Okaiboma

After Linus' departure, we set off for his father's village to avoid the hefty prices of our lodge(which at this point was entirely disfunctional-no power and failing water supply). We would be staying w/ Linus' brothers and their families in an idyllic smaller village just beyond the main village of Okaiboma and right on the path to the beach. Our costs would be next to nothing with very little compromise(if you don't mind eating yams for breakfast, lunch and dinner and sleeping on hard wood slats- slightly curved and unevenly layed so that you're bound to wake up at least 4 times a night). We were up for the compromise and thought the opportunity might offer some inside access to village life for 16mm shooting.

Linus Brothers' small village was a wonderful experience. I(Kelly) particularly enjoyed bathing every night under hundreds of stars with no human light to compete. It may have been slightly too idyllic however with even their own pesonal well and pristine grassy hill. They'd chosen this spot and the arms length from the village for a reason and thus we were a bit removed fro the more raucus intrigues of the larger village.

I(Zach) was feeling like we were not very productive at all during this time and beating myself up about it while Kelly kept on with her penetrating optimism pointing out the things that we had filmed and experienced:

We captured children playing n the water, fishing and singing. A pentecostal church service. In fact we also got a community bakesale(Wherever there are christians there are bakesales!), people pulling water from the well, a woman scraping banana leaves to make currency(topless). We took a canoe ride, Zach bathed in a typhoid-germ infested natural water cave (K's interpretation). We filmed lush, green yam gardens, men playing checkers with bottlecaps, torrential downpours. OK, we got about half an hour of 16mm film, forget the self loathing!