Be just a little scared
Meet Doba. Doba is a very serious man, and it took me about three days before he would let me take his picture, and then get an ussie
It was a few years ago when shooting in the DRC that we met, Doba was my bodyguard and my shadow whenever we left the exploration camp by vehicle. Mostly we travelled by helicopter to the drill sites, and the Geologists ‘fly camps’.
The drills used for exploration are very small and transported from site to site by helicopter. This was very important as it had multiple benefits
– fast to setup, breakdown, relocate and setup again
– small footprint
– no need to cut roads for the big drill rigs to get around, and most importantly
– no roads = no access for the loggers decimating the rain forest
Yes, yes, I know my hardhat is backwards; the front bit gets in the way of the camera. Same reason photographers wear their caps backwards too.
I’ll never forget the one day when Doba’s mobile phone started ringing, which was rare as he had it off most of the time. The ring tone was a piece of ‘orchestral type’ music, and I asked what it was. As Doba did not like to speak much, the company representative taking me around told me that it was the National Anthem of Zaire.
Doba is a very serious, and scary, man.
