Departure
BY NICK MARSHALL LUSAKA, ZAMBIA – We leave tomorrow at 5 pm. Part of me wants to go home, relax, talk with my friends and tell them all the stories I have. Just go home and see my family and enjoy driving and getting food out of my fridge and reading my books and writing, writing all of this down. But there's another part of me that wants to stay here, immerse myself in this culture and these people and just write a book here. I'm going to miss waking up and walking out of my room and seeing all the crew, talking and laughing over breakfast and then piling into a van or bus and just moving on out to shoot. I think I'll miss the interaction with the rest of the crew the most. It's kinda become a family. We have each other's back and we share money and we work as a team.
When we went to Livingstone we visited Victoria Falls. Just being in the presence of something like that, just witnessing that power, that earthly power, I think we all were in awe. We stayed at a lodge, open everywhere and all I could think of was Sedona and the east coast. The lodge was situated on a giant gorge, a mini Grande Canyon and we awoke to birds chirping, a peaceful zephyr and the hypnotic flow of the water that ran through the gorge, for two gorgeous days. After being contained in the compact city for two weeks it was relaxing just to see nature and it seemed we were the only people for miles. The second day we journeyed off to a safari and elephants crossed in front of us as we drove, a herd of elephants and we held our breath so the giants would not get startled and charge. Monkeys sat and ate on the ground and scampered off when the cameras flashed. We drove to a monkey village of sorts, a village abandoned and reclaimed by monkeys and we stood ten feet from two eating white rhinos, as two monkeys fought behind some bushes.
There are so many things to write in so little space and time. I'm thinking about editing, about writing a book, about Sundance and having people watch our Documentary and Feature. Watching all that we went though and all we put into it. At this moment, at this exact moment, I'm kinda heart broken to leave this place. I would love to come back and make another film here and I don't think I could ever forget this place and these times.