Home Sweet Sarayacu

Hello again Everyone!!

We hope that our latest message reaches you all in good health and spirits! SO.. we sat down to write this blog and realized that a lot of you are not even aware yet that we are

Due to the internet connection being extremely difficult to access during the past 5 days, we were unable to post this blog, but here it is.

For the last week, we have been here in Sarayaku working with a group of three students, teaching them the foundational basics for using the video editing program, FinalCutPro. Their first project consisted of creating a short story with still images. They each were given a camera and went out to take photos of various things nearby.

If you are interested in the specifics here is a list of what we have gone over with them so far:
-create new folders for your project files [this is excellent for organization]
-create a new project in FCP so that your footage saves correctly [set your scratch disks!]
-capture your footage from a video camera
-import photos/audio to your project
-create bins in your browser
-learn different ways to view your browser using icons/list view [ctrl + click]
-look through those photos and move your favorites onto the timeline
-change the duration of a clip using timecode
-adjust/fade the audio [using the pen tool]
-how to use various tools [blade/arrow/pen]
-use motion effects on both video/text
-use transitions [both automatic and manual] between your clips
-how to add and play with different text options [size, motion effects, zooming, fonts, colors]

We will do our best to upload one or all of their first projects sometime soon. It has definitely been a challenge teaching a highly advanced, technical program in a second language that neither of us are fluent in, but the students are learning incredibly fast and are very patient with our limited [but growing] vocabulary!

Today we will begin a second project with them, that will involve an interview with someone they know. For this project we will be teaching them various camera techniques and interviewing skills.

Aside from the work aspect of things, we went to our first Minga this weekend. Minga is a day during the weekend where people are inviting from all over the community to help a household out with a project. Everyone arrives at the house early in the morning to begin by drinking cheecha. Cheecha is a lightly alcoholic beverage that is made by the women who chew yucca, spit and ferment it. It is actually pretty tasty! Its texture is.. well.. like spit, with chunks of yucca dispersed lightly throughout each gulp, it is quite effervescent and citric. Afterwards we were off to our first canoe ride, where we traveled fifteen minutes downstream to haul large slabs of lumber, approximately 4 X 4 by 20 ft, on our shoulders down a muddy hill, into the riverside, and into the canoe. We did this with the family who was hosting Minga, they plan on using the lumber as floorboards for a new room in their house. The work was very difficult for us, but the idea of our tired bodies was lightweight hilarious beside the elders who worked through their tiredness like energizer bunnies. After work was completed they treated us to a nice lunch and more cheecha.

The first few nights here we were sleeping outside and it was raining endlessly, but now the sun is dominant in the sky and we sleep in a structure with walls that provide a bit more weather protection.

We have our own sleeping space but spend a lot of time with Heriberto and his family. At first conversations were difficult, but they have improved greatly. It is really amazing to speak with Heriberto's parents and learn about their lives. His father is 86 years old and walks up a giant mountain everyday to get to his workplace. His mother has a medicine garden and can whip up an endless amount of various concoctions, magic juices and teas for good health. We sleep and wake early here, there is very limited amount of electricity, so our sleep patterns have pretty much adjusted to the schedule of the sun.

Thank you all for your support with this project, it was most definitely worth the effort!
You are on our minds,
with love,

Chaz and Mahaliyah