My Trip to Africa

April 3rd – 13th, 2004

EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network, is the global Catholic cable network that happens to be based out of Birmingham. One of the priests employed by the network is Father Mitch Pacwa. Father Mitch has his own production company, Ignatius Productions. Ignatius hired me to help shoot a documentary in Africa that will eventually air on EWTN.

The documentary will be about the story of Bishop Markham Max Gassis and the plight of the people in his diocese. Gasssis is one of the bishops in the African country of Sudan. Sudan has been in a state of civil war since 1983. In 1990, Gassis testified before the US Congress about the human rights atrocities perpetrated by the Sudanese government upon its people. Gassis was never allowed back into his home country since then. He found himself exiled by the Sudanese government.

Since then Gassis has risked his freedom and his life by continuing to make trips to his diocese in central Sudan, while basing his work out of Nairobi, Kenya. But he only dares visit those areas of his diocese that are under rebel control. He maintains a mission in the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan with the blessing and protection of the People’s Liberation Army.

For ten days, I lived at the mission in the Nuba Mountains with Bishop Gassis and others while I helped document the lives and existence of the natives and the impact the mission has had on their lives. I was accompanied by my fellow cameraman, Sam McDavid; as well as three medical doctors from America that are funding the documentary.

Sam and I left Birmingham on Saturday the 3rd and it took us two days to fly to Atlanta, Amsterdam and finally Nairobi where we were met by the bishop’s people. We spent all of Monday in Nairobi resting and game-planning our shoot. That night we went to a very nice restaurant where I ate gazelle, ostrich, crocodile, and zebra meat.

Tuesday, we five Americans, the bishop and a nun drove out to the Nairobi airport where we boarded a cargo plane and strapped into jump seats. It was an Antonov, a Russian-made model capable of carrying up to seven tons. We flew for two hours before touching down in Lokichoggio, Kenya very close to the Sudan border. Here we refueled and paid exit fees. This was also the site of a United Nations World Food Program distribution center. I do not trust the UN and I felt uncomfortable surrounded by lots of UN planes and rows of large UN tents. I was keeping my feelings to myself until the others in my party shared their distrust of the UN. (I would later find out that the bishop and all the nuns at the mission did not like UN at all for an entire litany of reasons). I was not allowed to take any video of the airstrip. I was not told why.
Soon we were back in the air for another two hours in the cargo plane, until we finally touched down in a dirt airstrip in the middle of the Nuba Mountains. (The first thing we saw was a wrecked model of the same plane we were flying!) This would be my home for the rest of the week. It was an arid wasteland. Very hot and very dusty. I’m tempted to call it a desert, but that wouldn’t be accurate. The rainy season in this area lasts six months. But this was the dry season and the heat and dust were almost unbearable.

After a half hour bumpy ride in the back of a land rover, we were at the mission. Sam and I were given very nice accommodations: a round hut made of rock-and-mud walls with a thatch roof and dirt floor. We would share this 15-foot diameter space with a host of lizards, scorpions and termites for the week.

Wednesday, the 7th, we all loaded up on land rovers and drove 44km over very rough terrain (including driving through a former landmine field) to the village of Lumon. Bishop Gassis hadn’t been to Lumon in about eight years and they were very honored by his presence. Gassis had started a school there, as he had in other villages, and all the kids were in their uniforms lining the street when we arrived. The school uniforms of khaki shorts and plaid oxford shirts seemed out of place in a land populated by people that were either naked or dressed in traditional African garb.

Understand we were in one of the poorest areas of Africa. This place looks like the typical image from TV commercials of the poor and starving. The mission has done a lot to help these people by providing clean water (thanks to over 80 wells that have been dug in the last four years), health care, schools, and Catholic teachings.

Going to back to our arrival at Lumon: not only were the people lining the streets singing, but the village sacrificed a goat in our honor. Two men drug the goat out into the street in front of the bishop and slit its throat. For the people of Lumon, this is a huge gesture of respect and gratitude. Protocol required that we accept this gift by running up to the dying goat and jumping over its body. To do otherwise would be an extreme insult. Not to worry, the goat was eaten that night.

After the unique experience of having a goat sacrificed in my honor as a village sung my praises, we entered the village proper where the school children presented the bishop with handmade gifts.

Thursday brought a similar experience (without the animal sacrifice). We stayed around the mission and visited the school that is there. The students again presented gifts, including performing a couple of traditional tribal dances. We also got footage of the facilities nearby that are used to make grain, meal, sesame oil and adobe bricks.

Now would be a good time to note that we were working in 120-degree weather everyday with only warm well water to drink. Also, the People's Liberation Army deployed a soldier to the mission every day, so were always in the company of least one rebel soldier with an AK-47 hanging from his shoulder. We were very much in extreme conditions and I ended up losing about nine pounds on the trip. Also, every night a mass was conducted. The best part of these for me was the traditional African singing that was worked into each service.

Friday we traveled to the village of Kauda. Kauda was the site of a tragic and horrible bombing that took place in February of 2000. It was a school day. The teachers were conducting classes outdoors under the shades of large trees as always, when suddenly government forces came flying in low over the mountains. The planes began dropping bombs, sending terrified teachers and children running for their lives. In one instance, a teacher gathered her class around the other side of tree when they found themselves at nearly ground zero. An anti-personnel bomb landed within 30 feet of them, killing the teacher and 19 children. Further away, 20 more were injured. I was able to shoot some footage of some of the children that survived with amputations.

The American doctors that traveled with us were at Kauda a couple of weeks after the bombing and it is why they are paying to have this documentary made. They want to raise awareness about the people of Nuba living through this war and about the heroic efforts of Bishop Gassis.
Saturday the market was open and I got footage of that. It was much like flea markets here in America. Sunday was Easter. It was quite an experience being at my first Easter mass in the middle of the Nuba Mountains surrounded by Africans as the entire service is conducted in Arabic. People from Lumon, Kauda and other villages all arrived at the mission on Easter Sunday. It was very cool. The people of Lumon had begun walking on Friday in order to be there for Easter.

Our last night there, Sunday, Sam and I stayed up late playing cards with a couple of new friends, Kenyans who work for the mission. We had a lot of fun. One of these Kenyans was named Jimmy and when he saw my "Jimmy Jib" T-shirt he wanted it. I wanted a soccer jersey, so we traded.

Monday and Tuesday were spent flying back home. This included the cargo plane back to Lokichoggio, an East African airline flight to Nairobi, 8 hours to Amsterdam, a five-hour layover there and 9 hours to Atlanta… all to discover that my flight to Birmingham was canceled and I’d have to wait a little while.

Finally, I was back at home. Very grateful the trip was over but already missing it. The trip was a brutal one: every day was a physical challenge. But it was very rewarding to meet that challenge and witness what life is like for some people in this world. The bishop is going to be a studio guest on EWTN sometime this July, the documentary should be done in time to air during his visit. I won’t have anything more to do with the production, I simply hand over the seven hours of footage Sam and I shot over to the network. It is my sincere hope that some real, measurable good will come from this documentary.