Hella Solutions blog: "Document. Share. Inspire."

The landing was delayed about 15 minutes so we circled the airport and the eternal wait for luggage was only too happy to be waiting for us on the ground. The passport check was too easy. I had my Sony T-mic clipped to the front of my shirt, headphones on, and all the wires going down the inside of my shirt into my front pocket where I kept my MD recorder. I think I got some good ambient sounds in the airport but I really was hoping to get some of the conversation or words with the check point person. Not a word and I don’t think she even looked me in my eyes or ask why I have a bunch of wires stuffed down my shirt and a mic clipped on. I’m tempted to do the same on the way back but I already know the rednecks at the US border will question me no matter what. What more do they have to do…terrorism isn’t likely to come knocking on their door so they have to get their kicks somehow.

I received a phone message from Dazon the previous day (12/12) when I was in the ATL airport saying she was at the airport in Jo’burg waiting for me and wasn’t sure what time I got in. I called and left a message that it wasn’t until the next day (12/13) that I would be arriving. We hadn’t connected at all after that and so I was concerned she might not be there when I actually did arrive. But she was there. No problems.

While getting some money exchanged we had a little encounter with a older, white South African man who tried to get ahead of us in line. Okay, there were two ways you could get to this teller window and it was separated by a large pillar. But when Dazon went to tell the guy we were first he kept going passed her and talking past her to the teller. Dazon kept telling him that we were standing where you are supposed to and we were there first…he kept looking and talking past her…as if she wasn’t there. The man finally gave in to Dazon. She told me this was typical treatment from many of white South Africans but she didn’t stand for it — she called the treatment “windowing.” I may have gotten this all on disc as I still had my set up recording at that time. I just haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet to see if it is worth anything and if I got any of the “exchange” between Dazon and the old codger. It is really inspiring to be in the presence of someone so fearless as Dazon. She is an amazing woman.

I did a lot of preparing before I landed so that I could hit the ground running in terms of audio work. My first idea was to do an interview with Dazon while we drove the hour from the airport to where we would be staying near the SisterLove office in Witbank. So, what do I do?! Yes, during an awesome interview with her I realize that the freaking pause button is still engaged. This is something I H-A-T-E about this MD recorder. The only signifier that the pause is on is that some of the display blinks; but the sound comes through the same and the sound meter is running. I think Sony needs to insert a beeping sound when the pause is engaged (especially because they do exactly that for when you are playing back. Who gives a f#ck if pause is on when you are simply playing back?!). Anyway, why this is so frustrating is this is the second time I have done this with Dazon (I did it during one our interviews in Atlanta over last summer). It’s kind of funny because I have never done this with anybody else.

Ultimately I have taken this as a good omen as now I am so paranoid that I’m going to do this again that I doubt I will. I’m going to do the interview over again on our drive back to Johannesburg tomorrow.

December 12-13 — San Francisco, California to Dakar, Senegal to Johannesburg, South Africa

Susie and I wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get my butt to SFO to sit on planes for 24 hours. This doesn’t have me feeling all that excited. “Do I really want to do this?” keeps running through my head. Yes, of course I do but 24 hours sitting in a cramped seat? Holy crap! The South African story is a crucial narrative in my documentary and I think it’s worth almost any cost to get there…but I still have second thoughts. I must add, Susie, you are the best! Thank you for all of your support and encouragement in getting me to Africa and most definitely, thanks for driving at such an inhuman hour to get me to the airport.

I have a lot of notes of my feelings and thoughts while flying but they seem a bit boring to post here and not so pertinent to my project. But by the time I get to Dakar, Senegal – my second stop on the way to Johannesburg – I note:

Overall I feel like the flight to Jo’burg (Johannesburg) has been fairly tolerable. I’m feeling a bit cramped up and I will definitely be ready to get out of this plane. But I haven’t exhausted my iPod yet and I’ve only used about 65% of my first battery on my laptop. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of tension with the other passengers on the plane and my co-habitant, Andrew, has been chill.

I got some audio of the flight crew announcing the flight destination on both legs of the Africa flights. The first clip from the ATL to Dakar didn’t feel like it was all that great but may be after cleaning up the track a bit it might be usable. The problem is that there is a lot of background sound (buzzes, wooshes, etc). My second recording felt like it was a bit better but the announcer’s voice sounded a little shallow. On the first attempt I actually asked the stewardess to make the announcement for me and she was very accommodating and did. What a difference flying international is! Actually, I’m thinking that it is more than likely the fact that this is the first week that Delta is flying to South Africa and their crew sees it as more of a novelty at this point than a pain in the ass (as it seems on most other flights).

…some time later…

We are over Namibia right now traveling at 501 mph, a distance of 3728 miles and at an altitude of 36996. We’re almost there!

I have so much crap with me it’s almost unbearable. I mean, in order to do environmental sounds on the plane and such I have to have my MD recorder out, a mic, mic chord and headphones. And in such a small space like a plane it almost hurts. Luckily I’ve had this pretty chill guy from Capetown next to me since Atlanta. We’ve talked some and I’ve explained my project and he’s been accommodating but I think it’s going to take me 20 minutes to collect my stuff to get off this plane. It’s been about 24 hours since I left SFO and believe me, I want to get off this plane now!

Oh, there’s the lunch “bell”…Mmmmm Kosher plane food. Ya, I ordered the Kosher meals but I can’t really tell the difference between them and the regular ones. On the Kosher certificate they say things like, “the utensils are guaranteed to be new.” Um, does that mean the others aren’t? All I can say is that I haven’t had any negative reactions to the food and that works for me! We’ll be landing about 25 minutes after lunch. FINALLY!