JORDAN
2013
​NOVEMBER 24 Petra
I arrived in Jordan last night around 5pm, and we drove right from the airport three hours south to Petra. (Luckily there was more legroom in the car than the airplanes!) We have two days to sightsee before we start shooting in Amman on Tuesday, so today Bev (my professor) and I went to see the Petra ruins. Before we got there, all I knew about Petra was that it was considered one of the 7 Wonders of the World. And boy did it live up to it's acclaim!
Hayâtuna
NOVEMBER 25 Driving to Amman
Our second day of sightseeing was shaped around our three hour drive to Amman. We drove through the Jordan Valley and along winding roads that seemed to never end. For the most part, everything was pretty dry - the country is basically a desert - but as we were driving we passed through areas of agriculture where people were growing things like tomatoes, bananas, and olives, and suddenly there was a burst of color unlike anything I'd seen since arriving in Jordan. What was more jarring was what was next to these fields - bedouin tent villages.
​NOVEMBER 26 Shooting: Day 1
Today was our first production day in Amman and I was a happy mix of excited and nervous. Excited because I was finally going to meet all of the people I had gotten to know so well in an edit room for the past few months, and nervous becuase I was told the night before that I would be the person conducting the interviews! This was a new experience for me because I am usually the one behind the camera or setting up lights, etc. But as soon as I met the kids I'd be talking to, I felt so lucky to have been given this opportunity!
The reason for my existance in Jordan! The Hayatuna Amman Project, in partners with Swedish NGO Spiritus Mundi, provide arts education workshops (singing, songwriting, dancing, and acting) to the underpriviledged and overlooked children of Jordan -- many of whom come from orphanages or schools for physically handicapped children. Hayatuna ("our lives") gives the children an opportunity to express themselves in a new and positive way, and develop a sense of self-esteem and confidence.
​NOVEMBER 27 Shooting: Day 2
Today we saw the location for the final performance and filmed the kids reherse their acts on stage together for the first time ever! But not before we had a true Middle Eastern feast with the Swedish funders supporting the Hayatuna project! It was so great to have met them in this type of environment because it made for such a culturally rich conversation. At one table we had people representing three continents!
