By Brenda Nalumansi

I always said that when I get there I will tell the story but about when, where, and at what time I didn’t have an answer, I couldn’t put the details together so my tale seemed like a never ending story I hadn’t started on it to start with so to defy the odds the start had to justify the means.

AND THE STORY…………

The story is of an envisioned young girl in love with the fields and affectionate to animals to a woman in a DW-AKADEMIE training  room was the process to being enthroned from a farm girl to a professional business reporter and editor.

It was a bright morning. Mrs Bonabanna, the station programmes director, walks to me as jolly I would say as usual and requests for my phone number for future communication. The same number when called flashed a German country code on my small mobile phone. A call from Charles Odongo of the DW-AKADEMIE confirming my participation in the upcoming training would walk me to remember Jens Lehmann, a German football goalkeeper, and history of East and West Germany. But all the above with Germany coming home in DW-World leading me to Thomas Rehermann, Florian Mettke, who where training the TV crew, with Sam Edmonds, who imparted his editing expertise. Thanks to him, I can teach others how to edit. Mine could be already edited as you read this.

You are reading this story on the Internet who taught be how to publish it on line in just three days — strange but true, hmm!!!! Call me an online guru and I would say good judgement but special thanks to the Goose that laid the golden egg, Mathis.

I do appreciate good sound, clear radio interviews, but didnt know how to get there. But DW — through Mathias Veith — showed me the way. I guess that doesn’t make me a sound technician, but I can share the production studios when I get back to work with my producer. I ought to download some of this knowledge, since every listener has a right to good sound.

God bless the road that led DW in to my world.

By Sandra Kahunde It was a wonderful Friday morning when we set off for Munyonyo Speke Resort Hotel to start our journey to the warehouse at Jinja, which is located in the east of Uganda. With so much excitement, I didn’t want to pay attention to any ushers around the place. All I wanted was to head to the warehouse direction.

Finally we left Munyonyo before it clocked 9 a.m. and I had to fasten my seat belt for the journey with great joy down in my heart. Well, it took us some time to get out of the city with the heavy morning traffic jam.

It was my first time to visit a warehouse, though I had heard alot about warehouses — for example, the post-harvest damages registered, the loans being a big problem to farmers to be able to access the warehouse services and among others. (For more information, read my colleague Sylivanus Karemera’s report.)

I enjoyed my journey with alot of sightseeing as I continued to admire my country Uganda, the pearl of Africa, checking the green vegetation, tea and sugar cane plantations and so much beauty.

Smiles after a long ride

Well, a few meters before we arrived to Jinja Town, we made a quick stop over at one of the roadside markets and there I saw individuals run up to our bus with a lot to offer: But of course you had to pay for the goodies. Among the goodies they had roasted goats and cows  meat, fried chicken, plantains locally known as ‘gonja’ and soft drinks too. It was a blast to some members we had traveled with, who were silent as we hit the road. But right on it was all smiles for each one of them since they now had a chance to stretch and for some it was a chance to rush to the nearby bushes to ease themselves after two hours of sitting.

Finally we arrived at the Jinja, Agroways Warehouse at 11:20 a.m. and  were received  by the security guard on duty, who led us inside the gate. Shortly we headed to the Administrative building where we were given an over view of how the ware house receipt system operates by the Administrators.

Happy ending on the Nile

According to Herbert Kyeyamwa, the Director of Agro Ways, the facility was established in 2008 and has a capacity of  2,000 metric tonnes. This ware house was the first to be licensed by the Uganda Commodity Exchange and mainly deals in maize grains.

The ware house provides cleaning, drying and bagging services with 137 farmer groups registered, but only 97 are active.

And there we headed for a guided tour around the warehouse, which was all good for me.

Food works for me and thank the heavens above, the journey was spiced up with a heavy lunch at the Nile Resort with a great view of the source of the Nile. But of course we also had chance to visit the source of the Nile, which always gives a breath taking moment for me whenever I visit this place.

I am just making a year in journalism this July, I look back and know for sure that I have arrived…and yes, DW- AKADEMIE has a lot to do with it!

The very 1st day

Since it was my first time to attend a training composed of people from different countries on a professional level, I was very scared the first day. I thought to myself that I would sound ridiculous or look stupid before the gathering. However, this feeling changed immediately after tea break on the very first day.

Experience of being taught by ‘A Musugu’

Since I have never been taught by ‘a musugu’ (local name in Uganda used to refer to anyone with white or coloured skin) before, I was worried about my ability to understand them.
To cut the story short, the DW-AKADEMIE training crew made it very easy for us to understand them. They established a good student-teacher rapport with us and we had a fabulous time learning from them. I personally think they are amazing at what they do!

From the very 1st day on 21st June to the very last day I will be left amazed by this training. Everything was 120% excellent, the food, the training, the DW- AKADEMIE crew and the participants were all wonderful.

Never in my life have I enjoyed the comfort of strangers who later on became a dear family to me for a period of 18 days. I’ve ended DW-AKADEMIE training in Kampala with total amazement!

They say pictures don’t lie so check out all these pictures and believe it or not, this was a mind blowing experience!

The DW-AKADEMIE workshop about Making Finance Work for Africa, which has been taking place from June 11^th-July 08^th in Kampala, has given me light most especially on camera work, since I like camera work so much.

In this training, I have been interacting with different types of people from different countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Germany and Australia.

The workshop gave me opportunities of visiting different parts of Kampala and Uganda as a whole to shoot for different stories.

And in this way I got a lot of challenges as a cameraperson. I had to learn different camera works like camera positioning, different camera shots while shooting and the settings of a camera while shooting indoors and outdoors.

In conclusion, this training has given me more skills and I got a lot of fun with different people with different cultures from different countries. Thanks to DW-AKADEMIE.

Alex Musosi

By Francis Mukasa, cameraman WBS TV, Uganda

When I was chosen to join other East Africans for the DW-AKADEMIE  training in Kampala from 21st June to 8th July 2011,  I was excited. This being my first time to interface with professional trainers on television production, my expectations were high. When I walked into the training room at Hotel International in Kampala, I met people from different countries, who were all eager to learn. People, who confessed that they did not know much and were read y to fill their brains with what the trainers would offer us.

Shooting skills

My first lesson was how to use a professional camera and monitor sound while on location. It was interesting for me, because while I was working as a cameraman in my current work station, WBS TV, I still had difficulties in some camera operation and self confidence.

My colleagues Coletta Wanjohi and Vincent Wamundu (from left) join me on a test shoot

Our television trainers, Thomas Rehermann and Florian Mettke, were a great inspiration to me. Florian took time outside his normal schedule to answer the puzzles I had about camerawork, and also to give guidance on how to simplify my work.

I learnt how to shoot sequence of actions to create continuity, and  that it was advisable to take extra pictures that would ease editing. I also learnt how to control location sound and statement sound. I was excited when the trainers commended me on my pictures after the first shoot It gave me the the morale to give even more.

More video editing skills

I attended the training with basic video editing skills and little did I know that I would be a better editor by the end of the three weeks training. I was introduced to Avid editing programme, which I surprisingly mastered in few hours. I am now able to balance location sound, narration sound and international sound, on stories for broadcast.

Although I had skills on editing with final cut programme, Florian Mettke, my trainer, helped me greatly to develop more skills  like balancing audio, working on colour balancing/picture quality and so many shortcuts for editing.

Seniority!

The three weeks were worth it and as I walk back to my employer ,WBS TV Kampala, I am a more confident Francis. I walk back not as the junior cameraman and video editor they knew three weeks ago, but actually as a SENIOR!

By Coletta Wanjohi

When my head of department at WBS TV in Kampala first informed me of the upcoming DW-AKADEMIE training, I did not take it seriously. In fact, it slipped my mind. My colleague, Francis Mukasa, whom I was to attend the training with, reminded me of the registration just a few hours before the deadline. I thought it would be just one of those trainings where the trainer sits on a table, does the talking, then at the end asks,” Any questions?”

The training

Actually that was the same scenario I imagined when I entered the training room at Hotel international, Kampala on 21st June 2011. I was prepared for lectures, but little did I know that with time, I was in for a fun-filled training session on television production. I also didn’t know that by the end of the three weeks, I would be longing for more time.

We were 24 journalists from television and radio, and the fact that we represented the wide East African region made every day at the training great. Our trainers seemed very knowledgeable just from their introduction and as it turned out later, they were rich with just what I needed to make myself a better journalist.

I was impressed by their simplified training, which made the whole process enjoyable. The training was filled with practical sessions that rotated around the vital requirements for any good TV story. My assignment as producer was to make a story on the challenges of a poultry farmer, with respect to highlighting the theme of making finance work for Africa.

Going to the field

Unlike what I was used to in my normal production of TV stories, DW-AKADEMIE trained me on the need to have prior research on the subject before shooting. On the day of shooting, I must confess, I was looking forward to seeing how the training would translate into preferred results. It wasn’t easy at all to make a sequence of all the actions of the poultry farmer.

During the editing, I saw the power of prior preparation and creation of sequences while shooting. The outcome was so smooth and a very interesting story to watch — actually one that puts a viewer directly into the plight of the farmer.

I learnt that it was much easier to benefit from this training by participating in the activities of other producers, too, so I joined them in their assignments to lend a hand.

I was also very happy when we were trained on how to create and manage blogs, something I thought I would never learn, since I always associated it with much technicality, that could only be solved by highly trained IT officers. Hmm.. Now I am  a blogger!

I believe that as we end this training, I am a more confident Coletta and one that can easily melt a story that seems too complicated to be understood by any  viewer. I can’t wait to attend any other training that will be done by DW-AKADEMIE, because now I know that every time spent in such trainings will be a plus for me.

By Irene Simiyu

The drive took a few minutes — 30 minutes, to be precise. The huge compound with clean pathways had beautiful flower gardens. The spectacular site of lush green, well-manicured lawns led us in. This gave way to a breathtaking view of  Lake Victoria. A guard showed us to the reception.

Speke Resort Munyonyo was abuzz with activity. Black and white men and women in tight-fitting black suits seemed to hurry in a certain direction and talked in hushed tones as if they were conspiring against nature. I had never seen so many people of such a calibre at the same place at the same time. It was the venue for the conference dubbed “Zipping Finance and Farming in Africa”.

This was my first visit to Munyonyo, a place off limits for me during my study at Makerere University. The resort was the place to be if you were trendy, fashionable and belonged to the crème de la crème. The well-to-do students organized beach bashes here every weekend. I could not attend, because first of all the prices were obscene and then every beginning of semester my mother reminded me about  keeping good morals. She always gave me a lecture about how I should study very hard to achieve what she had longed to achieve, but failed to do so. I should keep off boys and learn how to dress appropriately as in covering every part of my body. So a beach bash was a no go zone as I would expose myself if I put on a bikini.

Freezing in Greece

Now, wearing a black coat and black trousers, I was not prepared for the cold in the conference center, where the air conditioning was turned on full blast. I pinched myself several times to ascertain if I was still alive or had frozen to death.

Being a journalist and one who is always in action, I had to make myself busy — and voila: an idea struck! My colleague was to interview a few people at the conference. Why not designate myself to be the middle person? It would be easy: target the interviewee, net him or her, leave her in the hands of the camera crew then disappear and appear with another. This proved to be more interesting — but not for long. My little game was disorganized by this camera-shy guy from the World Bank. He kept playing cat and mouse games with me. He would look me straight in the eye and lie, saying he would be back in a few minutes and instead disappear for the rest of the day. He did a very good job of laying low.

Making the most of it

I believe life is what you make it and when it hands you lemons you simply squeeze lemonade out of it. Nothing was going to dampen my spirit and spoil my day at Munyonyo, neither the bitter coffee that I only managed to sip twice, nor the loss of my purse. I had to devise ways to have a good time. This was a God-sent opportunity and I didn’t have plans to let anything get in my way.

It wouldn’t be an easy task, but I had to make sure all the five senses kept in touch and were well coordinated. I laid down the rules: rule number one was that my eyes had to perform a good surveillance job of all the food that I had to eat. They would be assisted by the nose to determine what was good for me and my mouth was the last to determine what was good for my stomach. I would never repeat the mistake, the bitter coffee taught me a lesson. Rule number two: the eyes were to also look around for any thieves lurking in the shadows and the ears were to eavesdrop on all conversations just to be sure of my security and that of my property and things worked out perfectly well.

Hoping for the best

The conference handed me an opportunity to have a great time and sumptuous meals for three days, a great view of Lake Victoria, mingling with various people in big positions like ministers, ambassadors, managing directors, politicians, businessmen, riding a horse for the first time in my life and being enlightened about the challenges facing agricultural financing in Africa.

This was my first time to attend such a conference. Such conferences are organised time after time, the participants come up with very good ideas and policies that would create a great positive impact — if implemented. However these reports often end up gathering dust on the shelves. I would not want to sound like a prophet of doom, but the 11 principles agreed on during the conference will be meaningless and a slap on the face for those who worked tirelessly to come up with them if they are not implemented.