Come see the rough cut!

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in progress...

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A cultural primer

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Maybe 90 years from now

Congress will be willing to label Darfur a genocide. Keep hope alive!

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Sneak Peek

With our footage now in the hands of editor Brian Cho, we can at long last offer you a little taste of what's to come:

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And now a word from Ousman

Among the many interesting folks we met on our journey was Ousman Khami. Ousman is associated with the SLM's "Group of 19" (those who didn't sign on to the peace accord). Today, with news of the ICC's formal announcement of war crime suspects, Ousman sent us this email:

Hi there,

It's good to hear that the International Criminal Court has released two names from 51 wanted list, who are responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

I think this a good step to achieve justice in Darfur and entire world plus it's strong massage to the waitting list.

I just want to let the International community knows that, the Sudanese Gov is misleading the world orally and by actions. As I expected, this morning and directly following the release of the names by the court, the Sudanese Gov announced that one of the suspects (Kushyb) has already been arrested since Nov 2006 because he was accused by violating Sudanese law in Darfur, big lie!!.

A big question arises here. Why we didn't hear that before this date? and why only Kushyb? you know what ? Just after few days you will hear that Ali kushyb disappeared, or ran away from jail to somewhere, or may be he will be executed by the Sudanese authorities because they know that he will be use full for the Court and he will be indicating to more suspects and showing to further evidences.

And I 'm sure that the Sudanese Gov will arrest more people in the next few days and only those who are alleged to be responsible, this just to avoid handing over the suspects.

Also I heard that the Gov is currently trying some PDF and military commanders before special courts. in my viewpoint that's absolutely unacceptable. Why not before this time?

Anyway the only thing I want to say is, the Court has to find out a mechanism or a procedure to put more pressure on the Gov to hand over the suspects once the names released otherwise they will say: They are already tried them or they are in jail.

All the best,
Osman

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How was the trip?

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture”

Multiple Attributions

Or, for that matter, like me writing about much of anything. But, on the other hand, you really don’t want to see me try to dance, regardless of whether it’s about jazz or not. So I guess I pretty much have to stick to writing about what we saw and what we think.

Anyways, we’re officially back now and fully ensconced in whatever it is that we happened to be doing (or left neglected) before we left. Many have asked “How was the trip?” Others have asked a similar, more fundamental and difficult, question: “What was it like?”

Asking how the trip went is easier, for both questioner and respondent, than asking what the experience was like, because capturing the full texture of an intensely subjective experience demands more than a small amount of perceptive capacity from the questioner and demands great descriptive skill from the respondent. Especially in cases where, as is the case here, the responder’s powers of communication are pretty limited as mine – hey, I’m just the sound guy. But, at the very least, I can take a swing at it, even if I’m not Hemingway – and that’s pretty much what blogging is all about anyway, right? So, I’ll do what I can with what we’ve seen.

Vincent: But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?
Jules: What?
Vincent: It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it's just - it's just there it's a little different.

Pulp Fiction

Part of what we’re trying to do with this project is give our viewers and readers the tools for to create a more complete mental picture of what’s going on in the region. At least one aspect of that task is communicating the specific textures that describe the smaller more surprising differences that make an otherwise alien tableau somehow more real.

The first order of business is limiting my scope by telling you what I won’t be writing about. A lot of the traditional, time-worn, breathless explanations of overseas travel aren’t particularly useful, are as profound as something from a greeting card, ultimately better suited to fortune cookies.

You’ve already heard whatever other platitude or banal homily I’m likely to come up with (many Africans are quite poor, or that people are people everywhere, or that many of us are extraordinarily blessed by the circumstance of our birth, or that hope springs eternal, or whatever) and this stuff has already been fixed in the western cultural firmament, so I’ll skip it.

Similarly, another hard-hitting story of perfidy, corruption, mayhem, or any other conceivable description of disaster, malfeasance, or humans acting badly won’t be particularly shocking or enlightening, either. Telling people that bad things are happening around the world rates with “Sun Rises In East! Again!!” as a profound revelation. There are those far better trained, equipped, and funded, who already are doing yeoman work on detailing depravity and bearing witness to man’s inhumanity to man.

And for those looking to read about a spiritual journey of transformation, I don’t really want to attempt to write some long exegesis about how this trip was profoundly life changing, universe, and I’m pretty certain you aren’t that deeply interested either. If you are, I won’t be explaining it here, and the drinks will be on you. But more generally, the idea that such concepts would be worth writing about – let alone reading – would be a kind of self-indulgence seldom seen even among the most self-absorbed bloggers. Even had this been a 21-day trip that could fundamentally alter a worldview, zeitgeist and weltanschauung, that kind of thing doesn’t translate, doesn’t keep, and is lousy when reheated.

Likewise, it is unlikely in the extreme that we’ve gleaned some essential fact, perspective, or outlook that will confound and amaze the policy wonks, scientists and decision makers of the world. The “Everything I Needed To Know About The World I Learned After Three Weeks in Africa” school of thought is just flat-out silly. Certainly if we’ve learned something in just a few short weeks that has escaped the notice of some of the world’s brightest, then a lot of thinking on the value of formal education, practical experience, and knowledge as a whole would become, at a minimum, highly suspect.

Instead, what I would hope to be able to do is something is capture some sense of the texture of this time and place, the notions that fleet across the back of one’s consciousness, providing a brief flash of illumination that give a glimpse of something that turns into revelation much later. Hopefully, in explaining some of the things we’ve run in to, we can shed some light on these sorts of things and help you, should you be interested, can use this information to develop another lens through which you can think about the sorts of problems that enter our world through our computers, televisions, and newspapers. But then again, I’m not a writer by trade, so don’t hold your breath waiting for insight.

At the most basic level, the thing that struck me most about the experience was, for lack of a better term, the fundamental, overwhelming, implacable ordinariness of it all. This isn’t to say that what goes on is banal or uninteresting, but rather that the conceptual tools with which we try to understand simply cannot simultaneously explain the full span of the human experience and provide a particularly useful intuitive comparison of such disparate elements. A person can viscerally appreciate what is happening to themselves or someone else or they can understand that what those experiences are radically different. The problem is that it is incredibly difficult to do perform both tasks at the same time. On one hand, once a person has adapted to a new local environment, then it becomes commonplace. On the other hand, if one compares two relatively commonplace experiences, then most of the contrast between them is lost. The act of adapting to the environment leaches the color out of all the contrasting features – at the end of the day, one is essentially reduced to comparing luxuries.

The most exotic – or at least odd and incongruous – thing any of the three of us really saw, when you get down to cases, was each other. And trust me, exotic we ain’t. What made us odd is that pretty much everyone else was, for the most part, living out the normal, ordinary parts of the human drama, things that everyone can describe and related to almost immediately. We, however, were the only people not doing something very familiar and basic to people everywhere – and that’s what made us odd. Not heroic, or extraordinary, just unusual. Everyone else was living their lives with roughly the same markers and demands with which all of us live our lives.

Since I can’t seem to get to the point, let me say it this way: it’s not just that you or I or anyone you know could, after a shockingly short time, subsume the role of anyone else on the planet, but rather that, despite this, there aren’t any really good semantic mechanisms for comparing two the lives of people so similar in fundamentals, but so dissimilar in particulars. And maybe texture might be helpful in figuring out how to understand those differences.

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The Three Intrepid Filmmakers

For those of you that missed our TV appearance, here we are in all of our YouTube glory. The appearance is discussed at greater length in the post below this one.

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Chicago Yesterday Night

As at least a good three or four people are now aware, we made an appearance on the Chicago PBS Station, WTTW, on their program "Chicago Tonight" last evening, apparently on purpose and with the full knowledge of the station managers.

I present for your viewing pleasure and/or amusement, definitive proof that we definitely have a television presence custom made for blogging. In that spirit, to optimize your viewing experience, feel free to mute the sound and leave the room for approximately 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

Although somewhat unconventional, this step is necessary for the video segment to age properly, and is really allows us to come off at our best.

If, on the other hand, you can't really wait for us to edit and process the footage, and absolutely dying to see us act foolish and tongue-tied right now, just go ahead and click.

Although if you actually snicker out loud (or even if you don't for that matter), hit the PayPal button, so we can hire skilled personnel to do this sort of thing.

And if you're really dying to know, here's some evidence of historical punk, or punk-like activities. If nothing else, I suppose you can see that we came by our lack of talent honestly, and have continued pursuing it all these years.

Okay, okay, you've slogged through all the way through 187 words of this post thus far, so here's some bonus bonus material - the second bonus is added to reflect that the bonus material is actually good this time (so good in fact, that we don't have anything at all to do with it).

a) Of very high production value and involves significantly better animation than you're ever likely to see me do

b) Is an effort involving way more than 4 musicians, and much more studio time

c) Reflects many of the thematic elements, both literally and metaphorically, encountered in our trip to Chad

d) Has a much, much, larger budget. Much larger. Much larger. Much Much Larger. Hint. Hint. (that was subtle, wasn't it?)

e) All of the above

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Darfur By The Numbers

As you may know, we will be appearing at 7pm Chicago time, on the primary local PBS station, WTTW on the program "Chicago Tonight". In a bid to get some research together before our appearance, I've started looking into some of the statistics behind Darfur, with mixed success.

Gathering statistics about Darfur has been a very difficult problem, owing to poor record keeping, lack of civil society, and ongoing insecurity problems. To some extent, this vagueness has made it a bit more difficult to provide a meaningful basis for discussion of the effectiveness of the government of Sudan in their ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur over the last four years. These numbers are most certainly approximate, and are intended to be illustrative.

Thus, in the interests of trying to give a sense of scale to the situation in Darfur, I have put together some rough comparisons of the Chicago metro area and the populations affected by the Darfur conflict. For a baseline, the Chicago urban area (more properly called Chicago-Aurora-Elgin-Joliet-Waukegan, IL-IN area) had a total 2000 census population of 8,307,904, versus an estimated population in Darfur of 7.4 million.

To date, the campaigns undertaken by the Sudanese government have accounted for about one in five of the world's "Internally Displaced Persons" - those who have been driven from their homes, most often due to conflict, but have not been able to escape to other countries. Of the roughly 5.5 million people driven from their homes in Sudan, a bit more than half are refugees directly associated with the ethnic cleansing campaign in Darfur. The approximately 3 million people who have had their homes destroyed or have been forced in to relocation camps due to ongoing violence compares with the entire population of Chicago at 2,842,518.


The total number of people killed in the genocide thus far has been estimated at 400,000 to 450,000. However, these numbers date back to about April of 2006. As 10,000-15,000 people are killed each month, current totals may range from 480,000 to a worst-case scenario of 570,000. These numbers are roughly comparable to the population of New Orleans (454,863) or Washington DC (550,521).

Below the fold is a place-by-place comparison of the population of the Chicago metro area and those who have been directly affected by the actions of the Sudanese government in Darfur.

The table below lists the estimated population of places in the Chicago metro area, along with the sizes of affected populations in Darfur. The total of the numbers given here are less than the total number of refugees, as many refugees have not yet chosen to enter refugee camps. Additionally, the list includes Sudanese "Affected Resident Population" (ARP), which are those people in the area who have been adversely affected by the ongoing war (and have higher mortality rates, etc.) but have not yet had the misfortune of being burnt out of their homes, or otherwise being forced to flee. The population of Chadian "Internally Displaced Persons" (IDP) is included in this list, as it consists of those who have become refugees as of the ongoing chaos associated with the large influx of Sudanese
who have fled Darfur, seeking refuge, following the destruction of their homes or other calamities. The population of Chadian ARPs has not been included, as I have not been able to find pertinent statistics. A good map of camp locations in Sudan can be found here.

In the interests of space and relevance, locations with less than 3,000 people are not listed. For sake of comparison, U.S. fatalities in Iraq have just reached 3,000, while 2,819 perished in the attacks of 9/11.

Locations in Africa are listed in bold.

Place Name	Notes	Population
Chicago	The City That Works	2,842,518
Aurora	Chicago Suburb	168,181
Naperville	Chicago Suburb	141,579
Joliet	Chicago Suburb	136,208
Gereida	Darfur Refugees	128,000
Elgin	Chicago Suburb	98,645
Zalingei AU	Darfur Refugees	95,069
Kalma	Darfur Refugees	91,842
Waukegan	Chicago Suburb	91,396
Kass Town	Darfur Refugees	89,895
Cicero	Chicago Suburb	82,741
Evanston	Chicago Suburb	75,236
Arlington Heights	Chicago Suburb	74,620
Schaumburg	Chicago Suburb	72,805
Kutum Rural	Sudanese ARP	71,926
Bolingbrook	Chicago Suburb	68,365
Palatine	Chicago Suburb	67,232
Malha	Sudanese ARP	64,815
Skokie	Chicago Suburb	64,678
Golo AU	Darfur Refugees	62,060
Mornei	Darfur Refugees	61,034
Edd El Fursan	Sudanese ARP	58,073
Tinley Park	Chicago Suburb	57,477
Umm Keddada	Sudanese ARP	56,624
Des Plaines	Chicago Suburb	56,551
Orland Park	Chicago Suburb	55,461
El Fasher Rural	Sudanese ARP	54,909
Wheaton	Chicago Suburb	54,700
Mount Prospect	Chicago Suburb	54,482
Abu Shouk	Darfur Refugees	54,043
Oak Lawn	Chicago Suburb	53,991
Nyala	Darfur Refugees	52,972
Kebkabiya Rural	Sudanese ARP	52,398
El Daein North	Sudanese ARP	52,344
Hoffman Estates	Chicago Suburb	52,046
Berwyn	Chicago Suburb	51,409
Oak Park	Chicago Suburb	50,757
Umm Baru	Sudanese ARP	49,845
Downers Grove	Chicago Suburb	49,094
Zalingei AU	Sudanese ARP	48,416
Sileia	Sudanese ARP	48,007
Muhajiria	Sudanese ARP	47,658
Geneina AU	Sudanese ARP	46,044
Glenview	Chicago Suburb	45,989
Elmhurst	Chicago Suburb	44,976
Ta'asha	Sudanese ARP	44,162
Tawilla Rural	Sudanese ARP	43,928
Abu Ajura N. - Bulbul	Sudanese ARP	43,566
Buffalo Grove	Chicago Suburb	43,115
Kebkabiya Town	Darfur Refugees	42,926
Lombard	Chicago Suburb	42,816
Otash	Darfur Refugees	41,583
Zamzam	Darfur Refugees	41,505
Fata Borno	Sudanese ARP	41,416
Sayah	Sudanese ARP	41,263
Crystal Lake	Chicago Suburb	40,922
Kutum Rural	Darfur Refugees	40,768
Adilla	Sudanese ARP	40,594
Carol Stream	Chicago Suburb	40,040
Kass NE	Sudanese ARP	39,432
Al Salam	Darfur Refugees	38,937
Bartlett	Chicago Suburb	38,479
Calumet City	Chicago Suburb	37,795
Tawilla Town	Darfur Refugees	37,555
Umm Dukhun AU	Sudanese ARP	37,361
Streamwood	Chicago Suburb	37,312
Hanover Park	Chicago Suburb	37,229
Carpentersville	Chicago Suburb	37,204
Park Ridge	Chicago Suburb	36,983
Addison	Chicago Suburb	36,811
Wheeling	Chicago Suburb	36,641
Romeoville	Chicago Suburb	36,396
Kaford	Sudanese ARP	34,874
El Fasher Town	Darfur Refugees	34,426
Northbrook	Chicago Suburb	34,190
Woodridge	Chicago Suburb	34,058
Elk Grove Village	Chicago Suburb	34,025
North Chicago	Chicago Suburb	33,376
Nyala	Sudanese ARP	32,969
Mundelein	Chicago Suburb	32,774
Glendale Heights	Chicago Suburb	32,465
St. Charles	Chicago Suburb	32,332
Highland Park	Chicago Suburb	31,380
Chicago Heights	Chicago Suburb	31,373
Nertiti AU	Sudanese ARP	30,896
Gurnee	Chicago Suburb	30,772
Garsila	Darfur Refugees	29,793
Geneina Town	Darfur Refugees	29,750
Saraf Omra	Sudanese ARP	29,742
Niles	Chicago Suburb	29,330
Mershing	Sudanese ARP	29,103
Algonquin	Chicago Suburb	29,022
Lake in the Hills	Chicago Suburb	28,786
Harvey	Chicago Suburb	28,771
Forabaranga Town	Sudanese ARP	28,558
Mellit Town	Sudanese ARP	28,374
Round Lake Beach	Chicago Suburb	28,253
Plainfield	Chicago Suburb	28,162
Oak Forest	Chicago Suburb	28,116
Bredjing	Darfur Refugees	27,761
Burbank	Chicago Suburb	27,634
Lansing	Chicago Suburb	27,324
Glen Ellyn	Chicago Suburb	27,193
Batavia	Chicago Suburb	27,172
Abata	Sudanese ARP	27,000
Wilmette	Chicago Suburb	26,922
Kass South	Sudanese ARP	26,862
El Sireaf	Sudanese ARP	26,766
Shearia	Sudanese ARP	26,756
Kankakee	Chicago Suburb	26,642
Forabaranga Rural	Sudanese ARP	26,634
Mellit Rural	Sudanese ARP	26,579
West Chicago	Chicago Suburb	26,554
Habilla AU	Darfur Refugees	26,433
Oure Cassoni	Darfur Refugees	26,293
Khor Omer	Darfur Refugees	25,928
Haskanita	Sudanese ARP	25,877
Maywood	Chicago Suburb	25,777
Gouroukoum	Chadian IDPs	25,229
Dar El Salam	Sudanese ARP	25,000
Kass Town	Sudanese ARP	25,000
McHenry	Chicago Suburb	24,863
Westmont	Chicago Suburb	24,863
Umm Tajouk	Darfur Refugees	24,753
Dolton	Chicago Suburb	24,504
Elmwood Park	Chicago Suburb	24,499
Saraf Omra	Darfur Refugees	24,110
Thur	Darfur Refugees	24,087
Vernon Hills	Chicago Suburb	23,957
Rolling Meadows	Chicago Suburb	23,909
Shangil Tobayi	Sudanese ARP	23,698
Geneva	Chicago Suburb	23,424
Lisle	Chicago Suburb	23,376
Oswego	Chicago Suburb	23,330
Roselle	Chicago Suburb	23,240
New Lenox	Chicago Suburb	23,197
Park Forest	Chicago Suburb	23,036
Krenik AU	Darfur Refugees	23,020
Dreige	Darfur Refugees	22,949
Blue Island	Chicago Suburb	22,788
Darien	Chicago Suburb	22,730
Villa Park	Chicago Suburb	22,616
Melrose Park	Chicago Suburb	22,512
Kassab	Darfur Refugees	22,251
Morton Grove	Chicago Suburb	22,202
Kutum Town	Sudanese ARP	22,191
Lockport	Chicago Suburb	22,161
Touloum	Darfur Refugees	22,038
Sileia	Darfur Refugees	22,031
Ardamata	Darfur Refugees	22,000
Woodstock	Chicago Suburb	21,985
Bloomingdale	Chicago Suburb	21,924
Jebel Si	Sudanese ARP	21,800
Krinding	Darfur Refugees	21,793
Libertyville	Chicago Suburb	21,760
Kutum Town	Darfur Refugees	21,740
South Holland	Chicago Suburb	21,552
Bielel	Darfur Refugees	21,440
Lake Forest	Chicago Suburb	21,123
Grayslake	Chicago Suburb	21,099
Korma	Sudanese ARP	21,071
Umm Shalaya	Sudanese ARP	20,960
South Elgin	Chicago Suburb	20,758
Azerni	Sudanese ARP	20,600
Bensenville	Chicago Suburb	20,514
Ryad	Darfur Refugees	20,062
Sirba AU	Darfur Refugees	20,059
Lake Zurich	Chicago Suburb	20,045
Evergreen Park	Chicago Suburb	19,876
Rockero AU	Darfur Refugees	19,660
Abu Sorug	Darfur Refugees	19,618
Bellwood	Chicago Suburb	19,517
Shangil Tobayi	Darfur Refugees	19,494
Deerfield	Chicago Suburb	19,471
Crest Hill	Chicago Suburb	19,438
Rehedi El Berdi	Sudanese ARP	19,291
Cary	Chicago Suburb	19,115
Alsip	Chicago Suburb	19,072
Labado	Sudanese ARP	19,000
Amoboko	Darfur Refugees	18,942
Homewood	Chicago Suburb	18,917
Hijeer	Darfur Refugees	18,879
Daya	Darfur Refugees	18,725
Franklin Park	Chicago Suburb	18,490
Brookfield	Chicago Suburb	18,462
Farchana	Darfur Refugees	18,392
Goz Amer	Darfur Refugees	18,272
Hinsdale	Chicago Suburb	17,898
Huntley	Chicago Suburb	17,674
Rockero AU	Sudanese ARP	17,545
Mokena	Chicago Suburb	17,396
Palos Hills	Chicago Suburb	17,258
Iridimi	Darfur Refugees	17,195
El Daein North	Darfur Refugees	17,130
Kherban-Tura	Sudanese ARP	17,071
Kulbus AU	Darfur Refugees	16,981
Masteri AU	Sudanese ARP	16,979
Bourbonnais	Chicago Suburb	16,875
Country Club Hills	Chicago Suburb	16,534
Umm Kher AU	Sudanese ARP	16,510
Am Nabak	Darfur Refugees	16,504
Beida AU	Sudanese ARP	16,493
Krinding II	Darfur Refugees	16,463
Tawilla Town	Sudanese ARP	16,423
Prospect Heights	Chicago Suburb	16,387
Westchester	Chicago Suburb	16,177
Yaroungo	Darfur Refugees	15,857
Frankfort	Chicago Suburb	15,819
Matteson	Chicago Suburb	15,675
La Grange	Chicago Suburb	15,482
Mile	Darfur Refugees	15,362
Shearia	Darfur Refugees	15,311
Forest Park	Chicago Suburb	15,197
Gildo	Darfur Refugees	15,182
Lemont	Chicago Suburb	15,146
Kebkabiya Town	Sudanese ARP	15,000
Konge Damras	Sudanese ARP	15,000
Bridgeview	Chicago Suburb	14,933
Round Lake	Chicago Suburb	14,803
Djabal	Darfur Refugees	14,772
El Daein Town	Sudanese ARP	14,687
Riverdale	Chicago Suburb	14,588
El Daein West	Sudanese ARP	14,566
Treguine	Darfur Refugees	14,421
Hazel Crest	Chicago Suburb	14,415
Lindenhurst	Chicago Suburb	14,403
North Aurora	Chicago Suburb	14,394
Mukjar	Darfur Refugees	14,325
Umm Baru	Darfur Refugees	14,292
Norridge	Chicago Suburb	14,054
Gaga	Darfur Refugees	14,002
Midlothian	Chicago Suburb	13,949
Bradley	Chicago Suburb	13,812
East JM	Darfur Refugees	13,800
Dogdore	Chadian IDPs	13,786
Gornie and Debanga	Darfur Refugees	13,770
Khor Abeche	Sudanese ARP	13,761
Al Sheref	Darfur Refugees	13,758
Kounoungo	Darfur Refugees	13,682
Chicago Ridge	Chicago Suburb	13,668
Kass NW	Sudanese ARP	13,606
Sanam El Naga	Sudanese ARP	13,584
Gondje	Darfur Refugees	13,555
Hickory Hills	Chicago Suburb	13,542
Wood Dale	Chicago Suburb	13,419
Warrenville	Chicago Suburb	13,217
Mellit Town	Darfur Refugees	13,169
Nertiti AU	Darfur Refugees	13,081
Richton Park	Chicago Suburb	12,998
Habilla AU	Sudanese ARP	12,988
Morris	Chicago Suburb	12,939
Bindis	Darfur Refugees	12,928
La Grange Park	Chicago Suburb	12,726
Justice	Chicago Suburb	12,692
Kulbus AU	Sudanese ARP	12,568
Palos Heights	Chicago Suburb	12,561
Adilla	Darfur Refugees	12,542
Western Springs	Chicago Suburb	12,530
Beach Park	Chicago Suburb	12,486
Gereida	Sudanese ARP	12,466
Winnetka	Chicago Suburb	12,452
Antioch	Chicago Suburb	12,353
Ladob	Sudanese ARP	12,327
Markham	Chicago Suburb	12,304
Channahon	Chicago Suburb	12,218
Sanidadi	Sudanese ARP	12,193
Shorewood	Chicago Suburb	12,114
Lincolnwood	Chicago Suburb	12,026
Dar El Salam	Darfur Refugees	12,000
Donki Deresa	Darfur Refugees	12,000
Montgomery	Chicago Suburb	11,959
Forabaranga Town	Darfur Refugees	11,880
Schiller Park	Chicago Suburb	11,597
El Ferdous	Darfur Refugees	11,531
Muhajiria	Darfur Refugees	11,500
Joghana	Sudanese ARP	11,498
Northlake	Chicago Suburb	11,358
River Forest	Chicago Suburb	11,289
Mornei	Sudanese ARP	11,216
Crestwood	Chicago Suburb	11,207
Sirba AU	Sudanese ARP	11,195
East JM	Sudanese ARP	11,000
Ladob	Darfur Refugees	10,972
Manawashi	Darfur Refugees	10,969
Burr Ridge	Chicago Suburb	10,949
Wauconda	Chicago Suburb	10,903
Yorkville	Chicago Suburb	10,791
Fox Lake	Chicago Suburb	10,736
Sauk Village	Chicago Suburb	10,486
Lyons	Chicago Suburb	10,466
Habile	Chadian IDPs	10,424
Steger	Chicago Suburb	10,409
Summit	Chicago Suburb	10,348
River Grove	Chicago Suburb	10,216
Barrington	Chicago Suburb	10,179
Umm Kher Town	Darfur Refugees	10,000
Donki Deresa	Sudanese ARP	10,000
Ade	Chadian IDPs	10,000
Winfield	Chicago Suburb	9,844
Umm Shalaya	Darfur Refugees	9,798
Birkat Seira	Darfur Refugees	9,790
Sania Afandu	Sudanese ARP	9,548
Tawilla Rural	Darfur Refugees	9,416
Nomadic damra	Sudanese ARP	9,401
Flossmoor	Chicago Suburb	9,390
Harvard	Chicago Suburb	9,104
Dorti	Darfur Refugees	9,003
Sania Afandu	Darfur Refugees	9,000
Glencoe	Chicago Suburb	8,979
Willowbrook	Chicago Suburb	8,893
Kornoi	Darfur Refugees	8,862
Oak Brook	Chicago Suburb	8,835
Crete	Chicago Suburb	8,772
Al Salam (Nyala)	Darfur Refugees	8,687
El Daein West	Darfur Refugees	8,678
Glenwood	Chicago Suburb	8,663
Lake Villa	Chicago Suburb	8,492
Riverside	Chicago Suburb	8,485
Itasca	Chicago Suburb	8,444
Island Lake	Chicago Suburb	8,419
Sugar Grove	Chicago Suburb	8,416
Minooka	Chicago Suburb	8,403
Clarendon Hills	Chicago Suburb	8,397
Kondobe AU	Darfur Refugees	8,360
Harwood Heights	Chicago Suburb	8,188
Calumet Park	Chicago Suburb	8,124
University Park	Chicago Suburb	8,102
Manteno	Chicago Suburb	7,955
Garsila	Sudanese ARP	7,920
West Dundee	Chicago Suburb	7,875
Broadview	Chicago Suburb	7,856
Long Grove	Chicago Suburb	7,833
Hillside	Chicago Suburb	7,771
Lynwood	Chicago Suburb	7,655
Marena	Chadian IDPs	7,400
Marengo	Chicago Suburb	7,381
Inverness	Chicago Suburb	7,343
Plano	Chicago Suburb	7,338
Juguma	Darfur Refugees	7,300
Orland Hills	Chicago Suburb	7,273
Hawthorn Woods	Chicago Suburb	7,176
Winthrop Harbor	Chicago Suburb	7,090
Umm Tajouk	Sudanese ARP	6,960
Lincolnshire	Chicago Suburb	6,841
El Sireaf	Darfur Refugees	6,791
Park City	Chicago Suburb	6,775
Dito	Sudanese ARP	6,672
Umm Keddada	Darfur Refugees	6,541
Adre	Chadian IDPs	6,441
North Riverside	Chicago Suburb	6,382
Robbins	Chicago Suburb	6,375
Yassin	Darfur Refugees	6,352
Braidwood	Chicago Suburb	6,320
Krenik AU	Sudanese ARP	6,318
Johnsburg	Chicago Suburb	6,277
Lake Bluff	Chicago Suburb	6,251
Boldung	Sudanese ARP	6,246
Round Lake Park	Chicago Suburb	6,224
Willow Springs	Chicago Suburb	6,011
Wilmington	Chicago Suburb	5,957
Sekele	Darfur Refugees	5,915
Stickney	Chicago Suburb	5,899
Duma	Darfur Refugees	5,893
Arara VC	Darfur Refugees	5,845
Countryside	Chicago Suburb	5,831
Northfield	Chicago Suburb	5,543
Mellit Rural	Darfur Refugees	5,497
Highwood	Chicago Suburb	5,468
Spring Grove	Chicago Suburb	5,303
Sania Deleba	Sudanese ARP	5,249
Abu Jabra	Darfur Refugees	5,246
Sisi	Darfur Refugees	5,175
Coal City	Chicago Suburb	5,170
Manhattan	Chicago Suburb	5,169
Lakemoor	Chicago Suburb	5,085
Fox River Grove	Chicago Suburb	5,084
Lake Barrington	Chicago Suburb	5,033
Berkeley	Chicago Suburb	5,006
Posen	Chicago Suburb	4,929
Stone Park	Chicago Suburb	4,905
Adjiz	Chadian IDPs	4,899
Gilberts	Chicago Suburb	4,869
El Ferdous	Sudanese ARP	4,766
Palos Park	Chicago Suburb	4,757
Monee	Chicago Suburb	4,629
Birkat Seira	Sudanese ARP	4,492
Kango Haraza	Sudanese ARP	4,453
Arara VC	Sudanese ARP	4,412
Dwight	Chicago Suburb	4,360
Buram	Darfur Refugees	4,263
Barrington Hills	Chicago Suburb	4,258
Hometown	Chicago Suburb	4,241
Elburn	Chicago Suburb	4,236
Riverwoods	Chicago Suburb	4,100
Burnham	Chicago Suburb	4,080
Hampshire	Chicago Suburb	4,077
Rosemont	Chicago Suburb	4,037
Borota	Chadian IDPs	4,007
Kildeer	Chicago Suburb	4,004
Tulus	Darfur Refugees	4,000
Umm Kher Town	Sudanese ARP	4,000
Peotone	Chicago Suburb	3,981
South Barrington	Chicago Suburb	3,935
Green Oaks	Chicago Suburb	3,914
Kulkul	Sudanese ARP	3,882
South Chicago Heights	Chicago Suburb	3,873
Dixmoor	Chicago Suburb	3,813
Hainesville	Chicago Suburb	3,765
Hijeer	Sudanese ARP	3,734
Sleepy Hollow	Chicago Suburb	3,695
Indian Head Park	Chicago Suburb	3,656
Wadsworth	Chicago Suburb	3,651
Umm Labassa	Sudanese ARP	3,605
Masteri AU	Darfur Refugees	3,595
Lakewood	Chicago Suburb	3,502
Marla	Sudanese ARP	3,477
Kubum	Sudanese ARP	3,355
Kango Haraza	Darfur Refugees	3,327
Ford Heights	Chicago Suburb	3,294
Abu Matariq	Darfur Refugees	3,292
Jemeza Komera	Darfur Refugees	3,285
Mossai B	Darfur Refugees	3,273
Mossai B	Darfur Refugees	3,273
Deer Park	Chicago Suburb	3,253
Beida AU	Darfur Refugees	3,227
North Barrington	Chicago Suburb	3,207
Yassin	Sudanese ARP	3,180
East Dundee	Chicago Suburb	3,138
Joghana	Darfur Refugees	3,100
Momence	Chicago Suburb	3,066
NE Area	Chadian IDPs	3,000

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Home Again, Home Again: Ruby Slippers Edition

Our first finding is that, no Dorthy, Chad sure isn't Kansas, and despite that, ruby slippers are not, in and of themselves, sufficient to tackle the headaches associated with a lost ticket. For that, one needs a cell phone and airline personnel of extraordinary patience. And no, there really is no place like home. Or at least if your concept of home involves running water, paved roads, and things of that ilk.

Thus, we are back in the states, having just missed an actual newsworthy event in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. It seems that circumstance has conspired to firmly keep us in the camp of filmmakers, rather than war correspondents. The flipside being, however, that we've gotten some rather nice coverage (well, nice even if the article is titled "Bordering on Insanity") in the newsweekly, Time Out. Additionally, we're scheduled to appear live on WTTW, the Chicago PBS station, for an appearance on Chicago Tonight on Monday at 7 pm, so that way any anxious viewers can watch us make fools of ourselves Right Now, rather than waiting for the release of footage to watch us make fools of ourselves.

In any case, we're back, whole, with footage, our gear, and have been blessed by an unnatural quantity of dust and grime. As promised, I'm going to go back and reload higher resolution images, and clean up some of the formatting, as the return to the states has meant a return to unfettered, high-speed internet access.

I can say on behalf of all of us, Thank You All Very Much for your support during this trip - both moral and financial support have been of immense help. I would also like to thank the folks who responded to our posts, particularly those who have tuned us in to some additional efforts in Darfur. Once we get unpacked, decompressed, cleaned, fed, slept, watered, bathed, and burped, we'll be looking into that information right away.

As far as the current status of the project goes, we are already starting the digitizing, editing, formatting, and other relevant "-ing" activities (described by participles?) that are somehow involved in turning footage into film.

In the interim, I (as sound guy) have taken a look at some of the photos I took, and have realized (as a sound guy) that a picture (particularly when I've taken the photo) is not, necessarily, worth a thousand words. In fact, if one (i.e., a sound guy) shoots sufficiently lousy pictures, editing, captioning, and some narrative background are all pretty essential if the photos are going to actually be worth anything, let alone a thousand words. Upcoming blogposts (between actual film-related developments) will be narrating our trip and posting relevant photos.



Happy New Years, Thank You, and Good Night!!

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Happy New Year!! Live from N'Djamena!

We are back in N'Djamena, although we are encountering some further problems with airline tickets. I wanted to share some of the first pictures of the trip, now that we have something approaching internet access. Photos and explanations below the fold (larger photos or perhaps a full photo album will be posted when we have a higher speed connection).

We arrived here about seven hours ago after a sixteen and a half hour overnight bus ride over unpaved roads from Abeche to N'Djamena, totalling some 880 km (about 660 miles).

This is the Abeche bus station:


The trip was ferociously uncomfortable and dusty - here is a view of sunset from the bus.



Some of the folks we interviewed while out in the wild, wild east, as well as a picture from our ride back to our compound.




Here are some of the friendly local military we passed on the way back from a refugee camp.

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