As I write this, having returned from a wonderful 6 days on the coast
with Lara's visiting parents and some of our volunteers, I am
listening to Sammy doing video editing two feet from me in our living
room. Sammy, 14, is a little genius boy. He is the one who that
figures out all computer and technology things even though in his
lifetime he has had a combined total of maybe 50 hours of time
exposed to things like computers and video cameras. Needless to say,
I have significantly more than this. In 30 minutes, Sammy's first
edited video to music, subtitles, and other features surpassed what
took me months to create.
Specifically, though, I am listening to Lara and Sammy banter to
their heart's content over said video editing. Lara, 25, and Sammy,
14, are on similar levels as they show off their sarcastic wit.
Like Lara, guessing Sammy was born in 1986 - the same number of the
particular recorded track he was opening. Or Sammy, telling Lara that
the computer has a bigger head and brain combination than she does.
Or Lara, finding the hidden video Sammy recorded that he meant to
delete (in which he is singing, alone, "I'm a soldier in the
army...") and then playing it. Or Sammy, telling Lara he won't eat
more of her fresh chocolate chip cookies because "You Americans" eat
too many soft, sweet things and that is why he does not have bad teeth.
But aside from the joy of listening to Sammy edit his LaClaSa videos
(laclasa is his chosen name for every video file he creates - a
combination of Lara, Claire, and Sammy), the real excitement is the
reason he's editing. Hope Runs, and the kids, will be doing an
ongoing video series with Runner's World. More excitingly, we just
found out Runner's World approved a new video camera for Tumaini, and
a year of DSL so that we can actually get the files out of East
Africa on some reliable internet.
As Sammy says, rubbing his chest and nodding his head: "Twill be nice."
1 comment:
Camera *and* DSL. Woohoo!
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