We are processing the material collected the former days since we are here in Siachilaba. From a far distance we hear the music being played in the shops at the road, often drowned by all sorts of bird-sounds and occasionally distracted through boats, ferries and canoes crossing or floating along the Zambezi river – right in front of our little huts we staying in.
What else could there be to wish for as for working place??? Okay, a bit more caffeine could help in certain moments…
Thanks to this great and hearty group of women we had an impressive, challenging and strange (in the best sense of the word) experience.
“Listening to the radio and drinking a lot of beer” sounds like an international response to national days. “We laid down our weapons” is part of it too, “the day when we obtained our freedom,” when “it’s fun to be 34,” “we are very happy about it,” and we are “happy and rejoicing” and “dancing a lot, that we forget that we will die.”
Beware of hippos at night: We are still not sure whether this advice – right at the entry at the place we will stay for almost the next 10 days – should either be exciting or rather terrifying …
Here they are – the great and mighty Victoria Falls. In their full power, which is reached – as we learnt – exactly in April and May. Advantage seeing them while they are carrying the highest level of water is clearly their imposing vigor and force. What could count as a disadvantage is the fact, that the spraying of the falls during this period makes it rather impossible to take photographs which aren’t as blurred as the ones posted here – as well as the fact of leaving the sight soaked till your bare skin – despite rain coats.
More to come. But for today, we call it a day. A beautiful day!
what to say… as a first photo published in our “travel-diary” we hoped to post an impressive image showing the Victoria Falls…
While we ourselves are still in the middle of getting ready for the trip, the radio-set is all set to be packed and sent to Zimbabwe!
“Everybody has a story to tell – its the matter of phrasing the right questions – which makes people sharing them.” This sentence was the closure of an insightful introduction on “Interview Techniques” held by Philippa Plochberger (coordinator and person in charge for training and education at Radio FRO) in our laboratory.
Workshop-session number one completed, a pile of homework ahead of us, as well as some more sessions before we head off to hopefully ask empathetic and skillful questions to get to listen to wonderful stories.
There are thousands of lovely templates out there, which have been our inspirational sources in designing the user-interface.
While some of us scanning through piles of background information Peter Kuthan from argezim handed out and mailed to us over the last months, others are trying to get the software running which can be seen as the “invisible” backbone of the interface (as in the final part which will be exhibited), still others are busy in assembling the parts of the project shaping user-interface.
Designed as an old-fashioned looking radio-set, without a receiving function though, the interface will enable an audience to switch manually through all narratives and anecdotes collected in a near future.
There are only a few weeks left until our departure. We are in the middle of “inhaling” all sorts of information, references as well as stories and anecdotes out there on Tonga Culture, on historical and contemporary facts about Zimbabwe and the people we are going to meet in a very near future. Running through, summarizing and expanding long lists of sources which give as an insight in what we might face and help us to prepare for a journey which leads us to Siachilaba, Binga, Bulawayo, Harare (ZIM) and a for a few days to Johannesburg (RSA). Continue reading
