Today was a day full of excitement and anticipation. Tomorrow, we leave for Kruger National Park in South Africa, and we’ll be there for two and a half days. All we can think about is our trip, and what our few days will be like, but for the morning we had to reel in our focus for class.

Our morning global health lecture today centered on gender based violence, and how that relates to global health. It’s very interesting how many things fall under the category of gender based violence, and how vastly the violence statistics vary by region, but I won’t get into that here. All I’ll say is we had a very lively and engaging discussion today, which was only made more interesting by the fact that this was Tara’s main area of expertise, so she was really able to bring a lot of very fascinating and thought-provoking information to the table today.

For lunch, Jess, Shalila, and I walked to the Corner Plaza and did a little bit of grocery shopping. Shalila and I found that the supermarket sells biltong (a South African food that is almost beef jerky), and so we naturally ended up buying over a quarter of a pound of it. Once we brought it back to the rest of the class, it was almost all gone in under an hour. And it was delicious. No regrets.

Our second lecture of the day focused on more video editing techniques, mainly with an emphasis on the interview of Musa that we conducted the other day. We’re currently working on developing a compelling story line from his interview. Once we accomplish that, we will then go back and add music, B-Roll, and our artistic finishing touches. I’m excited to see more of the editing process, and to really find out how putting together a short film works. For about an hour after the end of class, we held Jonathan back so he could show us some of the films he’s made over the years. Watching his films was absolutely incredible, and I could watch them all day. I’m so glad that we were able to see them, as now we know what we are aspiring to make.

The rest of the day was free, and most of us spent it practicing some of our new skills. Editing films takes a long time, but there is no feeling quite as rewarding as when two clips line up perfectly, or you successfully time a jump cut with your music. I worked almost straight through the afternoon, but I had one interruption. At about 5:45 PM, I got a call from Jonathan saying that we had to meet in the lobby. It turns out that a woman we had contacted last week had stopped by to meet us, unexpectedly. Her name is Albertina, and she works with HIV+ women in Swaziland. She works to tell their stories in a way very similar to the ethos of our class. Her organization, Positive Women Together In Action, does outreach into small communities to provide as much help and support to HIV+ women as possible. It was a very pleasant surprise, and hopefully we will get the chance to work more with her in the very near future. After meeting Albertina, I returned to film editing. Adriana, Shalila, and I almost worked right through dinner, but the smell of freshly cooked mashed potatoes brought us downstairs just in time.

Dinner was once more a very fun occasion filled with laughter, and discussion was fueled by jokes and World Cup predictions. At the end of the meal, our conversation quickly turned back to impatience for Kruger. With all the enthusiasm in the air, the trip is bound to be great!!!