Together We Are Free August 1st - 7th

NOTE: I have tons of pictures of our Gulu trip, but they wont load, but they will be posted in the next day or 2...

At 5:30am Ricky, Seth, Erin, Rachel, Alexis (Director of Education for Remba), and I boarded a 10 hour bus ride to Kampala, Uganda which was followed by another 6 hour bus ride up north to Gulu, Uganda. When I went to Gulu last September as a roadie, a HUGE chunk stayed there, so I was itching to go back! The bus ride is long, and bumpy, and you better hope you don’t have to use the bath room because you get maybe 2 chances the whole ride. But the ride from Kigali to northern Uganda is phenomenal to say the least! Deep valleys, clouds of mist hanging low over the thousands of hills in Rwanda, and miles and miles of the greenest and plushest scenery you have ever scene. Then all of a sudden the buss is traveling at, no joke, 90 miles per hour. Hitting speed bump after speed bump, and pot hole after pot hole. If you were sitting in the back, which we were, every 10 feet or so you are jolted out of your seat, your head barely missing the overhead bags that constantly fall, and then thrown back down into your seat as your stomach hits the floor.

Then we reached Gulu! The point of our journey to Gulu was to film for a Ugandan man that Rachel met a few years back. Rachel and a few other women that I love, Lisa Dougan and Amanda Flores, met this man named Denis, fell in love with his story and his beautiful heart and promised that they would bring some one to film his story so the world could hear it. Denis was a former child soldier in the LRA, escaped and was rehabilitated. He now has a soccer league which helps rehabilitate former child soldiers and helps integrate them back into society. So Ricky, Seth, and I spent a few almost every day filming Denis, his story, some of his boys on his soccer team, his family, and getting beautiful footage from around Gulu.

Other than filming Denis, I got to do a lot of things with Invisible Children Gulu!

Erin, Alexis, and I got to visit the IC Gulu office. I have been there before so it was mostly for Erin who was the Schools for Schools President at Texas Christian University and for Alexis who knew very little about IC. So we got to tour the office, get a run down of all the new programs, and while touring the office I was able to see different staff members that I met last year. It was kind of strange because a lot of the Gulu staff that I have never met already knew of me because of Together We Are Free… it was cool to be recognized by them, but also kind of weird because I am shy in situations like that ☺

On the 3rd day, Erin, Lexi, and I got to go visit Pabo Secondary School. Erin and some of her fellow students have been raising money through Invisible Childrens School’s 4 School’s progam for a school in Uganda called Pabo SS for the past 3 years. Thousands of students all over the US raise money for 11 schools in northern Uganda, but few get to actually see the work they have done first hand! I was so blessed to be walking through the school with Erin as she was awe struck by the school. It was amazing to see the students there thank her for what she has done for the school and for her to be able to take the pictures she took, the conversations she had there, and the experience back to her fellow S4S students and give them that push to continue to help raise money for Pabo. Right when we were done with Pabo, we were able to visit St. Josephs College Layibi. When I worked as a roadie for IC, Layibi was the partner school for the region that I toured, and I was the S4S representative for all the schools in the states that raised money for Layibi. I was able to visit the school last year and SO much has changed this year, it looks like a whole new school. They have begun the projects that my tour (fall tour 2008) raised money for. Crazy story, so the parents of the boys who go to Layibi saw how much IC was doing for the school and their kids so the parents all raised money and gave it to the school for a new class room block. THEN... the government got wind of what IC and the parents were doing for the school and they were basically humiliated because that is the governments job to put money in the school. SO since the gov realized they were being shamed, they put money into the school and an ENTIRE school block was built and renovated! It stretches across the whole school and other building were painted and new desks. BEAUTIFUL!

After visiting the schools, we were invited to go to the IC staff house and watch Together We Are Free on the projector because I still had not scene it! It was surreal, beautiful, and just what all of us that put so much work into The Rescue needed! We needed people to know what we went through to make the Rescue happen, and that is exactly what the film did. I had no idea what to expect… I thought the video would make the Rescue look al glamorous and epic, which it was… at times. But it showed so much more than that, it showed all the work it took to make it a reality, the long wet days that we spent outside waiting and waiting for the Rescue Riders to come, the nights we felt completely defeated, and the beauty of how we came up on top and endured, TOGETHER! The video was mostly about my story and what we went through in Chicago waiting for 7 days to be rescued, and I am so thankful that our hard work was recognized… But I don’t want anyone to think that I was a hero, the real hero’s are those kids who have been living in the bush for years, taken against their will and are forced to kill or be killed. Yes, it was hard waiting outside for a week and feeling like you are screaming as loud as you can for your voice to be heard and you go ignored for that long. But what kept me going through each and every day was the thought of those thousands of children who have been fighting for their lives for weeks, months, sometimes years to escape the LRA. If they can endure for that long, I damn sure can fight for a week on their behalf... They are the true hero’s!

On the last night that we were in Gulu, we finished up filming with Denis and we went to grab some food at Kope Café (a local restaurant in Gulu that Jolly’s family owns). Erin, Lexi, and I walked in and sitting right in front of us was Jolly Okot (Invisible Children Country Director). I had been hoping to see her the whole week but we kept missing each other. I had to do a double take, she screamed, I screamed and she gave me the biggest hug in the world! It was totally God that I got to see her on the last night. We all ended up sitting and eating with her. Her and I talked for a while about Lobby Days, the Rescue, Together We Are Free, what I have been up to, and what she has been up to. We all talked with her for a few hours. She told us the story of how she met Jason, Bobby, and Laren in her own word. It was great to hear it from her perspective. Jolly asked us if we would stop by the IC Gulu office the next morning because she wanted some of the staff to meet me. Of course I agreed, but not really knowing what I was going to walk into the next morning. We show up at 8am, and when Jolly said “I want some of the staff members to meet you…” what she meant to say was “I want you to sit in the conference room and I have told EVERY person in the Gulu office to come meet and thank ‘the girl from the Together We Are Free film’!” At first I was completely awkward and shy from everyone thanking me and staring… But they were all so genuine and real! I have never felt so appreciated in my life! One of the mentors stood up and said that he didn’t understand what gave us the drive to stay outside for the whole week, and he thanked me and everyone else who took part in the Rescue for enduring, and what we did has made him realize that any thing is possible and to work harder each day. It meant the world to me to have these people recognize and appreciate what I had done, because THEY are the ones who kept me going when I was a roadie. Going to Gulu last year and seeing their dedication and all the hard work they do made me work harder on the road. So to hear that from Jolly and the other staff, meant the world to me!

Chased down a Jaguar

Jolly offered us to stay in her house in Kampala on our way home. We were all headed out the next day. Her and her husband Emmy were amazing to let us stay with them! I cant wait to see them again. Erin and I are the only ones who stayed one more night at Emmys and Jollys house because there wasn’t room on the 1 am bus the night before. To top off such a surreal trip to Uganda Erin and I went to catch the bus and ending up having to chase down a Jaguar!!

We were 15 min late to the bus leaving because of traffic and there was no way we could miss our bus back to Kigali. The bota-botas started grabbing our bags yelling at us to get on that we would catch the Jaguar Bus. Haha, yea, it wasn’t a real Jaguar but might as well have been! We sped down the Kampala roads at probably 80 miles per hour, no helmets, hopping curbs, ridding on side walks, holding on for dear life, catching air on speed bumps, ducking under sidewalk signs, swerving in between people and cars hoping our bags don’t catch a side mirror and let us down. Still no bus in sight. Erin called me frantically not knowing were I was, “Nelly!” “Girl I am 2 cars behind you…” and she looks back to say "Are we seriously doing this right now?" I stared her dead in the eyes and said, "We are SERIOUSLY doing this! I can see the Jaguar in the distance." She replied like a CHAMP "We’re doing this!" Erin and I both hang up our phones and we tell the bota that we are not paying him if we dont catch the bus. He lays on the throttle....yea, might not have been a good idea to tell him that. We are gaining on the bus when the botas honk...the bus driver sees us and opens the door but is NOT stopping. Erin tells the bota to go ahead of the bus so we can get off and catch the moving bus all at the same time. I have my camera bag, a backpack, and my purse all weighing me down. I jump off and Erin yells to me that she paid for both of us, but my bota driver snatches the 10,000 shilling note out of my hand and wouln’t give it back. So at this point I am going off at him to give me my money and bags… after what seemed like 10 minutes of fighting, he finally gives it back but at this point Erin has already thrown her bags to the man on the bus (all while running keep in mind!) jumped inside the bus and I am running alongside throwing her my heavy bags (yes the bus is still moving). One bag is in… two bags are in… finally I reach out my hand and Erin pulls me on. phew we made it. Like a movie, me and my partner in crime....we made it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME that that just happened! unreal. we grab a seat and take some deep breaths. Rwanda here we come…

COLLEGE... COLLEGE... COLLEGE... July 21st – 24th

So this week there is only 3 of us at home. Ricky went to Congo to film for an amazing organization called Discover the Journey, CHECK IT OUT discoverthejourney.org . Erin went to a Reconciliation Seminar that an organization called R.E.A.C.H. puts on. This organization is AMAZING! They bring killers from the genocide who have served their sentences in jail together with victims of the genocide to begin the process of reconciliation. The overall point of R.E.A.C.H. is to bring about forgiveness, because forgiveness is such a powerful tool to bring about closure. CHECK IT OUT www.reach-rwanda.org and www.reachusa.org. Amanda went to Uganda for a few days to visit old friends in Gulu and the country she loves so much. So it was Seth, Rachel, and I for the week. I spent this week beginning the process of College applications. I spent the first day researching film schools in the country. The next day narrowing the schools down and researching in depth what each film program offers, financial details, scholarships, BLAH BLAH BLAH….. Then the last few days of the week looking at their requirements for the application and began filling those out. These are the schools I narrowed down to…

Schools:

1. University of Southern California

2. University of California, Los Angeles

3. Chapman University

Don’t judge me! I, of all people, realize how expensive and difficult it is to get into these schools! But I prayed and thought about it for a long time and realized that I have never limited what I have done in the last few years of my life based on $$$$, my educational background, or stereotypes of what a girl like me can or cannot do, SO WHY WOULD I START LIMITING MYSELF TO THAT NOW! After praying about it for a while, I realized that God has always and continues to tell me to REACH FOR THE STARS! And settle for nothing less. I truly believe that the experience and work I have done since high school gives me a good shot of getting into these schools (at least I hope so). And just like I have done for the past few years, I will work my butt off, believe in myself, pray pray pray, and have faith that this is what God wants me to do… and I will be open for change if He see’s fit.

A little prayer and/or support from you all couldn’t hurt either!

Remba Beauty Initiative July 14th – 17th

Ricky and I have spent 3 days straight working on the Remba promotional video. I was very excited about this video because I get to personally work on it more than the KEZA Promo video. When we made the Keza video I was still learning final cut pro and only shooting every couple days or so… BUT now that I have been practicing editing and shooting since the Keza video, I get to help Ricky out much more with the Remba video. I use to do little things to help Ricky like holding the boom mic, or the reflector, subtitling, and organizing footage. Now with this video I was able to shoot more, help with the storyboard of the video, be more involved with the editing, and overall more involved with making the video. My title is the Producer of the video. I am really starting get the hang of things, and I can only improve from here… THANKS TO RICKY JOHN NORRIS ☺ With the projects we will have in the future, I will gradually have more involvement in the making of the videos and the capturing. I am learning so much and am so blessed to have such a great teacher!

Remba Beauty Initiative from Ricky Norris on Vimeo.

Volcano Village

We left early this morning to go on a trip to Kinigi to get footage of the country side of Rwanda, and it was a mini-family vacation. What better way to mix work and play! We caught a 2 hour bus ride to Kinigi, Rwanda. It was an amazing ride. The whole time you are on the side’s of mountains and hills overlooking the country. It was that bumpy African road we all know and love, but with the beautiful view, it was as if the bumps smoothed out into a calm road. It was the bluest of sky’s, deep valleys, mountains and hills, streams, and more green than you could imagin. You couldn’t help but sit back and thank God for letting us witness his beauty. As we drew closer to the Sabyno village, Erin pointed out 3 massive volcanos. I have never seen a volcano before, let alone 3. I was awe struck! Once we arrived in a near by village, we were staying at a hostel there.

We met up with a few local kids who showed us around and helped us find the best spots to film. We filmed villages, valleys, the volcanos, and then after we had been working for the day, Erin pulled out a soccer ball and the kids picked teams and the games began. Ricky and Seth played soccer with the kids while I filmed the game for some extra footage. That night we sat on the porch of the hostel and watched the sun set while sipping on some African tea.

























We woke up early the next morning to see and do a time laps of the sunrise over the volcano’s. Now that was beyond magical. That day we got some of the best footage we have gotten over the whole trip!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I woke up in the morning feeling kind of home sick since I was in Africa on one of the biggest American holidays. The 4th of July is a big, fun family holiday in my family! We go to the beach, have a BBQ, hang out for the rest of the day, maybe go to a party, then go down town and watch the fireworks. But we all decided we would make the best of the holiday and find something fun to do. So we went to the US Embassy, every piece of material that built the Embassy was from America, every brick, chair, picture, everything. Technically it if you are standing at the Embassy, you are on “American soil”. There were about 100 Americans; you had to show your passport to get in. It was all red white and blue, kids running around, delicious traditional 4th of July food (hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, French fries, pastries, beer, and cokes), and a speech by an American ambassador. We all stood and sang the National Anthem, the Ambassador read the speech Obama gave on the 4th and every one hung out with each other.
After the Embassy we went to go watch a ton of guys we know have their Annual Moto-Polo Tournament. This guy started the game a while ago when he came to Rwanda from America. People pick teams, go out into an open football field, pay some moto drivers to play for a few hours, and let the games begin! I think the pictures speak for them selves…





After watching some crazy moto polo, we left to an evening BBQ at a friends house. THIS WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY! Liz made a very patriotic/funny 4th of July play list (it was appropriate for the occasion ☺), we had SUCH good food: Goat shish-cabob’s, fried potato’s, fruit salad, brownies, beer, and any type of pop you could ask for… not just any pop, pop in glass bottles! We spent the rest of day light hanging outside in the yard, eating amazing food, and waiting for the sun to go down. After the sun began to dip behind the hills, the guys who owned to house brought out their projector and set it up against to side of the house while we were setting up blankets. We spent the rest of the evening watching The Sandlot on the projector under an African night sky with only the light of the movie and the blanket of stars illuminating the sky.

Magical |ˈmajikəl| : beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life.

And that is precisely what it was… a magical evening of pure nostalgia. I may not have been back home, but this was definitely one of the best 4th of July’s I have EVER had.

July 2nd Orphanage Visit

We went to spend the day at a small orphanage, it had about 20 kids and they were all orphaned because their parents died of AIDS or HIV or they only had one parent who was living but very sick. The man who was running the orphanage has a family of his own, but has dedicated his life to the children he takes care of. So we decided to go and spend the day with the kids. It was some of the most fun I have had since I came to Rwanda! We met all of the kids, then we had to figure out what to do with them for the rest of the day… FOOTBALL! Ricky brought a football and before we could even ask them if they wanted to play, they grabbed the ball and ran out side to find somewhere to play. We divided up into 2 teams, Brazil (Ricky, Amanda, and I were on this team) and Barcelona (Seth and Erin’s team). The kids picked the names.


Team Brazil


Team Barcelona

We played long and hard! The kids were so good, and tons of other kids in the area heard us playing and came to watch. It was a never ending game, Barcelona was KILLING Brazil! But all in good fun ☺, I think by the time we all called the game quits due to heat exhaustion the final score was 23 to 7, or something crazy like that. We didn’t even care about the scores because we were all having so much fun.




After the game we hung out for a little bit longer, and the kids wanted to sing us a song they all knew. Their father got them all in a line, youngest to oldest and the choir started singing…

“We are the youngest stars, we sing all over the mountain. We sing, sing, sing all over, sing all over the mountain…” Then one of them would Sing solo “I am Mimi, I dance all over the mountain. I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance all over the mountain…”

And they all went through the song singing about their talents. It was so precious! After the song and dance, we had to go. I am shocked every day by peoples spirits here! Even though these kids have lost their parents, they are still so happy and thankful for the live they do have. We are planning on visiting again soon.