Closer To...Good.

Is it just me...?

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That's the email I got just today (click on it to read it.)

We applied way back in November--and a great deal of work it was! I find it especially dishearterning because I'm gearing up to leave for India in less than two weeks.

Wow. What a cool thing it would have been to have received funding, huh?

Of course, the email raises all kinds of emotions. Most of all, frustration. How could they NOT see what a powerful multiplier the Good Media School could be for their funds? And the whispers begin:

"Maybe it's not that good of an idea."

But, no. I've seen the good myself. I've been there, in Delhi, and seen the looks of thankfulness and excitement on the faces of the guys as they begin to see the power of what video can do to help them help more people. Most of all, I love the look of confidence that slowly comes over them---

I can do this! It's not so hard. I am able to do this.

So, even though I'm disappointed, and the doubts start to creep in, I'm stubbornly choosing to listen to THEIR voices. Not the one of doubt.

I'm going back to India, grants or not. And...I'll be using a Mac.  :)

That old dilemm-na

Got an email recently that kinda breaks my heart.

Someone who's planning on attending the training in Derhradun told me he's saved up to buy a Macbook. Could I find a cheap one for him?

He has $500 to spend.

Five hundred dollars is a TON of money in India! And, it buys a little less than 50% of a used Macbook Pro (give or take.) So, what do you do? I struggle with this. From a training and productivity perspective, I've found the Mac to be far superior to Windows (and I've been working with both for many years.) However, Windows machines are less expensive. We don't have the funding available to buy anyone anything, so in a way it's a moot point. Still, going forward, I realize this will be an issue, and we should come to some kind of solution (besides winning the lottery or getting that long-desired, elusive grant.)

My suggestion to him was to come to the training, and even if he bought a Windows machine, he'd find the time spent in class well worth it.

Mac or no Mac.

One month from tomorrow, I'll be on the road again, heading back to India for more Good Media School training. In the meantime, I'm hard at work on my paying job. I did get a chance to speak to a group recently about the GMS. It was a lot of fun and very well received. It's always rewarding to see people here in the states respond positively to what we're trying to do. It was fantastic to receive some donations as well.

I'm also gearing up for a video workshop on March 3. It'll give me a chance to start prepping for the training in India. I'll be using a Mac.

 

 

 

Three things I took home.

I hope the Christmas season is treating you well. For me, freshly back in the States after three weeks abroad, it’s fantastic to have this time to recuperate and ruminate on the trip. There are many things I could write about. But here are the most important conclusions I’ve come to as a result of the trip to India for the Good Media School pilot:

1. This is a Good idea. NotFar.org is all about getting people closer to Good—closer to poverty free, meaning-ful lives. If that is the goal, then the Good Media School was a huge success. Every one of the students will now begin to use the power of video to help more people get healthier and safer. Some of the students were from the medical field, some from disaster relief. In every case, they will be able to help more people now.
2. It can get Better. I learned a ton by doing the pilot. Most importantly, I learned that there’s a lot of room for improvement! According to the evaluations, the same suggestions kept coming up….the same ones I had in my own notes:

India Images

It’s 2:07am Sunday morning, and I’m sitting in the airport lounge, trying to stay awake. My flight leaves at 3:30am for London. In a way, it’s hard to believe the trip is over already. In another way, however, it feels like I’ve been in this foreign land for a long, long time.

And that’s fitting, isn’t it, for this trip...feeling two ways. I’ve been half awake, half jet lagged. I’ve been traveling through multiple centuries at any given time. I’ve tried to be a leaf in a stream, to go with the flow, and succeeded…sometimes.

People ask me if I love India or hate it. I say, “Yes!” India, to me, is not a question of liking it or not. It's not a Facebook comment. I am…intrigued by it. Fascinated, even. Repulsed? Yep. And frustrated and enthralled and…many other things.

Credit where credit is due

Short blog tonight; no complaining, no mosquitos. I am going to have dinner with Satya, who we partnered with back in 2008. I’m looking forward to seeing him and catching up on the incredible work he is doing in microfinance. If you haven’t seen our little video yet, please take 5 minutes to watch. It’s worth your time to learn about this story. It’ll give you hope.

You know, this country can overwhelm you with its noise, dirt, poverty, traffic chaos, and sheer volume of humanity. As a westerner (who seems to be permanently jetlagged), it can be a struggle at times to see the beauty here. But a moment like the one I captured tonight on my iPhone camera? It reminds me once again of the stunning beauty of this land. Only in India. I’m so glad I was here to experience it.

Murphy, thy name is India

My friend Jerry says that Murphy (of Murphy’s Law) had to be an Indian. Sometimes, it seems like anything that’s going well HAS to be sabotaged, just because it’s…going well.

We had a fairly nice conference room for our training, until that abruptly ended last night. I opened the door onto our dust-filled new room and was promptly disappointed. Fitting 15 people, plus equipment, was the latest adventure, and it did take most of the day just to get the gear organized, find desks, and resuscitate the people who fell out from dust inhalation.

Regardless of all that, though, today the guys went out shooting. As I watched them leave our little dust-filled room, eagerly clutching their camera gear and scripts,

I had an odd feeling like I was watching my kids head off to their first day of school. They spent the morning shooting, and the afternoon beginning to work with iMovie. They’re all over this stuff, man. They love it! And they “get it,’ meaning, they get the potential of these tools to help them help more people.

I may complain a lot about my cell/room and the crusty bites all over my hands, arms and neck, but it’s so rewarding seeing this class come together so well, and to see how the guys are responding to the teaching. We have two days left, and while I‘m hesitant to see what else may go wrong, I'm really excited to see what else goes right.

This is when it gets fun (kinda)

Today the class really kicked into gear, and that’s mostly because I shut up. Today, I put them to work, focusing on the scriptwriting process.

Yesterday, I did a complete overview of the entire video production process; how to write, plan, shoot, edit, and finish a video. It was a lot of lecture, but the guys (and they’re all guys, except for Nurse Wendy) loved it. They were scribbling away, taking copious notes. I made sure they had many opportunities to teach each other for review, and we had time for discussion. Still, I pretty much talked for, oh, seven hours. (And nobody slept!)

This is a pilot for the Good Media School, and I expected there would be changes to my plan. Originally, we were going to work on Wendy’s video for waterborne diseases. But Wendy was gracious enough to put that one aside so the guys could work on their own groups’ needs instead.

Each group is from a different health field; disaster management, child health, and one other I don't recall, and so they are creating a script to help people in each of their respective fields. This change makes teaching more challenging, because I have to manage three separate projects instead of one. Plus, it makes it harder to complete all the content I want to get through. But, the positives are powerful; the students are engaged because they care about the content, and on a practical level, they will be able to actually use these videos to help people when they leave. Well worth the tradeoff.

It was funny. Last night, I told the guys there were prizes (see picture) for whoever did the best video. When they saw them, there were literal oohs and aahs! Honestly, it’s a privilege to give them these tools. They’ll use them to do good.

Important side note: the SOB mosquitos are DEAD (“SOB mosquitos” is the Latin term---but then, you already knew that, didn’t you?). There were a few still limping around on little crutches and wheezing, but the mosquito net kept them out and I slept like a rock all night. Thank God.

 

 

Indian Technology. As smart and tech savvy as the Indians are, the actual electrical system leaves a lot to be desired. I had an up-close-and-personal experience with the concept of “grounding” a few years back that haunts me still. Here just one of the truly frightening items we have used, just to plug my Mac in. Still, we couldn’t get it to stay plugged in. So, in the end, my friend Paneel found a typically ingenious Indian solution; he pinned the plug into the wall with a chair. Of course!

UPDATE!!

I JUST finished posted, when, a knock at the door. Apparently, our conference room, which we have booked through Friday, has been REbooked to someone else..starting tomorrow.  So at 9:30pm, as I was just about to head to bed, instead I will be moving all of our technology, cameras, gear--including the "thing" to the right >>

back into our sleeping cells, I mean rooms, for the night, until we can find anther conference room tomorrow.

<sigh.> Time like this, this "leaf in a stream" crap can get a little old.  :)

Mosquitos and miracles

There have been many nights when I didn’t sleep, or couldn’t sleep, for various reasons. But I have never, in all my life, had a night like last night.

Check out my cell room. It was the seventh different bed in seven nights. I was looking forward to settling in to one place. I was a bit disappointed in the Spartan surroundings, but, hey, it’s India, and it’s part of living dangerously, right?

And who wouldn’t like this bathroom? Hm?

 

I tried to make my bed a bit more like home, and then settled in for a good night’s rest in preparation for the first full day of training. I fell into this awesome deep sleep…and then heard this tiny whining sound. It was the first warning that my sleep would essentially be over for the night—and it was 9:30pm. I’ll not bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that mosquitos were buzzing and whining around my head, neck, arms…you name it, All. Night. Long. I’m sure I must have slept sometime, but if I did it wasn’t for long.

My fingers were offered up as a sacrifice at some point, but they were not appeased. After a night of (literally) smacking myself up the head dozens of times trying to kill the little SOB’s, I crawled out of bed to face the day.

 

 

I honestly didn’t know how I was going to function at all—let alone lead a full day of training to a class of second language students. This was how my room looked at the scheduled start time. No problem, I said to myself. It’s all part of the whole Zen thing.

And, in a few minutes, we were on our way. Somehow, someway, I not only survived, we had a high energy, interactive, completely fun day together. The class of twelve is a literal joy to teach. It’s great to see how appreciative they are of the content, and how enthusiastic about how much it will help them in their jobs. I remind myself that these are people who save lives, and that by learning these skills, they will be able to save even more.

It’s a great way to spend a day, really.

Jerry bought some Indian Mosquito Death contraption, and I hung a mosquito net around my bed. I hope to God they do the trick. The contraption may poison me as well, but at this point I do not care. I do NOT care. So, Day One is done. I’m waiting for Wendy and Jerry to bring me back a McChicken sandwich before I call it a day. I’m grateful for them bringing me the food; I just didn’t have the energy to face the craziness of Delhi tonight. Last night the three of us shared a rickshaw, and this was my view. Never a single dull moment here. Tomorrow we begin the hands-on part of the class; writing their own scripts for videos that they will (in theory) plan, shoot, edit and finish by end of day Friday. I close by saying, Thank God for miracles and death, painful death, to all mosquitos everywhere.

Wide Awake and Sleeping

Jetlag really stinks.

You might be wondering why jetlag stinks. Well, I will tell you. Right now, it’s about noon here. At any given moment, my body will suddenly decide I’m in the states, where it is 1:30am. One minute, I’m totally engaged in a conversation. The next, I’m crashing like a narcoleptic. I am living in both worlds, and that’s a bit confusing.

In fact, this idea of being in two worlds is very fitting, and if you give me a few paragraphs, it might actually bring me to a point. Either that or I’ll nap.

India can change a guy...

It’s 11:45pm. I’m at a hospital in the low foothills of the Himalayas, and I am sleeping with an older man.

How’s that for a first night in India? The older man is my good friend Jerry (husband of Nurse Wendy.) We are here to research a couple places as potential future training locations. And…we are sharing a bed. You do what you have to do.

You know Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? That scene when Steve and John Candy share a bed? Yeah. let’s not go anywhere NEAR there.

It’s cold. I’ve been wading through the fog of jetlag all day. In India, it’s a special treat to feel like you’re several steps behind! But, I’ve made it through the day.

Tomorrow, I hope to see some mountains, and feel more like myself.

 

Jerry says, “Goodnite.”