sevistravel: burkina faso, togo...and a happy new year!

see some pictures about the previous month!

on the 7th of december we had elections in ghana - this is how polling stations look in our village!

baobab trees

most of the time i was in my village working, but for some time we also went again for our documentary shoot.
since i live in a small village, and my work is a lot, i need to be able to have a strict line between work and free time. for this reason here on my blog i rather tell you about different happenings than my day to day business! if you are interested though, you can check out some of the things we do with the NGO i am working for on

http://braveaurora.blogspot.co.at/

http://www.braveaurora.com/

but now, see where we went for the documentary, and see some different pics!

after our interview in sandema

we also needed some shots with crocodiles...our 2 technicians in the picture

warriors in sandema

when they arrived and wanted to greet the chief, we head to finish our interview - tradition is very important here!

later the same day we went for an interview to tongo

magdalena, volunteer, found a friend!

still in tongo

during the interview people started to play the drums. we learned that a chief would be enskinned later on, and the drums were telling the chief we interviewd that the competitors have arrived. the people sitting down on the picture are competing for the skin (instead of a throne, chief sit on a skin in the north...and they are enskinned!)

just before christmas we went to burkina faso, to shoot some interviews. the reason is that the big kingdom the documentary is about used to cover a huge area - including half of burkina and some parts of togo. therefore it was necessary for us to travel - and i was even so happy, because in my job i was always too busy to travel like this.

the reason why parts of the former kingdom are in ghana, parts in burkina faso and a part in togo is the europeans, who came and did the dimacation of the land, decided togo and burkina should be french teretorry, while ghana should be "british". by today about 15.000 mamprusis live in togo, and in a big part of burkina are the mossi, whos origin is in ghana.
all this dimacation is the root of so many conflicts all over the continent of africa...one of the many things people did long time ago, then they left - but the conflicts stayed in the places.

different beers in burkina - my favourite was the "castle"!

entering burkina faso

in ouagadougou, burkina fasos capital city

a german truck

our sound technician, pasal, is an artist. he made a sketch of mirijam, and later of me...

with al hassan and fuseni (this is how male twins are called here - and in burkina!)

bus station

at te university of ouagadougou, where we interviewd an historian

our team

...eating

after ouagadougou we went to tenkodogo, where the first settlement from todays ghana was founded. here is the strong connection we want to prove

on neutral grounds austria played against ghana - and we won them easily!!!! respect to big j!!

street life in tenkodogo

burkinas money - the same they use in togo and i guess in amny other west african states

here efamily is different - thats my brother!!

loading a truck

filling station (petrol station)

in tenkodogo we found german beer... "... nach dem deutschen reinheitsgebot!!"

a beggar close to th border to ghana

an illegal gold mining village in burkina faso, close to the border

we returned on teh 24th of december to guabuliga, and thats where we celebrated christmas!

some days after christmas together with one of OUR employees i organized a football turnament in the village. it was quite good, but with some confusion in the end.