Real People | Real Stories

Today we got even more organized. It was a holiday once again. The schools were closed and Nutan called us bright and early to say that we should rest easy at the hotel. Nothing is going on today. So we logged footage, charged batteries and worked more on story ideas. Then at noon Nutan came by with new news to fire us up. Tomorrow we are traveling about 40 or so minutes away to a town called Gokarna where two Little Sisters live, Manju and Saru. They both live quite simply in mud huts. Manju’s family cannot afford electricity and she does her homework by oil lamp light. Saru’s family has some cattle. 

There is still no school tomorrow due to the celebration of the New Republic (which as far as we can tell involves a few hundred people or so hanging out in front of the Royal Palace waiting for either the country flag to go up or the king to leave. The overall vibe is that people are ready for the king to be outta there, but are not quite ready to celebrate yet. There is a lot of stuff to be buffed out in the government right now.) So, we won’t be able to film the girls at school because of school being closed. However, we will get to meet their families, get them used to us and us to them, and just get the feel for how these girls live.

Tomorrow will be the first day we get to work with Nutan as our translator. We can tell already she is going to be fantastic. She gets us and what we are doing. She gets the girls. This is the most important thing.

Scott is packing our bags: one video camera, one wired lav mic, one wireless lav mic, a video light, a video tripod, a monopod, the leica still camera (because Scott can’t leave home without it) and my Canon 30D. So, I guess you could say we are loaded pretty heavy. We just want to be prepared for anything. I am guessing we will be riding into town with a taxi loaded with gear worth more than this town can make in years. I feel funny about that. It is not a new feeling. I always want to keep it fresh that these expensive tools that we are lucky enough to own need to be used for capital G-GOOD!

Stay tuned for pics of Manju and Saru tomorrow.