Time's Up!

The last few days in Ghana were full of getting in my last bits of culture, food, and saying goodbye to all the people I got to meet while I was there. After the screening, we said our goodbyes to the kids that we got to work with. One kid in particular, Nicholas, was sad all day because he knew it was the last day to see us all, and anytime he would see me, he'd just look up at me and say, "Forever?" All I could tell him was hopefully not, and that I'm glad we all got to meet each other. But it's great to see the impact we had hanging out with these kids for just a month. 

The last day came and went by super quickly and before I knew it, I was off to the airport. Just like when I arrived, there was no fancy tunnel that connected the gate to the airplane door. Instead, I boarded a shuttle bus that took me to one of the several planes ready for boarding on the tarmac, I got off the bus, and approached the Delta plane. I had a slight Macaulay Culkin à la Home Alone 2 moment where I wondered if I walked towards the plane headed for somewhere other than New York, like Casablanca or Dakar. But I did manage to find my plane, take my last steps on African soil, and head up the stairs to the cabin door.

On the plane, I sat next to an older woman who I think was experiencing her first plane ride ever and first excursion out of Ghana. She barely spoke English, had to have me help her with the seat belt, and have a fellow passenger help her fill out her immigration documents. As I was ending my adventure in Ghana, I thought how exciting it must be for her to just be starting her adventure to somewhere new. 

And soon after, the plane lifted off the ground and I was left with a beautiful view of the African coastline at night while listening to my new playlist of Ghanaian popular music. Eleven hours later, I was greeted in New York City by some muggy weather and a bit of culture shock. The first things I did were get a freshly-brewed iced coffee, take a hot shower, and do laundry by machine. These were just some of the conveniences I wasn't able to have since July.

Being in Ghana and working with Akosia was an awesome experience that I would definitely do again. I got to get acclimated to a completely new place, meet some great people from all around the world, and do film work with some amazingly-talented kids. And in the under two weeks that I have been back in the States, I can't stop talking about it... I came back with some awesome experiences, memories, and some great sneakers...

For anyone interested in doing a project like this, check out the Akosia website for some more information (http://www.akosia.org/). Or you can always ask me more about it! To my loyal followers, thank you for checking out this blog, and I am sure that there will be plenty more to come in the future. I have one in the works, movieswithoutborders.blogspot.com, so be sure to check that our in the coming months!

Akosia Film Festival!

This past Friday was the event that we had all been waiting for… the final film screening for the kids’ two films, The Friendship Bracelets and The Four Friends and the Golden Aluguitugui (I will post links as soon as they become available). The screening was a huge success and drew in tons of kids from the local community. Before the screening of the actual films, there were live performances done by a few of the volunteers and the kids themselves.

The kids had a lot of preparation to do before the big event. They helped out with the set decoration by drawing animals on cardboard that were cut out, painted, and hung up in front of the stage. They also prepared some acts to perform. There were a lot of kids who sang and danced to popular songs in Ghana, a few who rapped, three kids who created and performed a very complicated skit, and a crazy acrobatics show. 

When we saw the acrobatics group practice during their rehearsal, they did things like back flips and cartwheels. While on stage, they did much more than that. They were dressed in crazy costumes & make-up and did things that took amazing balance, such as balancing while standing on someone's head and things like that. At one point in the act, the boys lit these sticks on fire, and one of the older boys, Prince, picked them up. It was right here that I learned Prince could eat fire. Who knew?

After all the performances came the film screenings. This was the first time I got to see the final projects and they looked great. All the locations that were used in the film are very familiar to everyone, so it was really cool to see something like a patch of trees being used as an evil forest in which skeletons and ghosts are all around. The kids really enjoyed seeing themselves on the big screen and how all of their hard work paid off.

And what better way was there to wrap up this event that with an impromptu dance party? The kids and volunteers all stayed at the event until we got kicked out of the venue to continue the party and do all the dances that the kids had been teaching us for the past few weeks.

Field Trippin'

Graffiti photoshoot with Nicholas & Elizabeth!

Yesterday, the kids got to go on their first field trip with us for a free screening of Despicable Me 2 that was generously shown just to us by the local movie theater at the mall. The mall was pretty much like any other theater that I’ve been to, complete with stadium seating and a slightly overpriced popcorn stand. For some of the kids, it was their first trip to a movie theater, so I imagine the big screen left quite the impression. They also clapped whenever the good guys came out on top over the bad guys. While the theater experience itself was exciting, there was one other place that was really exciting for the kids… the bathroom.

Bathrooms are one of the things on my list that I will really appreciate when I get back to the States. There are some typical restrooms and there are also some places that are literally just floors. The floors are the most common/only bathrooms the kids use, so they were having a field day in these public ones (and the attendant wasn’t too happy). They were amazed at the liquid soap and how the hand dryer worked. As I was sitting trying to pay attention to the movie, I was wondering what these kids could have possible drank to run to the loo so many times because the slushie machine was out of ice (I tried to buy one and was kindly declined). Apparently, they just wanted to keep washing and drying their hands.

Reservoir at our house

Besides the foods I am adjusting to (I have somehow managed to consume 9 hamburgers and 13 servings of French fries thus far), there are many other things that have taken some time to get used to. Public works in most of the city don't seem to be at the top of the government's to-do list (but things are starting to change), so things like running water are hard to come by. At the school, there is a reservoir of water, about 5 feet or so tall, to use very sparingly for washing dishes (there is even a key!). Drinking bagged water was easy to get used to, and even easier knowing that you can buy a huge bag for less than $1 USD that will last 8 people an entire day.



One thing about living in Accra is the constant noise of roosters, honking cars, and music. But not even one hour outside of the city is an awesome botanical garden. For under $6 round trip, another volunteer and I, Lauren, ventured out to Aburi for a day. Within a few minutes, we were up in the mountains that overlooked the metropolis. And when we finally reached the gardens, there was peace and quiet... the only noise you could hear was that of crickets and me sipping my Coca-Cola. There was also a lot of cool fauna and this HUGE tree that is the park's oldest (at 150 years old).

The Aburi Botanical Gardens is probably the closest that you will get to a park in this city... unlike most of the other places I have been to, there is no "central park" to go to and the greenery can only been seen on the ride on the way out. And the peace & quiet was great preparation for the final week (!) of the Akosia project.

Live from the Set!

On Friday afternoon, the two groups wrapped their films. Working with these two groups proved to be quite exhausting and challenging, and it felt like I was back in college shooting a project at about 20 times the intensity. Part of my job on this project is to make sure that the daily schedules get followed, and this is especially important to do when you have a limited time to get footage shot. When you're shooting a project with people your own age, people listen and know that they need to get things done. When you're shooting a project with at least ten kids whose first language is not English, they get distracted easily, and they have never made a film before, it makes for a tough day. But in the end, the kids pulled through all with amazing performances and work, and I can't wait to see what the final projects will look like at the screening this coming Friday.

The film scripted by the Mangoes, The Friendship Bracelets, is about a group of friends who all share bracelets that symbolize their friendship. One of the characters, Nii, becomes jealous of the friendship shared by the girls and convinces Kofi to steal one of their bracelets. The girls turn on her because she isn't wearing her bracelet, a deal breaker, until they learn that she never intentionally took it off. Nii learns that what he did is bad, apologizes, and the group all becomes friends once again.

One of my favorite scenes in the Mangoes' project is the end scene (in the style of Bollywood) complete with song and dance. Since these kids love to randomly break out in song, having music in their movie was a must. We shot this scene on the beach featuring all the Team Mango members. On the way there, I had the best tro-tro ride to date... the entire time they sang and clapped getting ready for their on-screen debuts. 

One of my other favorite scenes was shot at a nearby park. There, one of the characters is visited by two ghosts who advise him to give back the stolen bracelet. The two ghosts, Joseph and Patrick, delivered hilarious performances while hanging from a tree and were able to memorize and recite a few nice blocks of dialogue.

Not only did we get to teach the kids what working on a film set is like, but I also got to learn attempt to learn some acrobatic tricks. Razak, who plays Nii (sitting under the tree with the ghosts in it), attempted to teach me some gymnast/break dance moves. "Doing" one trick, I almost fell flat on my face (good thing my shoulder was there to catch me), but redeemed myself when I demonstrated that I could do a bridge and a cartwheel. A few of these kids are really good at doing acrobatics, so they were able to incorporate that into the film a bit.

As of tomorrow, editing on The Friendship Bracelets and the Coconuts' project (title pending) will be starting (so make sure to check IMDb for updates... just kidding). There is still plenty of music and some spoken word art to be added in to make this a very Ghanaian film.

 

The Production Phase...

This past weekend was the first time we really got out of the city of Accra for more than a few hours. We got to ride on a semi-coach bus with a view obstructed by a bath tub (yes, a bath tub. Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to buy one in Accra and transport it for two hours on public transportation). After three hours or so due to traffic, we arrived in Cape Coast, a neat little town on the ocean. Two of the main things to see there are Kakum National Park and the Cape Coast Castle.

The Cape Coast Castle is a cool fortress-like building but really marred and ugly once you learn its historical past. This castle is one of the ones that was used to send slaves over to the Americas during the triangular trade. The whole coast of Ghana is lined with these forts, reminding people of the evils of history.

Kakum National Park is known for its wildlife, but mostly the famous canopy walk. You are about 40 meters (or 130 feet) above the trees on these planks of wood held steady by steel ladders and suspended by ropes and steel cables. It is a very rickety walk, but an awesome view of the jungle. There wasn't much wildlife to see besides butterflies and lizards in the park at the time, but somewhere there are over 50 elephants roaming around the park!


Back in Accra... After two weeks of working with these kids, they are finally ready to shoot their first short films. One group, Coconuts, has a Ghana meets The Goonies storyline, and the other group, Mangoes, has a story about friendship that would be a great addition to the Disney Channel's original movie catalog. The concepts and elements of the films were created by the kids with the help of all of the volunteers, as well as the costumes, props and other production design elements.


I worked with the Mangoes, the first group to shoot. We shot at two different locations, a school that is out of session for the summer and the volunteer house. Throughout the day, we shot five out of eleven scenes... Not bad for amateur film makers! The one crew member we were missing was the intern to run and get us all some Starbucks (or instant coffee because this is Ghana). But by the end of the week, the kids will have enough footage to make two ten-minute films...

Ishmael directing three of the principle characters

History 101

I’ve already been in Ghana for two full weeks which is pretty hard to believe, but there is still so much to do and see. I have been able to fit in some tourism here and there, and tomorrow I am off for a weekend trip to Cape Coast to do the famous canopy walk and see one of the forts that was used in the colonial-era slave trade.

Elliot, one of the Ghanaian volunteers who helps run the
project and is our on-call tour guide extraordinaire

Before coming here, Ghanaian history wasn’t something that I knew very much about since we never learn about it in history class, but even after doing some Wikipedia-ing and visiting the National Museum, it is still a very complex place. But this is definitely the first place I’ve been to where you can dramatically see the effects, some good and some bad, of rapid Westernization. 

 

One of the important landmarks that I’ve seen here is a l’Arc de Triomphe look-a-like in Independence Square. Ghana was under European influence for hundreds of years, but it was most recently a British colony known as the Gold Coast up until 1957. The Independence Arch was built and people symbolically walked under it to mark the transition from colonialism to independence. And you can definitely see the Ghanaian pride just walking around… all the cabs have Ghanaian flags and the color scheme on many buildings and structures is red, yellow, and green. 

Ghana also has a huge music scene, which was a must to witness on my to-do list, and so far, I have seen five shows with many more in the works. From what I’ve heard so far, there is your rap-reggae-African drum blend of music, some rock music, and also a lot of spoken word art (which is essentially doing poetry with a beat behind you). I’ve collected a playlist of over 40 songs with no end in sight. And music is also very important to the kids we are working with… any given opportunity they have, they will dance or play some kind of musical instrument. So for the final film project screening, we will also be putting on a concert while we show the student-made films... more to come!