Blog

Kampala with Jon Gosier

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[column]It's funny to think that I had almost gone an entire trip in Africa without loosing power. Being based in Nairobi this time around meant having electricity and broadband accessible everyday. In this day and age, one can almost forget how far away from home you really are. I had taken a day trip to Kampala to interview Jon Gosier about SwiftRiver when I finally was reminded how 99% of Africa produces product: with unreliable power. In Kenya, I've been able to push up to my blog, get email, charge batteries, and call my wife every night, but around 9pm last night in Kampala the lights in Jon’s house started flickering as we tried to push email through a shared “3G” connection.

The Developing World as a whole is full of seeming contradictions and it's hard to paint that whole picture, but editing HD video while downloading email, and SMS-ing with my wife in the States all while in a house without power and unsafe water coming out the tap touches on parts of that overall picture.
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Limo Taboi

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Limo Taboi, Finance Manager of Ushahidi, Kenyan Finance and Banking guru, and blogger.

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Voice of Kibera

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Kibera is that place you see on TV when ever someone is talking about slum cities in East Africa. A sea of rusting corrugated roofs flowing out of a valley just south of Nairobi. When things go south in Kenya, they usually go south in Kibera early on. So it's naturally a place for journalist to flock when they are in town to cover anything that's wrong with East Africa. Today I went down there to meet journalist who are everything I think many of their western colleges wish they could be. Despite having minimal equipment (flip cams), infrastructure (Windows Movie Maker and borrowed internet), and little formal trainging, Voice of Kibera pushes out consistenly solid reporting from one of the most storied neighborhoods in Kenya. I have more to say about the two men above and others that I met, but it's late. I just wanted to aknowledge them and say it was an honor to shoot with them on their turf today.


Up-Country for the Vote





Today I traveled into Kenya's Rift Valley to document the climent of the voteing public as the country voted in or out a new national constitution. We traveled for hours on paved and unpaved roads to Naivasha, Gilgil, Nakuru, Njono, Elburgon, Molo, Keresoi, Ndefo, and Mauche. On days like today, when you are traveling through several different language groups with diverse political and geographic landscapes, it's so nice to have a good team. I am lucky to have such a good partners in Martin and Kennedy: my fixer/associate-producer and driver respectively. The photos bellow of me are Martin's shots. I'll be working out of Kibera tomorrow.
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