Check out the video of Steven as he prepares to leave Africa. It's the little blue wording above the pictures!
Charlotte

Zanzibar

Hey Everyone,

So I just got back from Zanzibar on Sunday. Me and Natasha Feroff who is one of the people working here at Pamoja, and one of her supporters Bused from Maasai land to Dar Es Salam on Wednesday and then took a ferry to Zanzibar the next day and just chilled and walked around Stone Town. That evening we went and ate Zanzibar pizzas, which are pizzas. While we were in Zanzibar we went to Prison Island and saw some giant turtles. Then we went out in a boat and went snorkelling over a corral reef next to the island. We also went down to the southern side of Zanzibar and went snorkelling with dolphins, which was really cool. After that we went to a park where we saw monkeys and sea turtles! Then we went on a spice tour and learned about a lot of the spices that they grow in Africa. We also ate some of the fruit; one of the fruits that we ate was a cocoa fruit before it was dried. Then on Saturday we just chilled around stone town until our ferry left and then on Sunday we got on a bus from Dar to Arusha which left at 6 in the morning and we arrived in Arusha about 12 hours later.

Steven Harrison

Check out the new pictures! Looks like he's having a really good time!
Charlotte

Easter Weekend

Hey everyone!

This past weekend has been great. On friday Big Natasha and I planned and developed a treasure hunt for the candy which we hid. We didn't do a traditional easter egg hunt because we didn't want little Natasha or Paul to eat any of the candy that had milk in it. We set up stations with a hint hidden somewhere within the station.  We had a great church service on Sunday. Jeremy spoke and we all went up to the front of the church and placed roses on the cross. Then we came home and had a roast lamb lunch and then the 2 teams set off on the treasure hunt.

Sig & Joy left today for Spain where they will be for 3 months so this was that last time I will see them here.

Steven

Monday Morning Movies

Check out Pamoja's Monday Morning Movie on YouTube:   http://ow.ly/a4NgD

Hey everyone!

I've been busy over here! I have finished my cut of "Abraham" (the Massai music video that I have been working on). It had been compressed so now it is completely done. The other videos are being finished now and I will be doing the subtitles for all of them. Also, the "Bob The Youth Leader" video is coming along nicely. I am currently rendering the colour corrections onto the video and after that is finished all that I will have to do is put sound into the video. The music that is going to be used is going to be created by a man in North America and then sent here for us to assemble. I have also started another video that we will probably be filming in April. At this point I have all of the scripts and scene sets written up and now all we have to do is get the props and costumes before we film.

Thanks for your support and prayers,

Steven

Progress

Hey everyone!

Now that I have filmed the intro video, which is now become known as the "Bob The Youth Leader" video, I have been working on cutting a rough cut of the video. The rough cut is about 3 minutes long and has had very good reviews from the people here! So I'm hoping that it won't be too much longer till it is finished. Also I am getting really close to finishing the Maasi music video that I have been working on. Nadine gave me some input on this morning. After I change a few things I will make sure that Sig likes it and then I will colour correct it. 

Thank you for the support and prayers,

Steven

Busy Week Last Week

Hey everybody,

Last Monday the 14 of February, I was told that two 12th grade students were coming over Thursday and Friday from a British boarding school in Africa and they would be willing to help me film the into video that I have been working on. So for the rest of the day on Monday and all day Tuesday I rushed around and got everything that I was going to need for the film. On Wednesday I set everything up by 9 which took about 3 hours. At 9 I started to film the auditions for Bob, the main character in the video. I was finished by 10 and then by 12 I had everything cleaned up and put back in the studio. Then at 12 I started writing down what shots and angles I wanted to film. By 8 that night when Joe and Peter arrived, I had figured the shots for 6 of the 8 scenes. Then in the morning I finished the last 2 scenes and set up the set before 8 when we started filming. Joe, Nadine and Myself filmed and Peter and Joy controlled the mic. and later in the night Sig helped with the lighting. we filmed till 1 ate lunch and then at 2 continued to film until 6 when we ate dinner. After dinner we filmed a night scene. At the end of the day we had filmed 4 of the 8 scenes. In the morning we started at 8 and then filmed till 12 when Joe and Peter had to go home and Nadine and Joy took over their places after lunch. We filmed till about 6 when we were done all 8 scenes! it was a really pack but really fun week!

Thank you for your support and prayers,

Steven

My Weekend

Hey,

Every Sunday up till now I have gone to church with the Fesers, they go to a church that mainly consists of missionaries and is very much like a church in Canada. On Saturday I went with Roland Falk, a pastor teaching at the bible school next door to us. We went to a small town about three hours from were we are living in Tengaru. When we got there we where wet by the pastor of the church that we where going to go to in the morning and he showed us were we where going to stay that night. It was a really nice little B&B style place where we also ate dinner. For dinner we had chicken and rice with chai which is a traditional Tanzanian style meal and was very good. In the morning we had breakfast with more chai, and left for church. The church that we went to was very small and had a couple small school rooms attached to it. When the 1st service started there where probably around 80 people there and it was about 1/3 men which is very uncommon in most Tanzanian churches where you might see one or two men in. The second service had about 200 people squished in the church. There service went much like one in Canada, they worshiped then there was a sermon and then we left, but their worshiping was so heartfelt and strong it was unlike anything I have seen, and the sermon was done by Roland in English and needed to be translated to Swahili and the congregation was still really interactive throughout the sermons. After the services the pastors of the church Roland, and myself stood at the back of the church and greeted everyone on their way out which was a really nice thing to do. Between the two services the pastors and myself went out for more chai and to talk, then after the second service we went out for lunch where we had another traditional Tanzanian meal of rice and roast accompanied with more chai which was really tasty. Then after lunch we went to meat the family of one of the students at the college that Roland is teaching at, there where very nice and welcoming to us. Then we started the journey home. On the way home we drove past a group of about 20 baboons just walking down the road which was kinda neat to see, its the first time I've seen any african animals besides cows, goats and donkeys which you see in Canada as well.

Thank you for your support and prayers,

Steven

The Maasai Music Videos

Hey everyone,

Over the last week I have been working on making a music video for the song Abraham from the Hope Of The Maasai CD, I started by putting in subtitles for the song which was recorded in Maa, which is the language of the Maasai. This was relatively hard since I know only a couple words in Maa and all I had was the English translation and the song to work with, but it did turn out really well, Sig came up and looked over what I had done and said that it was all in the correct spots! After I had finished with the subtitles I moved on to the organization of all of the clips that were shot for this song, which took a while because there where a lot of clips and I tried to keep them in very specific groups for ease when I go to choose the clips that I want to use for the actual video. Right now I am trying to learn how to use Apple Motion so that I can try some effects on the video that I think would make it look really cool but I am having a hard time finding a manual for Motion on the internet that I can download, I found one late yesterday that was online so if all else fails I can just use that one.

Thanks for the support and prayers,

Steven

Work Update

Hey everyone

The video that I am making for Pamoja is coming along really well. Over the last couple of days I have been collecting all of the props that I need for the filming, I have also collected all of the camera accessories I am going to need, such as the boom, the tripod kinda thing. All that I need to do before I can begin filming is I have to talk to Jeremy about the script. Jeremy has been in meetings with Sig and Jacob who just got back from the USA on saturday so I have also starting to work on a music video for a Maasi song while Jeremy has been occupied.

Thanks for the support and the prayers,

Steven

Life Update

Hey everybody!

As many of you may know I have been spending a lot of my time here working on a video for Pamoja about how safe it is here. Yesterday I finished a rough story board for the video, Jeremy, Sig and I then went through the Story board and talked a lot about what improvements we could make to the video. Some things that we discussed were we can keep it under two minutes, and if we wanted anyone in the video to speak at all or have it as a silent video with just music, we decided to have a minimal amount of people talking. I am currently making the changes to the outline that we think will be beneficial to the video. I have found an actor that I met at the church that we go to here that is willing to do be the main character, he is only here till the end of next week and the he is back and forth from here and Maasi land. So I am trying to have the video ready to film by next week so we have a couple days too shoot. Also this weekend I set up a DVD menu for a Tanzanian engagement party which is very interesting, linked a slideshow to it and burnt it onto a disk for the couple. 

Thanks for the support and the prayers,

Steven

What I'm Doing

I have now finished the rough outline of the introduction video for Pamoja and I have started a rough storyboard. Today I am making a DVD of engagement pictures for one of the staff here, this is my first time using DVD Studio Pro and it seems like it is going to take some work to get to know. Sig and I have also been looking at the rough drafts for the Maasi music videos to see if what we would like changed about them. So all in all we have been pretty busy out here!

Thanks for your support and prayers,

Steve

My 1st Project

The first project that I will be working on is a introduction video for the Pamoja campus and some of the staff here. For close to a week now I have, with the help of Sig Feser and Jeremy Feser, been brainstorming some ideas on the best way to attempt this video and we are closing in on three ideas that we think are superior to the rest. My next step will be to decide on the one that I will actually create and start to lay out all of the workings for the film production of it.

Salama (Peace)

Steven

I have a love/hate relationship with technology

I've been trying for some time to talk with Steven since he left. This morning we finally found a chance to chat online. We've discovered that the internet is not as reliable in Tanzania as it is in Canada. Oh, how I take my wireless, high-speed connection for granted! Starting our chat was quite troublesome. We could email each other but not get gmail chat started. When we finally began, he was dropped several times from the chat:( It's a good thing we weren't trying to Skype! On the other hand, being able to chat online together in real time was amazing! It was refreshing to have my questions answered immediately (with a slight pause between, but better than talking over the phone).

On Christmas Eve, everyone went in to Arusha to go swimming and then out for dinner for bbq chicken. The Feser's were very generous and gave Steven gifts on Christmas day - a t-shirt with Swahili words on it (for all his hard work at starting to learn swahili); hand sanitizer (very necessary, I'm told); and a fresh pineapple. WOW! I can only imagine how wonderful that pineapple must taste! Steven tells me that the papaya and mangoes are also incredibly delicious.

Merry Christmas everyone! and continue to pray for Steven and the Fesers as they prepare for the New Year and the new projects!

Charlotte

What's been happening

Since I arrived here on friday the 9th it has been really sunny and hot. The food that we eat here is very strongly influenced by Indian food. Although the native food mainly consists of rice and beans. Up to this point we have not started working on any major projects though I have started to learn swahili. Soon after Christmas I will start working on an intro. video for Pamoja, introducing the people here and what the compound looks like.

Salama (Peace)

Steven

Is Boredom an Adventure?

Steven arrived safely in London at 6:35 a.m. UK time. After finding his way through the subway to Terminal 4, he checked in and stored his luggage (for 16 pounds) so he could look around. Unfortunately, he  wasn't able to find anything too interesting, only breakfast :) I spoke with him at 9:30 this morning and found out that he is very tired and bored. He is hoping to get a good sleep on his next flight.  Are time changes always so difficult? He is now safely aboard his flight to Nairobi where he will land at 6:30 a.m. Kenya time (8 hours ahead of us). Good sleep and safe travelling, Steven!

And so it begins...

Today was the day that the adventure began. We arrived early at the airport (1:30 p.m. actually). Steven checked in, and then we sat and watched airplanes take off for a couple of hours until the bag drops opened at 3:30. While we waited we spent lots of time taking pictures and talking together. It was nice to have the entire family together to share these memories. After dropping off his bags, we had a bite to eat since we can't be sure that the food on the airplane will be satisfying. As the time came closer for him to leave, I could see the excitement build in his eyes. I'm so proud of his decision to go to Africa and see what God can do with his life, but I am also sad for myself to see my little boy, now all grown up, going out to explore the world on his own. He is now in an airplane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Be safe!

Almost time

Thanks to everyone who came over today to wish Steven safe travels. He is getting very excited about his 12 hour layover in London!  Keep him in your prayers. His plane leaves Toronto on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., and lands in London at 6:35 a.m. He'll catch his plane to Nairobi at 7 p.m. and lands in Kilimanjaro 11:30 on Dec. 9th. Pray for safe travels, wisdom and wakefulness!

The Adventure Begins

As you know, my eldest son, Steven, will be leaving on his travels to Tanzania on December 7. He will be working with Pamoja Ministries just outside of Arusha, near Mount Kilimanjaro. Pamoja Ministries endeavours to disciple cultures through media. If you'd like to know more about the projects that Pamoja has worked on in the past, check out their website: http://pamojaministries.or.tz/

Steven and I will be using this blog spot to keep you up-to-date on what is happening in Africa and how God is working in his life.

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Thank you for your support and prayers!

Charlotte & Steven