And so we moved into the final week of the project. Time on the project had gone so fast with so much to do and
so many new experiences.
We knew the final week of the project was going to be
majorly full-on, so on Sunday Kasia and I went to the Labadi Beach hotel for
the day to relax by the pool and chill a little in preparation for the ensuing
mayhem. We had a delicious lunch (with
cheese! And coconut juice!) and had a
lovely time swimming, sketching, listening to music and watching the lizards
run around.
The epic editing task had started by the beginning of the week, which as expected ran massively over time with lots of technical glitches. Everyone worked really hard and in the end the films were edited, rendered and burned on to DVD in time (just!) for the final show on Friday.
This week Frank on the team had pulled off the coup of
getting Accra’s only multiplex cinema to put a free showing of a film on for
all of the children on the project. This
was a big deal as many of them head never been to the mall, let alone a big cinema before, and as
we were all working on a film-making project we felt like this would be a great
reward for all of their hard work. So, early on Tuesday morning, the
children were ferried from the school to the cinema (in the Accra Mall) in
shifts in our Trotro, and when they got into the mall were really awed and so
well-behaved. They loved the film
(Despicable Me 2) – giving a running commentary and clapping at key moments
throughout . Even more exciting than the
film though were the toilet facilities.
This was the first experience for some of the children of soap
dispensers and hand dryers, and when they worked out how to use them they were mesmerised.
Isaac carrying lots of very heavy cardboard the Ghanaian way
Then we worked out with the children which animals they would like to draw on a large scale to decorate the set. Some choices were a surprise!
The week flew past, and suddenly it was Friday. We were still battling against the clock to get the films ready for burning onto DVD, and Gonzo, Setri and Isaac spent all day at the show venue setting up the stage, chairs, lighting, sound and decorations. Meanwhile Kyekyeku and I went on the GBC national radio breakfast show, to talk about the project and Akosia, which was a really fun experience.
The last session of the project at the Street Academy finished with us giving all of the children a school pack, containing all sorts of goodies like books, pencils and pens, to use in the next school year.
Suddenly we were leaving the school for the last time, hot-footing it across town to get changed and pick up equipment to take to the venue to finish setting up before the final show actually began. The stage looked amazing and the space gradually started filling up with the audience as darkness fell.
The programme started with some performances from the children and some of the volunteers. The children are amazingly talented dancers, singers, comedians and acrobats, and they performed some amazing acts. Kyekyeku, the children and I also performed the song 'Madamfo' (Ga for 'my friend') which was the theme song Kyekyeku had written for the two films.
