Monday, July 23, 2007

The day in the life of an AP in Africa

Brook Holston (Associate Producer)
July 17, 2007 Mole National Park, Ghana

Despite a giant thunderstorm yesterday, we are miraculously on schedule and have shot most everything that was planned and scheduled.

Justin Brashares, the scientist we are here with is a star and has been great on camera and a huge help all around. Justin's grad student, Cole Burton (also at Berkeley) is here and has been a huge help as well and we've been filming with him quite a bit.

I am currently in the town of Tamale, which is about 2 hours outside of Mole Park. Even though I came into "town", I am still chasing down one suitcase that's been missing since we arrived, which contains most of our tapestock. It should arrive here soon on a flight from Accra. As the "services" are limited at the Mole Motel, I'm also here making a supply run for things the hotel is low on or out of: fruit, water, fuel for our generator (as the power is quite random in Mole and battery charging has been a challenge), money changing, DHL (where I'm picking up tapestock that I ordered should the suitcase never makes it back to us), etc, etc!

So far the crew is doing great, although a bit tired, and the good news is all of our equipment has been working good in the heat and humidity. We are working closely with the Wildlife Division in Mole Park and they have been extremely helpful - yesterday we shot elephants and today will be shooting some Baboons. There are baboons at the Mole Hotel who are quite cheeky - they hang out right in front of your room hoping you'll drop your bag so they can have a look. Yesterday they stole a woman's backpack and she didn't get much back!!

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