It’s hard to believe that we’re in our last days of our adventure. We’ve come so far (it literally took Shalila three days to fly from Hawaii to Johannesburg) and have done quite a bit (learned how to conduct and film interviews, spotted the Big Five, learned how to use Photoshop and Premiere, attended a preview of an opera about mining and tuberculosis, ventured through Manzini during rush hour and wrote and shot a film in under a week- chocolate is the best bargaining tool for a child actor).

It’s sad to think that we’ll be leaving soon, but these are great memories to look back upon, especially now that we’re in our second day of holing ourselves up in various parts of the hotel, studying for our final exam. Ten big topics and over 400 slides of information, here we go!

Luckily we’ve been working in close contact with our material almost incessantly over these five weeks. It’s gotten to the point that when attempting to recall the symptoms of tuberculosis I start hearing Musa’s voice describing the extent of his weight loss, instead of simply pulling information out of my memory (although this is more than likely due to the fact that I’ve listened to Musa’s story an embarrassing amount of times while trying to edit his 40 minute interview into a 6 min film, which is unsurprisingly difficult). We’ve also learned to adapt to situations very well. Last night our two-hour wait for dinner turned into an impromptu review session! In all honesty, flexibility and the ability to take a deep breath and let whatever’s bothering you go should not be undervalued. This class has definitely made me an easier-going person. There’s simply no way you can survive making films here if you lack those traits. Anyone who reads Jessica’s blog from yesterday, where she talks about our challenges over the weekend, including accidentally locating half of our actors in Manzini before they could be late to filming at their own home, loud tractors surrounding the property, neighbors stopping by to chat, relatives coming to visit, celebrating two slaughtered cows, grumpy children and 100 live chickens being delivered into the middle of our set, should know that we are not exaggerating in any sort of way. It all happened, and we could do nothing except smile, be pleasant and wait it out.

It feels like we’ve been going non-stop during our time here, but I wouldn’t change that for the world. This has been one of the most enjoyable and eye-opening experiences of my life. Still, spending our last two days sightseeing in Johannesburg should be a lovely way to end the “semester”.