KORENGAL VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN: Afghan elders of the Korengal Valley arrive for a meeting with U.S. and Afghan military officials October 30, 2008 at the Korengal Outpost in eastern Afghanistan. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Getty Images staff photographer John Moore reports in from the Korengal Valley.
It’s day eight out of nine of the Bridges to Understanding workshop. The kids have received lessons in Premier and Photoshop Elements. The credits have been designed. The footage and stills stoically edited by saintly Julee who was up working until 4am. Now all we need is the musical score. Carmen, Maria, Heremias and I selected soundtracks from CDs by local musicians yesterday.
We interviewed this 60-year-old comendrona Ana Sosof Ramires who told us, “being a midwife is the best profession, but some women are afraid to be one or get scared due to screams and blood.”
Our interview with the comedrona is edited in. The situation is socially, culturally, politically and economically delicate and it’s been a challenge for us to guide the children to make an appropriate call during the editing process.
When asked during an interview if the comendrona has a license she revealed, “Yes, because I want to avoid problems with the government … if there is a problem in the birth, if you don’t have a license they will put you in jail.”
Brenda and Johnny, our two narrators, tired but committed, select relevant sound bites to include from an interview with one of the health care practitioners.
Brenda and Johnny are our narrators. We opened the short film with Brenda expressing her desire to be a Mumma one day and wondering who will help her. Then the show includes a series of interviews with doctors and midwives and an exploration of their perspectives.
At 5:30pm this afternoon our film debuted at Saloon Municipal. Watching the kids have a group portrait today was hysterical. They formed a human pyramid which eventually toppled. We have all bonded tightly and grown almost unfathomably through this experience of a lifetime.
We were on a high after the interview with the inspiring Dr Montoya, photographed here with the team outside his clinic in downtown Santiago Atitlan. He was supportive and accommodating in his approach to our project and his relationships with the Comedronas.
The view of the front gardens of our hotel from the boat on Lake Atitlan. The boat dock leads up to the pool and outdoor hot tub, the sauna and the restaurant.
The sun beat steadily down on us this morning as a speed boat whizzed us across this lake that Auldus Huxley once described as the most beautiful in the world. I’m not sure how many lakes Huxley visited but I agree that this one, set in the valley of three dormant volcanoes, is vast and spectacular.
It’s been deeply fortifying to watch the connection forge and strengthen between the kids and key members of their community. Ten year old Johnny, from Santiago Atitlan who dreams of becoming a doctor, interviewed pharmacist Don Enrique this afternoon.
Local pharmacist Don Enrique is introduced to Johnny (who has been inspired to become a doctor). Johnny checks out the certificates and qualifications hanging on the wall above Don Enrique.
A sweet and gentle old soul he was very happy to talk to us and quietly very pleased when we mentioned that Johnny, was inspired to be a doctor by his son, the charismatic Dr Montoya.
There is some concern for the infant and maternal mortality rate in the town. It is on the rise. Doctors believe comedrona’s (midwives) need more education particularly in the metric system to enable them to properly gauge when the uterus is ready for the baby’s passage into this poor, but rich and fertile world.
The majority of women prefer to have their baby at home with a comedrona for the comfort it affords them and to avoid the expense of a hospital visit. Tomorrow we shall get the perspective of the comedrona’s.
This is our production team recording the interview with Don Enrique in his pharmacy. From L to R: Phil on video, Mynor on sound, Evylyn translating, Henry (in the hood) and David covering photography.
Evelyn, a teacher from Fotokids in Guatemala City, conducts a brief impromptu interview with Delores, the mother of newborn baby Surama Concepcion Angelica Vanessa, outside of Santiago Atitlan Hospital
It’s been a big day. We’ve been digesting web media all evening from our hot desk hub in the restaurant and pretty soon we’ll slip into the hot tub and the sauna under the stars by the invisible shadow of the volcano across Atitlan lake.
Phil Borges shares his vast imaging knowledge generously, in this photo he shows Johnny and Henry (cousins from Santiago Atitlan) how his video camera works at the local hospital as we wait for the director of the hospital to arrive for an interview.
We’ve had two interviews with doctors to explore the topic of maternal mortality in childbirth and infant health. It’s a complicated political and socio-ecomonic issue and we’re face with the challenge of working with kids of 10-12 years of age.
Johnny interviews Dr Walter Montoya, the GP that inspires him to become a doctor after treating him for a nosebleed. Dr Montoya explains how he works with the midwives to ensure health births as Phil Borges films the interview.
They’re a little under ripe for the project but they are part of a new intake of the program we’re partnering with called “Fotokids” founded and run by ex Reuters journalist Nancy McGirr. We’re here to nurture their story telling skills. Unfortunately Nancy had to leave us on the second day to visit her ailing father.
It’s a relief the environment is somewhat energizing. The contrast of our almost luxurious hotel is stark compared the the neighboring village that was wiped out and partially rebuilt after a landslide only 4 years ago. A chatty Norwegian nurse struck up conversation with us and revealed she was here to give aid to the refugee village in town which we have not seen but apparently has plastic walls.
I have only ready about that stuff in the newspaper, now I am only kilometers away from it, drinking $12 per glass whiskey and using wireless Internet. It makes one dig deep in their emotional and philosophical pockets. One can’t help but wonder why one is blessed with such abundance when others suffer such austerity and squalor.
The plane has landed and I am officially in Guatemala and ready to dive into my Bridges to Understanding journey and participate as a youth mentor in a unique twelve-day digital story telling workshop. I am on this trip because I won an employee competition at Getty Images.
After a good night’s rest, the second day in the workshop started at 8 AM in the local cemetery. It was too early for me to be flashing my pearly whites sincerely to the villagers but I was doing my best. It was the morning after the Day of the Dead festival in the volcanic lakeside town of Santiago Atitlan, when it was believed the spirits of the deceased would visit. Kites were flown bearing messages from the earth to the heavens and candles were lit to commemorate the dead.
For me it was a time to watch and learn from the highly respected humanitarian photographer Phil Borges, who founded Bridges to Understanding. They say that behind every great man is a great woman and Julee Geier, his partner of 25 years, stood next to me, offering me her insight on Phil’s technique for connecting with people and creating such engaging portraits.
“Lots of smiling, laughing and interest,” she advised as we watched him speak gently and with great tenderness, in broken Spanish, to a mother and daughter squatting by the mounds of rich brown earth, where two of their family members were buried.
It was certainly a memorable start to a day dominated by a stunning skyline of volcano, mountains and lake. My touristic reverie induced by the beauty of our hotel and the new sights was soon shattered.
Nancy McGirr former Reuters photojournalist and head of the Fotokids education project here in Guatemala, revealed that ‘domestico violencia’ is a hot topic in this community. The young people we’re mentoring have proposed we explore it in our story telling project. We decide it may be too hot for us to touch in this machismo society where rape is dismissed by police in some cases when reported by minors.
It’s a delicate position we’re in, we need to help the children tell visual stories about social issues that have positive consequences. Another topic that interests the youth here is ritual cleansing where thieves and witches are being rooted out and burned.
The girls in this society are so shy that the groups are divided into girls and boys to give the girls a chance to express themselves freely. With no personal gender preference for grouping, I find myself with the boys. They are shy, too, and offer little by way of opinion or ideas at first. But then that’s all part of the exercise, to develop their self confidence, introduce them to the project and help them find their voices.
They warm up to us after lunches and an ice-breaking name game. We break up into pairs and we have our first photoshoot making portraits of each other, followed by a slideshow with Phil giving us lighting and composition tips and techniques.
Over dinner I express my desire to work with the girls group. They now have a solid plan in place to explore how the roles of women are changing in this community, and plan visits tomorrow to a midwife and a natural healer. But Phil advises me to stay with the boys group and my anxiety is alleviated by the hope that the afternoon’s bonding and creative exercises will melt and open the boys’ initially and understandably timid hearts.
We have an interview with the pharmacist tomorrow and the third days of nine for me to develop my skills as a mentor and relinquish some of my need for control. That is all for now. I need to re-read the instructions prepared for us by Bridges on how to mentor effectively. I will do it with a glass of wine with the black kitten curled up on my lap in the cosy stone and wooden interiors of the hotel Posada Santiago’s restaurant. Buenes Noches, mi amigos.
Today is the 48th anniversary of TCV, and the Dalai Lama is the guest of honor. All of the Bridges to Understanding mentors and staff were invited to attend as VIPs.
Over 5,000 people attended the event and the campus was packed. Luckily we arrived early and settled into our front row seats in plenty of time. The crowds of monks, nuns and students in traditional costumes and school uniforms got louder and louder as his car drove into the arena.
The Dalai Lama nimbly ascended the staircase right in front of us. I was very overwhelmed but my husband Chris amiably said “hello” to him. The Dalai Lama grinned and returned the greeting!
The cultural program consisted of a parade, marching bands, dancers and (the highlight for us) the middle school performing a calisthenics display of which they have been practicing for hours and hours over the past few weeks.
We looked for our 12 Bridges to Understanding students as they created amazing formations, including spelling out Tibet Will Never Die, Inner Peace and World Peace:
The morning finished with a politically charged speech by the Dalai Lama in Tibetan. However, as my Tibetan is a little rusty (or actually non-existent since I don’t speak Tibetan) , Choeppel, one of the teachers, gave us a rough translation.
After lunch of traditional food and Tibetan butter tea (salty and undrinkable in my very British opinion) we were lucky enough to spot another VIP up close – The Karmapa.
We meet back up with our kids who are extremely excited to think we spotted them in their performance and I am reminded once again of their absent parents.
We decided as a group to ditch the three hour (fairly obscure) performance of the Tibetan opera and headed out for our last afternoon with the kids. They don’t get outside of their school walls more than once a month or so, so this was considered a huge treat.
They decided they wanted to go to Bhagsu so we started the long trek. We spotted many black faced langurs along the way and at one point ended up running from a bull near the church cemetery.
Some students and mentors went up to the waterfall we visited yesterday. Lhakpa, the constant guide, took us to a local Hindu temple. We had seen a few Hindu temples in Delhi but nothing like this. It was completely bonkers, starting with an entry through a lion’s mouth. Then you had to crawl on your knees through dark tunnels before reaching a shrine. This was all gleefully described by Lhakpa as the “Disneyland of religion.”
While we waited for the others near the temple pool, we finally discovered what a monk really wears under his robes:
I made a comment on the walk back into town that the kids must be getting tired after their performance and now a long hike. Menhla Tsomo replied back quietly, “Yes, it’s a long way. But not as long as our walk from Tibet.” I didn’t know what to say.
The mood picked up again when we reached the restaurant. We let the kids know we were treating and they ordered enough food for a small army! The evening was made even more special with the kids started making speeches to all of us, thanking us for the experience. Always fighting for the spotlight, Tenzin Seldon and Lekphel kept us entertained. At one point I thought Lekphel was going to thank the academy!
I looked around and the entire restaurant was watching us. I suddenly realized that the Bridges program had been a success and these kids had truly found their voices.
This morning is our last working session. We have not been too worried as we only have a bit of finessing to do on our Bridges to Understanding digital story. However, after yet another poorly timed power outage, things start to get stressful! The ambient sound of dogs barking combined with the new transitions do something horribly wrong to our story. We had to spend several frustrating hours trying all variations of sounds until we finally tested it out on another computer. It is perfect now! As the kids have been saying: “What do computers teach us? Patience.” We happily turn in our files and take a much deserved break.
It turned out that Lhakpa forgot his uniform, which he needs for the evening’s film festival event. So we took the opportunity to hop on a tuk tuk down to McCloud Ganj so he could pick it up. He is one of the three students that actually has family nearby.
En route we stopped off at the oldest English church in India – St. John’s In The Wilderness. Lhakpa told us ghost stories as we gave ourselves a private tour, viewing the gravestones of residents that had died in a manner of explicit ways.
Further down the hill we met his parents who run a local restaurant. While we waited for Lhakpa to grab his uniform we watched the local wildlife run amok.
We still have several hours before the festival starts so Lhakpa offers to be our guide to a waterfall in Bhagsu, a town a few miles away. Lhakpa is now clad in uniform and totally unsuitable shoes for the long, uphill hike with loose stones on the path.
The hike was worth it. It’s extremely tranquil but freezing so I decline a dip. We returned by tuk tuk to the TCV where final preparations for the Dalai Lama’s visit tomorrow are in full swing.
The main school auditorium was the site for our film festival which was attended by over 500 students including the entire middle school. Needless to say, our students were very nervous! Each student introduced a digital story shyly but with great pride. Every story was greeted by a huge round of applause and some even received laughter. The “world premiere” was deemed a huge success by students, staff and mentors alike! What do you think of our video?
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