Permission to be a Tourist, Sir?

As we say in East Africa, my thoughts on Sudan are “even now on the way coming,” but in the mean time I wanted to write about something else that I’ve found exciting and refreshing and exciting. I gave myself permission to become a tourist.

For any of you who have lived very long in East Africa, or any other place where there are frequent tourists, you know the stigma. A tourist usually can’t pronounce names correctly, they can be obnoxious, they may carry a “fanny pack,” they’re sunburned, they think everything is strange and somehow exciting even though it’s actually just everyday life, and perhaps most consistently and noticeably they take pictures of everything.

Okay so I haven’t fully adopted all of those attributes of tourism, but I have given myself permission to take pictures of literally everything that strikes my interest. I started this new permission last month as I set out on my odyssey into Uganda and Sudan. I’ve started grabbing images of flowers, fields and mountains as seen while riding a bus or other vehicle across the country, the controls in the small airplanes that carried us to and from Sudan, the sky, foot prints in the sand, and of course any number of children eager to line up in front of my camera to let me capture their likeness.

I decided that I would start taking pictures like this for this specific trip because I recognized that this was my first trip to Sudan and will be my last trip to both Sudan and Uganda for quite a while. I don’t think I’ll be traveling as much in my remaining three months in Africa because I now have three large projects to finish editing before I leave and that will possibly take up the majority of my time. However, what I found when I let myself take pictures of anything and everything I saw was that I wound up with a lot of pictures I really love, and a medium which can tell the story of what my travels have been like far better than I could ever find words for. Also, especially in Sudan I found there were times where I was going from one place to another with my video camera all packed in it’s case and would happen upon something really interesting. Either because the object was quickly moving away or because we simply didn’t have the time to stop, I wouldn’t be able to get my camera out fast enough, but I could pull up my small digital camera and take a quick snap or two and I suspect that several of these will end up in the final video.

On the Sunday evening that we were in Sudan I went for a walk on the nearby airstrip. My road let me onto the airstrip in the middle and I just wanted to walk and listen to my iPod so I started by heading North and walked to the end, turned and walked to the south end and then came back to the road leading to the compound where we stayed. I wasn’t going very fast so the walk took nearly 2 hours, and along the way I shot almost 40 pictures just because I had my camera with me and had my eyes open. It was one of the most beautiful and relaxing walks I’ve taken in quite sometime.

And that’s what it comes down to really, keeping your eyes open to the world around you. That’s what I’ve decided I really love about the tourist mentality. While you may look like a fool for not blending in, keeping your eyes open to the world around you lets you see the magic that our creator has poured into all of this planet. Seriously, the next time you leave your house just picture all the things that you’d laugh at a tourist for taking a picture of, and then ask yourself what it is about that thing that would attract them. You may find your eyes open and you reach for your own camera. Also, the next time you see a fanny pack wearing tourist you should envy him or her, for seeing the magic in your mundane world.

Another great thing that’s come out of my carrying a digital camera with me at all times is my short film “Boda Boda; A True Story.” Which I shot on the digital camera one afternoon while riding across Kampala on a motorcycle taxi and edited over the course of 2 evenings and I hope to be able to put it on YouTube sometime soon. I’ll be sure to post a link when it’s up so keep your eyes open. If I had been feeling that I wanted to avoid the “tourist” stereotype I never would have gotten this footage showing the fun experience of riding a Boda through Kampala.