 Hey, what's up everybody? It's your boy Mr. Ghana, baby right here in Kigali, Rwanda Like I said, we need to try to change the narratives about mother Africa People keep on saying Africa is for Africans, but when I come to Africa, I see people who are not Africans But also enjoying the mother line. I'm joined today with one of His Asian and he's gonna tell us who he is and why he's in Kigali. What time did he move in here? Yeah, let's get straight into the video Mr. Lee. Yes. He looks so comfortable living here. I'm very comfortable living here. Very comfortable living here What brought you to Rwanda? So, um I came to Rwanda in 2015 because I found a job Just online. It was randomly I was just um On a website looking for maybe different like volunteer travel opportunities I was looking for something short term and then I found a job Teaching photography and video production at a high school here in the eastern province Where were you before? I was in San Francisco working as a freelance beta producer for about seven years before that And we came here, but that was not in Kigali No, that was in Rwamagana. It's a school called the Akohozoshala Muth Village Which is a high school that was built for orphans of the genocide about 10 years ago And in that school they get, you know, free high school education housing after school programs sports You know music so I went there to teach photography and video and kind of develop their media program And um, so I did that for one year and then I ended up signing up for a second year and I haven't left since Why? But right now in Kigali. Yeah, which means that you're doing your own thing right now Why you fell in love with the country or something? I think that's what happened. I mean, uh, I didn't plan on saying this long and uh You know one year led to two years and after my second year, you know, I was inspired by what was happening You know through what was how the students were being impacted by You know some of the stuff I was teaching them and also just the potential of a lot of the youth here And so I started I decided to start Kind of an arts collective a multimedia arts collective that would you know provide some opportunities and some resources and some space for You know young Rwandan artists that are starting their careers to be able to work together And develop their skills and also kind of create a community Um, that would kind of develop the art scene as a whole so we try to support different artists You know from different backgrounds living in Kigali for four years. Definitely if I tell you to describe Kigali in three words What are you gonna say? Kigali in three words, I would say It's definitely very peaceful um It's beautiful And the third I would say it's um, it's inspiring. It's a very inspiring place to be Just all the stuff that's happening here the people The development is just like every day. It's just something that's kind of inspiring before coming to Rwanda What are you thinking that um Africa or maybe Kigali or Rwanda will be this peaceful before coming? I didn't know anything about Rwanda except obviously, you know the genocide 1994 The movie hotel Rwanda so that as you know, I grew up in America That's kind of all most Americans know about Rwanda. We don't hear anything about it, you know post 94 and so, um, you know Doing some research. I learned a little bit more about it. But still at that point You know, there was still not that much even there was not that much content for like videos or photos about Kigali This was kind of the mystery and so um, I think nowadays is changing a lot more So, uh, there's a lot more videos on youtube and like google images are showing more positive stuff about Kigali or Rwanda But um, I still didn't know too much until I just except from what I've heard from people Um That had been here and also just coming to see for yourself Been here to come and see things for yourself, which is you're not scared of coming to Rwanda in the first place Oh, yeah, I was scared How scared were you? I mean, it's just it's not um, you know once it's already like I think just the idea is scary in the beginning I was living very comfortably in california Okay, um, you know had it, you know a freelance job and kind of you know It was my own boss and it was just kind of comfortably living But you know at that point I was thinking I wanted to do something more with my time and also like with my skills and You know, I felt like I wanted uh, I had more to contribute than just kind of working as a freelance editor. So um, you know when I saw the The the description for the job which meant coming to teach and work with youth and mentor like, you know vulnerable teenagers and So it sounded really interesting on paper, but then the idea of like, oh like just move to like the middle of africa and like Live there. I mean it was all kind of a big scare Let's talk about the impact you've made so far since you came in In numbers can you tell us how many people you've trained so far in a number? Uh It's been a while because I mean I taught photography and video for two years in a high school and I had probably around I don't know four to six classes. So I would say During that high school, it's been, you know, 100 120 students And then here You know, we don't do official training, but like mentoring different artists and you know, we have probably around 40 different artists that we're supporting in some way and some are coming more often So we've got kind of a big range of of artists that i'm trying to help in one way or another Whether it's like actual like teaching them, you know video production skills or if it's mentoring them in like professional development Or like maybe like, you know business opportunities or how to mark yourself as an artist So there's different ways that you have to let go. Can you take us around a bed in your studio? Let's see what actually goes on in the studio All right, so this is the Gallery area and basically this place is a five bedroom converted house that can convert to a gallery space and a co-working space So here who does this paintings in there? These um These are all, you know, local Rwandan artists. Um, they have different styles. Um, so we work with painters Sculptors, you know photographers filmmakers people that make jewelry people make clothes So they're just different artists that show some kind of creativity and they need a space to display their work This is so beautiful. You know, I play guitar too. Yeah, you know that that's actually sculpture. Oh, okay I Sculpture paintings different series. I mean this is done by some female artists We're also trying to help the female artist community. So you've got um, you know In this space was probably about 10 different artists that are displaying work and the ones that Find me me with me they show me the work and I'll see if we can have a space to display it And we try to change the gallery up for them people So this is kind of the main gallery to mostly fine arts paintings In the hallway we have more kind of a photo gallery So we've got a different series of work that's showing different parts of Kigali Rwanda These here are Pen sketches done by local artists, which is all done with ballpoint pen Um, we've got digital paintings here so Really any kind of you know art We're trying to Kind of show like the different kinds of multimedia art There is whether it's digital painting traditional painting pan art photography All sorts of stuff And these are all done by the local. So yeah, this is all it's all for young young other coming wrong artists So in here we have the editing studio We're editing videos or pictures both both Wow, I need to come for you to teach me how to edit For us, I only know how to edit videos not for us Thank you Well, this place is about A year and a half old it started in April 2018 So some of them like Frank have been since the beginning. He was actually my intern and I was working at the high school He's also a graduate from there too Um, and there's something like Nadine that's joined at the beginning of this year. So, I mean there's a lot I mean photographers and videographers you've got probably around I would say almost 15 to 20 But like they just come at different times because they have their own jobs When they want to when they need to use the space they'll come in and work on different projects That's awesome. So this is like a part-time job that you do. Yeah Interesting through here, we've got the hallway that's kind of leading towards the outdoor area, which is where we do more kind of fine arts painting And craft making so You know, we have a lot of just different paintings back here Pages will come up and set up their their easels and their paints on the other big space The excellency I saw it to you. Yeah So everything happens on my hand for the painting stuff usually people will set up their easels out here And just paint different stuff. So we've got like, you know A bunch of different fine arts that are coming in I've got a couple of students in here who really want to learn how to edit videos and how to use Photoshop You know, learn to create content. Are they welcome? Sure. Yeah, so they have to come talk to me and I'll figure out like what their needs are in terms of like Because we're not really an official training program But for people that have interesting projects, whether it's like a short film or If they want to start a youtube channel if they come talk and I'll see like how we can assist them whether it's giving them a space or equipment or just like kind of Mentoring them through the project and you didn't tell me your name. My name. Yeah, it's peter peter Peter Lee nice to meet you You'll find out where's the anyone who want to come to pick up for the first time or come to Rwanda to enjoy Any message for that? I mean you gotta come check it out. It's a beautiful wonderful place to Come work also to come, you know visit But um, you know, this is my home now and so So, you know this video title has to be I was I was scared of coming to Rwanda, but it's now my home