Networking in the Bush, in my jammies
Hi, Friends.
I’m sitting here at the lovely open-air restaurant in the Chitengo lodge area at Gorongosa National Park. Just spent two hours chatting with Greg Carr, the founder of the Carr Foundation, which is in charge of the restoration project here at the park. The two hours mainly consisted of Greg listening intently to me and Ariel discuss the impact of the Mozambican civil war on the human level. He told us we were making him think about things he’s never thought of before. I’m already creating a pitch for a humanitarian documentary for him - he and Bob Poole (renowned National Geographic nature cinematographer) and James Byrne (staff producer at Nat Geo for 12 years, producer/director of Africa’s Lost Eden) have created a Gorongosa Production Company and I’m aching to work with them on something big.
I guess I should explain that we’ve been surrounded by every important wildlife company for the past week here at the park. BBC was working on their Africa series, flying all over in the helicopter and in general sounding amazing with their cool accents. The “Life on Earth” crew is here working on an online textbook for/with Ed Wilson (Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist, author of “Sociobiology”), who is also at the park with his wife. Executive PBS producer Bill Gardner is here discussing an idea for a three-hour documentary series on Gorongosa. I’m crying with disbelief while I’m writing this.
Now I’m sitting with James Byrne talking about being a staff producer at National Geographic *drool* #dreamjob
We’ve been given so many opportunities and everyone has been very helpful and supportive, even though EVERYONE here is more important than us. This has been an incredible experience. I can’t wait to have better internet to share photos and more stories.
We leave tomorrow morning for Maputo, and on Thursday we go to Cape Town.
Love you all.
