It's a wrap!

Today we finished shooting! In the morning we got some really nice pictures from Kibera that would nicely bind our "Flying toilet" story and later I met with Kevin (the Miraa Raper Guy) to get some music for the soundtrack of the Khat Movie.

And that is it! All stories completed! After nearly three weeks of constant shooting I will have some time for myself. Tourism time! Tomorrow we are heading for our Safari! I'm really excited because after all this hard time I will finally have a chance to witness just magnificent glory of beautiful nature. It will be a really pleasant relax time. But 7D of course goes with me. I'm sure will get some really beautiful shots.

And below a "Brandy New Car" photo by Aurelia Frydrych ©:

Black magic related albino killings!

It's crazy around here! Just now some Kenyan people were stopped by the Police while trying to sell an albino, so parts of his body could have been used in magic rituals. You can read the story on BBC news page here.

We are also covering the story and tomorrow we are meeting with an Kenyan albino lawyer activist, who has been handling this case.

The witch-doctor that pay for the albino parts are the one that command Majinis - African demons that I wrote about earlier.

Yesterday we covered the Miraa market and as you can see on this frame from our footage, there is a lot of traffic out there.

Deeper and deeper

First of all let me apologize all of you who started wondering whether something happened to us. I know that we promised daily updates, but we were really unable to connect to the Internet, as last few days we spent in the Interior, that is deep into the country.

We visited some Miraa (the drug I write earlier about) plantations and were able to see how is it cultivated. It is a commodity that everybody desires here, either to chew or to make business with. Some people try to steal it, but on most occasions they are easily stopped by guards, that patrol heavily secured fields. The punishment? Just cutting the arms. Ouch.

Here courtesy to Aurelia © you can see how fresh Mirra just from the tree looks like. That is what most people in Kenya (up to 80% of populations here are users!) want, as Miraa is only effective up to 48 hours after cutting. The fresher the higher it gets you.



Than we went to some Masai settlements, where we interviewed witch-doctor who is the one conducting female circumcisions - the process of cutting out clitoris (at least!) of girls that come to the aged when they can be married. It's a cruel and dangerous process that leads to many health hazards and can even mean death to the "patient". It's been banned illegal by Kenyan government, but is still conducted in many regions of the country. It is even common for Kenyans that live in Europe or USA to take their daughters on vacation to "visit grandparents" - a code name for bringing them to their motherland for a procedure.

Courtesy to Aurelia a photo of one of the Masai's women ©:



Other than that we had plenty of nice and not so nice adventuress that included loosing a phone (pickpockets!), getting some stomach problems, meeting Swedish woman that is trying to change the world with hers husband invention and... finding out about Majini - evil African spirits that are most common in Mombasa... but that is another story that I should not start during night time. You may laugh, but I have witnessed a Majini activity and I would not like to angry them while on their territory.

Khat, Kibera and birhday:)

Just a quick post today. We researched a Khat and Kibera Community Radio today, but I would not write anything more about it, because I have like a Birthday today! So I will only post a picture that Aurelia Frydrych took today. Keep reading and advertise my blog to your friends as my birthday gift, ok? Cheers.

Miraa and OG!

Miraa, Khat, a friendly stimulant or a deadly drug? Today we did a lot of shooting about this subject so it was a really interesting day. In the morning we met with some people from and organization that deals with addiction. They told us about all the negative effects that human body can suffer from a Khat.

Then we spent a really interesting afternoon with a Gsu Kisu a real hip-hop gonna be star. He is a Khat and he's using it and says that there are no really side effects.

So who is right? I think have to decide for yourselves after seeing the final movie. For now please have this 7D still taken from one of the clips of Gsu Kisu doing his thing! For real! He's really good!

Mira and Sikh hospitality

Today we did some research on Mira as I mentioned yesterday.

For those of you who don't know what it is. It is a plant that is legal here in Kenya but is a strongly addictive drug that can cause a lot of health problems. It works like something between cocaine and amphetamine.

You can read more about it here.

We went to the River Road (probably the most dangerous part of the Nairobi). We didn't really shot a lot of material but we interviewed some people, found an interesting bar just for chewing Khat and bought some leaves to gain a trust of the sellers. The people were not really hostile but the atmosphere of endangerment was definitely in the air, so I think it will be quite difficult to film it.

Other then that we had quite a pleasant day. We accidentally found a Sikh temple. We wanted to visit it for a minute but actually we spent there like three hours. They were so friendly! We talked to them about religion, god and meaning of life. They showed us their rituals and shared a meal with us. It was fantastic! The Sikh are amazing and wise people. I think we will visit them again soon.

And here again a photo courtesy to Aurelia Frydrych ©:

Slums tourism feels just bad...

Today we visited a school of Kenyan Salesian Volountary Mission. We were contracted by their polish department to do a small documentary about kids that live and learn there and... guess what ... all the kids have a winter break and are gone! That is just hilarious! I have no idea how could they not checked it before sending us here.

But to be honest I don't really mind. I have more time now to pursue other topics I want to shoot during my stay here;)

We also visited one of the Nairobi's slums today. It was quite a terrible experience and I felt quite bad being there and taking photos. It feels like being a vulture, feeding on a poverty.

Still I have one of the photos for you. Again courtesy by Aurelia Frydrych ©:



Tomorrow I will start shooting some footage for a movie about a drug Khat (also called Miraa). So stay tuned!