15 February
I think I am a theatre director because I am a good listener. I love a good story. If you want to tell me a long story let me know. I’m all yours. I will sit with you all day and drink in your words, conjuring visions in my mind. I love rehearsals because I get to live in stories, and make them come true for people to see and hear in performance.
Even when I was little, I loved to hear grown-ups tell stories. I think I liked to listen to stories more than I liked to make my own stories.
I would rather listen to someone tell a story than to share a story myself. I can’t tell a joke. I fail with words. I hear them, I feel them, I see them, but I can’t remember them.
The fact that I am daring to speak any Kiswahili aloud is a minor miracle; I struggle with retaining language, and I need things repeated again and again and again before they are slightly retained. I have cultivated a new daring and joy in attempting to communicate in Kiswahili, and I am having a blast.
After I see a film I can never remember a line of dialogue. I’m not one of those people who can quote films 20 years later. Or even 5 minutes later. But I could tell you minute details about what I saw, about the placement of a hand, or a look, or the way an action made me feel, but I will paraphrase and be inaccurate if I try to capture exact words.
I am a visual learner and thinker. I remember details visually, I learn visually, and as a theatre director I love making work that speaks visually. I have a good sense of direction. If I go somewhere once I can return to that place for the rest of my life after one visit. I drink in visual information. I feel what I see.
In the rehearsal room I would rather say ‘show me what you mean’ than ‘tell me what you mean.’ I understand what I see. I am observant. I listen with my eyes.
Writing an observation, or discovery, or lesson, or memory every day for the past 42 days without fail has been a great exercise in using language, in trying to say what I see, to share through words. It has been a great assignment, as I have not written publicly before.
Thank you for reading my words. I hope they help you see what I see, and feel what I feel, while I am in miraculous Kenya. I am grateful that you are a part of my journey, that you are listening and seeing. Thank you very much. Asante sana.
The Collapsible Space Between Us 
15 years after I graduated and still I learn from you. Thanks.
Thank you John. Asante sana.
You have been a huge influence in my career – my life – already and you have only been here 42 days. Shukran na Baraka tele (thank you and bless you).
Asante sana Andrew. Dream big! Stay present. I love having you as a student in class.
Loving every post! I’m so happy when I see a new one sitting in my inbox. I feel like this is one of the best vicarious cultural experiences I’ve had in a long time. Thanks for sharing what you see…
Thank you Tina. Who would have guessed I’d be in Africa.
My friend, we are with you, on every word, every experience, every image, every sight…you have our heart with every word…
You are a true Visual-Spatial learner. Obviously, when a person tells you a story, you see it in your mind’s eye. My mother was a great story tellert and I love to tell stories, too. Thanks you for sharing your deep and meaningful insights. Blessings always, Bev