Vienetta

Today was actually lucky. I found this treat in the store. I asked the price and they said it was expired. I exclaimed. I begged and pleaded. They laughed and said I would get sick. They could see it in my eyes, I was deadly serious and not leaving without it. Finally the big boss lady said ok and this little piggy ran all the way home. It was a little freezer burned and I shared it with one person and it was sublime. Flavor Brownie. I need not say more. I am speechless.

*Action*

So here we are. It's about August. We want to shoot October-November. We need money honey. I am writing a Pepfar proposal for the making and showing. But the big money- the one for the film stuff- it's not enough... sooo... I was thinking to set up something where people can buy DVDs of the short.. and there's gotta be another way of raising it too. So let's think it up. Get up to speed aaaaand aaaaaction.

http://kayayoo.blogspot.com/

KAYAYO SHORT Part 1 & 2

The F word.

Feature Film?

They watched the short one and said it should be longer. So, if I am applying for a grant and why not make it real? Seriously, celluloid. If I can get some help. I'm working on the details. But we better hurry up. Trying to get this shot and edited a little by December so we can go to the Burkina Faso Film Fest in February. And take a side trip to see their circus.

We just finished subtitling! I am impressed with our 22 minute cut. I thought it'd be much longer.
There is no translation for Naa. It's just a response to everything.

The Curse on The Generator

e were editing every night at a friends Video Show. Feeling seriously productive for a change... when... someone cursed the generator. Why? No one knows but the curse has been confirmed by an elder who didn't want to get involved in the Why. The word is that this Generator must be traded since it will never-work-here-again. But even after the trade they don't want to use it here. What will we do? It makes me question it all...

But guess what - I got a text message while at the art show. "Thank god we got a generator. When are you coming?"

Update: They have a new generator. Video shows are back on to every ones elated cries- and they have competition. Which is why the generator was cursed. The curser has started his own video show. It's only a matter of time before he can get enough chickens to make another curse...

Deaf Dreams of Art

June 28-July 6

Some may recall the day I heard that I wasn't going to be an art-teacher-of-the-deaf as my job in Peace Corps. It was a sad day.

The past two weeks I pretended I was one. I also taped a whole lot. I must must edit.

I just returned from the annual Art Show- this year at Cape Coast School for the Deaf. Every PC Art Teacher brings 2 students (of which there are 6 -all at Deaf Schools at present.) Cape Coast is one of my new favorite places with its decrepit old buildings and littered beautiful ocean.

Kari, my good friend teaching near me at Savelugu School for the Deaf unfortunately fell ill so I took her students down down this country- (though I intended to go to make The Video anyhow). Before leaving I spent a bunch of days with her students so they wouldn't freak out when traveling with a stranger who doesn't know sign language - and I taught the 2 lucky ones to "Dance A Painting," from which I made a small video.

To understand the video you must also realize that the talented students here are being taught to do drumming in dancing for 2 hours every afternoon by a professional from the Tamale Cultural Dance Troupe (Kari & Nash set this up). It's quite exciting - they are getting good and will some day come to a Theater Near You...

Seriously. I will edit.
Featuring 12 Deaf kids between ages 12-19, Six Peace Corps V. teachers, an Art Show with work from each school, The Ocean, SilkScreening T-Shirts &anything else you happen to be wearing, a lot of Meals where everyone got Fat, Blind Kids Singing and playing Soccer, Batiking, Kakum Canopy Walk where one girl is very scared, and Fireworks in the Rain.

Right now I am preparing my return to Voggu & my divorce from my two pseudo kids. I'll visit them. Maybe even teach a little.

For the Love of Cheese

I have started making cheese. Starting with fresh and soft we have attempted Mozzerella and Bondon. Lactic Cheese will be ready in the morning. Apparently good on crepes.

I got a kit. Thank you papa! It has two cultures for soft + hard cheeses and rennet tablets. Plus the needed cheesecloth. A friend going to France will pick up more Rennet... and we can multiply the Cultures ourselves.

So far I've confined my laboratory to the controlled environment of the Peace Corps Tamale Sub-office where there is a refrigerator, stainless steel and other enthusiasts.

In fact my imagination has created a future cheese cave, herd of goats, cows, and everyone as a cheese maker, including the Ghanaian guards. Endless supply. We'll have people of all sorts from far and wide trying to get there hands on a wedge of our unique recipes that we will create once we master the art. If you're lucky we will export.

So I've started graphing and making signs. I am detailing the subtleties of what makes each cheese it's own. Heating and cooling at different rates to varying degrees, pressing with certain amounts of weights, shaping to tasty sizes...

This week I am experimenting at home. Next Chapter- cheese made in warm temperatures...

"a cheese may disappoint. it may be dull, it may be naive, it may be over-sophisticated. yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality."-clifton fadiman (motivational excerpt from my cheesemaking textbook)

Barak-O

I heard it on BBC in the morning...and I felt somethin.
I'll vote from here & Excited to Be.
Do I smell tasty BarakO cookies in the future?
You add the sugar and I'll add the butter. We'll both beat.
Let's Bake and share.
Close your eyes and take the biggest bite...

Traveling Circus

So I had an epiphany the other day. Everything became clear and I was floating. As my cloud landed I realized it wasn't a dream. We can do this. It doesn't have to be my whole life future... instead of girls and boys traveling south for work how bout they join the circus?

We'll spread messages of young girls caught in the ropes... boys caught up with the girls and everyone caught up with the money for their farm or their bowls... and the sad donkey that works so hard (Alidu just got one and I am elated). Monkeys and Clowns who are dirty and clean house and build sanitation facilities that they can't figure out the reason for...

and elephants. (one can hope)
Mole National Park isn't actually that far...

Festival au Desert (Mali)

JAN 8,9,10th 2009
You should visit... This is a good time... Buy your plane ticket now...

HISTORY
Created in Jannuary 2001, the "festival au désert" is held every year in Essakane, two hours from Timbouctou in Mali.

This Festival seeks its origin in the big traditional Touareg festivities, as Takoubelt in Kidal and Temakannit in Tombouctou, which represented for long time a place for decision making and exchange of information among the different communities. At the beginning, there were songs and touareg dances, poetries, camel rides, games, etc.

Today, the Festival is opened to the external world and welcomes artists from other Malian regions, other African countries, but also from Europe and from the whole world.

During three days, around 30 artistic groups are invited from all around the world to present their art.

Due to the attention of the media and to the huge logistic effort that it is mobilizing, the Festival is now included among the Big Modern Festivals, though it maintains its traditional cultural aspects.

MAIN
http://www.festival-au-desert.org/
LISTEN
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2007/07/03/segments/81493
ARTICLE
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/07/malifestival200707

Is it a Hurricane? No, it's just "the Rain."

So it has rained a few times now. Today being one - and it's not just rain that comes, it's wind- and plenty of it. There is lightening and thunder too but wow that wind - it's like a hurricane! A part of my roof has actually blown off, a small part and not in my bedroom so it's ok - and it's supposedly getting fixed tomorrow.

I got a cold because I was still sleeping outside but that wind! It just about knocked me off the bed - well, the makeshift bed as mine had bed bugs (may-be scabies) - man, it was awful - but I got rid of them by pouring boiling water over my bed, washing the creases, leaving it in the sun, washing the sheets with treated stuff, and spraying the house with strong repellent. The procedure was rough and involved plenty of bites, sleeping on a row of chairs with a towel sheet- and cursing. But now how I appreciate my lovely bed and soft sheets! It makes me think about the wonders of whipped cream.

In-Service-Training

April 21-26

This was about a week of flashback to training but we all got to bring our counterparts so that was fun. We should have/could have had this at the beach but for some reason our organizer is tired of having it there!

We ate enough protein to last the year I think. Got to go swimming and stay in a fancy hotel room with fancy tile floors that feel nice under the feet. I jumped on the bed and did flips too (so I could get hungry then just for fun). I lost my beloved change purse I have had since I was 12 and admired the stylish front desk woman's short tie.

It was a great bonding experience with Abdulai and I think he got a lot out of it all. Not just swimming in a pool which he had never done and playing Marco Polo (he kept saying Michael Polo). Or seeing me drink beer, which in my village of muslims who don't drink I never let on that I did...

We interviewed him and he said that he thinks we were all put in the right communities and he is happy with his Peace Corps Volunteer- compared to the rest. Ok - so I asked him the question but I think it's true. And it's true for me too! We shared experiences and ideas. I got paler from all the sitting inside. We got a lot of papers on proposals we could write... and the small print.

The Rain is Coming, The Rain is Coming

Yea! I have a newly built Net for my veranda to keep all those nasty little bugs that would have eaten me away. Since I live in a corn field...

I will make a local fridge to make local cheese... and I will eat more vegatables.

Buddy Abdulai says I will die because no one will visit me or be able to do anything because everyone will be at farm. Haha. Can't wait! Some school kids will still be in school sometimes and I will finally Paint. Oh and I will buy a hoe for 2 bucks so I can try to farm though Abdulai again says I will die. It's just a jokey expression, don't fret.

Under Pressure

Today I was woken up on my veranda bed (it's so hot) and was suddenly asked to do something special for a visitor and Guinea Worm Soccer game for the afternoon. It was super - we put our little drama together, made costumes quickly, rehearsed and boom.

I was told I was horror & that I should never wash my face cause it was beautiful. I wore clown makeup with a few painted Guinea Worm wiggling on my face and had my hair in pigtails with pink clothed dangly arms & a polka dotted headband. I sat on My Buddy Abdulai's shoulders with a drawn cyclops on a sheet wrapped round us. We were the Monster Guinea Worm. A gun couldn't kill us but a filter could. Defeated I was carried off hanging upside down from a stick by the warriors.

This same morning found us finally on the first day of making the Guinea Worm video drama. Superstar is Alidu who is directing and it made him hungry! It takes longer than he thought... We are racing the rains cause they are coming.

Peas & Carrots

There are two families within the large Dagomba tribe here in my Northern Region. I call them Peas and Carrots. There is hardly a difference between them except there are more Peas and "naturally" they support opposite political parties.

My Buddy Abdulai is a Carrot and Superstar Alidu is a Pea. Hmmm... The plot thickens.

Something happened about a month ago when I met a certain man called Prince from Voggu here at a funeral who now works as an advisor to the President.

I knew some of his legend and that he was powerful and had built the health center (where bats live now), put up the electrical wires (nothing running yet), and my house. Naturally I thought maybe he could do more.

What I didn't know was that he is a controversial character. He's a carrot. He was a carrot in power when the pea Paramount Chief (of all Dagombas) was Murdered 4 years ago (power changes from Pea/Carrot after a chief's death). The crime is still unsolved.

This largely small incident woke me up to the reality of my insignificant significance. I will leave it at that. I will be going on a trip for the elections here later this year... yes.

Witches & Wizards Camp

I had the opportunity to go to one of the three in Ghana, all located in the Northern Region. It's a place where people who are decided to be witches are sent. It is believed they may be cured by the Fetish Priest. But even so the're likely not given a warm welcome home. I did some taping, some interviews. When asked why they are there they say Hate. It's a prison with invisible bars.

I asked Abdulai about witches. He said there was one in Voggu who killed his bestest friend. He had to leave the village for 3 months to get over it. He told me the story though he said I would have to see it to believe it.

Basically there are certain people in the village who "know" about witches. One of those people declared a meeting with all the women in the village and said that one person there was planning to kill a young man (at this point Abdulai said is this scaring you? - I said no) and if that person went through with it that they would be caught. That night Abdulais buddy got a headache, but they thought it just couldn't be him and that couldn't be a sign. But it was and then a few hours later he was dead. Totally dead.

So the next day all the women were called again and the man declared that the woman was not present. He went to her house and went into her sisters room - that is where she hid the juju, (living in the same house as the boy - his Aunt) there was a thing that he found in that room that no one else could have noticed. It was a strange looking thing with hair and human blood in it. There was also a tooth and a woven piece of rope like for catching a fish. The woman was sacked to Dalun, a fairly nearby village that has a body of water and a fetish priest. It is said that if the witch tries to kill again the water will kill her.

Bolgatanga "Live Art" Project

This was a neat 3 week workshop that just ended which is why I have been sooo busy. I mostly taught kids how to use the video camera for the documentary the Lotus Collective is producing - they will come back in a year to show it to the communities.. yea.

What we did was largely based on Augusto Boal's ideas (founder of Theater of the Oppressed) using his book Games for Actors & Non-Actors. (Late birthday gift anyone?)

Picture Slideshow
www.flickr.com/photos/camusartink/show/

Lotus Collective
www.lotoscollective.org.uk/

Celebrity

I read an article in Newsweek (we get those kinda weekly) by a recently turned Celebrity and I felt I could relate a lot to what she was saying. I walk around and people call my name, if I stop and talk they are happy. My closest friends are somewhat harassed and people think I give them nice things. There is a (language) barrier between most of us. Everyone knows my business or wants to know.

Watch HIV/ AIDS Video for Competition, 10 minutes