Frank in Africa ‘08

hello,

We went shark Cage Diving today, which was a really cool once in a lifetime experience. The day started early, we (Jelle, Greg (Esthers boyfriend) and I) had to get up at 4AM, we were picked up and drove to the sharkdiving place in Gansbaai, it was a 2 and a half hour drive during which the driver (who had a really high pitched voice) kept telling Greg about all the places he should visit while me and Jelle tried to sleep.

We arrived a little late (because the driver had a nosebleed), we had to eat our breakfast quickly and listen to the instructions, about how humans shouldnt be afraid for sharks, but sharks afraid for humans because we kill a lot of them every day.

After that we put on our boat geat (orange jacket and life vest) and walked to the boat. The sea was rough and the weather bad, but that made the 20 minutes to the location (near shark alley) really exciting, huges waves and dramatic skies really woke me up (I was still a little sleepy from the drive there).

After arriving at the spot, 1 girl had to leave the boat because she was really seasick, they offer a service for 500 rand, for a person to go back, that boat was filled with only women for some reason.

After that they started getting fishoil in the water, they basically took a bunch of rotting tuna fish, and cut them into bits, which they mixed with water in a large plastic drum, slowly they let some of the water drip into the ocean, creating a trail of fish bits and oil. there were also some tuna heads floathing infront of the boat, and a fake seal.

Because of the bad weather this trail wasnt going in the right direction, so we had to wait about an hour and a half for the first shark to show up. it came out of nowhere, swam straight up from deep down in the ocean, hitting the tuna heads with his mouth open and jumping out of the water…

It was crazy… it was a small great white (2 and a half meters), quickly followed by a big 4 and a half meter shark. we quickly put our wetsuits on while they lowered the cage and got in it. The view from the cage wasnt nearly as spectacular as the view from the top of the boat, it was to stressfull being in a cage with 5 people getting yelled at “DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!” and then seeing a shark for a few seconds.

When I got out of the cage and tried to take of my diving shoes I started feeling a little seasick so I sat for a while, other people went in the cage and after that we went back to land…

alltogether a really cool experience.

Tags: South Africa by Frank
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hey there,

The work is done!!! we had our final big concert at Zulabar on Longstreet in Capetown last night, it was really cool. there were like 15 different artists performing, local artists, international artists (from Holland) and some kids from the townships who were performing for the first time, it was really cool to see them getthing the crowd excited, and seeing the look in the eyes of the other kids from the townships. At moments I felt like we really did something good for these guys and I hope It’ll be the start for something more for these guys, they’re all really talented.

I had made a special loop of All the webisodes that was projected on a wall above the crowd, seeing the crowd going wild and then seeing 2 and a half months of your life displayed above them was pretty cool and did make an impact on me.

There were free drinks and most of the crew drank to much (including me) but everybody had a great time, and it was a worthy ending to the project.

All there’s left to do is go Shark Cage Diving

Tags: South Africa by Frank
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so its the last stage of our trip, the last 2 artists are here (Ninthe and Zuluboy) and they’re doing pretty much the same things as the last 2 rappers did, so it’s not really that exciting for any of the crew members, I did hwever get to see some new things because me and Beer switched work. I went to 2 of the townships of Cape Town.

We visited a house for abused women where they also do HIV/Aids testing, and after that visited a soup kitchen for people who cant afford their own food, We had lunch there, which was probably the best chicken Ive ever tasted in my life. I walked through the township a little and took some pictures, these places really dont seem to be as dangerous as people tell you.

Of course the work never ends, which right now for me is mostly uploading images on the site, I’m starting on my final webisode soon, I secretly cant wait to be done with it, but I must admit, the end result is pretty impressive, so far Beer and I havent missed a thing, the site is fully complete and thats something to be proud of.

now its back to work sorting images…

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sooo, the first batch of rappers have left and we’re waiting for the next, giving us a free day…weeeee

we decided to go to kalkbaai because Jelles friend had said it was a nice place to go, we took the train there, which was interesting, if you want to take a train in Capetown you should always travel first class (which is of course still verry cheap compaired to dutch prices), first class i kinda like 2nd class in Holland only with added protection, there were some guards by the doors constantly yelling at (99% black people) to hurry up and get into 3rd class, which wasn’t nice at all, and made me feel all wrong inside.

The trip itself was nice though, or what I got to see of it (I closed my eyes for a while), at a certain point the train goes right along the coastline, so all you see when you look out of the window is water, which was pretty cool.

Kalkbaai on the other hand wasn’t cool, it was a verry touristy place, the only place to drink something seemed to be inside, and looking at the ocean from behind glass seemed pointless.

we had a quick drink, and decided to go to muizenberg, a few stops back, where BEer had already been to surf, but when arriving at the trainstation there was no train to be found, and we had to wait for over 2 hours, which competely wasted our entire free day.

atleast its an experience right?!

Tags: South Africa by Frank
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howdy people,

1 of the things people seemed to worry most about when I told them about my trip and what we would be doing was the Concert at the townships in Capetown called Phillipi, yes, people have guns here, yes there are shootings here all the time (I have no proof but even the locals say so), what I got to see of the townships is that they’re pretty much the same as the other townships in the other countries.

Not a damn thing happened while we were there with thousands of euros worth of equipment, the concert was even a bit of a “failure”, not many people showed up and the power kept going down. the location was beautiful though, it was near an old Cement factory, an big old concrete building with lots of old rusted metal, I was more interested in taking pictures of that place than the whole concert, but I had a job to do, so I took pictures of rappers and kids. I think we’re using the cement factory for the videoclip so I hope I’ll have time to take some cool pics.

The local rappers here have some real talent, little kids from the townships who grow up eager to be famous rappers and really have the talent to make it if they were giving a chance. It’s kinda strange to see some of them wearing Eminem shirts though, but maybe that’s just me.

not much else to report right now, internet still isn’t working here, so far South Africa has been the worst when it comes down to the internet connection, I mean Malawi was slow but atleast it worked… I think the people we rent this place from dont understand that we need internet to do our work… oh well… thats something for another blog post, I’m complaining too much as it is…

Tags: South Africa by Frank
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just wanted to let everybody know that my cellphone got “stolen”, when we went from Malawi to Namibia we made a stop in Johannesburg SA, some bags were opened, and I suspected mine had also been opened (it was a mess), but I wasn’t missing anything…

Last week when I went up devils peak I figured it would be a good idea to take my phone with me, so I could call someone if something bad happened, but my cellphone was nowhere to be found…

“lost” or “stolen” you decide, doesn’t make a difference, it just sucks that I lost some phone numbers and adresses, but nothing that can’t be recovered I guess (if you’re 1 of those people that demands a postcard, mail me because your adress was in my phone)… I hadn’t used my phone since the day I left home, I’m not much of a cellphone user, so to me, it really doesn’t make a difference.

Tags: South Africa by Frank
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hey hey blog readers, whats happening?

I’ve been in Capetown South Africa for like a week now and I guess I’ve gotten used to being back in civilization, to me this place isn’t africa at all, I haven’t been doing much fun stuff (besides playing some pool and having some beers with the guys) mostly because there’s lots of work to be done, the project for this country seems like a lot more work mostly because everything is more professional and there are a lot of small last moment things that people need that end up our (Beers and mine) plate….

For example, the Producer of Assalti Frontali wanted to hand out some CDs with beats to the workshop participants, resulting in me and beer having to burn 10 CDs in like an hour while still having to do our own work at the same time, sometimes I feel people forget we’re actually doing a lot of work…

I’ve been working at the SABC studios a lot, in room C4B in case you’re wondering, it’s a radio studio booth, with Mics and Headphones, Padded walls, soundproof glass through which you can see the Radio Studio, and double doors. I don’t like being in that place because it’s near the ocean, and knowing that without there being a window for me to look out of, simply sucks…

The artists have recorded 1 song so far, and today they’ll have to do 2 more, the song they made isnt something I like, but I believe the quality is pretty high. The Italian rapper has a little too much energy for me, he’s funny but sometimes I’m just done with it…

Today I start work on the final episode of South Africa 1, which should be done and online on sunday… after that I think there might be a free day, I dunno what I wanna do yet, but if anybody who’s been to capetown has any good suggestions, let me know…

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