I'm Back

I had a real hard time saying goodbye to everyone. I tend to get really quiet and avoid everyone... weird I know... but I didn't want to say bye to my new friends. I was thankful that I was able to see most of them just before we left. I had a rough flight home... but thankfully I found some Dramamine. We saw the sun for 24 hours straight... craziness. I'm thankful to be back and especially thankful for the experience and chance to help others. I need to seek opportunities here.. for they are available right here where I am. I have felt a difference since I've been home and I am grateful for that blessing from the Lord. Now I need to get my documentation done.

MaryBeth Gallagher

We have met one of the most amazing people while here in Namibia. Her name is MaryBeth Gallagher and she is from New York. She came here two and a half years ago to serve the community of Katutura. During the week she works with the schools and kindergartens to help where ever she can. On Saturday she has organized a soccer league for the youth in Katutura. It is amazing! I was shocked when I watched the children play on fields of Glass! Yes Glass and rocks and Acacia thorns... one went through my shoe and into my heel... OUCH! They play in worn out shoes or BARE feet! I will never complain about anything such as shoes hurting my feet. MaryBeth is amazing and she's always looking for volunteers and donations in her cause. She also runs a soup kitchen on Sundays... She's amazing. She has to come up with N$520 Namibian every week... that's around $75 American to run the soccer and keep the soup kitchen up and going. If you are interested in helping out contact her here Her email is marybeth_gallagher@yahoo.com. Please feel free to contact her if you have any questions for her!

I'm Sick!

Well I'm missing the trip to Etosha dang it! I started to get sick two days ago and I can't go now to Etosha, mainly cause I don't want anyone else to get sick. I think I will feel batter tomorrow. At least I can take pictures of the soccer games on Saturday and I can go to church on Sunday. So it works out. If you don't know what Etosha is Google it.

Jochen

I have met a true friend while I've been here. His name is Jochen pronounced Yo-Hahn. He's a photographer and a good one. He has the biggest collection of cameras I've seen in a long time. He has several I would like to have! I feel like he is such a great blessing to this project. He has several boxes of glass plates that he has collected over the past few years. He also has his fathers collection of images. He knows so much about the history of Namibia and will be a great asset to this project. I am so thankful for him and his family. His wife made sure I was OK when I was sick and she fed us a couple of nights too. It was a blast watching his daughter play hockey too. I can't wait to get back and go shoot with him again.

Swakopmund

Fri – We started early in the morning. We drove the back way to Swakop. We stopped near some small hills to climb up and look at the paintings on the rock wall. I didn’t touch the rail. I have been blessed with many talents and a wonderful family. We stopped at the side of the road and some people bought some stones from the locals. I wish my family could be here it would be more fun with them. After a long time on the road we finally made it to cape cross where there were hundreds of seals. It was kinda neat to see, but they smell really bad. There were a bunch of jackal around too. I got to take a few pics of them and that was nice. After that we drove th rest of the way to swakop and I got motion sickness. We ate at a little place3 next to the ocean, and I had a Tropical Pizza, first for me with bananas on it! I went to sleep quick that night.

Sat – We woke up at around 830, and I didn’t feel too hot so I decided not to go sand boarding. Ab our uide took my place. I got my refund later. We walked the town for a while. All of the shops were nice, but their prices were high. Romeo bought me an egg rock that I said I liked. I am so glad he did, I will treasure it for a long time. We got back to the A frame and they picked us up to go to ride camels. It was cool to ride the camels, they are a lot bigger than I ever thought. It’s similar to horses, exept they spit and stuff. After we did that we drove out to the dunes to ride the quads. The guide was German and he had had a few to drink I think. We set out on the dunes and It was a little chilly because of the movement and the breeze. The dunes are so beautiful and it was so fun to ride on the dunes. Our guide was so funny looking, he brought us to a place where he rode up to the top and spun around, came back and said “ who wants to go on a rollercoaster?” I was holding back the laughter, but we all did it. I had more fun watching the Namibian students ride than myself. The timing was just perfect for the ride because we started our ride just as the sun was turning gold. The dunes looked amazing and I kept shooting pics as we rode. We finished off with a perfect view of the sunset over the ocean from atop the dunes, Amazing! Once we got back to the house we ran to the grocery store to get some grub, and while there they had a sale on crayons, so Susan and I bought a case for the kindergarten later on. It cost us like 50 american for 132 12 packs. Once we got back the fun had just begun. We had around 12 of us at the pad, and we all ate and laughed about some fun stuff. The Namibians tught us about some of the customs in their dating. When a guy asks a girl out, and she accepts he goes to pick her up and she has six of her cousins ready to with her. We all laughed so hard as the Namibians bickered back and forth about their traditions. Sometimes if you start to make money, the extended family decides that they will come “visit,” well they end up moving in for quite a long time. After dinner we started to play the sign game and that was a lot of fun. We finally got to bed around midnight.

Sun – We got up and out of the place by eight. We drove to Walvis Bay and it’s really ice there. The houses look like a very rich area in America. We went through onto Dune 7. It’s the largest dune in Namibia and one of the largest in the world. It was fun to climb, and it reminded me of our family trips to lake powell. We hung at the top for a minute, and then a couple of use raced down. I straight smoked em’. A couple of the guys fell down and I didn’t notice. We raced three times and I killed em’ every time. I taught them how to run on the dunes and they finally got it. Qweyo one of the Namibs nearly beat me on the last one, but I came through. I grabbed some sand from the top to give to Brother Kauffman. I had a lot of fun running, and everyone had a great time. I want to use my running in a scene for a movie. You’ll get the video in a podcast here soon. After that we came into Walvis to wash off and I got to play in the ocean for the first time ever. I had a ton of fun playing in the water. While I was on my mission I touched the water, but I never got in obviously. I have now seen the sun set on the Atlantic and set on it as well. I tried to catch a wave and ride it a little but I ate it unfortunately. Mike just laughed at me, but it was fun. I’ll have to go to the ocean when it’s nice and warm and try again. After that we grabbed some food at KFC, and now were just on our way back to Windhoek.

After I wrote this we stopped at a Bushmen village to take a little tour with a family. They showed us how they survive out in the wilderness. It was interesting to see how they live. They were so beautiful! I got some fun shots of the kids and the family. We gave the little kids some crayons we baught and they were happy.

New Links

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know that I have posted some new links on the side of my blog. You can see my photos here

Glass Plates

We started to scan the glass plates today! Yes I said glass plates. These were used many moons ago with the view camera. There are hundreds of these things at the archives... hundreds. We are struggling a bit to find the best way to scan them, and there aren't any experts out there on the subject... well as far as I can find.

It was quite a scene when we switched the first image from neg to positive. The photo just comes to life. I'm hoping to get a few samples up here on my page so you can see what we are dealing with. We did a bunch of test scans.

Katutura

Saturday - Katutura

We had an amazing trip planned for Saturday. We took a tour of Windhoek the capital of Namibia. We started by hitting the usual landmarks in any city. After that we went into the single quarters and it was rough. The people were drinking already at ten in the morning. We could smell weed and some of the people started to get nervous. It was quite a scene as we walked through the middle of the street in a pretty rough area. The people all came out to stare and see what all the white folks were doing in there. Some of the Namibian students came along and it was interesting to see that most of them hadn't been in there before.

After that we crossed the street into the market. They have a large area designated for meats and cooking. The meat was really good, they eat the fat with it. We tasted some of the local drinks... interesting... and then we headed for the informal settlements.

At the Informal settlements I saw something very new. Most of the houses were just four tin walls and a tin roof. They went on for miles. They tell me there are more people in those place3s than in the city. When we stopped to look over the homes the children started running from all around. Within one minute there were 20+ kids wanting to see us.

We stopped at a little shak and the kids again surrounded us. They sang to us and begged for candy. They loved the spotlight and wanted to have their pictures taken, posing like little stars. I had so much fun meeting them... I would lean in and shake their hands and ask them questions... I don't think they've ever had people stop like that. Some of the people were meeting with white people for the first time in their lives.

Sunday - We went to church at the local branch here. It was a neat experience and the church is growing here. They confirmed two people to be members of the church and they have a lot of activity going on in the branch.

Our shipment from DHL finally arrived... It took like 20 days.

Monday - We set the lab up and showed the students the new computers. They were pretty impressed witht the machines we brought ove3r. I think it was the first time they actuallly put their hands on a machine like that. They only get theory classes here at the Polytech and it's too bad.

Tuesday - We had a slow imaging start... We did have fun going around town to look for pieces that will be a part of the logo.

From New York to London

We had a thirteen-hour layover in London, so we decided to look around. We rode the train into town. From there we walked around starting from London Bridge and ending at Big Ben. I am posting a few photos from the walk around. We found a cool little market while walking the streets and I really wish I could have stayed for a while longer.

Downtown Namibia

On the night of the 8th, Rodayne and I walked downtown to take some photos while the sun was setting. It's winter here so the sun sets around 6:00 p.m. Here are a couple of HDR images that I captured.

Training: Day 1

This morning we ate at the campus lunch room. We ate a traditional Namibian Breakfast consisting of Bread, Cheese (slices, not cheap kind), warm milk, and some type of bran flakes packed together like I remember the old shredded wheat. The bran has sugar on it and you're supposed to dip it in the milk... we found out later. I also found out that bread is a traditional item for breakfast. They also serve plenty of butter (good stuff) and lots of apricot jam with each breakfast.

We have started our training of the Namibian Students. Professor Harper gave us a good look at what's coming around the corner with new technology. The students were amazed at some of the technologies that are coming up... like the iPhone. I was so impressed with some of them and their hunger for knowledge and media information. They are so talented and they and hungry for information. I wish I had the money to equip them with appropriate labs, cameras and the things they need. I'm trying to figure out ways to help these students with some kind of donations. Mom I'm going to need the G5.

The Lunch and dinners are great... they feed us well.

I will catch up on the past couple of days as soon as I can. We are super busy with training and other activities right now.

Namibia Prep: Day 4

We had a phone conference this morning and I had to get up too early! I'm really tired right now so if this is a bit sloppy it might actually sound good. We discussed a bunch of stuff from laundry to photoshop. I found out they play basketball over there and I'm excited to play some cricket. I've watched it and it has a lot of the same principles as baseball and I'm not too bad at that game.


I'm finalizing the paperwork on my "Photo Stories" and I think I will call them "Visual Narratives" or "Visual Stories." I haven't decided yet and would like some feedback if you don't mind. Here is a description of what I'm trying to accomplish. Check out this site: http://www.soulofathens.com/#index/


Photo Stories
Produced by: Chad Clark




Description: Photo Stories will be short picture based narratives of student experiences and cultural accounts. Each story will be a short documentation of an event past or present in Namibia. These stories are meant to provide thought provoking insights to the Digital Archive and the country of Namibia. They will be picture based along with accompanying audio to help tell the visual story.


Style: Each story will dictate the presentation of audio/visual material. Each story will have voice over narration. Each story will have interviews to accompany the appropriate image. Text Graphics will be used to help the audience follow the story and characters.


Amount: I am planning on producing 10 episodes.


Duration: Each story will be at least1:00, and not much longer than 3:00.


Naming: I haven’t decided on the official name yet, but I have some ideas. I am leaning toward Visual Narrative.


Visual Narrative, “A Meeting with the Church”


Photo Story
Picture Story
Photo Essay
Picture Essay
Visual Story
Visual Essay
Picture Narrative

Namibia Prep: Day 2

We had another great day today. I am so excited about the podcast and my part of the photo stories. I found a great site today that displays exactly what I had in mind for my project. I am going to implement these same things into my class at Kearns. Oh if you didn't know, I got a job! I am the new Multimedia Teacher at my old high school, Kearns High. I thin my experience will be a great benefit to the kids.

Anyhow that site I found is called www.soulofathens.com It's an amazing site... check it out. Tomorrow I am preparing a Digital Imaging training. We are hoping to finalize the podcast by the end of the week. Stay tuned. - Chad

Namibia Prep: Day 1

Today we discussed our plans for the project concerning our training sessions we will be responsible for. I will be covering Digital Imaging with Professor Esmay. I will be posting more information about the project nearly every day now. Please ask any questions or email if you'd like. I am thinking about breaking imaging down to the basic fundamentals because I'm not sure what my audience will be able to handle.
We also talked about our podcast we will be producing during our trip in Namibia. I will be responsible for producing the "Photo Stories." The stories will use images and sounds to tell a brief story about the people or about our experience. Tomorrow I will get to work on each of these projects and tell you more about it. Thanks for tuning in - Chad

I finally got to use my backboard camera!!! I was stoked. It turned out o.k.. I got one that was pretty nice, a bit soft though. I need to focus beyond the hoop, and adjust the placement too. think I will tilt it a little more to the right. I need to show more of the court in the background , not the empty seats. I also got the strobes going in the arena too, they aren't the best, but they will do. I was satisfied overall, and I will do much better next time. I have some more ideas for the remotes too. Hopefully I can shoot some indoor stuff with it.
I can't wait for the Utah Brownzz season to start. I will get some photos up here soon. - Chad