Slum in Likii

Today we started with a visit to those 23 adopted children, we bring food and gifts. Because we arranged these visits for the weekend we were sure the children are not in school and all of them will be present. Today we managed to visit 16 adopted children. We have information about how they live, photos and videos where the children are holding photos and gifts in their hands. The caretakers and parents received food donations and they wrote down everything that each particular child might need. It is all pretty much the same – school or preschool fees, uniforms, school bags, books, pencil and pads, food and rent money, sometimes even a bed so the child doesn’t have to sleep in one bed with three or four of his siblings. Those who are unfortunate enough to contract HIV will need specific medication in addition to all the other stuff.
Shortly after the visit to a nine-year-old child, I was in for a shock again. There was always a bunch of kids around our car asking for sweets and gifts, and I gladly obliged. Than I noticed a little girl, about five-years–old, with a backpack holding her four-year-old sister by the hand, with the other stretched towards me. Cyrus asked her in Kiswahili what had happened and she answered that her mother had died and they had no relatives. For the last three days they hadn’t eaten and had been living on the streets. I immediately took them to the local “slum restaurant” and purchased food for them – two kinds of mash, which is bread and milk for toddlers. Seeing how they gulped everything down just showed me they were not lying. The girls were in tears when they sat at the table, but as they ate, smiles were beginning to appear on their faces. I felt so much for them that I prepaid their food for four days at this restaurant and issued a stern warning to the service should they get any funny ideas.
We return to our resort dead tired and go to sleep early. The next day there will be three children in the Likii slum that we must visit and fifteen families with children that are really struggling. I don’t sleep too well, worried about what we are going to do regarding those three kids keeps me awake. I finally come up with a solution but it will have to wait for tomorrow. Good night…

17.1. Nanyuki and the Slum in Likii

In the morning we take off in the direction of the Slum in Likii and go to visit the three adopted children. Again we distribute gifts and obtain information and records. One thing doesn’t add up, though. Some of our adopted children are HIV positive since their birth because of their mother’s blood. Now we are asking about the children’s health and we learn that a new test is negative. That is nonsense! Our OMDC doctor told me that there are isolated cases where a child that is positive at birth can get negative result after six months which does not necessarily means that he is out of the woods. But these kids are five or six years old and there is just no way they all of a sudden become negative! We have to make new and better tests. That will be upon Hellen and our doctor because I will not be around by that time.
Hellen pulled out a list of other kids. Again, sad stories prevail. These include children without parents or who have an HIV positive mother only, or they contacted AIDS at birth, and many other unfortunate cases. They don’t go to school, don’t have enough to eat and eventually they join the glue-sniffing derelicts on the street. We took photos of some of these kids and gave them bags with food. When I return home I will prepare their material so you can adopt them. There is one remaining big bag in the car, it is full of stuffed toys from Chvaletická school. Big smiles all around when we distribute them among the children. Too bad Patrick messed up and did not set up the manual controls on our camera correctly, nearly all of the photos are useless. Hopefully the video will be better.
So, since early morning I have been thinking about those three children and how to solve their precarious situation. First of all we have to find them. When we finally do, they are happy to see me and immediately jump into our car. I ask them where they live and they take me to their pitiful dwelling. It is built of clay, has two broken beds, and the one without any mattress was theirs. No blankets, they keep worm at night by huddling next to each other. You may ask whether it is cold in Kenya? Laikipie province, better yet area around the Mount Kenya, is 2,200 meters above sea level. At night at our resort I use two blankets and still shiver with cold. To take a shower in the morning is quite a challenge. During the day the temperature reaches 30 degrees, but nights are really darned cold here. The temperature at the moment is somewhere between 8 and 12 degrees. A kitchen? Well, the place for the fire and the cooking pot is near one of the beds and some kind of bench with three legs. And that is all. Either way, this is their home. I found the owner of this dump, and asked her how are they doing as far as rent payments. They owe for the last six months. Again I used my own resources, settled the debt and paid for the next six months until I arrive again. I left two bags of food (60 kg) and kindly asked their neighbor, if she could use them to cook for the children. I can’t prevent her from keeping some of the food, but I strongly emphasized that this food is only for the children. Then we distributed lots of sweets again and also some clothes that I brought from the Czech Republic, including one set of baby clothes.
Good work. We are leaving Likii slum with smiles on our faces, going to our resort, and I, for one, am really glad it turned out this way.

18.1. Journey to Doldol

It is morning again and we leave for Doldol. This is the most important part of the whole trip, this is why we are here. First we visit this so-called, municipal office to get the piece of land to build our children’s home, and then we want to see the three Masai girls, our latest adoptions. After conquering a road without pavement where you would not have a chance without a 4×4 with increased ground clearance, we head for the mayor’s office in Doldol. Luck would have it that the mayor has changed in the last six month and the new one is absolutely unaware of our case. This is Kenya and unless you have some iron-clad paper, nothing is granted. A new valuable experience, though. Anyway, we proposed our plan to him, told him about our organization and he was very excited. No obstacles from his side, but we have to register our organization in the provincial office of Laikipia Nord. Our OMDC is registered with Laikipia East. So, if we want to function here, a second registration is needed.
We also learn that Doldol has 2 DC (municipal offices). Again they are split according the cardinal directions. So we get the mayor of the west to join us and visit the mayor of the east 🙂 There we again explain our organization, what are we doing, what our aim is and what exactly we want to build here. I have no idea how important this guy is, we get on really well, on a first name basis, we joke a lot, I tell him about the Czech Republic, the company I have and that from our profit I want to build this orphanage, and so forth. Later we talk about Masai history, about his love of children and how he agrees with the aim of our organization and has no problem with a donation of land. He also shows me his new building that is currently being finished. Called Nasary School it is an elementary institution for kids from preschool to the 6th grade. He will also erect three additional buildings separated by gender, with a dining room and kitchen included. During the week children can sleep here. I was beginning to worry that somebody had beaten me to my plan. But fear not, his project is strictly business; children have to pay for school and the room and board. Laikipe Nord badly needs a project like mine! So after the coming discussion at the city council, it should be no problem to get our piece of land after we register, of course. Hellen has her work cut out for here while I am gone.
Either way, we are leaving the city to see our three adopted children and we have smiles on our faces. Cyrus and Patrick are really excited that the mayor is traveling with us and keeps telling me how great it is that we had run into this gentleman. I am sort of unimpressed, mayor here mayor there. Guys keep taking photos with this man so it finally dawns on me that this is not just any mayor and I ask them who this guy was. It is supposedly one of the most influential people in Kenya and he happens to be the spokesperson for Kenya’s President. He apparently is number three in Kenya’s government and actually is higher than the ministers. His face is in the papers and on TV all the time. Well, my jaw dropped. Absolutely great that we can introduce our OMDC to Kenya’s government in this wonderful way! I will remember this experience for a long time. Either way, at least I know why they had to build additional anmunicipal office for the eastern region 🙂

We arrive at the school on the outskirts of Doldol and this is where our 3 adopted Masai girls are. Change again! The head teacher of the school is a new one. The woman that we gave the school fee money for the two girls last August is no longer here. The current head teacher is unaware of our organization and only one of the girls (Soina Lekianit) still goes to the school. The other two (Nais Lowari a Nolari Moiyale) got expelled because they had no text books. What had happened to those books we found out bit later. I inform the head teacher we will pay the school fee for Soina, Nais and Nolari and that they must be admitted back tomorrow. We give presents to Soina and go to look for Nais. By the way, Soina has grown beautiful dark hair, straight without curls which is highly unusual here. She looks very nice.

To find Nais we have to get some help from a local teacher. We travel about 20 km through the wilderness, among elephants and lions, over terrain that is challenging even for our sturdy 4×4. A small fortress made of thorny cactus plants comes into our view. That’s what I call an effective fence! The thorns are 6 cm long and they penetrate even my Solomon shoes. Three of them are in my leg before I find the entrance. I whimper about the pain and complain about those fine, sharp points staying under my skin. The teacher tells me that sometimes when kids step on cactus barefooted up to 20 thorns need to be pulled from their tiny feet. The child usually cries a little and then goes out to play. Spoiled Europeans cry and seek medical help concerned about poison. So I grind my teeth and get going. By the way, Masai never go to a doctor. No matter what. Not even at childbirth, and that’s why their exact birthday is complicated to find. They know roughly how old they are, but that’s about it. I have to laugh when Nais tells me she was born on Friday but she does not know exactly what year. We come to the house itself. It is made of animal dung, wood and grass. Nais is sitting outside and holds a month-old infant in her arms. I was here in the summer and she was at school, so what happened? I ask her mother and she tells me that that spring she had been sold to marry a Masai for two cows; they simply had had no food… Oh boy… Those Masai! We gave Nais presents and food and told her she should return to school. Nais is gifted and speaks three languages fluently. We arranged with her mother that she would take care of the child while Nais goes back to school. We did a good job here and are very pleased. Returning to my car some local kids are showing me the way so I avoid those awful thorns. Then we are on the way to visit the third of the girls who also left school. Again, she receives gifts and food and she promises the teacher she will gladly join class in Doldol. It’s getting dark, and we are leaving, accompanied by the sounds of Nanyuki wilderness.