IN FROM JUBA

SOUTH SUDAN

i flew back from Juba last saturday nite and went straight to que pasa for some pizza and a cold Tusker. i felt like Han Solo fresh off the Millennium Falcon, just waiting for someone to chat me up at the bar so i could say "oh yeah? well i just flew in from Juba!" but alas, no one asked so i never had the chance. 

the pics below tell a much better story of the trip. south sudan is hot. like in the 100's every day (over 40 celsius). and dry and dusty, just as advertised! i arrived in the morning and entering the tiny terminal i felt strange, like kinda creepy. then i had to fork over $100 cash to the visa guy behind the counter and he took the cash and set the passport aside for some lady that comes later and writes out the visa. in the meantime, bwana guard in his camo uniform decides to leave and i have no passport and no receipt of the cash given. my spidey sensors started to worry. another american mzungu was there to talk me through it, and after i got my luggage (where they open it, search it, and then write OKAY on it) i went back and finally got the passport mit visa stamped inside. then it was a 3 hours drive due south to the compound/village in the bush near the uganda border. but not before i had a special assignment to shoot the Juba market place, showing commerce and business. a crazy bizarre square where we got busted for filming and had to go to the local police station to get permission. lots of talking and chewing it all over, and we finally left with a police escort of sorts to walk us around the market. insane footage from a shooter's stand point, the colors and texture every where you pointed were exquisite! so, got lots of footage and then we headed south on a major highway that went from Juba to Uganda.  the major trade highway, being built by the Turks and still in process. trucks from mombasa on the kenyan coast go all the way to juba!

i was hired by geoff botkin's crew to shoot and document a nation building conference and to get some "beauty" b-roll. not that easy in that part of the world at the end of the dry season to get beauty, but i cranked up the color temperature on my camera to about 6500k and got some golden stuff. there were a lot of us on board, the crew from the states was about 13 of which about half were more shooters! but it turned out my 2x extender with my 100-400mm zoom lens trumped all the other gear. plus, the other guys didn't have a Zacuto viewfinder to find focus while shooting video, so they were heavily handicapped. shooting stills with auto focus on a canon 5D or 7D or 60D is easy. shooting video and keeping focus manually is something else. anyway, i felt like the lead cameraman i was hired to be, and we had a ringer DP named joseph yacoe (william morris/endeavor..not too shabby!) who flew in from the bahamas for fun to help out geoff. joseph was instantly likable and we hit it off right away. he shoots a lot of fashion and beauty still on 35mm film (the arri 435?) and he had a great eye. his home in the bahamas on the water sounded dreamy and very tempting! i haven't seen the water since last september! so i could really go for a bahamas home right about now! plus, the end of the dry season here in NBO is so hot and so dry that this morning in the shower i sniffed water up my nose just to blow my nose! my nasal passage was so dry i probably would have got a bloody nose without lubing it first with some water! the wet season starts in 2 weeks and i can't wait! the rain keeps the dust at bay and cool things off, but i love the thunder clouds and all the colors. magical!!!!!! in the meantime, even the heat in NBO is unchristian, and makes you irritable. and the heat in south sudan was oven like. you were baking all day and long into the night. here's part of goeff's email regarding the lodging...intriguing to say the least...and right up COTW's alley!

"We fly you from Nairobi to Juba on March 7, a driver picks you up and brings you to Borongole, where we will have a makeshift HQ.  Beds, mosquito nets, clean water and cooked food.  Limited 120 and 230 AC power outlets for battery charging.  We'll have computer and hard drives for data transfer."

and so it was...a makeshift HQ in a cinder block bunkhouse and meals in the main house where we ate what the locals eat...rice and beans...for 4 days.

the bunkhouse was one main room with 7 bunks and a closet with no running water that housed our portable commode. kinda like a jerry can laying on it's side with a toilet lid that opended. better than a pit latrine (my secret phobia) but still crude and rank, but hey, "you get what you get and you don't get upset!", right?????? at the end of the day i had joseph pour water out of a jerry can over me for a quick rinse shower. i didn't see a mirror for 4 days. not that i much care, but it was funny seeing yourself after 4 days. "oh yeah, that's what i look like!" only more bug bites than before! and too much sun!

that bunkhouse at night was stifling. felt like steve mcqueen locked up in solitary in the great escape. no breeze, no fan, not a drop of air or cool. just lie under your mozzy net and roast. plus the door was kept close for security. oy. it was a roaster. at least i had a bunk! COTW better get busy adapting and stop complaining or you'll lose your COTW status! so no whimpering from DDM, i was a good soldier, and we all were in the same boat. thank god i brought my ear plugs, the dude in the next bunk over was snoring up a storm...erratic, staccato snore. unnerving. but hey, you survive. and it coulda been much worse, right? not sure how offhand, but i'm sure it coulda been worse somehow!

we shot the conference held under a massive tee, the village, the market down the street, the game park (saw ellies across the nile river which may have been the highlight!) and just shot all day long. they want to maybe cut a doco out of it so the orders were to shoot and keep shooting! so we shot everything to maximum coverage, then i started mentoring then younger guys and handing off my gear. always fun to teach the new guys.

the crew was great, hard working, and the team was super fun to be a part of. and i consider myself very blessed to be flown into other countries and paid to be a shooter. a year ago i had no gear, had just returned from NBO from the movie LEO i was acting in, and then i started ordering my camera gear and lenses and taught myself how to operate a 5D and get good images. kinda cool to learn a new life skill at age 56 and then make a living off it! it's never too late folks to learn and master something new! if i can do it...go for it!

meanwhile, back in NBO, had some setbacks and delays on all fronts this week, including immigration permits and housing. but i'm hoping by april 1 i'll be into the stable after 6 months of being a migrant vagabond, and finally get settled into my own crib. what a relief that will be! plus have all my govt docs behind me! whew! but for now, it's hurry up and wait and i don't do well on hold! i get frustrated and depressed! patience is such a virtue! for me, there's so many things here that are a struggle at times, so that when i get put on hold, it magnifies all the little things and i get overwhelmed. have to go pole pole, slowly folks, and let it all come together. i keep thinking i'm further than i am, then another setback comes and i crash a bit. have to revamp and get on the horse. i'm thinking the wet season will change all that. even sitting in the NBO java house at Galleria, it's roasting in here! how many ice coffees can i drink today! but it is what is. nobody said it'd be easy, and i'm sure i make it harder on myself than it needs to be, but my "can do" spirit likes to get things done! and when it takes seemingly forever for things to come together, i get antsy and pissy!

the Prado bush makeover is a total success!!!! see pics below. a great safari sled! maybe i i can rent it out as a camera car as well! anyway, worth the wait!!!!!

well, housesitting in Westlands this week at a friend's flat, then back to ben & helen's for another week, then into The Stable hopefully for a long time!!!!!!!!!

had a great trip to south sudan. not sure i'll ever make it back there on my own dime, it has the feeling of a war torn hellhole. driving through the empitness of where 2.5 million people were displaced was palpable. eerie. evil feeling. but they are fighting for themselves and have pushed back the warring islamists from the north and it is a nation building itself. i wish them luck. it makes you feel all the more fortunate for what we have! the village was so primal. three rocks and fire. caveman-esque. again, luckily they have a borehole (well). they really went thru the water for cooking, drinking, washing, and and and.

now for some pics!!!!!

some huge fan palms!

my ass't lorella helping the mzungu kubwa buy some furniture!

NBO airport before departing. 

love this shot. wanna shoot a scene here!

my Fly540 flight landing at Juba.

not sure i'd seen this font before! the building was creepy. 

das bunkhouse with joseph outside.

guess we coulda stayed here! mud brick mud hut in the compound village.

washing pans is endless. women do all the chores.

Joseph yacoe. was very glad he was on board with us.

some of the US crew. david, isaac, dr. dallas, and daniel.

our rented van and driver had UN flags stuck on the dashboard. made me feel VIP!

Yacoe in the back of our truck. near the Nile.

son lucas points to the ellies across the nile. geoff in deep thought!

charles was my protege...and my sherpa most of the time. great kid. gonna be a good shooter!

"the falls" at the Nile. truly a great river, traveling north to Egypt.

geoff spocks out the ellies with my mega set up. 2x extender and the 400mm zoom. 800mm!

yacoe was an instantly likable chap!

new grass roof leans agains the old grass roof.

the village. lots o huts. future primitive.

fish at the market!

a primary school. got some amazing ECU close ups of kids' faces. good stuff! love all the blue.

ddm with the 800mm gravy. great images!

after the CNN you learn to mark everything that's yours. gear is easily mixed up on a big shoot.

cruised the whole day in shorts and slaps. the dirt actually served as a good SPF!

bunkhouse mayhem. mozzy nets draped in endless heat.

without this borehole that pumped almost 24/7, there would be no village. water is life. period.
dot. the end.

young girl doing the water chore. one of many the women do.

actually had a couple of drops of rain one night. isaac leads the pack back to HQ.

tall grass? burn it!

one of our interviews. great lighting set up by joseph. the foreground fire was out of frame but spilled
fire light to make a glowing rim light. you bought it that the background fire was causing it.

the market. we shot like 3 days there!

young girl in a market booth.

the random solar panel. emerging sustainability.

this is petrol. gasoline. in plastic litre bottles.

great colors! some domestic chatting going on! oops!

on the road back to Juba, some goat sandwiches. good goat in south sudan!

crossing the Nile. deep and wide. deep and wide.

juba hecticness. wash with soap!

more life on the street!

billboards say alot where the culture is headed.

snuck this shot at the Juba waiting lounge at the airport. no machine to walk thru. eclectic group of travelers. 

everyone watching al jazeera on the tele. in arabic! the lounge had air con blowers which was a huge
plus. the fact it smelled like urine was a huge minus. better cool and smelly or baking hot????

back in NBO JKIA  int'l.

pippa inaugurates the bushmobile. sitting on the open roof. 8 giraffe mosey by.

it's a second car sitting outside on top. kill the engine and enjoy the game.

early morning pride as we enter NBO nat'l park.

a mom and her cubs. the cubs were huge! were we close?? all these photos were taken with my
iphone!!!!!!!!!!

they fear nothing. and they were gone.

zebra at dawn.

lots o game.

south sudan crew break in the Prado.

made for shooting.

charles uses the big glass.

looks right at home in the bush! a shooter's vehicle! (manny, dan and Esay get over here!)

josh uses his tripod. no problem.

closer on josh.

giraffe are always a favorite!

iphone thru my window. 

come and visit! we'll go shoot! you heard me Packman's!

i stray a bit away to get the shot.

more zebra, right there!

they are wild and very difficult to domesticate.

this giraffe cut us off. signage: "animals have the right of way". gee, ya think!?!?!?!?!?!?!

well, all for now. sorry this blog was so tardy! nothing that exciting in the works at the moment, but COTW (Citizen Of The World) is always on call!!!!!!

lala salama!!!!!!!!