La Bouche Ouvert, Le Pied Terrible

Yesterday evening I had an interview with a couple of mountain climbers.

They have climbed Everest up to 6,500 metres, which is only a couple of kilometres short of the summit. No Sri Lankan has ever climbed higher on that mountain. Not officially, anyway.

These guys were great. They were accommodating and generous with their stories. So how did I alienate them?

As we were chatting, I casually asked if there had been much media interest in Sri Lanka about their attempts to climb Everest. Some Sinhala papers had been in contact, they answered.

I replied that one of the toughest things about living in Sri Lanka as a foreigner is that I'm excluded from a large amount of media, since I don't understand the languages (which is my problem, and my fault). And that the Sinhala papers here must surely be better than the English ones, which, I pronounced, are universally awful.

The table quickly became quiet, and I sensed a bit of embarrassment. "No one here writes for an English paper, do they?" I asked.

I knew the answer before anyone spoke.

Man, I tried to backtrack. My attempts were transparent, though. I just finished my coke and left.

A rough first draft is complete

I really wish I could put the LTRT stuff onto YouTube, but I think that one large detraction of working with a multinational NGO is that copyright issues come into play. Also, there will be people who are higher up who will not appreciate an unapproved production leaked to the public, especially in it's nascent form.

But I think I have a rough draft of the newest video ready. I've shown it to one person here, and he thinks it's definitely going in the right direction. I have a feeling I'll have to let go of the notion that the only voice to be heard will be Renuka's though. There's really a gap between a couple of sequences that can only be bridged by using either an interview or some bullet points. I'm leaning toward the latter.

ACF Murders - One Year On

Today is the one year anniversary of the massacre that took the lives of 17 employees of the French aid group Action Contre la Faim. There was a ceremony at the UN compound in Colombo, along with other major Sri Lankan cities and offices in 40 countries ACF operates in.

I would really have liked to have blogged about this commemoration, or even done something for VoR Radio or the upcoming Spinach 7. But, as I found out when I arrived at the compound, media are barred from the events.

I'm sure there' s a good reason for this, but I wasn't given one.

So unfortunately I have nothing to report.

IOM Pictures

Great news on the IOM pics. Their communications officer sent me about ten photos yesterday, but wasn't quite sure they were taken at the right temple. I sorted through the first few, and they seemed like the right place. Then I came to a picture with Renuka, and that erased all doubt. Very exciting.

I'm still waiting on translations so that I can really start putting things together, so I'm feeling a bit stuck until then. Please, please, please let that be done by tomorrow!

Adobe hates me, but this was all me

Today while editing the video I did a stupid thing. I deleted basically all of Renuka's audio from the hard drive. I won't go into how I did this, since it really doesn't make a difference. It was due to carelessness on my part, though, and it just means that I'll have to go back through my raw files and find all the clips I highlighted last week. Luckily, that isn't too much stuff to look through, but when it's a language I don't understand it makes things a bit tricky.

I'm getting the clips translated now, and hopefully I'll have them by tomorrow so I can really fit the into the video. I've also been in touch with IOM (the UN agency that tracks the movement of refugees) for some still photos of the camp Renuka stayed in. It will be great to use this element as well.

Editing process: slow but sure

I began editing the Renuka video in earnest on Friday. What I've been concentrating on is just getting an approximate structure for the story together. At the very beginning is a short montage of tsunami destruction footage I took a couple of weeks ago, ending with a shot of Renuka's old house. I'm using some music by a band called IOEI that I found on Creative Commons, which I think gives this sequence great momentum. It feels like we're going someplace. Here's a link to a torrent file if you want to listen to their album. The song's name is 'floating islands.'

From here I cut to Renuka giving a short 'tour' of her house: "This was where the bedroom used to be, this was where the kitchen used to be." That sort of thing.

Cut to her giving voice to how much she misses her place. She said that she liked the area, and I can understand why. Though the houses that have gone up around the area are pretty dingy, there are shops, restaurants, and, most importantly easy access to a major road. Also it's right on the coast. The house she lives in now, for all its advantages, is located 5km from the Galle Road.

From here, she talks about her time as a domestic worker in the middle east. Although Renuka spent her time in Dubai, most Sri Lankan women who go overseas to work end up in Lebanon, where they're employed in incredibly harsh circumstances. Renuka's employer was pretty sadistic: whenever the family left home, they made sure to lock Renuka in her room. She wasn't allowed to talk to or associate with any other Sri Lankans. Renuka's letters didn't make it home for some reason, and her family thought she'd disappeared. Still, she persevered, and stayed in Dubai for two years.

When she got back home, she used the money she earned in Dubai to buy a house. A couple of years later, it was washed away by the tsunami.

From here I will cut to her time at the Buddhist temple she and her family lived in for eight months after the tsunami. She talks about the loss of trust she felt after so many INGOs promised her a new house, a license for her husband (who was a driver), etc, etc. These promises were never met. Since this film is supposed to demonstrate the importance of accountability, this is probably the most crucial section of the video.

Now she will talk about the house built for her by World Vision LTRT. We've been having discussions about this: nobody here is interested in making a propaganda film. So I do want to show that even though LTRT built her family a house that she is generally pleased with, there are still a few complaints that Renuka has. She thought the kitchens would be bigger, for example. And it really is a long way to get to a main road (her husband had to walk the 5km before a bus route was finally installed just a couple of weeks ago).

From here, I'll finish up the film. It should all take only five or six minutes.

The good news is that I think I've hit on the right person to focus on. The bad news is that I don't speak sinhala, and so I have to wait for a translator to spend a couple of hours with me going over some of this footage. I know the gist of what she's saying, but I need everything to be as accurate as possible.

Man takes elevator, Haig opens mouth

A typical moment from about a week ago.

I step into the World Vision office with full camera gear, which usually means that I will forego the stairs in favour of the lift. I press the button, the doors open, and a man follows me into the car.

He presses the button for the first floor (the second floor in North America). This is a pet peeve of mine, but I decide, for once, not to make a comment. But I can't help it. "Why didn't you just take the stairs?" I ask. "It's just one storey up."

He smiles at me and nods. I don't think he understands what I said. When the door opens, he shuffles off with a heavy limp, his left leg set in an unnatural direction.

Next time I'll try to follow my first instinct.