Click here to view a slide show of pics from Egypt
On April 4th, 2002, I am embarking on an adventure. I am doing the location sound for a project called "Wonders of Egypt". It is a documentary based on a book written by Lennart Moller called "the Case for Exodus". It is a fascinating subject that Lennart has spent many years working on, dealing with evidence of the crossing of the Red Sea by Moses and the Jews who left Egypt.
We are shooting four 1 hour shows (with the potential for 3 more later) over a period of 30 days, and mixing the shows here at Easy Street when I get back. We will be filming primarily in Egypt (Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, The Nile, Sinai - all over), and London. I will be attempting to upload a diary and pictures as I go - depending on the state of my Internet connection :-)
04/20/02 - This morning in Herghada, I got up and got ready before 6am, so I could go down and upload some pictures before we left at 6:30. We drive down to the port to catch a ferry to cross the Gulf of Suez, and have to go through checkpoint charlie again. X-ray, passports, suspicion - you know the drill. So we ride a really modern and fast ferry for about an hour and a half and then get off for more checkpoint business. Now, unless we had an air drop on the ferry, this is the same luggage with the same stuff in it as when we got on the ferry. But, we spend over an hour going through x-ray, passports and suspicion again. Then we are detained for another hour and a half because we are Americans and they want to know what we are doing and where we going. We wait in the van another hour while papers are exchanged. Beauracracy confounds us everywhere. Finally about 3pm we arrive at the Nuweba Hilton. This place is fabulous. It's a very quiet and relaxed resort. Two pools, our own cabanas on the pool and the Red Sea (which has crystal blue water like the Carribean). We all think it would be a great place for our families if it weren't so difficult to get to. Tim has told me not to say how nice the resort is in this diary - so I'll just say 'basically its just a room' :-)
04/21/02 - Today we had a (Gasp!) DAY OFF. We all just snorkeled, swam, ate and rested after many days of work and travel. Everybody was wearing a little thin I think. It sure helped.
04/22/02 - This morning we got up and chartered a snorkeling boat to go out and film some of Lennart in scuba gear in the water. We were out from 9am to about 4pm - I used the laptop until it died on the last take. Tim decided it would be good to let Lennart just improvise a conversation with another diver he has hired to check things out here. The improvising ended up being a 55 minute take that the laptop completed and died... Had I known we were going to have such long takes (I recorded over 3 hours of audio), I would have brought the BIG battery.
Anyway, we decided to go back in and try to get some rest since we were leaving for Mt. Sinai tonight at midnight. I did manage to get 2 hours of sleep before we left.
04/23/02 - Technically, this day started on the 22nd. We "got up" at 11pm and gathered for a 12am departure to climb Mt. Sinai and film the sunrise (around 5am). We have a little trouble with paperwork (I can't believe how much trouble it is for us to do anything), and leave about 12:40. This has eaten into our cushion to get to the top before sunrise, since we were told it came up at 4:30, with an hour+ drive and a 3-4 hour climb. We got to Sinai about 2am and began the hike.
I am surprised how many people are here, probably several hundred, to do this mountain climb in the dark. We begin the climb with a mild uphill walk that gets gradually steeper - keeping a brisk pace because we are afraid we are going to miss the sunrise. We have moonlight, but it's kind of eery following all these people with flashlights up a mountain. Their are break spots every so often, with Bedoin shops (huts really) serving drinks and snacks and offering camel rides. The climb keeps getting steeper and culminates in an hour of climbing steps basically straight up. It was pretty difficult for me, but I made to the summit by 4:45am.
It turns out that sunrise is at 5:20am, so we had plenty of time. I was wearing a T-shirt to within 100 yds of the top, but then it got windy and the temp was probably 25 degrees, so I put on my Minneapolis wooly thing.
The sunrise was beautiful. It's a breathtaking thing watching the sunrise from the top of a mountain. By 6am, the couple hundred people left, and we waited to film Lennart when the sun filled the valley below. By this time Lennart was freezing, because sweat had made his shirt and jacket wet, and it was windy and cold. After 2 hours waiting, we filmed for a couple more hours and then began the trek down. We stopped and shot some footage in several spots on the way down and then went into the monastery (St. Catherine's) at the base of the mountain. At 1pm we stopped in a shop and had something to drink and to sit for a few minutes. Then, we wanted to go to Wadi Feran to shoot a couple pieces on that Wadi, but our driver did not want to take us there. We had to go back to the monastery, re-confirm our permissions for that specific area and then we went.
After filming and a 2 hour ride back to the resort it was 5pm - a glamorous 18 hour day of climbing, walking, working, freezing and sweating. And we have a 5am shoot tomorrow.
It was Tim's 45th birthday today, so both the U.S. and Egyptian production teams gathered for some birthday cake and a little fun about 7pm. Our Egyptian crew arranged a cake for Tim; and the hotel had sent another cake over earlier - we ended up with 2 birthday cakes! The cake was good, and I think we have made some good friends here in Egypt. They seem very curious about us and are surprised that we are not like the 'Hollywood' version of Americans (rude, drinking, smoking etc, in their words).
They actually sing the Happy Birthday tune just like we do, only in Arabic... How cool is that? Got to go to bed now, it's 8:45pm and I have to get up at 4am.
04/24/02 - Today we were slated to leave at 5am, so we all got up by 4:15 and came to the general conclusion that wind and sand have made sound and pictures a bad idea. So we waited around a couple hours and took off for the Sinai desert. We had a driver who was nervous about taking us around (even though we had permission) and was telling us we couldn't film, or use the tripod, or something else - at every location we wanted to film. We were specifically looking for locations in Wadi Watir, where Lennart thinks the Hebrews passed through to the Red Sea. It was tense for most of the day - our driver was upset with us most of the time and we constantly felt rushed. We were within about 2 miles of Isreal at times, so you can understand a little nervousness... It was an unusual weather day here; a little cloudy, windy and mild sand storms. Most of our days have been sunny and warm(or hot). We got back about 5pm. We had an early dinner at the beach hut restaurant, and shared our extra birthday cake with some other tourists at the hut. Rick and Jack left tonight about 7:30 to go to Sharm El Sheikh so they could fly back to Luxor to do some arials from a helicopter. We are all amazed that Heidi (Rick's wife), has not had her baby which was due 10 days ago. We think it's God's way of getting him home to see the baby born.
One of the wireless transmitters stopped functioning today, so I had to do the last couple of takes with a boom mic. On the way back I decided it might be the antenna lead, and when I took it apart it was broken loose. Luckily, I brought a soldering iron and soldered the lead back on, so it's working again...
After Rick and Jack left, Lennart came over about 9pm with news that his wife was in the hospital with injuries she received trying to move 2 horses. He said she was OK, but had stitches on her head, and for awhile they thought she broke both elbows. She sounds like a strong woman. We said a prayer for her and the rest of our families and went to work on some of his dialog: What clues the Bible gives about the Exodus, and how they match up with the various theories of where it took place. It's surprising that once you actually try to put the pieces together, none of the traditional sites and paths fit the Biblical descriptions and geography of where the Hebrews went and what their surroundings were (check Exodus 13 and 14). I am typing this about 11pm. Lennart and I were comparing digital pictures on our laptops after Tim fell asleep. We are getting up at 5am to do sunrise interviews on the beach.
04/25/02 - Well, we got up at 5am and it didn't look good - Wind and sand again. Tim decided we should try anyway and it calmed down a lot by the time we set up. It was amazing. The sun came through, the wind died down and Lennart worked his magic for about an hour, and then the wind came back just as he was finishing. We got some beach footage of Lennart and then had breakfast (my first one in four days) about 9am. It's still windy so we are planning to resume about 3pm for evening light.
The evening light was flat so we skipped filming this evening. Lennart and I spent a couple hours talking about matters scientific and theologic - I am going to miss this Viking when I come home. Tim was out at the internet cafe (very slow connection with no CD-rom drive so I couldn't upload this yet), and got us a car for tomorrow. It will be our last day here.
04/26/02 - It's Friday, which is the Sabbath in Islamic countries. We're taking off in a van about 9am to go to Taba (the border town between Egypt and Isreal). We found an ancient well with a fort around it. It is the only ancient ruin in Nuweiba and has not been excavated. We wound our way up the coast to the border of Isreal, taking lots of pictures and video of Lennart. We stopped at Saladdin's island, which has a castle built by Crusaders in the 12th century and then conquered by the Sultan Saladdin (who converted Egypt to Islam) a few decades later. We had a relaxing lunch at the Taba Hilton then stopped at the border of Egypt and Isreal and asked the guards if it was ok to take some pictures - so we did. I have taken almost 700 digital pictures so far, and that's after deleting most of the duds! We drove back down the coast and had a nice dinner before packing up our stuff to go back to Cairo. Tim and I talked about how nice it will be to get back home - it will be...
04/27/02 - We're back in a van again, this time going back to Cairo. We have to drive about 6 hours, most of it across the Sinai. I watched Three Amigos on the laptop and actually laughed out loud a couple times. We stopped at a rest area on the other side of the Suez Canal and then headed into Cairo (staying at the Sheraton Heliopolis). We've all forgotten what a madhouse Cairo is. We had several weeks out of the big city. It is a very modern and busy hotel with a business center that I am able to upload this diary as soon as I'm done typing... We had a really good dinner at a the Chinese restaurant and just heard from Rick and Jack that they are still in Luxor trying to go up in a helicopter and should be here tomorrow night.
Rick says his wife Heidi delivered a boy named Bodie April 25th at noon, 10 lbs, 12oz(!), 21.5 inches. Congrats!
It's Saturday night and we will be leaving for London Monday morning. Tomorrow will just be a fun day.
04/28/02 - Tim, Lennart and I, spent most of the day in a meeting toom talking about the expansion of the Exodus project into many parts, including a "Road Show". This happened spontaneously and was really exciting to talk about. We had some good brainstorm ideas and before we knew it, we had been in the room 5 hours. We had a nice lunch out by the pool and went to our rooms to pack up for the trip to London tomorrow and we met late for some ice cream (one of Lennart's weaknesses). We were worried about Rick and Jack, as they were not at the hotel until 11pm. We thought they we not going to make it. When they arrived Tim and Rick had a meeting with the Egyptian production company and worked out that we were slightly under budget for our month in Egypt...
04/29/02 - We got up at 5am to get ready and meet down in the lobby to leave at 6. At the airport, we made it in fairly easily until Rick went to retrieve the camera. They had required us to return the camera a week before we left, so they could do something with it (?), and it took over an hour and lots of backsheesh (bribes basically), and paperwork to get it back. To get on the airplane we went through 3 x-ray stations and showed our passports at 4 stations (wow, is all I can say). We finally got to the plane after 2 hours in the airport. We had an easy flight and arrived in London prepared for the typical problems in customs - we literally walked through without stopping! We all agree it is a joy to be in an English speaking (sorta:-) country again. We spent a couple hours getting a rental van, and drove over to Spark Productions / Brook Place. It is an estate with many houses (as much as 400 years old), with acres of grounds, paths, flowers, hedges and beauty. It is both a Christian retreat and a Post production and script doctoring/creation facility! What a relaxing afternoon we are having: Hot tea, and quiet British countryside. Jack and I just spent a couple hours just chit-chatting about our adventures for the last 4 weeks. And we just found out that we will get to film in the British Museum before it is open to the public - how cool - we'll be the only people there! Tonight we are going to have Fish and Chips at the best local pub. Don't you just love the British?
I learned a British slang for "happy" from our driver(Jay) this afternoon: Chuffed. As in "I'm really chuffed to be going to the British Museum". I don't get it, but I'll use it!
04/30/02 - Scouting at The British Museum today. Today's excitment was going to the Museum to scout out the shots we are going to get tomorrow. We left about 10am after a proper breakfast at Brook Place. It was a car ride, a train ride and several stops in the Tube to get there at about 12:30. We had a look around at this beautiful museum and kept commenting that it was a far cry from the chaos at the Cairo Museum. It is a spectacular place. We met with Meg, the director of the Egyptian collection. She was young, bright, very helpful (especially when compared to the trouble we had in Cairo) and we agreed to meet at 6am to film tomorrow for 4 hours before the Museum opens. So we look around, find our spots and Lennart decides we should go looking for the map stores he's been in before, and arrange to film in them as well. Now it has begun to rain, but we get in the Tube and shoot over to the first one which is pretty cool - and full of antique maps up to 500 years old. As we went in we noticed several other shops are boarding up their windows and we don't know why. It turns out that tomorrow is 'labor day' and last year's demonstrations lead to rioting and destruction of any shop viewed as upper crust. So, we decide to go to another shop which is over a mile, in the rain, from the Tube stop. When we get there we are dripping wet - literally. But the guy is nice and his shop and the street out front has that 'British' look to it. So now it is 5:30 and Tim and Lennart are going to meet a Producer from the BBC at a pizza place on The Strand. So we take a couple taxi's (Tim/Rick in one, Me/Jack/Lennart/Dave in another) and end up at two locations of the same pizza place. We figure it out and Jack and I decide to go to the Hard Rock Cafe (the 1st one created) and meet a producer friend of his. We have a great time and then have to make it quickly back to meet the others at a train station at 8pm. We had a good day today.
05/01/02 - We left for the Museum at 4:30am today and arrived ready to roll at 5:45. The traffic was light and we were allowed to pull into the Museum gates right up to the front doors with our vans. I can't believe we have the entire British Museum to ourselves... We were primarily interested in the Rosetta stone and actually got some footage of it with the glass cover removed because they were changing some of the lighting. We filmed all over the Egyptian wings of the museum. As we rushed away in the van with Rick driving one - he hit the back of truck and thought we were going to have a little tiff. But it was just a tap and nobody got out of the truck.
We went back to the map store and spent two hours filming Lennart looking at antique maps. I thought it was cool that they had old map prints, but they are the real thing! The maps we looked at were 300-500 years old. We were parked on a little one-way street and needed Dave's help to keep the police from ticketing us (for exceeding the 2 hour time limit). I used the laptop all day today, which worked flawlessly using the Okie battery for over 8 hours. We wrapped about 2pm and Rick, Jack, Lennart and I went out to get some beauty shots in London. Tim went back and had some lunch and a nap. We filmed Lennart in front of Parlaiment and Big Ben - man what a sight.
Now we start part 2 of our day. We re-packed the light version of our gear into one van and drove to Liverpool (without Lennart) to interview two professors. It's about a 5 hour drive with a little bit of traffic, and Jay (the Spark Productions guy) got us there about half past 9 (the British way of saying 9:30). We had dinner at this place where you got a table and menu, went to the bar to order your drink, went to the cashier to order your food, and then went back to the table and wait. It's odd. We booked the last 4 rooms in the hotel and since there were 5 of us, someone had to double up. Since Rick booked the rooms, he decided to share with Tim. We made lot's of jokes at Tim and Rick's expense, because there was a king size bed and a low pull out bed and we thought the whole situation was quite funny. We had lots of laughs with Jay, and (I think) convinced him that all Americans are not loud, arrogant, overbearing and ignorant of the rest of the world. We need a little PR in the rest of the world.
05/02/02 - Filming at the University of Liverpool. Today we left at about 10am and drove over to the University to film interviews with Professor Alan Millard and Professor Ken Kitchen. We're interested in their views of the Exodus and the Hebrews. We set up in the small museum they have in the department of Archaeology. The interviews went well and both men are very knowledgeable in these areas. Prof. Millard was brief and to the point and talked for about 45 minutes. He is a Bible scholar and archaeologist. Prof. Kitchen was a fireball. He talked continuously for 97 minutes (according to ProTools!). The only reason he quit was because he had to go. We thought about going to Abbey Road and taking a picture like the Beatles did, but we had 5 hours of driving to do and it was 4pm already. It was probably the most enjoyable day of work we had.
And it was also the last. We didn't have a party or a celebration, but we did stop at Pizza hut and shared a pizza back at Brook Place. I will miss these guys - Rick, Tim, Jack, and Lennart. Although Tim and I both live in Minneapolis, we're both pretty busy and we won't be spending every day together like we have for the last month. I think all of us but Jack are going to ICVM in LA in July, so we will meet Rick and maybe Lennart and reminisce. Jack is going to Greece to do an Imax film and I may not see him for a while. I really felt like these guys were my brothers for a month and that doesn't happen very often. We worked hard, we laughed a lot and we were doing something we believed in. That's what life is all about.
05/03/02 - WE'RE COMING HOME TODAY! Well we are going home today. Lennart left early about 9 and the rest of us packed up and left about noon and went to Heathrow. Rick and Jack were going to LA at 3:15 and Tim and I took off at 3:45. I'm flying right now over the ice pack to the west of Newfoundland and we land in Chicago about 6. Tim and I are very anxious to see our families and they are amassing to meet us tonight about 10:30. I think it was helpful writing this out but it only scratches the surface of the adventure we really had - if you want the details you'll just have to ask us!
TO BE CONTINUED...
|