sam sanchez

Nov 22

one thing i have a horrible time with is … time.

i missed my flight from la to atlanta to johannesburg to manzini and paid the consequences on other levels, but long story short my trip go rerouted and i had an 11 hour layover in paris. being the person who i am, roaming around alone in a city like paris was probably a very good remedy for my soul.

though i was re routed, my gear wasnt. now i gotta figure out how im going to get my gear from south africa, cause i will be in swaziland. shoot me. if you arent up to date with what im working on, check out www.thirstproject.org. they build wells and make people happy, you should support them!

May 22

here is a young man we met, who was born and raised int the town. 60 years old.

this video doesnt do justice to the 5 minutes before this event, we were slipping off the side of the road which could have caused potential death. it was super scary, but we survived.

May 19

Today we visited a new town. The people there, of course, were extremely welcoming. They cooked and smiled and shared stories. After, we walked around and hung out a little more. One of the many things I enjoy about other cultures is the pace of life. In the states we are quick to “keep going”. We never have time for anything other than our personal agenda. Maybe if our personal agenda was simply to relax, we’d enjoy life a little more.

Today I enjoyed life. I talked about history and why people are the way they are. It was relaxing, it was educational and it was entertaining. Here is a couple we visited. They opened their home to us and made us feel like we were part of the family. Not in a super nice way, they just let us be.

Unfortunately we had to leave. He was dissapointed we couldnt see his cows. We told him, “manana regresamos!”

And so we will, tomorrow we will return.

May 18

Sunday we arrived to Gracias De Lempiras in Honduras. We spent the day walking around looking for shots, getting to know our neighborhood. Little did we know we would be driving 2 hours out every morning at 630 am.

To get our blood flowing again, we jumped the fence to this old Catholic church where we saw a group of boys playing soccer. Immediately we put our cameras down and asked if they were willing to go against us, they agreed. They won, 4 to 5.

Its been a while since I enjoyed kids in another country. Im usually hiding behind a camera and dont like to interact with kids knowing I would never see them again. This time was different. I had a couple friends working on this project and so the next day pressures were not on me. I also felt no pressure to even have to be friendly. I was not with any organization where the kids expected us to play with them. It was just a few americans, walking around the neighborhood, jumping in a game of soccer. It felt right. It happened organically.

It also helped that I knew spanish.

In general I kept asking myself this question, ”why is it easier for me to get engaged with people when I am in another country?”

Apr 23

Here’s a project we shot a couple months ago. We never thought shooting a video on text books would have been fun. Our friends over at One Smooth Stone brought us on board to shoot this.