The Landing

February 26, 2007

It is 4:20 p.m. South African time when we land at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and Juanita shouts in celebration.

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!”

The rest of us are just as enthusiastic but we’re still in morning mode. It is 9:20 a.m. in the U.S. and it is taking a minute for some of us to get adjusted to the fact that in South Africa it is nearly night.

Harold Cook, a seasoned traveler who has escorted hundreds on international travel helped us navigate our way through customs, change our dollars to South African rand and rent cell phones that those of us on a limited budget dare not make out-of-country calls on. An hour later we are all loaded and boarded on the small bus that Juanita has rented for the week that we will be here.

“We are at home. I feel it,” says Roy as he snaps pictures of city scenes along the way to our hotel. I feel like I’ve been coming to this place for a long time.
We arrive in the suburb of Rosebank where we will be staying at a hotel of the same name. The Rosebank Hotel is where the acclaimed African American journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault stayed when she first covered South Africa during apartheid while working as a correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Charlayne whose civil rights era claim to fame was her role as being the first black woman to attend the University of Georgia, now lives in South Africa and is a special correspondent for National Public Radio. We’re hoping that we’ll see her during our stay.

There is not much time to settle before we are out again for dinner. It will be our only activity for the evening since we will be getting an early start in the morning.

Juanita treats us to dinner at Moyo’s, a trendy restaurant located in the suburb of Melrose. We were seated in a cavernous dining room with a heavy Moroccan theme. Most of us decided to do as the Romans do and order something outside of our comfort zone. We sampled exotic dishes with names that I could not pronounce and cannot spell. No problem identifying Derrick’s dish. Not quite ready to make the transition to international cuisine, he ordered French fries.

Before dining Juanita offers a toast. “Here’s to coming back home,” she says as she walks around the table to clink glasses with each member of her on-the-road family and ‘documentary dream team.’

Visit: http://www.randomactsfoundation.com/story.htm

Watch: http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/randomacts.htm

The Take Off

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Juanita and her crew arrive at Dulles International Airport by 2:50 p.m. instead of 1 p.m. as she had originally planned. It was snowing heavily and the roads were bad which was largely the reason for the delayed arrival. But we were still hours early for our evening flight. There were 15 of us who assembled in the lobby area near the South African Airways reservations desk. Ten of us would accompany Juanita to Africa. The others came to the airport assist with last minute matters and to say farewell.

Juanita is dressed for comfort for the 15 hour trip. She is wearing black slacks and black sweatshirt with BZB – her nickname and business logo printed in gold letters on the front. Her locks peek from a multicolored floppy hat.
We spend about an hour in the lobby securing and weighing luggage, getting our flight tickets and passports in order and saying goodbyes before heading for Gate B-32.

Juanita gathers everyone to pose for a group shot and leads us in a smile-for-the-photo chant. “One, two, three Random Acts,” we shout in unison as Roy Lewis our group’s lead photographer takes the picture.

It’s real, it’s real,” squeals Beverly Johnson, Juanita’s longtime friend and project advisor who is can no longer stifle her excitement about taking her first trip to Africa. Along with being a boutique owner, Beverly is a charter school administrator who hopes to establish a partnership with a school in South Africa.

Everyone passes through the security without incident. That is everyone except me. I am the recording journalist on this trip and when I walked through, the alarm went off. The rest of the group had to wait for 15 minutes as I did the checkpoint cha cha with security officials. They scanned my body with a wand, patted me down in select places and checked my carry on bags before letting me go. It was my body jewelry and hair ornaments that set the alarm off.
We purchased last minute travel items before boarding the shuttle that will take us to the plane.

The Airbus A340-600, that would transport us to South Africa was massive. Beverly and Roy called it the “Rolls Royce.” It turned out that it was more than a nickname. Juanita noticed that “Rolls Royce” is the actual name of the plane’s engine. The plane seats 317 passengers and there were only 129 traveling on this flight. That meant there would be plenty of room for us to stretch out. After sitting for an hour while the maintenance crew de-iced the plane, we finally take off at 6:20 p.m.

It will be a 15-hour flight and we pass the time eating, reading, listening to music, watching videos, visiting, writing and contemplating what lies ahead in this unique excursion to The Motherland.

When Juanita is settled in I ask her what possessed her to do this project. “God told me to,” she said. “My spirituality and my inner consciousness talked to me. Since I had the dream I’ve been on a mission to make it happen.”

Visit: http://www.randomactsfoundation.com/story.htm

Watch: http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/randomacts.htm

The Trip

February 25 – March 11, 2007
South Africa, Swaziland, Senegal

JUANITA’S DOCUMENTARY DREAM TEAM
On the road:
Juanita Britton - Random Acts founder
Linda Jones - recording journalist
Robin Adams - producer/project manager
Danielle Koon - assistant producer
Telvin Walker, 12 - protégée
Beverly. B. Johnson - advisor
Roy Lewis - photographer
Harold Cook - attorney/travel advisor
Derek Whitefield - videographer
N’Dieye Gray Danavall - filmmaker
Will Hall - advisor
Harold Cook - attorney, travel advisor

At Home Crew
Onai Sanyangare - pssistant producer
Vernard Gray - webmaster
Lasheema Watson - researcher/logistics writer
James Rowland -Writer

Visit: http://www.randomactsfoundation.com/story.htm

Watch: http://www.ibroadcasts.tv/randomacts.htm