Putting it Together: Pre-Kenya
Evan and I are in the final stages of pre-trip organization. In two weeks, we'll be on the ground in Kenya, carrying out our pre-production workshops for community radio stations who have answered our call for participants. Right now, we're laying the logistical groundwork: there are gear lists, visa questions, and online forums about the best means of transportation in Kenya (apparently trains are fun; buses are safe).
In more interesting news, we're putting together our project itinerary, ie that time/space schema of which stations we'll visit, on which days, and in what order. Thanks to the help of several local radio professionals and radio NGO workers, who circulated our application for three-day production workshops to small community stations throughout the country, we have a substantial list of candidates. Interested radios were asked to describe their programming and how it relates to and serves their communities, and these answers bely the incredible diversity of grassroots, independent radio programming in Kenya. Some are more general service-type radios: they have music, news, local news, etc. Others focus more closely on one subject or area of need: one radio is entirely female-run, and reports on womens' issues; one is a sort of meteorology-cum-media center, and their sole concern is weather reporting for local farmers. Obviously, these quirks and variations will make our project just THAT much more interesting, as we hope to learn social, political, economic (and perhaps agricultural) lessons from our radio hosts as we work with them on recording and editing techniques.