Aminatta

Aminatta's aunt was a midwife at the hospital and one
of our neighbours. Aminatta loved to come and could
amuse herself for hours poking around our stuff. She
was particularly fascinated by our digital camera and
would frequently demand to be "snapped" (photographed)
or to "snap" her other young friends.

Alice at KDEC

Last week we filmed the students at KDEC performing
some cultural dances (see photo of dancers further
down this blog). Here is Alice filming them,
surrounded by a ring of curious onlookers.

Film screening

We showed our school film in one of the classrooms at
KDEC Primary school. There simply wasn't place for all
the pupils that wanted to see it and as you can see
the room was crammed full with pupils pushing for the
chance to catch a glimpse of themselves on the TV
screen.

Peter at the Riverside

One of the last scenes from the maternal health film
was shoot on this platform by the river. During first
few weeks in January the 'winter' and the Harmattan
wind hit Kambia which gave the skies this greyish
look.

Boogie in the school yard

For more than a month we have been waiting to go back
to one of the primary schools in Kambia town to do
some filming. Due to a national census that required
the assistance of thousands of teachers and the
Christmas holidays, pupils at all government schools
had been on leave since early December. Now, in
mid-January school activities are finally back in full
swing. We went back to KDEC school which we had
visited before and did some work on a film to be used
to establish a link between KDEC and Beech Green
Primary School in Gloucester, UK. One of the things we
filmed was a traditional dance performed by a group of
students. The pupils wore interesting costumes and did
a lot of singing and dancing, some of which was pretty
physically demanding, as you can see!

I am H-a-p-p-y because I am F-r-e-e

It was a real pleasure to return to KDEC and see the
pupils from class five and six pupils again. The last
time we were there we taught them two songs selected
by their fellow students in England. We were not sure
whether they would remember the songs at all when we
came to film them, but indeed they did. Without a
moments hesitation they performed "The Telephone Song"
and "Dr. Knickerbocker" with great spirit. The
students also sang two of their own songs; the song on
the blackboard in the photo was written by the
school's deputy headmaster, Mr. Swaray, which he said
he had written to thank God that he and his family
came out of the years of civil war alive.

Maila Sesay

Apart from the songs, we also interviewed five of the
students. Among the interviewees was nine year old
Maila Sesay. We asked her some of the questions that
the pupils at Beech Green had asked previously. Among
other things, the English students wanted to know what
she did after school. Maila answered that she fetched
water, cleaned the house, ate and played football with
her friends.

Going to the movies

After weeks of intensive work on our educational film,
we finally were able to take it for the first public
screening last week. We chose to go back to the town
and the village where we shot most of the film, to
show it to the communities there. It was a real relief
to see how much the enjoyed it, though to be honest we
had the upper hand. There is not much free
entertainment offered to the inhabitants of the bush,
so just the fact that you show up with a TV and a
video and want to show something for free is enough to
get the full attention of everybody from the smallest
girls to the village elders. We did two screenings
that day, the first in a local health clinic the
second in the open-air in the village of Bantomi. Each
time, around sixty people watched the film.

Keeping cool at Christmas

At the hospital in Kambia, the district medical team
and the local MSF Office celebrated Christmas by
throwing a party on the veranda of the hospital's
Under Five Clinic. Approximately 200 guests - staff
from the hospital and VIPs of Kambia Town - were
invited. We were entertained by speeches and a hour
long show performance by the hospital staff themselves
and local artists. The show included everything from a
drama on the early history of Sierra Leone to so
called "love dance"; three young guys with one of them
dressed up as a woman doing a very energetic dance to
a local hit.

As is often the case at these parties, the loud music
and cheerful atmosphere attract not only the invited
guests but also huge crowds of spectators, especially
local children who party themselves outside the party
venue. If they can, they sneak in to take part in the
dancing and see if they can grab leftovers of party
food and snacks from the paper plates that are left
behind by the party participants. The girl in the
photo took that opportunity on Christmas night and
also had a chance to flash her yellow plastic sunglasses.

Footballs and belleh women

The day before New Year's eve we shot one of the last
bits for the film. It's actually meant as the opening
scene of the film; a sequence where a small boy plays
with a football and imitates a 'belleh woman' (a
pregnant woman in the local Krio language) by putting
the football on his stomach under his t-shirt. Both
the boy and his fictive pregnant mother are people
from the neighbourhood next to the hospital, where we
stay. It took a couple of hours to get the scenes on
tape, so when we filmed at the local football pitch
the other football players became rather impatient as
they waited to get started with their scheduled
afternoon match.

Vulture's breakfast

The story repeats itself every morning, just around 8
AM. The relative morning calm of the hospital compound
is broken by a banging sound on the corrugated iron
roof. It sounds like someone's throwing stones up
there, but it isn't. It's the arrival of the vultures.
First they land on top of the house to examine the
backyards, where we and the neighbours are cooking
outdoors. If no dogs or human beings are around, they
spread their wings and land on the ground searching
for fish bones, pieces of meat or other leftovers from
yesterday's cooking.

They are alert, constantly turning their heads from
side to side, but surprisingly are not that shy. You
have to get quite close to them, before they
eventually take off into the trees nearby or back to
the safe haven of the roof. Perhaps they know that
around here people won't harm them. Israel, the actor
working with us on the film, told us that some people
in Sierra Leone believe that the vultures are their
dead ancestors and therefore should be treated with
respect. However, the vultures should take it too
easy, as in other parts of the country, especially in
the eastern border region near Liberia, people don't
let them jump around the cooking pots, but put them
in. The story goes, that if you travel in that part of
the country you can't be too sure that when you order
a chicken dish at a road side restaurant, you're lucky
to actually be served chicken!

Einkaufen gehen

The Germans are not famous for being the most
determined of colonialists. But somehow they have
managed to leave their footprints around the world,
often in the most unexpected of places. When we were
in Afghanistan we often wondered how on earth
completely run-down Mercedes busses with advertising
slogans such as "Modern Reisen" ever made it to the
most remote and dusty villages. In Barmoi, a
provincial town deep in the Sierra Leonean bush, where
only one man owns a car, again the German influence is
evident. We would have liked to go to the "MakroMarkt"
for a packet of schwarzbrot, but we couldn't find it.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from all of us here in Kambia!

Alice and Israel discuss a scene between filming takes

Over these past two weeks we've been shooting our film
on maternal health. We're based in the village of
Barmoi about an hour from Kambia town. To start with
the local people were really excited about it and we
had no problem recruiting actors and finding locations
for places to shoot. We have one professional actor,
Israel Davis (to the right in photo), working with us,
but all the rest are local people or staff from the
clinic.

The film is divided into two main stories with Israel
acting as narrator tying it all together. The first
story is about a wise woman who goes to a health
clinic for check ups and uses a trained birth
attendant (TBA) to assist her when she goes into
labour. The second is the opposite scenario, where a
foolish woman doesn't go to the clinic and uses an
untrained TBA to assist her which leads to a tragic
end.

On the whole they perform really well, but it is tough
going, especially in the heat. It's sometimes
difficult for them to remember their lines and what
they are supposed to be doing. Also every time we
start to film crowds gather to watch and it's quite a
chore to keep them quiet and to stop people wandering
into the picture, so we often have to retake scenes
several times.

Woman and her baby wait at the clinic

One of the scenes we shot at the clinic at Barmoi. We
filmed on a Friday morning where around 20 pregnant
women from nearby villages had gathered for an
ante-natal session. It was a pretty lively event, with
the clinic nurse teaching the women through song and
dance.

Peter photographs a village chief and his two wives

After we'd finished filming one day the nurses dragged
us along to visit the chief in a neighbouring village.
We weren't really sure why, until we got there, when
it became apparent that the chief wanted us to take
photos of him, his two wives and his enormous extended
family. It's funny that even though we tell them that
it might be hard for us to get photos back to them,
people are still desperate to have their photos taken.

Christmas

Here in Kambia there are very few signs that Christmas
is just days away. Ironically the only place with
Christmas decorations is Hassan's shop. It doesn't
seem to matter that he's not even Christian, just a
good excuse for a bit of fun. He's even managed to
find a mini plastic Christmas tree, which he's proudly
displayed on top of a few crates of coke. We were
visited by a few merry carol singers from the Catholic
Women's Group singing a lively version of 'Hark the
Herald Angels' last night, though apart from them the
only carols we've heard are on the Voice of America
radio station. The hospital management team are
planning a big party for Christmas Day with food,
cultural shows and songs, so at least we won't be
completely without a little festivity. Somehow don't
think there'll be any mince pies!

Henry's Family

Henry (centre) is a volunteer nurse at the hospital.
He translated for us from English to Krio when we were
filming his pregnant neighbour and we took this photo
of him and his family. His wife is a trained
Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) who also works as a
volunteer at the hospital. Volunteers are not on the
official government payroll, but are paid a little
when there is any money around from patients' fees.

Under 5's Clinic

A busy morning at one of the clinics. These mothers
have brought their children to be vaccinated.

I want to be a Millionaire

Don't we all!

Run Belleh

Some of the health messages used at the clinics are
quite amusing. This one doesn't leave any doubt as to
what it's about. The message above it read:

Diarrhoea (Run Belleh) is the passing of more than
three watery stools per day and it can kill.

Take note!

Students participate in photo project

Peter (in the middle) with Ibrahim Bangura and
Hassanatu Bah, students from Kolenten Secondary School
in Kambia. Ibrahim and Hassanatu are participating in
our photo project. Over the next couple of weeks they
will use cameras to document their daily life in
Kambia town.

Interview for the film project

Alice (left) interviews Kadiatu Bangura who is
pregnant for the second time. On Thursday she came to
the hospital in Kambia for ante-natal check-up. She
walked three miles on her own to reach the hospital.