Janet, I think of you often! Thank you so much for leading us with your
holistic concerns as in your own life. I am also delighted by actively
thoughtful letters by Chris Macrae, Pamela McLean, Agnese Giraudo,
Samwel Kongere, Jeff Buderer, Wendi and Njua and all at Actwid Kongadzem
in Cameroon, Asif Daya, Jackton Arija, David Orato, Prince Obiri-Mainoo,
Peter Burgess, Fred Kayiwa, Surya Rao Maturu, Franz Nahrada....!!!!!!
and thank you to Sasha Mrkailof for helping us focus on our endeavors by
collecting them at http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Endeavors

Thank you to Sasha for research on camcorders at
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Camcorder

Janet, my plan is to add to Agnese's 300 euros at least 500 euros but
possibly 700 euros or more so that she might buy:
- 1 digital video camera that records directly to DVD. I imagine that
based with David Mutua who is not too far from Nairobi if I understand
correctly. David, please write more, what kind of camera you might
recommend. My plan is that this camera would belong to Minciu Sodas but
David and his group would use if they might agree to certain terms which
would include:
* training our participants how to work with it
* letting our key participants such as Samwel Kongere, Tom Ochuka, Ken
Owino and others take it home with them for periods of one month or so
(perhaps every other month or so, and then everybody can learn)
* all participants would help film content for us upon request that is
relevant for our projects in the Public Domain (which might Chris
Macrae's or Asif Daya's)
* David and others would be encouraged to earn money for themselves or
their organizations with it by filming weddings, funerals, business
functions, news footage and so on
* David and all would explore possibilities in the Nairobi area for
video bridges with us
* David and all would explore local publishing of CD-ROMs featuring
independent thinkers and presenting African independent thinkers
* we might send a bit of money for extended projects that might arise
* we hope to send more equipment as possibilities arise, especially
where we might all earn income, as with MyFoodStory
* the equipment will be purchased from the European Union so that we
might count this as co-financing for our video bridge project in
Lithuania for the European Union

David and all, what do you think? What do you suggest? How might this
work best?

Also, I want with Maria Agnese Giraudo's help as we discussed to provide
one digital camera each to:
- Samwel Kongere in Rusinga Island
- Tom Ochuka (in Kisumu?)
- Fred Kayiwa in Uganda
Each will be primarily for taking photographs but I hope will also be
able to take short videos.
My thought is that each of you earn the camera by performing some
part-time work for us, for example, to document the independent thinkers
in your area and their endeavors and to present that in the Public Domain.

There is much to discuss, but that is my basic thought regarding this
opportunity.

I have been working many hours programming (PHP/MySQL) for a client.

Saturday I will travel by car on a road trip with my friends Rimas
Morkunas (a documentary film maker, theater director, actor and writer)
and Rytis Umbrasas (computer network administrator) to Vienna to visit
Franz Nahrada and see the new video bridge center at his family's Hotel
Karolinenhof http://www.karolinenhof.at Then together we will drive to
Budapest for the meeting of the European Union project we're
participating in to encourage utopian thinkers in the North to be more
interested in the issues of the South. Then we will go to Kirchbach,
Austria to learn from them about video bridging. And we may very well
buy some equipment in Vienna. I need to spend 4,000 euros total for
equipment as co-financing for the 10,000 euros that the European Union
is providing for our club Atzalynas in Lithuania to conduct 12 video
bridges.

If anybody might purchase equipment for our network and might provide
receipts then please let us explore if that might count as co-financing
for our European Union project.

More on my mind:
* We're making good use of the little storage house where all of our
Atzalynas club furniture and things are as our building is being renovated.
* I might buy an electric generator so that we might be independent and
I might even live their during the summer time or we might have video
bridges at any indoor or outdoor location. What technologies would we
recommend for generating electricity? I am especially interested in
inexpensive mobile solutions. Can I do anything for 500 USD?
* I am having encouraging success in organizing a takeover of our local
community organization in the Pavilnys neighborhood which like so many
in Lithuania is a bit fictitious and insular and difficult to
participate in even while it's isolated leaders make decisions about our
fate without any desire for real input. I believe that in this way our
country our values might dominate the "grassroots" level of "global
villages" and we might thereby rule in Lithuania and likewise throughout
the European Union.
* I am greatly encouraged by my success in engaging youth on the streets
of Vilnius to create theater, songs, poetry (perhaps in the spirit of
Benoit Couture or Joy Tang or Janet's ACT ALIVE). We're meeting weekly
and it is a fantastic encouragement in an otherwise elitist, impotent
literary culture or a mindless, soulless popular culture.
* I am writing a dramatic poem in Lithuanian called The Good Son which
is about hearing out the Prodigal Son's brother and his inner
monologue. My thought is that people can be amazingly good and that is
so easy to overlook and they are very sensitive to other's burdens but
so often nobody even cares to empathize with them and their feelings.
Indeed, I believe that Jesus knew very well what it was like to be the
good son and that is why he tells that part of the story, to see - I can
empathize with you, but who can empathize with me? This is a
challenging and "classic" subject, and a literary investigation to
pursue the question, What is it like to be good? and so many related
questions.
* And I believe that by pursuing such classic subjects with global
experience we can share our energy to create "classics" in each of our
local languages, local cultures, small nations. This is relevant for
Lithuanians, Tamils, Africans, Native Americans but also all global
villagers, to have "living classics", the ability to appreciate what are
classic subjects and develop them in truth. And to share them in all
media and genres, including photos, letters, audio conversations and
YouTube videos.
* I will write up my own endeavors (this is a start!)
* I encourage us to keep sharing ours - thank you Janet and keep going
as you can!
* And I invite us all to try to overview them and see where we might
want to put our own efforts
* And then we will be ready to pursue business opportunities that truly
meet us halfway
* I am also very concerned to engage God regarding his endeavors and
relate them to his deepest value and his investigatory questions. I
believe his deepest value is Love because that is the subject that he
seems to bring up almost always whenever we listen to each other, and
also because each of our deepest values seem to be some aspect of love.
Benoit or others who think differently, please explain, let's discuss so
that God might be tangible among us! I believe his investigatory
question - or at least one of perpetual interest to him - is how he
might reach every single person so they might be one? I believe his
endeavor that we might support is to develop a form of outreach by which
we might engage each other in a way that values most those who are
hardest to reach. I invite us all to the challenge of engaging God as
an independent thinkers so that as a friend amongst us he might make
evident the full measure of his spirit. God, I invite you and I look to
us all to help make you visible as who you are.

Janet, that is why in my heart I am so grateful for your reaching out to
Tom Ochuka, and his reaching out to our deaf sisters, brothers, parents
and children, and their reaching out even further or even farther to
Cameroon and beyond!

I invite us to add to our lists! and our human web!

Andrius

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@...
+370 (699) 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania

Janet Feldman wrote:
>
>
> Hello Dear Friends!
>
> Andrius, immense thanks for your wonderful mails about your own plans
> and dreams, and about the future--as you envision it--re MS and its
> activities.
>
> I will hope to write something this month which is more extensive,
> expansive, and thoughtful, on the theme of my hopes and goals for
> 2007. From where I stand now, I have to say that the year is not much
> at all what I envisioned on January 1, but nonetheless exciting and
> "holistic", in a personal way.
>
> One of my goals in terms of helping others has related to Sam and Tom,
> and your posting abt video cameras--and now David's exciting post
> ('Gbenga being a good friend too!)--prompt me to write this short note
> now.
>
> Tom Ochuka has long been hoping to have some equipment with which to
> help deaf people in Kenya tell their stories, and to make visual films
> which can communicate to people who are deaf, in ways that audio-based
> educational materials cannot.
>
> Tom and the community he serves would be deeply grateful for some
> consideration with regard to the equipment you mention. And the
> training!! Is it possible that Tom can meet with David, 'Gbenga, Sam,
> Maria, and others in Nairobi, taking advantage of whatever training
> and resources are being offered there?
>
> David and 'Gbenga, I would love to network you with youth and
> youth-serving orgs in rural areas (of Kenya and elsewhere) needing the
> kinds of training materials and focus abt which you are writing below,
> David. Also to liaise with The Commonwealth of Learning (Pam is also
> working with them) and others regarding the development of these
> ICTs/ODL materials.
>
> I am wondering what we can do with regard to Webinars and other forms
> of telecommunication to bring in people who are deaf (and who have
> other similar challenges)? The forms of interchange abt which we have
> been speaking are very "audio" based in some regards, but there must
> be ways in which we can use the visuals, and include text messaging
> (perhaps text messages are already part of the whole experience though?).
>
> Pam writes: "Sound does not replace text - it complements it .
> Sometimes one is best - sometimes the other - sometimes they work well
> together. Also, those with sound should remember those who are without
> it - so that important spoken information gets passed on in text. We
> want sound to mean greater inclusion in our groups - not the creation
> of new barriers between us."
>
> Bravo, Pam! This is an important insight: there are many with some
> access to computers who do not have audio, and also those--even if
> they have audio capability with their ICTs--who cannot hear sounds. So
> both have to be considered.
>
> With greatest thanks for your consideration and very best wishes, Janet
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: David Mutua <davenzainga@yahoo.com <mailto:davenzainga@yahoo.com>>
> >Sent: May 10, 2007 5:40 AM
> >To: learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com>
> >Subject: [learningfromeachother] Travel plans and Publishing
> >
> >Dear Andrius,
> >I will make suggestion on how a video camera can
> >assist in the CLICC activity project that i am
> >implementing, i have had a wealth experience on video
> >and camera projects, I have been involved in the following: -
> >1. Training youth on how to record, capture, edit and make simple
> >movies or videos, the trained is aimed at building skill that they
> >can be employed in SME's or have there own businesses.
> >2. Developing training videos as Open and Distance Learning materials
> >(ODL) this can be translated to different languages.
> >3. recording, capturing, editing videos for publicity, evidence of
> >activities done, reporting process and edutainment.
> >
> >With a partner and friend from Nigeria (Gbenga Sesan)
> >are working on a ICT4 Youth in African rural
> >communities in Africa this is a trans -national collaboration project,
> >we hope to run a networking presentation in one of the
> >HARAMBEE SESSIONS at the
> >e-Learning Africa 2007.
> >
> >Our theme is how youths in rural communities
> >can learn and use ICT's to advocate, access learning
> >opportunities that compete globally, meet others with
> >common shared interests and represent their
> >communities.
> >
> >Regards,
> >
> >David Mutua
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pamela McLean
> Sent: May 12, 2007 5:59 AM
> To: learningfromeachother@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [learningfromeachother] Headsets & Sound Cards
>
> This is encouraging news from Asif about headsets and sound cards.
> Gradually our networks are coming together, and the ways we can
> communicate are increasing.
>
> Through people like Samwel and David - and Fred and Tom and others..
> the genuine needs and opinions of rural Africa may increasingly be
> represented on the Internet.
>
> First we must help each other to use the sound equipment effectively
> to exchange information within our groups. Once we have learnt to
> communicate well through speech as well as text we can learn together
> about all kinds of thing. When we are confident and effective we will
> be able to invite more "outsiders" to join in.
>
> As more people get sound cards etc. let us try to develop our& nbsp;
> confidence through communicating with each other through Skype, Yahoo
> chat with sound, and Vrooms , and also through participating in the
> Trainerspod webinars. It is not just a matter of confidence in using
> the technology - it is also a matter of getting used to each others
> accents, and discovering various little ways of doing things that make
> it "comfortable" to use sound as well as text.
>
> Sound does not replace text - it complements it . Sometimes one is
> best - sometimes the other - sometimes they work well together. Also,
> those with sound should remember those who are without it - so that
> important spoken information gets passed on in text. We want sound to
> mean greater inclusion in our groups - not the creation of new
> barriers between us.
>
> Pam
>