THIS WEEK

This week is really difficult. I feel sad. I really miss home. I really miss my friends. I really miss my cat. I really miss the hugs from my mom. I miss waking up in my sky blue colored room. I miss the late night talks with my mom. I miss being able to ride the subway. I miss the shopping malls. I miss being able to get around the city easily. I miss the concrete jungle. I miss so many things. Somedays I don't even notice that I'm away but the times that it gets difficult being away from home is when I dream I'm home. Then I wake up and realize I am not at home. That's tough. really tough. How do I get through these feelings of loneliness and foreigness? I know eventually these feelings will go as they did before. But I think no matter what and where I travel too I will always miss Canada because that's my home.

Starving Artist part I

So you always here about the starving artist. The artist who can't seem to get a break. Well that's how I have been feeling lately. I am a trained journalist. I decided to go back to Malawi to work with a company but also to pursue my dreams of writing and reporting internationally. Ha! wasn't that a crazy dream or what. At the moment I am trying to get a documentary film off the ground. It's an important human rights film focused on child sex tourism in Malawi. I have never felt so frustrated in my life. Trying to find money to fund this film is extremely difficult especially in the current economic climate. Grants are less available and as a first time filmmaker, I feel a bit discouraged, wondering, who the hell is gonna trust me to make a documentary film? I know I am intelligent and capable of making a documentary but everyone is competing for these big grants. At the moment I am currently struggling with how to remain motivated and positive. I have heard the words no so many times and it can really be downright depressing. But what makes me keep pursuing the funds for this film is the huge impact that I know this film can make. I know the power of media from experience. In August, I pursued a lead I had on a certain human trafficking case between Malawi and Tanzania. It took me months to make contacts, do proper research and planning. Finally the radio documentary was produced and aired in December. I wrote an article on the same case in the newspaper in January 2009. Well, as I continued to follow the case I thought it was over. the police didn't seem to be doing anything I was saddened by the lack of empathy by Malawian authorities. However, in April the men who had been trafficked in 2006 were released and came home in April 2009. When asked what happened to the boys, the families attributed it to the well-publicized story. This is what keeps me persisting. When I remind myself about the last story I did and the difference it made in people's lives and even my life then I become motivated again. But if anyone has any advice for this starving artist, any words of wisdom or anything I would be grateful. On the issue of child sex tourism increasing in Malawi, I don't want to give up on a film like this. But where do I start?

Thanks for the support

I recently conducted a short campaign to try and collect and ship used clothing down to Malawi for street children. While I realize a project like this isn't necessarily sustainable, I just really wanted to do my little part to help. While I was working in Malawi on a CIDA contract, I saw that many children didn't even have shoes or proper clothes to wear. It was quite sad since I am so used to seeing that in North America there's always an abundance of things. I am aware that not everyone has access to these things in the west either. In any case I saw a need and I wanted to do something. whatever little I could do. Well when I started the campaign while I was back home in Toronto I saw that there would be no problem acquiring the clothing. But what would be the difficulty was getting donations to support the cost of shipping to Malawi. This is where cost was incurred most. Shipping to Malawi proved to be incredibly expensive. In the end I was able to raise more than enough money to ship the items to Malawi. The cost for shipping was $600US. Now it's the waiting process. The items will be in Malawi on June 27, 2009. Quite a long way away from when they were shipped, which was april 10. In any case I wrote this long paragraph to say from the bottom of my heart to people who contributed to this very small cause. Thank You. People who don't even know me very well entrusted me with this money just having faith that it would go to what I said it would go to. And it has. the remainder of the money will be used to deal with customs duties. Once again I would just like to say thank you and I will definitely let everyone know when the items arrive in Malawi.

Skype...not so simple in Malawi

So when I left Canada, I tried to encourage as many as my friends as possible to sign up on skype. I told them yeah definitely when I get to Malawi i will find you guys on skype. if only it were that easy. Unfortunately since I've been here I've been subjected to really slow internet, now I can no longer figure out how to get internet on my fancy phone. It's a nice phone that I good friend of mine light me borrow for the year. Except when trying to find accessories for this said phone it's damn near impossible in this country. People pick the phone up in their hand, give me a confused look and say no they don't have accessories for the phone. essentially i am desperately trying to find headphones so i can listen to bbc. Another issue with skyping is the incredible time difference between Malawi and canada. while 6 hours doesn't seem like it's that much of a difference when I am getting ready for bed people in canada are just coming home from work. When it's 6pm in canada, it's 12am here. so just think how difficult it will be for me to stay up till 3 in the morning especially when I need to be at work the next day. In any case, I hope soon, once I can figure out how to connect my phone to the internet then i will hopefully be able to skype whenever I want. Most likely once I get all the kinks figured out, skyping will be reserved for the weekend. But till then I hope everyone can be patient.

PLEASE LET ME APOLOGIZE

So I have to admit that I have been a terrible terrible blogger. Honestly I just became so not that interested in blogging. it's hard to keep up with it. divulge all your personal feelings and challenges into cyberspace. well it's difficult for me. And sometimes I just have a short attention span. In any case I am back on the blog. but look out for shorter blog posts. I dont have time to write out three day diary entries. in any case an update for all you people. I finished my eight month placement with a radio station in Malawi. Now I am back working with an intergovernmental organization and ngo's as well on the side along with being a freelance journalist. My time in Malawi will be for another year. Am excited about what I am doing here. I'm in search of a real life adventure. I hope I find it here. Until next time.