During the week I stayed at Sydney Wilson her place, where she lives together with her boyfriend Gavin. Sydney is from San Diego and I first met her when I was an Erasmus student in Turkey, Eskisehir. She was also a student there. After Turkey we visited some friends in Poland and she also came to Holland. Not long after Turkey she found a job in London after she did an internship there as a graphic designer at The Perfect Day. She’s still working in the company today since they offered her a job when her internship finished. She decided to stay. With Sydney and Gavin I went out, had dinner every day, drank some beers and talked about our time in Turkey. We had a lot of fun I also met with Orsi, a girl from Hungary who was also Erasmus in Turkey during the same time period as Sydney and me. She’s also working in London nowadays and we visited Hyde Park, Piccadilly Circus and the British Museum together. Nice places I had been before, but many years ago! Good times. My time in London was a great week of networking, sightseeing and meeting old friends.

Apart from that, the first thing that really struck me while being in the city was that in ten years time everything had changed, and everything was still the same at the same time. All in all obviously, it’s still a city where Old meets New and I can’t wait to go back!

The way home was a little less friendly than the rest of my stay. Yesterday, while on my way back, there were riots in the streets of London. Students were protesting due to a lot of financial cuts by the government. It was also an act against capitalism and 66 people got injured, including 13 police officers. Orsi worked at Mc. Donalds at the time on Piccadilly  Circus and the windows were thrown in there, fires were set and fights broke out on the streets. I read in the newspaper in the plane home these were the biggest riots in London since 2003 (Iraq war protests) and before that in 1985. Orsi and her colleagues had to go downstairs and wait it out.

For me personally, the main problem was getting back home. Most streets were locked down by the police, so my bus that would normally simply take me back to the airport didn’t go. I had to go to Liverpool Street using the Underground and from their take the train to the airport. I barely made it on time.

Last but not least, Sydney is going back to the States with Gavin around the 20th of april and proposed that if I wanted, I could take the house for the 10 days (and watch her fish ) while they will be out of London. If I can afford it, I might take them up on this offer to visit more companies in London, and hopefully even work on a project!

Parliament Hill

Crystal Palace & Around

Oxford Circus

Buildings of Grandeur

Back in Holland

It’s been a while since my last blog post about our project from Namibia. In the previous one I was still in Gobabis. Meanwhile I’ve been back since the 4th of september and I’ve recently graduated with the documentary we shot in the town of Gobabis in Namibia.

In the video link below you can check out the teaser I made of our film.

The symposium

The film was shot to be shown at a symposium by the municipality of Smallingerland about Development Aid and about the ‘twinning’ between Smallingerland and Gobabis. The purpose was to start up discussion by showing the film, about both the twinning and Development Aid.

Bert Middel, mayor of Smallingerland

The symposium was a succes! Allthough personally I was very dissapointed that the mayor Bert Middel did not like the film simply because he had been told or thought so himself that the film would show all the great things that Smallingerland had done for the twinning and Development Aid. This however, was not our assignment. Making a promtion film was not the goal. If that is what they actually wanted they should have said so and they should have sent two first year students who they can grab by the arm and tell them what to do and exactly how to do it, but not two grad students that are willing to take the assignment seriously and actually talk with the people in town and in the slums to create an honest point of view. The assignment in fact was to give an overall view – from a new perspective – (Jelmer and I are fairly new to the whole Development Aid scene) on things and to tell a clear and honest story of what went wrong and what went well between the twinning and Development Aid in general, and tell something about future perspective et cetera.. The mayor was very dissapointed about the story we had told with our film.. Apparently a dishonest film is more appriciated than an honest one.. That’s life. In bureaucratic ‘lies’ become a policy.

Graduation presentation

On wednesday the first of december there will be a presentation at the NHL University of Applied Sciences at 19:30 and afterwords we will show the film. There will be snacks, coffee and thea and everyone who would like to come is more than welcome!

Hope you enjoyed the teaser, have a look at Jelmer’s one below (we both made teasers seperately).

welcome to Africa!

So here we are, Namibia! Departed from Holland with Albert Scheffer, his daughter Judith Scheffer, and Albert his collegues Thea Seinen, Date de Vries and and my fellow grad student Jelmer de Jong we drove for 6 hours to Europes largest airport which is placed in Frankfurt, Germany. From there we took a 10 hour flight to Windhoek Airport in Namibia.

But our journey didn’t end there. From the aiport we drove in two cars and drove another 2 hours to Gobabis, the place where Jelmer and me are shooting our film.

Along the way we came across a wildebeest and a gazelle running along with us next to the car and a small group of baboons crossed the road about 50 meters ahead of us. Welcome to Africa!

The way into Botswana

Instead of staying in Gobabis and relaxing a little (something a normal person would do), Date had invited us back in Holland for a trip into Botswana to the Okavango Delta. This was something I personally didn’t want to miss for the world, so we decided to go. We left our film equipment and other unnecessary luggage at hotel ‘Die Dam’ where Albert, Thea and Judith were staying, and we went for another 10 hour trip, this time by car, to the Okavango Delta, in the middle of Botswana.

At the border stop we had to fill in forms, forms and more forms. When we had crossed the border we had to fill in more forms again. On the positive side, we did get some nice stamps in our pasports. But 9 hours later or so, things went a bit bad when we arrived in Maum (pronounced as ma-oom).

We did not have enough fuel, our bank and credit cards didn’t work anywhere in town (we tried about 6 different ones) and we still had to pay for the fuel where we had so desperately looked for earlier. Before we were able to find a place where our cards actually did work, it was allready dark and we had no way of finding our way around properly, ever since road signs don’t have lights here (we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, after all), and road signs are even hard to find during the day around here! Apart from that, at night people walk on the streets, the roads have big holes in them and wild animals from dogs up to hyenas come out – especially at night. So drive carefully ‘cause you won’t see them easily.

We were tired, did not have enough food and water with us (I never went on a trip this unprepaired before, but it was quite an adventure) but in the end we made it to the Backpackers Lodge just outside of Maun at the start of the Okavango Delta. Unfortunately they didn’t have a place to sleep for us, but what they did have in stock was a great dinner in this atmospheric location in the middle nowhere surrounded by the weirdest wild animal noises  that I have ever heard in my life (truly amazing!).

After dinner and a huge healthy fruit shake later, we felt sort of reborn and thanks to a manager at the Backpackers Lodge we were able to find a place to sleep at Audi Camp for the upcoming nights, just a few minute drive away. We were also able to book a ‘Mokoro trip’ for the next day there – this was the reason we came to the Okavango Delta, after all.

The Mokoro Trip

A mokoro – or in plural a mekoro – is a shallow-draft canoe traditionally hewn out from ebony wood or a sausage-tree log. We were able to take a tour through the Okavango Delta with one of these traditional canoes. You are so close to the water level that you really start to feel one with nature. It’s relaxing but also chalenging somehow because after all, you’re in the wild and in the river where crocodiles, hippo’s and other animals rule.

To get to the actual riverbank of the Okavango Delta you have to go by 4 wheel drive, otherwise you’ll be stuck for sure. Big puddles of mud and overthrown roads by riverfloodings will block your way if you don’t have have 4 wheel drive because some are deep and have quite dangerous rapids in them. Also the roads (as for as you can call them that) itselfs are graveled roads and impossible to drive on with a normal car. After this adventurous trip we ended up at a quiet area at the river bank. We were guided by a man and woman who were polars for the canoes. They push the mokoro forward with their sticks. After about an hour in the mokoro we continued further on foot to spot some wild life. No lions, leoperds and cheetas unfortunately, but we did see giraffes, zebras and eliphants. Have a look at a small collection of the pictures at the end of this blog!

Village life

The day after our Mokoro trip we had to go back to Gobabis. Date had work to do there and obviously so did we! But on our way back we stopped at several villages along the way. We had plenty of time for that so why not make the best of it? When I say village, i basically mean 5 till about 10 ‘houses’.

These villages of wood are still pretty untouched by western life, but you can feel the change. They wear more western clothes instead of traditional ones, and they now use money like everybody else to buy their food, allthought traditional way of life (hunting et cetera) still goes on. Have a look at some of the pictures at the end of the blog.

Sandune safari

After Botswana we went back to Gobabis and got to know the place a little better, and each other. Albert is so well known in town by almost everyone (he’s been coming and going here since 1991 for his job) so obviously Albert knows the in’s and out’s of Gobabis by heart. I’ll be writing a seperate blog about that later, though.

By the end of the week Date de Vries had to go back home, his work here was done, and he wanted to finalize his stay with a last safari on the day of his departure back to Holland. And for this departure we went to Sandune, about a 30 minute drive away from Gobabis. Have a look at the pictures below. The day after Date left, two other people came. Another collegue of Albert, Anke de Vries and her daughter Emma.

Thank you!

Today all the Dutches that were with us have left. I would like to use this blog to thank each and every one of them for making us feel home away from home and for introducing us to all these amazing places such as the Okavango Delta and Harnas (Harnas will be coming in a blog post soon and it will be filled with lions and cheetas et ceterea) restaurants and for letting us meet with so many interesting new people for the last 2,5 weeks. Now Jelmer and me are on our own, but we had a great introduction that will help us greatly in making our film.

On the second of july 2010 I’ll be flying with fellow CMD student Jelmer de Jong towards the second least densely populated country in the world which also happens to be one of the driest continents on the planet. This country is positioned above South Africa and is called Namibia.

Personal Reason

We were asked by a teacher at our faculty to make a film in Nambia. Jelmer and I were both still looking for suitable graduation film subjects, and this subject (which will be explained below) touched us both. So we decided to do some research, meet some people and take the job!

Purpose

For the last 15 years the Namibian municipality of Goababis and the Dutch municipality of Smallingerland have had a fellowship that is connected by development aid. Several projects have been set out in Gobabis for the last 15 years such as HIV/AIDS prevention, housing projects and many more.

The municipality of Smallingerland wants us to make a film about the last 15 years of development aid that has been brought to Goababis. They want to know how things are going today. So in short: what’s going great and what could be better?

They want us to shoot from our perspective – from a new way to look at the whole piece – and also with an eye to the future.

Symposium

The film will be played in october on an international symposium in Drachten which obviously is about development aid. the film is set to inform and create a discussion between the people at the symposium to create steps for the future.

On the 4th of september we’ll be back in Holland. I’ll try and post as many text and video blogs as I can about the proces, but it will be hard staying online where we are. I’ll also need a USB device so that I can connect my MacBook Pro with a telephone based internet connection but so far I haven’t been able to find one yet, not even the Mac Store.

More news coming soon, about the pre-production, the production and the post-production.

]]> http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/06/25/namibia-part-1/feed/ 5 http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/06/02/an-interview-in-turkey/ http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/index.php/2010/06/02/an-interview-in-turkey/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:31:54 +0000 Jaap Ruurd Feitsma http://www.jaapruurd.com/journal/?p=1002 In 2008 I studied and lived in Turkey for about 8 months. I was a participant of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), an exchange program that gives students the oppurtunity to study in a foreign country. I chose to do this in Eskisehir (Eski = Old, Sehir = city), Turkey.

In Eskisehir I studied at the Anadolu University at the Cinema & Television department. During my studies there I made several films and photography projects, learned a little bit of Turkish language and about it’s history and travelled the entire country and some of it’s middle eastern neighbours, many photo’s I have taken on this great journey can be found in my portfolio up till today (allthough I am currently making a new selection of pictures).

Apart from all that, during my study, me and some other Erasmus students were asked to be interviewed for a Turkish TV channel at the University about the Erasmus program and our experiences with it. ‘Why did I choose Turkey?’ ‘What are the biggest differences between the university in Turkey and the one I study in at Holland?’ And a whole lot more questions like that.

I was never able to actually (re)watch the interview myself either online or on TV, but my dad came across the following article from the ‘Anadolu Haber’ a Turkish newspaper from the Anadolu University.

Basically what the article says is that I had been in Istanbul a year earlier -  before I went there for Erasmus – and fell in love with the city and it’s people (this is true ).

It also says that I talked about two Turkish Students (Pinar and Fikeriye) who went for Erasmus in Holland at my faculty from Turkey and when I became friends with them. I decided to study in Turkey myself for a couple of months. The article goes on about how ‘special’ it was for me and then continues with the questions about our cultural diversities and stuff like, all very interesting!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you, I found it quite nice to see this article.

And for the ones who can read Turkish, enjoy

Till then have a look at the pictures here!

So, I’m back from my journey for a short while now and it truly was amazing. Slovakia is a small but very diverse country where you can enjoy the urban lifestyle in Bratislava and other towns while enjoying a beer at a nice terrace overlooking the old town or you can go clubbing with some fellow travellers. You can also visit small mountain villages with only a few dozen inhabitans where life is hard and traditional. And off course you can go into the wild in the Slovenska raj (National Park) or the Low and High Tatras mountains. You’ll be sure to find some beautiful forrests, lakes and waterfalls close to and on the slopes of the mountains there. Watch eagles fly overhead looking out for prey and just enjoy the remoteness of it all. And take your time.

The interesting thing about Slovakia for me personally was that, even though they are part of the EU now, you can still see alot of statues and buildings proudly rising up in the air from communist times. In fact, have a look at this brochure I got in Bratislava. Strange way of getting tourists, using communism as a sarcasm joke if you ask me (will upload this picture later)

Anyway, during my travels throughout Slovakia with my good friend Vincent we came across alot of interesting places and people. Beacuse images tell more than words, I’ll let my pictures do the talking. Feel free to comment. If you are interested in going to Slovakia as well, you can always ask for tips and I’ll answer from my own experience and hope it will be useful to you.

Best regards,

jr

Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul. Throughout the ages under whatever name Istanbul has never lost it’s mysticism and beauty. And not without reason Napoleon once said that if the whole world would be one continent, Constantinople would be it’s capital.

With it’s twenty million people the city is alive in all it’s aspects. It invites you, it excites you. The city inhales and exhales. It truly breathes and the people are the blood that’s pumping through her veins and gigantic heart.

Istanbul is a city to discover and never to forget. So by all means: go out and walk the streets where crusaders marched long ago. Bargain in the bazaar district where things haven’t changed all that much in over 2000 years. Wander amongst the most tremendous buildings in the world with your mouth wide open making you unable to speak for quite some time. Cross the Galata bridge which is like a city all on its own and meet the most interesting, friendly and hardest people of the city here. Get off the tram at a place you’ve never even heard off and spend that day getting lost to find your own Istanbul. And last but not least: every once in a while, just sit back with a cup of ‘kahve’ and watch Istanbul pass by.

Then, and only then, you might have gotten some idea of what Napoleon was talking about and the oldest of memories will meet the new.