Well, for the two of you that are still reading this blog - the countdown has long since begun.
Within a few weeks I'll be back in Kayamandi, South Africa and will be having a sweet reunion with my wonderful film students. It will be hard to leave knowing that my sister's family is moving to Portland and will therefore be gone upon my return - but still I have great joy in going back to this land that I love.
I hope to write a few blogs, post a few pictures and include you both in my journey. :)
Until then...
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Thursday, October 9, 2008
First USA post
Well, there are still a number of stories to tell - amazing stories that will stay with me all my life. And I will do my best to continue to tell them now that I am home. I don't know if anyone is even checking this blog anymore - but I thought it would be fun to link you to a few short films that were shot by my students.
When you remember that none of them had held a video camera before the class began - the stories they have been able to tell is nothing short of amazing. I am so proud of each of them and their ability to speak wise words to their communities and also share their own stories of pain.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3mHzA_g0q4
to view more of the short films you can go to www.youtube.com and look under films posted by lakatietaylor
When you remember that none of them had held a video camera before the class began - the stories they have been able to tell is nothing short of amazing. I am so proud of each of them and their ability to speak wise words to their communities and also share their own stories of pain.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3mHzA_g0q4
to view more of the short films you can go to www.youtube.com and look under films posted by lakatietaylor
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The other week I had one of the most touching moments of my trip. Cindy and I had planned on having over the four youngest Kuyasa Kids, all the 12-year-olds.
One of those little ones is actually a child that I sponsor through Horizon International. I truly love this little girl, she is shy and very intelligent, and it takes some time for her to warm up and come out of her shell. I have loved watching her grow over the last year. On the tour a year ago I was blessed to spend some good time with her – and when we reunited on this last tour I was greeted with a huge hug.
Cindy and I were going to stop by the homes of all the girls that were going to spend the night so that we could touch base with their parents and make sure it was alright for them each to come over. My little one was the last home that we went to visit and serious arthritis made it so that her grandmother could not get out of bed. The shack in which they live is very small – it’s the size of one small American bedroom and it is divided into a kitchen and bedroom. Resting on a slope the shack leans down the hill.
We sat at her bedside and spoke with her about her arthritis and about our plans for the overnight with the young girl sitting beside us. I sat there and wondered if I should mention that I’m the person that sponsors her grandchild. But as our conversation finished up I felt like it was probably not necessary.
I began to walk out of the shack when suddenly the grandmother began to ask a question. Cindy stopped and the grandmother asked again, “Where is Kholisa’s mother?” Cindy was sort of confused by the question and then Kholisa spoke and pointed to me as I walked back into the tiny room. “So you are Kholisa’s mom,” she said with a big smile on her face, Kholisa bashfully began to cover her face. I told her that I am and began to tell her how much I love this child and how special she is to me. Then the grandmother said, “Well this child loves you!” Kholisa continued to cover her face and I put my arms around her and embraced her.
It was such a special moment for me. First it was an affirmation that all the time and love that I’m pouring out is being received and felt. And it was also a reminder of the value that is placed on my relationship with this family. Culturally they view me as a mother to this dear child – and it touches me deeply.
One of those little ones is actually a child that I sponsor through Horizon International. I truly love this little girl, she is shy and very intelligent, and it takes some time for her to warm up and come out of her shell. I have loved watching her grow over the last year. On the tour a year ago I was blessed to spend some good time with her – and when we reunited on this last tour I was greeted with a huge hug.
Cindy and I were going to stop by the homes of all the girls that were going to spend the night so that we could touch base with their parents and make sure it was alright for them each to come over. My little one was the last home that we went to visit and serious arthritis made it so that her grandmother could not get out of bed. The shack in which they live is very small – it’s the size of one small American bedroom and it is divided into a kitchen and bedroom. Resting on a slope the shack leans down the hill.
We sat at her bedside and spoke with her about her arthritis and about our plans for the overnight with the young girl sitting beside us. I sat there and wondered if I should mention that I’m the person that sponsors her grandchild. But as our conversation finished up I felt like it was probably not necessary.
I began to walk out of the shack when suddenly the grandmother began to ask a question. Cindy stopped and the grandmother asked again, “Where is Kholisa’s mother?” Cindy was sort of confused by the question and then Kholisa spoke and pointed to me as I walked back into the tiny room. “So you are Kholisa’s mom,” she said with a big smile on her face, Kholisa bashfully began to cover her face. I told her that I am and began to tell her how much I love this child and how special she is to me. Then the grandmother said, “Well this child loves you!” Kholisa continued to cover her face and I put my arms around her and embraced her.
It was such a special moment for me. First it was an affirmation that all the time and love that I’m pouring out is being received and felt. And it was also a reminder of the value that is placed on my relationship with this family. Culturally they view me as a mother to this dear child – and it touches me deeply.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thank You!
This is just a 9 minute video that I have put together to say thank you so much for all you have contributed to this project!
We are still several months from finishing up this project - and there is still a great deal of training and equipping before us. So far, about 3/4 of the necessary funds have been provided - but we are currently about $5000 under the needed budget. I know that part of the blessing of this project is the ability to leave behind several cameras and a few laptops on which to edit. I have seen my students really excited to continue to use all that they are learning even after I am gone.
I believe that the students are really learning a lot - and I’m confident that all that is needed will be provided. Your tax deductible gift of support for this project can be made out to: Threads Africa and sent to 26 Stratford Irvine, CA 92620
Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Katie Taylor
We are still several months from finishing up this project - and there is still a great deal of training and equipping before us. So far, about 3/4 of the necessary funds have been provided - but we are currently about $5000 under the needed budget. I know that part of the blessing of this project is the ability to leave behind several cameras and a few laptops on which to edit. I have seen my students really excited to continue to use all that they are learning even after I am gone.
I believe that the students are really learning a lot - and I’m confident that all that is needed will be provided. Your tax deductible gift of support for this project can be made out to: Threads Africa and sent to 26 Stratford Irvine, CA 92620
Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Katie Taylor
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Things We Take For Granted
I know that I am blessed. I've always known it and I'm frequently reminded in this setting. When I was younger, birthdays were a big deal. Appropriately, since there were three children in our home, my parents limited our birthday parties. Every other year was what we called a "quiet" birthday. On years where our birthday's were quiet, it simply meant that maybe some cupcakes would be brought to our class and that we would go out as a family or extended family for dinner. But on those years there was no big party with lots of friends.
Yesterday one of my students was celebrating his 21st birthday. He's everyones favorite kid, a brilliant artist that has experienced a great deal of loss in his 21 years. Recently he went from being art and film student to part of the Kuyasa staff - he's our new art teacher and it's been really fun to have him be a part of the team.
We thought it appropriate to throw a small birthday surprise - a few cakes and snacks were purchased and one of the rooms here at the office was decorated with some streamers. When he entered the room of 15 friends and co-workers, he was truly overwhelmed. A few of us "rich" Americans went together on a nice portfolio for his artwork - and a few of the students bought birthday cards. When he opened his cards he fought back tears - he then told us that this was the first birthday card he had ever received. The gift brought more amazement to his face and the party continued.
A few minutes later he came to me for a hug - I held him close and told him how special he was - and he simply broke down. Tears began to stream down his face and I just continued to hold him and tell him how loved he was and how much he meant to us all. It was one of those moments that I will hold onto forever.
It made me sad to think that he had never experienced such a birthday - but so grateful that we had made what seemed like such a small effort. Every year I receive cards that express how much I am loved - when I left for Africa it was with a book in hand filled with affirming notes, cards and pictures. I'm so grateful to you all for your love - for the gifts and cards that come every year and even the days in between.
Yesterday one of my students was celebrating his 21st birthday. He's everyones favorite kid, a brilliant artist that has experienced a great deal of loss in his 21 years. Recently he went from being art and film student to part of the Kuyasa staff - he's our new art teacher and it's been really fun to have him be a part of the team.
We thought it appropriate to throw a small birthday surprise - a few cakes and snacks were purchased and one of the rooms here at the office was decorated with some streamers. When he entered the room of 15 friends and co-workers, he was truly overwhelmed. A few of us "rich" Americans went together on a nice portfolio for his artwork - and a few of the students bought birthday cards. When he opened his cards he fought back tears - he then told us that this was the first birthday card he had ever received. The gift brought more amazement to his face and the party continued.
A few minutes later he came to me for a hug - I held him close and told him how special he was - and he simply broke down. Tears began to stream down his face and I just continued to hold him and tell him how loved he was and how much he meant to us all. It was one of those moments that I will hold onto forever.
It made me sad to think that he had never experienced such a birthday - but so grateful that we had made what seemed like such a small effort. Every year I receive cards that express how much I am loved - when I left for Africa it was with a book in hand filled with affirming notes, cards and pictures. I'm so grateful to you all for your love - for the gifts and cards that come every year and even the days in between.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Blessed
I notice that my writing has become more infrequent and for that I apologize. With regard to the Xenophobia outbreaks, all tension seems to have subsided. In Kayamandi, we only saw action and movement that one Friday evening and for that we are grateful. The effect of such violent action is long lasting, and it has provided an interesting topic of discussion for the documentary component of the film project.
I am really enjoying my students - the more I get to know them the more difficult I know it will be to part. When I hear their stories I want so badly to be able to fix each situation. Provide parents when they are absent. Instill love where there is none. Open my door for a meal when children feel scared to eat at home.
Each situation is unique and there are no easy solutions - often it feels that a band aid is being applied to a very large wound. But I do what I can, giving lots of hugs, saying lots of "I love you's" and praying constantly.
The other weekend I had all of the girls in the film program over to spent the night. We laughed a lot, some tears were shed and I felt such joy that I didn't want it to end. Each student is blessing me in a unique way - and I continue to receive daily love from the Kuyasa Kids as well.
I love being here, but I also miss home. I wonder how my sister is doing on nights when her husband is on call. I think often of my nephew Roahn, imagining how big he is becoming and if he will remember me in 3 short months. I showed my students a picture of my niece Raime, it was a picture that was taken at her 2nd birthday party. She is lounging on the grass and scrunching up her nose. The comment from my students was "this baby likes chocolate!" It's true, I don't know what it is about us that makes our loves so evident to others. :)
I am really enjoying my students - the more I get to know them the more difficult I know it will be to part. When I hear their stories I want so badly to be able to fix each situation. Provide parents when they are absent. Instill love where there is none. Open my door for a meal when children feel scared to eat at home.
Each situation is unique and there are no easy solutions - often it feels that a band aid is being applied to a very large wound. But I do what I can, giving lots of hugs, saying lots of "I love you's" and praying constantly.
The other weekend I had all of the girls in the film program over to spent the night. We laughed a lot, some tears were shed and I felt such joy that I didn't want it to end. Each student is blessing me in a unique way - and I continue to receive daily love from the Kuyasa Kids as well.
I love being here, but I also miss home. I wonder how my sister is doing on nights when her husband is on call. I think often of my nephew Roahn, imagining how big he is becoming and if he will remember me in 3 short months. I showed my students a picture of my niece Raime, it was a picture that was taken at her 2nd birthday party. She is lounging on the grass and scrunching up her nose. The comment from my students was "this baby likes chocolate!" It's true, I don't know what it is about us that makes our loves so evident to others. :)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
A Troubled Nation - Xenophobia Outbreaks
So I’m not entirely sure how much you all follow the news – at this point my hope is that you haven’t paid it much attention. The last thing I want is for you to be sitting with fear when all is fine with me.
If you have been frantically seeking out any bit of news on the recent conflicts in South Africa I’ll take a few minutes to catch you up on what is happening on this side of the world. Let me start by saying that I am fine, feel totally covered in prayer and work continues here at Kuyasa as usual.
The struggle that is happening here is common among around the world – the question of what do we do with foreigners that cross a border illegally, refugees seeking asylum. Zimbabwe has been in a very serious crisis for the past few years as a result of a dictator that has been doing what dictator’s do. The people are starving and dying, the rate of inflation is beyond imagination and I have heard it said that it is cheaper to use the money as toilet paper than to actually buy toilet paper. They have been living in conditions that I can’t begin to imagine and to be totally honest I really don’t want to most of the time. An election almost removed Mugabe (the current president) from office, but there was of course issues with tampering and it has taken the last few months to sort it all out. Meanwhile Mugabe uses the countries resources to begin beating and killing anyone that opposes him – so now one question becomes can the man who ran against Mugabe actually stay alive long enough to make it through the end of the election process. Only time will tell.
So of course the people of Zimbabwe have come flooding across the boarder into the neighboring and more affluent South Africa. They begin to start working illegally at jobs that pay them 30 Rand a day (about $4) and South Africans - particularly black South Africans – become angry that people are taking their jobs because they are willing to work for less money.
In JoBurg, some riots broke out that included attacks on foreigners (essentially any black that didn’t speak Xhosa or Zulu). Stores in townships were looted, people were beaten and killed and shacks were burned down. The media really hyped the incidents, enabling the hatred to spread quickly and providing criminals with reason to perpetrate crimes.
In my opinion, the root cause of all this hatred is actually tribal – it goes back centuries and children are taught from a very young age that to be proud of their tribe and in turn anyone that is different from you is less than.
At Kuyasa we were warned that if anything was going to break out in Kayamandi that it would likely happen over this past weekend, so extra security precautions were taken. They actually brought in 40 polices officers from Stellenbosch, which is good because in a lot of areas the police were aiding the criminals, but was bad because it meant that 40 white Afrikaners with guns were there for target practice. I was watching the news one night with Nana – and when a government official for the police force (a black man) was asked why it took them so long to take action in the townships, he actually used the words, “We are not trained to work with animals”.
I had a film crew that was out finishing a project so I was waiting for them to return by the 6pm cut off. They didn’t make it back until 6:30pm and when I began to launch into the importance of them coming back on time, I could see on their faces that something was wrong. A few of my students began to tell me that things were falling apart beyond our protective gates. Riots had started near the police station and Somali owned shops were being broken into and looted. We were told that shots were being fired, but I never heard any gunfire and have not heard any confirmation about anyone being shot.
One of my students thought that it would be good to get some of the action on video – when another Kayamandi resident put a gun to his side and told him to stop filming. My student explained that you couldn’t see anything because of the dark and the man with the gun said that if he tried to film again that he would be shot.
I was nervous, but really not scared. I knew that the attacks were not aimed at me – so my only concern was now driving out of Kayamandi amongst a greedy mob. As we watched the mob take every item from a shop just outside the gate, my good friend Mbongeni said that today he was embarrassed to be an African.
In reality, it was nothing compared with the Los Angeles riots – but a few of my students went home and cried. They were very saddened watching people in their community treat others with such disregard.
Within two hours all looting and chaos was finished. And we have not seen any other flare-ups in Kayamandi since. Please continue to pray for Zimbabwe and South Africa that these Xenophobic attacks would cease and be replaced with love for one another.
If you have been frantically seeking out any bit of news on the recent conflicts in South Africa I’ll take a few minutes to catch you up on what is happening on this side of the world. Let me start by saying that I am fine, feel totally covered in prayer and work continues here at Kuyasa as usual.
The struggle that is happening here is common among around the world – the question of what do we do with foreigners that cross a border illegally, refugees seeking asylum. Zimbabwe has been in a very serious crisis for the past few years as a result of a dictator that has been doing what dictator’s do. The people are starving and dying, the rate of inflation is beyond imagination and I have heard it said that it is cheaper to use the money as toilet paper than to actually buy toilet paper. They have been living in conditions that I can’t begin to imagine and to be totally honest I really don’t want to most of the time. An election almost removed Mugabe (the current president) from office, but there was of course issues with tampering and it has taken the last few months to sort it all out. Meanwhile Mugabe uses the countries resources to begin beating and killing anyone that opposes him – so now one question becomes can the man who ran against Mugabe actually stay alive long enough to make it through the end of the election process. Only time will tell.
So of course the people of Zimbabwe have come flooding across the boarder into the neighboring and more affluent South Africa. They begin to start working illegally at jobs that pay them 30 Rand a day (about $4) and South Africans - particularly black South Africans – become angry that people are taking their jobs because they are willing to work for less money.
In JoBurg, some riots broke out that included attacks on foreigners (essentially any black that didn’t speak Xhosa or Zulu). Stores in townships were looted, people were beaten and killed and shacks were burned down. The media really hyped the incidents, enabling the hatred to spread quickly and providing criminals with reason to perpetrate crimes.
In my opinion, the root cause of all this hatred is actually tribal – it goes back centuries and children are taught from a very young age that to be proud of their tribe and in turn anyone that is different from you is less than.
At Kuyasa we were warned that if anything was going to break out in Kayamandi that it would likely happen over this past weekend, so extra security precautions were taken. They actually brought in 40 polices officers from Stellenbosch, which is good because in a lot of areas the police were aiding the criminals, but was bad because it meant that 40 white Afrikaners with guns were there for target practice. I was watching the news one night with Nana – and when a government official for the police force (a black man) was asked why it took them so long to take action in the townships, he actually used the words, “We are not trained to work with animals”.
I had a film crew that was out finishing a project so I was waiting for them to return by the 6pm cut off. They didn’t make it back until 6:30pm and when I began to launch into the importance of them coming back on time, I could see on their faces that something was wrong. A few of my students began to tell me that things were falling apart beyond our protective gates. Riots had started near the police station and Somali owned shops were being broken into and looted. We were told that shots were being fired, but I never heard any gunfire and have not heard any confirmation about anyone being shot.
One of my students thought that it would be good to get some of the action on video – when another Kayamandi resident put a gun to his side and told him to stop filming. My student explained that you couldn’t see anything because of the dark and the man with the gun said that if he tried to film again that he would be shot.
I was nervous, but really not scared. I knew that the attacks were not aimed at me – so my only concern was now driving out of Kayamandi amongst a greedy mob. As we watched the mob take every item from a shop just outside the gate, my good friend Mbongeni said that today he was embarrassed to be an African.
In reality, it was nothing compared with the Los Angeles riots – but a few of my students went home and cried. They were very saddened watching people in their community treat others with such disregard.
Within two hours all looting and chaos was finished. And we have not seen any other flare-ups in Kayamandi since. Please continue to pray for Zimbabwe and South Africa that these Xenophobic attacks would cease and be replaced with love for one another.
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