I was arranged to meet with a young lady who would, upon my arrival to Medellin, take me on a 10 hour ride over a mountain to a place called Montelibano. Instead of heading out right away, a few things had to be arranged.
The cab makes it’s way through the center of the city and another young lady jumps in. These two young ladies arranged meetings with organizations to promote this event they were throwing for a house filled with abandoned children they were taking care of.
I ended up only joining in on one meeting.
I kept my mouth shut. Fascinated at the hustle and sell talk.
Here in the states we sell a bunch of bullshit. Things people don’t need. Salesmen begin to believe their own product. Products they don’t believe in, un till they realize the financial gain potential.
To be sold something that is actually needed, for someone else, not you, is an interesting learning curve and one worth exploring. These ladies were selling a product (the vision for a home) to help abandoned children.
One of these ladies, was connected with the work I was documenting for Thirst Project.
I went to a village that was very poor and finally just barely clean drinking water. On this trip I was bought many things including gifts, meals coffee and medicine. These people have nothing and somehow manage to have enough to provide me with what I needed or wanted.
Maybe this is why they were finally getting fresh and clean drinking water. Some call it Karma, others call it attracting energy and the faithful would say it’s all the prayers.
There are still a few out there who believe you reap what you sow.
Our good friends just had some pretty cool coverage on the LA times. Check out the video below if you still haven’t seen it.
If you keep up with us, you know we like good movements/art and everything in between.
For years I have kept up with Moral One and MC Boogalu. I am proud to announce their latest venture; ALERT.
They recently been signed by Humble Beast .
Why do I share? There is tons of good independent music out there, but not a lot of heart. From what I know about these guys, they care about people and that is what makes their music pop off. Visit the site, follow em on twitter, whatever keeps you connected with them, you won’t regret it.
Why are you creating?
We collaborated with our friends over at DE SIGNER and FLUXUS to create a video look book for their exclusive line Textures a Mixte Collection. We’re in Africa right now so can’t update our work portfolio so in the mean time view it on their youtube page. Follow them on twitter and like em on facebook while your at it! 
Look out for the album, we got a chance to preview it, it’s HOT.
Check out the video here
The trip started off with me trying to send out some files, from home, before catching my flight. Luckily the traffic was a surprisingly low, and we were able to make our first flight on time. We were on time, our flight wasn’t, we ended up boarding a couple hours later than we were supposed to. We headed to the bar and met an old Aussie lady who was transferring from her connecting flight from Canada back to Australia. Landing in Heathrow, we immediately made our way to our connecting flight. We headed to the Tin Goose and were hosted by a friendly young lady who walked us over to the only two couches in the restaurant. The blaring television was not warm, but we looked around and realized we had the most comfortable seats in the establishment. Over eggs benedict, tea and bloody mary’s we caught up with work that was still left incomplete. The whole restaurant was staring our way (since the television was hanging over our heads) as we cracked jokes as to why we thought it was ridiculous how people were responding to the Royal Wedding. Understanding we were foreigners, we tried our best to be sensitive and not be too loud, but browsing facebook and seeing the comments online, we couldn’t help to join in on the conversation. The idea that people had “hope” in love because of the wedding was quite absurd and disturbing. Zach passed out and I got to work. Rich, the founder and president of Spark Ventures met us there. We wrapped up a few more details and headed to our terminal. I passed out on the plane, waking up 3 hours later and realizing we were still sitting at the airport. i quickly put on my default comfort album and tried my best to ignore the fact that I was still sitting in the same place. I have a very difficult time being in the same place doing nothing for so long. I pulled out a book that a friend of mine gifted me prior to my departure. The book was an easy read and kept me happy and alive till finally we took off. At this point, it was understood that we were going to be spending the night in Johanesburg. Upon our arrival, after solidifying a few travel details for the following day, I texted back and forth with a friend from Joberg and made arrangements for her and her sister to pick us up and accompany us for the evening. Our hotel was called “Emperors Palace”, a slight replica of the Las Vegas famous “Ceasars Palace”. Flashbacks of my Las Vegas days quickly kicked in. The structure, layout and style of the resort mirrored my days of late nights hitting the craps tables and feeling sad for people who were smoking, drinking and glued to their slot machines. Our late lunch consisted of Nandos. A famous African favorite. Chicken drenched in your Nando sauce of choice with a side. I had the half chicken in the Peri Peri sauce (an extremely spicy sauce). After lunch Rich got some work done, Paul ( a member of Spark Ventures) took a nap, Zach opted out for a massage and I headed to the lobby to finish up some work and wait for our South African friends to pick us up for the evening. Our SA friends pulled through. We caught up and waited for Zach to be done with his pampering. We headed into the city. Over drinks and dinner we laughed, caught up, shared stories and talked about things that mattered to us. Zach and I were so tired and jet lagged, we called it an early night and headed back to our hotel. The following morning we dealt with more reservation issues. Eventually a rep from South African Airlines showed us his customer service skills and made sure we were taken care of. The one thing I must admit to is the following, though I always have issues when traveling in and through Africa, South African Airlines has great customer service. I have numerous accounts of feeling alone and stuck and having a rep hold my hand and make sure I made my flight.
Friends