COTW: SEASON 4 - THE BATTLE WITH HOME AFFAIRS

COTW: SEASON 4 - The Battle with Home Affairs

We are now in our 4^th season (4^th year) of “COTW – Citizen of the World”.

We started Oct 1, 2011 leaving Los Angeles with a one-way ticket to Nairobi, Kenya. Let’s review quickly where the adventure has taken us.

Previously on COTW…

Season 1: Fall 2011-2012

Arrive Nairobi via 16-hour nonstop thru Dubai

Buy a 1999 Toyota Prado

Fly to upper Ethiopia for a 10-day shoot for Charity:Water

Sublet a flimsy structure dubbed ‘The Shack’

Form Slingshot Productions Africa, Ltd

www.slingshotprods.com

Fly to Massai Mara to shoot Elephant Pepper Camp

Hire local Kenyan gal Lorella Jowi (23) with minimal media skills as my editorial assistant. (She goes from no laptop and no smart phone to operating 2 x 30” monitors on FCP 7.)

Christmas 2011 in Nairobi

New Years in Betty’s Bay, Western Cape, with the Hofmeyrs (the term ‘COTW’ is claimed)

Tell Lorella (LoJ) she needs a passport for work

Lead shooter for CNN shoot for 2 stories in Kenya

Do the Prado-safari makeover

Move into ‘The Stable’ and Slingshot HQ gets a home

Shoots in Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya & Ethiopia
South Sudan village conference as a shooter

Surprise Nephew Theo (crew) in Addis Ababa airport

Meet a girl eating a cheeseburger…then her sister hires me to shoot ‘Cycle To Rwanda’ doco segments in Ethiopia, Uganda & Rwanda

Shoot ‘Sole Rebels’ segment in Addis for BBC

Holiday/vacation in Lamu – rent ‘The Lemmon Squeezer’ mosque type bedroom villa at Moon Houses for 3 months

Start shooting turtle ecology & stuff

Launch Slingshot Seminar Series in the Cinematic Arts in NBO

Season 2: Fall 2012-2013

Thanksgiving in Lamu

Christmas in Singapore, Auckland, Los Angeles, and Tucson

Fly with Theo (crew) back to NBO, overnight in Dubai

Renew Lamu Moonhouse villa for a year

Shoot Africa Chef TV pilot in NBO

Shoot interviews for turtle doco in Lamu

Shoots in Zurich and Phnom Penh via Bangkok

Visit Israel / holy land tour via Istanbul

Re-launch Seminar Series & Hollywood Acting Master Class

More turtle doco footage in lamu

Launch Slingshot Talent Agency

Season 3: Fall 2013-2014

6 day shoot for Peponi Hotel in Lamu

finish turtle doco shoot at Manda Toto reef

Christmas & NYE in Nairobi

4 months cutting turtle doco

Rekky (reconnaissance trip) to Cape Town (find Papyrus Lodge)

Apply for work visa in SA

‘Online’ edit trip to Cape Town with LoJ for 2 weeks
week long promo shoot for RCS in Juba, South Sudan

move to Cape Town June 28

Buy Audi TT and get motorbike in Port Elizabeth
fall in love with cowboy house in stanford but alas

Place ‘The Sea Turtles of Lamu’ with Electric Sky in the UK

Fly back to Tucson sept 26 when visa expires

Season 4: Fall 2014-2015

Hard to believe we’re starting the 4^th year of this action/adventure drama! What will be? What will transpire?

The most telling factor will be the work visa appeal outcome. After spending a month in the states visiting family and friends in Arizona, California, and Texas, I arrive back in Zuid Afrika with another 90-day tourist visa. Some say the visa thing may takes 9 months to get sorted. It’s going on 3 months already. How it falls…yes or no…will determine many things. And I have to confess I haven’t been “okay” not knowing my status. Far from it. It’s been quite a struggle “rolling with it” and taking things a day at a time. I want answers dammit! But it’s not to be at the minute and I HAVE to roll with it. Didn’t know I was such a control freak! But the outcome potentially determines my life path.

If I get the work visa I’m a part of society here. It’s settled. I can apply for my residency card and hunker down here auditioning for acting work, take meetings for directing work, start up another Master Class, push forward on some screenplay ideas, and look for more permanent housing. Maybe even find a house to buy. ZA would be my home. My country. my month in the States showed me I’m happier being an expat, but I’m not quite the 100% transitory expat. I’d prefer to make ZA my home and put some roots down instead of hitting the backpacking trail. But if I lose the appeal, then all bets are off. Maybe I do become that migrant tourister. Been dwelling a lot on Istanbul lately.

Maybe when I have to leave again on Jan 28 (my housing is up and my tourist visa is up that day) I put everything in storage and will try Istanbul and that part of the world. Dead of winter but it is what it is. Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Italy. Or maybe that’s a bad idea. I’ll check first with my friends who are traveling professionals!

The point is the visa deal is a big thing. Without it I remain an outcast, an alien, a visitor with a 90-day tourist visa. I also can apply for a Pension Visa or Retiree Visa that allows me to live here but not work. Not sure I’m ready for that, but perhaps all the good things about ZA outweighs the cons and I stay here regardless. The exchange rate certainly is friendly, as well as the people here. It’s a beautiful place. But after 3 years in Nairobi a part of me misses the exotic. The untamed. Maybe Turkey marries both.

The problem is I’m a city guy who likes the  country. Growing up in the Hollywood Hills was just that…city and country so I suppose I long for that blend. There are hills around cape town I could live, but without a work visa I’m more of an observer. It’s already frustrating being here since july and not being able to work or look for work and just plug into the local scene. And if you get on the wrong side of Home Affairs, you’re considered an “undesirable” and unable to return for 5 years. As it is, I’d like to keep ZA my home base and stick stuff in storage here if I travel extensively. Everything is up in the air and consequently I realized I don’t have a plan. A little embarrassing at my age NOT to have a plan, and definitely feels “irresponsible”, but there is nothing I can currently do except wait on Home Affairs for my thumbs up or thumbs down. It’s a huge fork in the road. And it has weighed too heavily on me. or I’ve let it weigh too heavily on me. but after 10 days back here, I’ve made a shift. It is what it is and it works out or it doesn’t. I’ve done all I can, I have no plan, I’m on hold, there’s nothing I can do, so I need to chill out and relax and enjoy the terrain instead of fretting over all the things I can’t control. Funny how most of us would choose the latter. To fret and sweat all the loose ends. It’s a stretch and a challenge for us Westerners but I need to let go. And again let God show me my path. Yes, he’s taking forever to reveal it and it’s uncomfortable and is testing my faith to new limits…especially cuz winning the appeal is such a long-shot. But instead of holding my breath and being afraid, I’m learning to breath and accept whatever will be. Embrace the path as perfect, no matter how it leads.

Being back home and coming back has made me reflect on Nairobi quite a bit. 3 years there was quite a while and I invested in a lot of people and things there. Ultimately, without work coming in for Slingshot it just wasn’t sustainable. Maybe I should have been more patient, given it more a chance, hung around longer, but another $4000 to renew the work permit for work that wasn’t there was the final decider. Plus security issues in Lamu & NBO, the traffic, the corruption, the cost of living and and and. But you do learn to live with a lot and I had an amazing adventure there. East Africa is just a wild place. South Africa quite tame in comparison. Both have good and bad points. For me the doors never quite opened in Kenya for me. it was an expensive fight to be there and try a start-up production company with payroll and permits. Funny how the phone can ring and bring work or not ring and things dry up. 19 months without a paying gig was the killer. And although I loved teaching the seminar series and the acting master class, it too was not profitable nor sustainable. The divine plan had me meet 2 great couples in Israel from Cape Town and that was the door that seemingly opened next. And I followed it. I prayed for signs on the rekky and got actual signage. I felt the same divine nudge that took me to Nairobi nudging me to cape town. With confirmation. So here I am waiting on the Master Plan.  And trying to be comfortable with all the unknowing and all the loose ends and all the variables.

It’d been almost 2 years since my last visit to the states. I’m still an American. But living overseas you see and feel what the rest of the world thinks about America. And maybe even you. America is seen as cocky, loud & proud, the self-proclaimed global policeman, the bully with more drones and warheads than anyone else that wreaks justice whenever it sees fit against whomever it sees fit. People want to visit there, but we’re not the most popular. And you as an expat learn to be sensitive and humble and meek. Our good points is that most Americans are confident and real ‘can-do’ folks who tackle things head on and get things done. But overseas that’s seen as being brash and boastful. I always believed that with our short history we never had centuries of serfdom and oppression to live through. We didn’t bow down or kowtow to the British. We rebelled and won our independence and have never looked back. We are brash. We were cheeky. We saved the UK and Europe in WWII and tried to save korea and Vietnam. And our foreign policy has literally been built on middle-eastern sand ever since. The world has its own opinion on that and that’s fine. We’ve never cared too much what other people think. But being an expat you learn to be sensitive to the culture you’re in. no need to thump your chest. Better to blend in and try to learn the language! another observation of the USA is how big it is. and how many large cities we have. there's 50 states and every state has at least 2 large cities. compared to africa, all those first world cities look amazing...from Pittsburgh to Cleveland to Seattle to Charlotte to Austin to Tucson to San Diego...so many huge cities. pretty amazing! 

COTW: Season 4 begins with a cliffhanger on the Home Affairs visa outcome and the ticking clock on the tourist visa and the housing at papyrus lodge that expires jan 28^th 2015. My landlords have already suggested I find a new place. That door is closing. I will need to find another place, but where? Town? Country? coast?

It’s day to day and week to week. Plus I’m trying to get used to Christmas music & Christmas lights while summer warms up down here. i've also been helping new friend johan with building his little bakery space at triggerfish brewery. fun project - cool old venue. Of course meeting people is always the final door opener and leading cause of decisions and choices. My community continues to build here and meeting the right gal might just change everything. In the meantime as the Brits say…Keep Calm and Carry On. 

And Bob’s your uncle.

Cheers

P.S. THIS JUST IN...VISA RESULTS READY FOR PICK UP DOWNTOWN! WILL DO TOMORROW!  WILL I STAY OR WILL I GO?

Now to the pics!

first time on an A380 double decker airbus. seats @ 600 peeps. it's beyond jumbo jet, it's giant!
people stopped to take pics of it on the exit jetty. it costs $415,000,000 and weighs 1,500,000lbs!
quite an aviation feat and a thrill to ride on. upper deck with nice and quiet! london-joburg 12 hours!

lamu is there. paradise is nice but gets boring! 

VIP shuttle service pick up in cape town. always makes you feel special and can even be humbling!

back at papyrus lodge. home sweet home, for now.

johan's bakery brick oven. call it The Bread Shack

cool space in a great location in Triggerfish brewery

did a rockabilly shoot for a friend's doco. Rosy Roos dressed the part!

Rosy and the roller derby gals!

BMW blitz bike? seriously? i want one!

late nite dessert...chocolate mouse and beer! at de brasserie

more A380 from the jetway. everyone took a pic!

somewhere over africa

met Oluf in heathrow at duty free canon shop. another shooter, from norway, lives in rio. a fellow COTW!

the 747 is still a big bird! phx to heathrow

commuted from tucson to phx quite a bit during october!

with nephew conrad. we went to St. Barts together a long while ago.

new kicks for Lorella!

nephew/1st AC theo! we're talking about a camel doco next!

at sky harbour airport in Phx. the journey begins home.

heathrow.

glass and steel. never gets old after 3 years in kenya!

traveler

the old jumbo

pub in heathrow

giraffe cafe in heathrow

jetway in heathrow

cowboy stadium. holds 80,000.  and is air-conditioned!

home of the Dallas Cowboys!

first time i saw the new american airlines paint jobs. tail looks nice!

dear friends from my old hood in DTLA! loft ville!

my precious niece Megan! so fun! mad people skills! now manager at Churn.

dallas and JFK assassination site. 

arizona cactus. 

my brother lives in a beautiful place!

my sister J took me to the Cowboys game. awesome!

the old grassy knoll where kennedy was shot. forget the magic bullet theory. it's rubbish and nonsense.

nephew danny jim, bother to megan and theo and manager of Joyride!

my wonderful brother Vol and wife grace. at el patio! i ate a LOT of mexican food!

kennedy limo hit about where this car is.

Giant fans fighting ebola at texas game!

new second hand edit bay to bring back home to ZA.

spectacle and spectacular!

tarmac at tucson en route to dallas

Tombo airport in Joburg

downtown los angeles

heading out to Phoenix...a world away! via london heathrow

DTLA cityscape

more LA. great to visit but glad i've moved on!

daily walks in Sahuarita where my brother lives

cool ad. no idea what they're selling! 

view from my old loft!

my old metro stop in DTLA...new canopy

had lunch at Chase Ballpark in Phx at TGIF with conrad and megan

BTW...I PICKED UP MY VISA APPEAL RESULTS THIS MORNING...
I GOT IT! we won the appeal!
"GOOD FOR EMPLOYMENT IN THE FILMING INDUSTRY ONLY" TIL 2017!
wording couldn't be better... i can act, direct, produce, edit, shoot, write, voiceover
whatever comes my way. so...LOOKS LIKE I'M STAYING HERE FOR A WHILE!