I’ve won a few battles, but technology is winning the war. I imagine the official score is around:

Technology: 2,831 versus Laura Lee: 3

I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to put together a five to ten minute video teaser about The General History Project. I returned with fifty-five hours of video footage from Kenya. The footage mostly includes taped interviews but also features scenes from around the tea and coffee farms, church, a family reunion, our safari, and a couple field trips.

Although I want to focus on the audio recordings and transcriptions, many people encouraged me to include a visual component. I agreed that this was a good idea. So, I tried on the hat of a video editor. It didn’t fit.

I knew the war with technology would be a dirty one when I spent twenty-eight minutes on the phone with a customer service representative explaining my troubles in backing up the original footage on an external hard drive. At twenty-nine minutes, the helpful employee informed me, “Um, well, actually, we’re not set up here to give technical support, but it just sounded like you needed to talk to someone.” I checked to see what number I’d dialed.

I said, “So you’re telling me that, after thirty minutes on the phone, that you can’t help me?” This man was obviously a veteran and unfazed by my frustration. He said, “I want to tell you something, I’m not sure if you’ve heard it before, but I want you to remember: Michael Jordan was not a good basketball player the first time he stepped out on the court.”

I’m not kidding. Oh yes, this technological warfare was going to be dirty.

I recruited more people for my team: TGHP’s Treasurer, Jessica, joined me in the struggle. She has a Mac with a wonderful application called I-Video. We spent four hours at the Apple store last week trying to get our computers to talk to one another. I think my PC got nervous surrounded by all the Macs, and it shut down. It wasn’t looking good for this TGHP teaser. Until yesterday…

I brought my video camera with selected tapes to Jessica’s house. I plugged the camera directly into her Mac desktop (after a quick run to Best Buy to get the right firewire cable). We opened I-Video. A lovely, welcoming screen appeared asking us if we wanted to import footage. We clicked in the affirmative. And it began to import. It was a beautiful sequence of events.

Perhaps my losing streak has ended. I think this video may actually happen after all. And then I’m going back to transcribing and writing. My biggest concern now is that I might have to buy a Mac, but I’m not going to discuss this possibility any further while I’m typing on its competition. ‘Cause that’s just not PC (or in the budget).

So…stay tuned for some video clips from my work with The General in Kenya. They’re on the way (thanks, Jess)!!

Oh, and thank you so much to all those who have voted in Grant for a Change. I currently have 116 votes – still a ways back from the frontrunners, but I’m so grateful for your support. You have until the end of this month to vote at http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html. Instructions are in the previous blog, and I’d love it if you took two minutes to vote if you have not done so. Thanks so much!

Sending good thoughts – Laura Lee Huttenbach

Hey there TGHP-ers,

I have exciting news to share! My lovely sister nominated me for a contest called “Grant for Change.” It’s sponsored by a small clothing company from Portland called Nau, and they’ll give $10,000 to “an individual working to instigate lasting, positive change.” Some think that might apply to me and The General History Project.

Now here’s where you come in (I hope): It’s based on votes, and I would be honored if you took 4 minutes of your time and voted for me. I would be ecstatic if you spent 8 minutes of your time and asked your family and friends to do the same. There are some other cool projects featured there, so feel free to browse around.

Here are the instructions:

1. Go to http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html

2. Click on “Register” in the upper right corner of the page.

3. Put in your name, email, and create a password. Then click “Register Now.”

4. Go to the link again: http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/laura-lee-p–huttenbach-665.html (copying and pasting it in the browser works).

5. You’ll notice some tabs above my text – “Who, Why, Images, etc.” Please click on “Rate/share.”

6. Please click on five stars (or whatever rating you think is appropriate).

7. Please accept a big, sloppy virtual hug of appreciation from me, yours truly.

To quote a recent email I received from a TGHP supporter:

Laura Lee: Voted for you and sent this along to more voters – an interesting site and so encouraging to see so many young people with a service disposition. Sometimes when I listen to the discord in DC and observe the rampant materialism, I lose confidence in the future; this site is a refreshing antidote to despair.

So yay for good people. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Talk to you soon…

Kwa u pendo (“with love,” in Swahili) – Laura Lee

Ps- Thanks to my friend Ashley and her friend Becca for telling us about this grant. As an old colleague used to say, team work makes the dream work…

Greetings, TGHP friends!

I’ve been a bit of a recluse these past couple weeks. As I recently told a friend, “I’ve been too distracted doing the work to talk about the work I’m doing.” She assured me that it was an excusable distraction.

But in a world that’s starting to expect hourly progress updates (thanks, Twitter), I fear that my online absence is mistaken for indolence. That is not the case, but I will try again to maintain a potent virtual presence over the next couple months.

First, Daytona was an amazingly productive work space for me. I’ve completed approximately 70% of the transcriptions with The General. It is a long and tedious process, but I reap great rewards reconnecting with the material.

Second, earlier this month, I visited one of my favorite mentors – author and Professor Theodore Rosengarten – in McClellanville, South Carolina. He and his wife, Dale, requested a “Kenya debriefing session,” and I jumped at the opportunity to retell all of my stories to a relatively new audience (most of my family and friends have cut me off already). They were excited to listen to The General and watch some of my videos – a tour of the tea farm, a church service, the family reunion.

They encouraged me to keep my head down and finish the transcribing. “Dr. Ted” believes that once I read all of the transcriptions, an appropriate form will emerge to organize the material. It was wonderful to receive their guidance and support. Although it’s nice to hear my parents tell me how smart I am, Dr. Ted and Dale gave me a great deal of confidence that the work I’m doing is important – and mostly, they think that I can do it.

Third, my good friend Katie invited me to speak to her Global History summer school class last week. She teaches at a high school in Brooklyn/East New York. I told her that I only accept speaking fees in livestock, so she bought me a hamburger, and we called it even. She requested that I talk about Imperialism in Africa and the Kenyan Independence movement, but the kids wanted to hear more about life in Africa and how you could possibly bathe without a shower. I tried to strike a healthy balance between what might appear on their exam and what they found interesting – always a delicate dance.

I think they learned something and provided me with some good insight (”Instead of taking that gikama shit, I’d just climb a tree and run away” – said one 17-year-old boy in response to a story about the General’s father being accused of adultery and carrying the red-hot iron brick to prove his innocence. I thought the student might want to reconsider the order of events, “running” before “climbing a tree” but commended his idea.).

Katie was delighted with how the presentation went. She did get a little nervous when I started with, “In 1940, African soldiers fought with the British against the Japanese in World War II. There, they learned that the same bullet that would kill an African also killed a white person. For the first time, they realized the Europeans were vulnerable and defeatable.” All-in-all, a very good experience.

Forth, apologies for this very long blog. I will wrap up now and hopefully do another one within a week’s time. Hope everyone is having a lovely summer and doing their part to preserve a little piece of culture and history.

Sending good thoughts – Laura Lee/Nkirote

I consider myself to be a pretty outgoing person. I love people. I’ve been in Daytona for a week now, and my two biggest social exchanges have been the following:

1 – Waving at this cute old man who rides his bicycle at the same time I go running on the beach – he always smiles and gives me a fist pump.

2 – Gushing about the generous samples that the Publix deli man gave me yesterday while waiting for my sliced meat. He invited me to come back at the same time tonight and provide my hours devours.

I wouldn’t think that I’d be happy like this – the loner, the weird young blonde locked in her room, her bikini only a drawer away, a sunny day outside on the beach…

I’m hunched over my laptop, frantically transcribing hours and hours of material, pumping my foot to control the transcribing pedal device. My phone’s off, the unsecured wireless network is only available sometimes – if you told me how this would be, I probably wouldn’t have come. But, I am so content right now.

I couldn’t figure it out – is my connection to the beach so strong that I forget to be lonely? Is cable television enough to distract me from the void of human contact? Can continuous access to ice cream in my freezer fulfill me as a person?

Then I realized – I’m not alone. I’m back with The General, reconnecting and reliving all of our conversations, all of our time together. From the recording that was interrupted by a big centipede almost falling on my head, to the many sessions that were interrupted by curious children, visiting to meet the strange mzungu – it’s awesome to reconnect with this material. It’s hard, it’s tedious, it’s long – but, oh my gosh, it’s awesome.

In the same day, I’ll be laughing til I cry and then crying til I laugh – I just thank God that I don’t have to do this in a coffee shop.

So…I guess all I’m saying is that I’m so where I need to be right now.  And it feels pretty good.

Hugs from Daytona – Laura Lee/Nkirote