A World Beyond, with Nyx Martinez
Rarely do you find four or five different talents all shelled up with one person. But in Nyx Martinez you find an acclaimed artist, a poet, a dancer, a musician, an actress as well as volunteer willing to help out when the need arises.
By: Caesar Abangirah
Originally published on Kampalalive.com
Nyx Martinez was born to Christian missionary parents in Manila in the Philippines, 24 years ago. The first of a dozen children, she has grown to show that you do not need a lot of wealth to help the needy.
Nyx remembers following her father, who was a counselor for convicts on death row, to the prisons and hospitals were he was doing his pastoral work. There she developed the big helping heart that she has today. A heart so big that it led her to Sri Lanka at the beginning of the year to help those that had been affected by the Tsunami. ‘I was in Sri Lanka for around a month. It was so bad I felt so touched, especially by the kids who had lost everything. My job was to just comfort them because that was what I could offer’, she narrates.
The product of home schooling - which they practice at their Radio Active center with the children of the missionaries - Nyx was reading by the age of two and writing by the age of three.
She grew up traveling to several Asian countries including India: which was her first different culture: Thailand, where she basically lived and grew up until she was a teenager, on to Malaysia, and all over The Philippine Islands.
While doing a college home-schooling course, Nyx worked in a Manila-based multi-media company. At 18, she hosted national radio shows and illustrated MTV storyboards. A volunteer with Channel of Hope Foundation in Manila, she worked with charity projects and several disaster relief efforts. She also taught cancer-stricken children at the Philippine General Hospital.
Her journey to Uganda is quite remarkable and memorable.
”In 2001 while serving as a fulltime volunteer in Bangkok, Thailand, at a Children’s Education Center called Nonthaburi Kindergarten School, where I taught English, I met Tina who told me a lot about Radioactive Productions in Uganda. That’s when I decided that East Africa was to be my next destination. I wanted to do something more with my life. I knew God was calling me to serve Him in some way so I decided to go”, she says with a chuckle. She booked herself a one-way ticket and has never looked back. In Africa she has since been to South Africa and Kenya.
She has since worked with Radioactive Productions: a volunteer organization that was formed in late 1999 by Christopher and Yashiko Carruthers who came to Kampala, Uganda, with the goal of addressing social issues within a contemporary Gospel message in their RadioActive Productions studio.
For a couple of years now, their syndicated radio show has played weekly on Radio Paidha, which reaches the whole troubled area of Northern Uganda, as well as parts of Eastern Congo & Sudan.
RAP’s reputation for encouraging and promoting local talent has generated positive response to and interest in their ministry. So far they have done songs for Alex Mukulu's ‘Woowe’, Kaweesa's ‘Spirit of Africa’ remix, Rachel Adyeri and Lillian Kyeyune's ‘Cry of a Continent’, Barbara Kayaga's ‘Never Too Late’, Juliana’s You’re My Center and more.
Radio Active also has a dance branch called “Radioactive Dancers” which was formed a few years ago. They are a small group of 5 dancers, and they perform cultural dances to raise funds for charity projects. They have ventured into Bollywood type of dancing recently which has proven popular. Their last presentation was at Rouge a few weeks ago, were they performed to raise school fees for orphans.
Nyx job with Radioactive involves public relations and project coordination as well as producing one of the radio programs called ‘radioactive’. These shows are aired on Kampala FM and Impact FM. She also does a couple of syndicated programs.
Nyx has devoted her life to fulltime volunteer work. Her latest venture has taken her to Mulago hospital where she is painting the children’s ward with a couple of her friends and other volunteers under Radioactive Productions and Family Care Uganda. They got sponsorship from Health Volunteers Overseas and Pfizer, and will continue working until it is all painted; with happy pictures that will cheer up the sick kids.
”Do you find yourself Ugandan now that you have spent close to two years here?”, I inquire.
“Me I’m local. Though I know I stand out from the crowd I consider myself local. I just wish I spoke more local words”, she says, ending this statement with, “Webale nyo ssebo”, Luganda words meaning ‘thank you sir’.
Nyx speaks fondly of home. “I miss home especially during Christmas time. It is so different because it is very festive there and it is all about family. But wherever you are, I believe God has given you a passion for that place. And I am glad I am here.”
The artist/missionary talks so much about God, something that leads me to inquire whether she is so religious.
“I have more of a personal relationship with God. I am Christian, though I am non denominational. I read my Bible almost everyday because it gives me inspiration, comfort, encouragement and guidance”, she says. She admits that she is not emotionally strong and therefore depends very much on God.
In her home country, Nyx was trained in art by prestigious Filipino painters at the Ad-Infinitium Gallery. This is where she learnt the use of an extraordinary medium—oil pastels on a felt canvas. This is an art form that she showcased at an exhibition that went on for one month at the Sheraton Hotel in April, to raise awareness for the Ik tribe in Northern Uganda.
Here she met a lot of important people including the Kabaka of Buganda.
“I wanted to give the Ik people a different representation, do dispute the perception of them being a savage tribe and all”, she says. ‘I realized that they were quite different, good mannered people who had just been ignored for all this time.’
Nyx’s most memorable experience to date is coming to Africa, and she sees herself staying on the continent five years from now, with a number of little ‘Nyx-ies’ running around about fifteen years later.
