On the Plane

Monday, June 14th, 2005

We’re going to Zambia

I’m currently en route to Lusaka. Paris was lovely, and I feel well rested and prepared for the month ahead. Everything worked out getting my equipment onto the airplane at Heathrow, with no additional fees! I met up with the FORGE 2005 crew at the airport, and was able to successfully distribute my gear amongst them as both checked and carry-on bags. No cameras had to be checked, and.. I got my film around x-ray again. The security was diligent though. They swabbed the cans and opened every single tin in my black bag. Took about 25 minutes, with a crew of 3 security agents and myself assembly-lining all the tins through. They even all got resealed with their original Kodak tape. It’s a big sigh of relief for me!

On the way back, I will have donated all of my clothes to the refugees, left behind my expendables, and printed through all of the photo ink and paper for the photo printer, so I’ll be running a bit lighter than I am at the moment, though I expect to still need some help with the return transport.

That seems like a long time away though. I’ve got a lot to do before then!

Sarah, one of the FORGE 2005 crew, was just watching some bits of the doc with me. It was interesting for me to realize that she had never seen images of where we are headed to in such detail before, even though she is actually headed there herself at the moment. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in a project you kind of forget how new it is for other people, because you’ve seen every single image on the screen 100 times. It’s nice to regain the fresh perspective of a new viewer.

Next stop: Lusaka.
David