New year, New memz

Happy New Year!

Because most of our contacts were celebrating the holiday, we decided to take a break from interviews and take the opportunity to shoot some much needed b-roll. We met with one of our translators, Ayubu, who suggested we check out Akagera National Park. We spent the drive learning about Ayubu's long history of working with various film crews and listening to his wild stories of filming everything from Bono making a visit to Rwanda, to working on the movie, The Last King of Scotland. There is never a dull moment when Ayubu is around!

I don't know what we were expecting, but this park certainly exceeded any of our wildest dreams. We saw just about every animal imaginable: giraffes, zebras, 4 different kinds of antelope, baboons, hippos, crocodiles, lizards, water buffaloes, warthogs, elephants, and more. We drove through the hills bordering Tanzania and tried to take in every last moment. 

The team visiting Akagera National Park.

Everything was going smooth until we got a little too up close and personal with a few elephants. The first elephant we saw was flapping its ears and our guide told us that meant it was about to charge. We quickly sped around the corner to get out of his way only to come face to face with a herd of 10 elephants blocking our path! Our guide popped the vehicle into reverse and we lurched back out of their path. This sure got our hearts beating, but was also the coolest thing I have ever seen!

Some new friends.

By the end we were exhausted after the day's adventures and crashed into our beds when we got home. I can't imagine a better way to spend the first day of the year!

Until next time, 

Grace