Breakfast has been pretty plain lately waiting for market day tomorrow. We just had bread to eat and coffee to drink. At least we had picked up some peanut butter in Kigali.
Our rescheduled movie night is coming up on Wednesday and we wanted to go to UNATEK and finalize and print the new, corrected posters and get them up around the campus. I was also going to start installing some editing software at the computer lab to make sure it was going to be up and running by the time we needed it. If there were going to be issues, I wanted to know about them now and not two weeks down the road when I wanted to be teaching editing. The three of us went there together but we parted ways once we got there, myself to the computer lab and the other two to print.
The software installed without a hitch and I got it up and running, there were no issues. Unfortunately, there are hardware issues. NONE of the computers at UNATAEK have a firewire port, so there is no way to connect a camera/deck to transfer video to the computer to be edited. That is a pretty, pretty, pretty….pretty important part of the editing process. I am not interested in just doing this one job here and taking off. I have to figure this out. I really want to leave something behind for these students. If I just give them footage, use my camera, my computer, etc., when I leave and take all that with me, what did I really do? Show the students a couple neat tricks they’ll never use again? So Kara and I started talking and we need to figure out a way to fundraise some money and get them at least ONE camera and ONE firewire card so they have the capabilities to produce a video project on their own. There has to be film schools in Canada getting rid of bottom of the line SD cameras. Firewire cards aren’t that much money, I found some online for $18. We think that perhaps at our art show in Kigali coming up would be a good opportunity to raise some money to buy these things for these kids and get them up and running. They have all the ingredients – they are creative and motivated, so all they need is to get the tools to let that out.
We all met up on campus and Lama had more meetings to do, so again we separated, this time Kara and I walking around and eventually heading home. Magnifique (Ndambe) arrived just after lunch because he was visiting relatives nearby and wanted to say goodbye to us. We hung out and it was really fun. We discussed and debated the concept of lying here. I find it so funny how lying is part of the culture. How my waiter can let me order tiramisu, and then thirty minutes later return to say there is none, and not only is there no tiramisu there is no dessert whatsoever. This was an upscale restaurant, he HAD to have known they had no dessert when I ordered. And I would understand if he took my order and then sent someone to go get some tiramisu and serve it to me, the lie works and makes sense. He buys time to pull it off. But in this scenario, and so many I am encountering here, there is no function to the lie. It’s hilarious. Even Lama and Magnifique agree, and they do their best to explain but I’ll never understand it. Every perspective on it is funny and we laugh while we talk about it. The thing that doesn’t make sense, is how does it not bother the people here! I know I am coming from another culture, but does it not frustrate the local people too to be lied to? Another common lie regards distances. If you ask someone how far something is, you might as well not. They’ll say 5-15 minutes no matter what. Even if it is over an hour. Lama says it is so you don’t get discouraged, they want to let you think you can walk it. What?! Let me make that choice for myself! How come no one questions that when they’ve been walking for hours and they’re still not there, that maybe the truth would have been nice? To me, what makes sense is even if people lie, that the person on the receiving end of the lie would realize it didn’t benefit them, and not in turn lie to someone else. But I guess not. It is just a cultural difference I can’t enter into, and therefore it’s so funny and so bizarre. I would love to make a documentary about lying and cultural differences if I had the time, but not this trip.
Magnifique and Kara left us to go out for a drive, and Lama and I went to UNATEK to run final checks on setting up for our movie night. We checked out the hall, troubleshot how we’d set up the screen, and worked out the logistics of seating and talking. It would work. From there, we went to the computer lab to see Clement and test the projector with Kara’s laptop running the DVD. It worked. Then we went to meet Prosper and do a sound check. They had three speakers, a receiver and the cables and we set it all up. It worked. So it seemed like everything was going to work tomorrow night for our screening.
After successfully testing everything we were standing around talking to the students. Lama and I decided to inquire about getting some students to translate interviews into English. Prosper thought he knew someone who might, and about a second later, goes, “Oh there he is walking by” and called him over. So we met with him, his English was excellent and I think we’re going to work something out. It will save my life, or at least the project, and I am happy to employ these students and pay for such a developed skill as translation.
Lama and I walked home, and Kara and Magnifique were back. We all hung out for a while, I burned Magnifique a ton of music to a DVD, and then we said goodbye. He’s going back to Texas on Friday so this was the last time we’d see him. He’s a super rad dude and I’m really glad we got to meet him and hang out with him while we were here. Once he was gone, the three of us ate dinner. Once dinner was over, I went to lie in my bed and watch High Fidelity, which I was LOVING until the file was corrupted and it wouldn’t finish. I’ve seen it before, but man it’s so good. I was choked. So I watched PS I Love You, and for the most part, hated it.
