Wordspinning

Project Outline

For next week I'm supposed to have a project outline for The Novel and how I will have it completed by the fall so I can register for Thesis I.

Here is the skeleton:

I. Unexposed/underexposed

In which our heroine (Sara) leaves home with little idea what she is getting herself into. Some information about the aunt she is going to visit, basic travel information on the country of Kenya, but little real knowledge of the situation.

II. Focal Length

Enter the cast of characters. We meet a number of people connected with Sara's aunt. Magdalene the interpreter, Mrs. Shah the timber magnate, Phyllis the landlady, teachers at the Shiloh Baptist Nursery School and headmaster of the Kalalu primary school. Sara is still getting her bearings. Trying to figure out which of these people will be main characters in her stay and which ones are playing minor supporting roles to the doctor.

III. Viewfinder

Sara as a tourist. On a wildlife photo shoot in a game reserve. Tea at Mount Kenya Safari Club. Staying overnight in the Maasailand in a traditional mud hut. Riding horses to the Mau Mau caves. Hiking the Sirimon Trail. Swimming at Naro Moru lodge.

IV. Ambient Light

Sara's growing awareness of the issues. Closer contact with the schools, the teachers and the students. She begins to work as a volunteer at the nursery school. Has some dealings with the Chief of the area that make her wonder how much she understands of what she sees... How much can be taken at face value?

V. Depth of Field

Things get more complicated. Violent crime, violent retribution and the matter-of-fact way torture and death are treated by otherwise gentle, intelligent people. She finds some about the history of Kenya's independence. Sours quite a bit on the current regime. Fantasies about organizing a rebellion.

VI. Dark Room

Sara back home. Realizing that her coping mechanism in Kenya had been to shut off all memories of home. Trouble reconciling the poverty she lived with all summer with the waste and wealth she sees upon her return. Now it's easier to pretend that she never went to Kenya. The two lives cannot coexist. Contacts between Sara and Kenya crumble quickly.

VII. Ghost Images

The things that stay with Sara even though she tries to forget. Images captured on film. Songs of the children. Haunting stories of things that happened long before she was there. Death.

posted by Kiara at 4:46 PM | 0 comment(s)

Singing in Church

At meeting last week I had a song running through my head the entire time. It's a hymn from the Unitarian Universalist hymnal based on an African song.

There is more love, somewhere.
There is more love, somewhere.
I'm gonna keep on, 'till I find it.
There is more love, somewhere.

There is more peace, somewhere...

There is more hope, somewhere...

There is more joy, somewhere...

The song played over and over again like a mantra for the entire hour of silent meeting. There was no "vocal ministry," which means that no one stood up to speak. The song played on without interruption.

About forty-minutes into this endless repetition I began to question if it was a message. At which point my pulse started to race and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and my hands felt shaky.

By the time I decided it really was a message and I should stand and sing, I didn't think my voice would actually come out. And at the moment I decided that it didn't matter if my voice shook, I just needed to stand up and get it over with... it was the "rise of meeting." People broke the silence by shaking hands.

This was the early meeting, where they have the tradition of everyone introducing themselves. They started at my section and the second person to introduce himself said that he had actually been moved to speak but he hadn't done so because the message didn't feel worshipful. So he shared his message after introducing himself.

When it came to my turn I said that I too had been moved to speak, but my message was a song and I'd been too shy to sing it. So then I sang.

posted by Kiara at 7:57 AM | 3 comment(s)