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Published: August 22nd 2008
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Friday, May 9, 2008 My stomach was still bothering me, so I ate only an egg and one thin pancake. I was afraid to eat anything else.
The sunrise was wonderful, especially since I could see Lake Natron in the distance. A majestic view of Oldoinyo Lengai was in another direction. I felt completely at peace.
Bill shot video from the hill, while I walked around. Each of us took pictures of the clouds and scenes. We could see some of the villagers moving about, ready to start their day. Soon a beautiful Maasai woman straight out of Central Casting came up the hill. Fredrick translated as she told us in Swahili about the volcano and how people from another village were moved to hers because of the ash. These days there as many as ten people in a room. After Bill put the microphone on her, he had her repeat the story several times until Fredrick thought it sounded right. Her scene would have subtitles in English on the DVD.
A tall Maasai man came to where we were standing. I said, “It's nice to meet you,” and he looked puzzled. He said, “Don't you remember
that we talked for a long time the other night?” I apologized and said that it had been so dark, I didn't know what he looked like, and he was sitting down, so I didn't know how tall he was.
Ali drove the four of us to Lake Natron. Fredrick helped me get through the high marshy grasses, and we walked on the mud flats to get closer to the water. There were thousands of Lesser Flamingos in the area which serves as the breeding grounds for approximately 75% of them. They get their pink color from the spirulina bacteria in the lake. We were careful not to disturb the beautiful birds, because we didn't want them to fly away.
After setting up the scene, Bill captured the story of how the chemical company wanted to build a factory to extract the soda ash from the lake. A Member of Parliament and environmentalists have taken up the cause, and the villagers are waiting for a decision.
Throughout the morning, Bill showed me how to position the reflector to light the shadows while he was shooting the scene. Afterwards I asked if that meant I was now a
“go-fer” (a person who runs errands and “goes fer” whatever is needed). His answer was that I was an
aspiring “go-fer.”
On our way back to the village, our ATV got stuck. The ruts were deep, and we couldn't move off a mound of dirt under our vehicle. The men got out, and our “star” actor jacked it up, grabbed a shovel and started digging away. We were finally able to move it.
Back at the village I bought several bottles of water for the trip. They were relatively expensive because of the scarcity in that remote area. Mddimam Aladala came with us. He works at the camp where we stayed on Tuesday night and was the one who told me about his father's cattle. He would relate information about the earthquake once we found the fault.
We traveled back to the crater, and Bill recorded Fredrick telling us how it was formed, as well as facts concerning the volcano, escarpment and other geological features. As we were driving, not a soul could be seen, but when we stopped the vehicle, a family appeared from nowhere. Like the ones we saw on the first trip, they, too,
had holes in their clothes and looked very poor. Not only did they want to sell us bracelets, the man insisted (using sign language) that he wanted me to give him my hat—and my watch. I declined.
From there we went in search of the earthquake fissure. We drove up and down the hills, finally stopping at a boma to ask directions. One of the Maasai men came along to show us the way. It was hard to find at first, because of grass around it, but the rut was long and deep enough for Fredrick to sit on the ground and dangle his feet into what looked like a trench.
On camera he said that the earth was constantly changing. He described the effect of the earthquake and explained plate tectonics. Fredrick's portion was in English, but Mddimam's was in Swahili. He said that houses built by modern standards collapsed when the quake occurred, while ones made with branches and mud were still standing. Because of that, people were going back to making traditional houses.
Our last scene was in an area surrounded by volcanic hills. With a tall fossilized termite mound in the background, Fredrick
spoke about the International Year of Planet Earth and how honored he was to be part of the Tanzanian Committee.
From start to finish, our trip was about 24 hours long. Traveling took the most time, but we were efficient in getting the stories that would illustrate the effects of natural geological occurrences and how people were coping. We missed most of the conference but accomplished our goal. The footage demonstrated the interaction between Nature and Man—or Woman, as as the case may be.
Back at the hotel, we looked at the footage, and Bill was able to edit quite a bit on the spot. He did a great job, then we showed it to Dan. Fredrick did the translations which were then used as subtitles. We were all proud of the rough cut.
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