(no subject)

[electricland]

Went to a screening of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre. Amazing documentary.

I lived in Kenya at the time of some of the events it describes, and my father and Wangari Maathai were colleagues for a time (I'm told I met her, but truly I don't remember), but I didn't have more than the vaguest idea about all these events that were going on. I mean, I sort of knew the regime was oppressive (we lived there from 1980 to 1985), and there was a coup, and the students at the university were on strike, but to some extent we lived in the expatriate bubble, and also I was a kid -- I could tell you these things were happening, but I realize now I didn't really understand what it all meant. And then we left Kenya and news of it became very hard to come by in Canada; in fact I remember trying to do a project about Kenya in high school and having to broaden it to sub-Saharan Africa because there was so little information available.

At the same time, the images on the screen were so familiar: the people, the landscape, the newspapers were all so evocative of that part of my childhood. It's weird sometimes to have lived somewhere a long way away, in a place you never visit. There are memories you lose, or don't connect with, because there's so little to remind you of them.

So it was very strange for me to watch. But incredibly inspiring and fascinating and moving.

Comments

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

It sounds like an astounding experience. Such a small planet, and yet it's possible to be in the bubble you've described.

Makes me think of what I was doing during those years. Er..going to Dead shows. ;)

Our subjective filters drive so much of what we experience, yet it's vital to focus on the objective. Ack, that's a delicate balance.