documentary

dear all!

how is everybody??!
hope you are all doing well? i am sorry it took me a long time since my last post. some people are good, some people are bad...some people want to help, some people just want to destroy and are fine if just no one has a better life... some people do some things... life is not always easy, but thats the same everywhere in the world. and of course especially in the place where i live many people are struggeling...so sometimes i have to struggle as well - what ever!

i am fine. work is fine. all children are well, all projects we do are moving on fine - we can be happy!

i want to introduce something to you what i do in my free time, what i do a bit during my worktime since my employer gave me some days off work to do it - and for the rest of the time i take my holiday to do it!

i am part of an NGO called chakcorleansheritagefoundation (COHF). the aim is to document african history. right now the NGO is working in the north of ghana, and we are shooting a documentry about naa gbewa, who was a former king in northern ghana. his kingdom fell apart because he sent his children to various sectors in the kingdom to settle. these days there are some conflicts between people who actually used to be one.
we belive that people have to know their past to get a better future. so the short term aim of the documentary is to educate the people where they are from, to bring unity and peace into northern ghana.

after the documentary is shot we want to launch it in accra, it will be shown in the cinemas in ghana, burkina faso and togo (the kingdom was in all these countries, so we go there to interview people), there will be charity events like concerts and football mtches - and then it sould be launched also in other parts of the world, probably first in europe.

besides education people the long term aim is to raise enough funds to build a university in the north of ghana. we hope to get good cooperations with the cinemas so that we can use the money from selling the tickets to build the university.

we have a lot of support in ghana, many people are so interested. we meet chiefs, kings,...everybody is happy to recieve us. i have met now the most important kind, nayiri, twice - many of my employees, who are local in his kingdom, have never had the chance to meet him. we have his support, also in form of a letter which we show to other people...

...yesterday some people from national TV in ghana approached us and said that they want to shoot something about us for the national evening news!!! can u imagine?!

so i belive we can be really successful, insha allah!

just see some pictures from our first shots!!!

first shots in guabuligas library

first we had to learn how to really shoot a good interview - so we had to do some test shootings. the picture you see is the library in guabuliga - run by the NGO i am working for!

we shot some outside scenes - here at a very important wall in nalerigu

at the king in nalerigu, nayiri, with our camera people in the back

as i said, we meet so many people which "normal" people can not meet. so it is highly interesting for me! and even great for my job, because the more i know about the culture, the more people i know, the easier my job becomes and the better i can perform!

some tree

lisi, who is responsible for the master camera

pascal, responsible for the sound - and he is shooting our "behind the scenes"

the team

at naa gbewas shrine in pusiga - the first interview we shot with the shrine attendant

afterwards we were invited for some pito, local alcohol

pusigas (kusasi) chief getting ready for the interview

a goat eating the left overs of tuo zafi:a local delicay

interview with a person of the mamprusi regents family in bawku

oranges in bawku

at kusasi chiefs place in bawku

the chief has to live with military and police protection

as mentionned before, one of the short term goals of the documentary is to bring peace to the north

honourable   yamusah borrowed us his car - thanks a lot

the fire festival took place. it marks the beginning of new year for the people. the meaning of the festival is that the beloved son of naa gbewa got missing, and so the king and many people went outide with torches (burning straw) to look for the son.

children in guabuliga celebrating

guabuligas chief, sharing the fire

interview in my village! look how many people gather if we call!

after the interview with bimbilla chief

after we went to bimbilla we went to yendi - where by chance we met a fuction by NDC, the ruling party in ghana. mr. rawlings, the founder of the party, a former president of ghana (and also a person who took power by force) was there. he is well respected by the ghanians...and it so happened that we really met him personally, as you can see. we also exchanged contact, and we are invited to visit him in accra!

with the former president

kuga naa is ariving

at ya naa's palace in yendi

from yendi we went to tamale, and via damango (where we wanted to interview the king, but could not - we will return!) to wa, where we interviewed the chief there.

the palace in wa

after all this our car spoilt, and we were verry lucky it spoilt in a village after we drove for many hours withour seeing any village!

haha, the name of the guesthouse where we stayed! if you ever happen to sleep in chuchuliga - i recommend that place (its also the only place!)

i know you will not understand too much of what i wrote. i am sure we will produce a high quality documentary, and after everyone of you watched it you will understand better - if we do a good job! and if we do, one day there will be a university!

please, you can follow what the NGO is doing on

http://chakaorleans.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chaka-Orleans-Heritage-Foundation/304501569650306?ref=stream

if it is time for launching in europe, i will ask some of you for help - to get contacts to media people, to cinemas, musicians...thanks a lot in advance!!

and now something completely different:
i am living in a different continent - and i try to try different types of food. at a day i learned that some people here eat cat, and some eat dog. i said that i want to try both...so at a day some two weeks ago i found some people who just slaughtered a dog...so we ended up chewing dog! it was an interestig experience, but i do not like the taste at all to be honest. but i can also belive that you have it so much in mind that the meat you eat is dog, so that it is more dificult to enjoy! (in austria people do not eat dog - we rather consider them our friends, and instead of killing and enjoying them people cry and get depressed when their dogs pass away!).

this was the dog after slaughtering

when it was prepared

...and when it was eaten! with magdalena, a volunteer, and truly!

hope you are all doing well, and that you feel christmas is approaching.

here there is nothing like christmas feeling, in one shop i saw a christmas tree, but besides its just hot, dusty,... not really the temperature i am used for at christmas!

have a good time everybody, hope to hear from some of you soon,

best sevi