flickr stream
 |  |  |  |  |
Last Full Day
It’s my last full day here in Zagreb…and it’s coming to a close 
Right now I’m waiting on the Croatian version of the text for the brochure (and apparently an updated English version as well). I’m not expecting an major design changes that are going to result from this, but those are some famous last words.
Today, I got the business cards done for all of the people here (Senada, Ivana, Damjan, Ana, Tereza, Milica and Fadil) with their proper titles in both languages. They chose the one with the red exclamation point, not really my fav of the designs, but had me also do the vertical version in case they decided that it was too much (or going to cost too much). And in my final hours, since I didn’t even touch the web stuff while I was back, I wrote them a Web Strategy Guide. webStrategyGuide
In all, once the brochure text is handed over, during my fellowship I will have finished final versions of all of their print: brochures, posters, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, fax sheets; motion: animated logo, movie bumpers, powerpoint templates; strategy: graphics guide, branding strategy guide; and started them off web-wise with a site-map/wireframe and web strategy guide.
I leave tomorrow afternoon so in the morning we will of course have coffee and I’ll tie up any loose ends…
Business Cards
Here are the three business cards I’m proposing today. It’s kind of hard doing these because they have to be double-sided bilingual. So instead of having an entire other side to separate the info, I’m relegated to fitting all the info in on one side as if 1990 called. It’s a nice challenge though. I think I’m partial to the vertical one, then the wide one without the exclamation point, mostly because I <3 white space. We’ll see how the jury comes in on this…
Brochure (English only)
It’s kind of hard to convey how a three-fold brochure will look when it’s not folded but since everyone left and the color printer is…somewhere??…this will have to do. I’m waiting on just the text for the Croatian version and then the brochure can be another thing checked off of the list 
Poster (bilingual)
So here are the posters that I finally got updated with the proper addresses/phones and translated into Croatian (with the help of Ivana–smiles). We got into a bit of a debate today about the style of handwriting. I contended that Europeans sort of write differently than Americans/others and did the Croatian version in that sort of handwriting. People here thought that it was a bit too childish, which is understandably something that they don’t want to be associated with since there are often ties to mental health and childness. I really didn’t feel that was true but…yeah…I argued it…and sort of got denied. Oh well…it does make them visually look like they are in the same type language.
Fun Weekend + Productive Monday
This weekend, I spent wandering around Zagreb for the first time really since I’ve been back. It was great getting pics of the city in winter and having some more delish “grill.” On Sunday, I went to Samobar with Ivana and spent the night at her place. I should mention here that for a light lunch, her mother-in-law prepared: first course (procuitto, homemade salami, cheese, french salad), second course (lamb/beef noodle soup), third course (duck from their backyard, suckling pig, baked beans, pasta, tomato salad, green salad), fourth course (homemade apple turnovers). Ya know, “light!!” Hahaha, although I shouldn’t lie…it was absolutely delicious and I ate everything :O
Ivana in snowy Samobar
Waiting for the train to work with Senada
So today I came into the office guns blazing. I got the letterhead in both languages updated with their new address/phone number. I designed a Croatian version of the poster–after a “lively” conversation 
and I just finished the English version of the brochure…waiting on a translation of the Croatian. I’m going to try and squeeze the business cards in later tonight and then it’s just web. Hahaha, let’s see tomorrow what exactly gets done…
Fun + Productivity
Today has been a longer day but doesn’t the second day of travel usually seem much loooonger??? This morning, Senada poked and prodded me out of bed (I’m staying with her at her apartment) and, after much ado, we finally made it into the office. I worked for most of today on redoing the front images of the brochure because last time I showed them the comps, they wanted the pictures to be more of the members from Zagreb rather than their sister city members. This was a bit of a slow point for me, mostly because I had almost completely forgotten how I had made them in the first place :-O Oops. But I got it going and here’s a pic of the front of the three-fold brochure.
Other than that, I went to their big Friday meeting where I was serenaded by Damago, one of the members here, who wrote me a short ditty. It was really quite sweet…”ohhh Jen…why are you…” Yeah, it really is great to see all these familiar faces at the big meeting–tons of hugs and smiles and goodness.
On the lame side of things, I realized yesterday that I forgot my camera battery charger in the wall at home sooo pictures are going to be limited here so that I save the battery for actually taking pictures. So far, I haven’t had much time to sightsee but tomorrow will be great for taking pics of this gorgeous city with its thin blanket of snow…
Back in Croatia…
So it was back and forth on wether or not I was going to come back to finish up my work with the Association for Self Advocacy (ASA)….but I managed to fit it in and I’M HERE!!! I flew in yesterday to Zagreb and was greeted at the airport by the best faces ever: Senada, Ivana and Damjan. We drove into town, where I got to have some awesome cevapcici (little sausages) and see the new ASA office. They’re all grown up now and have their own office…down the street from the Association Promoting Inclusion (API) their sister organization. So things have changed but are still the same. It’s nice. Last night we got me settled into Senada’s apartment where I managed to fight my jetlag until 7:30.
This morning we came to the office but of course had coffee first. And in true Croatian style, a productive strategic-planning conversation happened over coffee about what exactly I was going to try and accomplish while I’m back for this (too) short week. What I am aiming to accomplish is to have a final, final version in both Croatian and English of the poster and brochures I designed over last summer, business cards now that they have a new office, and to finalize the site map and install wordpress on their site so that they can do that when I’m gone. It’s ambitious and we’ll see what gets done…
Oh but on a side note, it’s snowing here and a pretty winter wonderland. I love Croatia…err Volim Hrvatska!!
Update!
I open the blog and get nostalgic It’s been three months since I arrived, I can’t believe how time goes so fast. Anyway here is my update:
I have been working a lot to get the website up and rolling, struggling through a lot of programming and basically learning from mistakes by playing with the back end. I finally got the gallery on the events page to work and I am very proud of my progress 
, I am still working on the gallery at the testimonies pages but that one will be pretty easy since I already figured out how the system needs to work. I also finished the meet the staff and board page of the About section, and pretty much I am almost ready to release it. There are some few changes that need to be made on the css for the design to work as it’s supposed to but that can be done while having it online. www.kehpca.org/dev
Three months later
This morning I was going through some silly photos I took a while ago with the Photo Boot software when I suddenly crossed a video, it was a video of me and Dennis, Casco’s son, acting as photographers in front of the camera, laughing out loud. That immediately took me back to three months ago, to my experience in Zambia.
During this time I’ve been working together with Mike on the pieces of the documentary we’ve filmed in Kenya and Zambia independently from each other. We’ve composed them in a sequence which, from our point of view, shows in a simple, basic way what is the issue of essential medicines stockouts, what are its consequences, how they are experienced by the population and the health workers, finally showing how the representatives of the government are handling it.
In the mean time I’ve prepared and published the interviews I’ve performed to patients, health workers and pharmacists on the stopstockouts website.
I’m in sporadic yet constant communication with Casco, following the developments NZP+ is implementing in relation to the stopstockouts campaign. I’m supporting them in the process of acquiring the basic technology to capture and edit video materials, sending them a video interface which will let them successfully produce video to post on the campaign website to continue populate it with meaningful and fresh content.
Besides all of this I’m feeling a bit like Clay, everything seems so distant, so rarefact, slow and uncertain. I have to admit I’ve felt an absence, that of OSI support, critique, push towards the next steps of the project.
Thinking about my experience in Zambia I can do nothing to avoid thinking about one thing I’ve messed up, one thing I would have done differently if I were there now, aware of it:
During the two months I’ve been living there a health strike put the nation on its knees. It was the perfect occasion to document the situation Zambian population was dealing with, lack of medicines, lack of doctors, lack of care, lack of rights… I did nothing about it, while I should had taken my camera and document what was happening!
This thought has given me a lesson I will never forget.
