Going home...

So the project was over.  The next day after the concert felt surreal and emotional, with all the goodbyes fresh in our memories.  It felt strange not to have to refer to my to-do lists, and not to have to worry about budget money - like a huge weight of responsibility had been lifted from my shoulders.  It was hard to believe we wouldn't be going back to the Street Academy.

That Saturday Kasia and I travelled to Jamestown to take part in a walking tour run by the NGO 'Act For Change' - who had provided a couple of workshops for us during the project. They had just started running walking tours of the Jamestown district trying to give visitors an insight into this part of Accra that people often find difficult to access.  The tour, given by the lovely Nii, was really interesting and covered lots of different religious, cultural and historical aspects of Ga life - and it gave us a new insight into the area which we had been working in for the whole project: the area where the majority of the children live.  We visited a shrine, a traditional housing complex, and then made our way down to the old harbour.

The view across to the harbour

We saw the traditional boats being carved out of a single tree trunk (although Nii told us how now they are making them out of fibreglass to try to help combat deforestation). We smelled fish air-drying on the pier (pungent!) and best of all, we bumped into some of the children from the project who live next to the harbour.  Actually as we walked around Jamestown that day we saw loads of the children, each time accompanied by lots of joyful shouting (from both sides!) and hugs.

After the tour we headed back to Osu for an end-of-project celebratory meal with all of the volunteers - both Ghanaian and international.  We all brought food along, the most delicious being a dish called 'Kelewele' cooked by Anita - deep fried plantain spiced with chilli and ginger.  Yum!

Our last couple of days were really a blur - thinking about buying presents for people back home, thinking about packing and travel plans, and saying sad goodbyes to those others of the team who were leaving before us.

On our last day, Kasia, Lauren and I travelled back to Jamestown to Mokola market for one last fabric-buying spree.  By this point we were beginning to be a bit afraid about exceeding our baggage allowance, so we tried to restrain ourselves (with difficulty!).  After the market we went and had an Alvaro in the Wato Club - an amazing 'spot' in Jamestown, where Louis Armstrong once played.

Kasia, Isaac and Lauren at the Wato Club

The last weekend we really spent reflecting on the whole experience of being in Ghana - not only the project, but things like the amazing head-carrying skills of pretty much every Ghanaian:

Precision peanut balancing

The amazing plethora of roadside hawkers (toy guns, water, plantain crisps, chewing gum, phone credit, bibles, fruit, Alvaro, yams, toothbrushes  etc etc etc - all available to purchase from the comfort of your own car whilst waiting at traffic lights)

Yams anyone?

Fabric fabric fabric, tailored dresses, the sensory assault of Kaneshie and Mokola markets

Spot the 'sliming tea'!

The sound and smell of Accra, music everywhere, amazing dance moves, smoothies, Milo cubes, 

A typical convenience store

Trotros, negotiating roads and sewers, and amazing highlife-music-fuelled taxi rides

Drinking water out of bags, the daily Malarone alarm, mosquito nets, the hot water lottery, the insect visitors and the 2am rooster at the 'Diamond Palace' where we stayed

But most of all our amazing team of volunteers...

Wanlov, Kate, Kasia, Dan, Andrea, Mutombo, Elliot, Harry, Kayla, Setri, Anita, Lauren, Isaac, Kyekyeku, Gonzo and Frank

...and of course the incredible children of the Street Academy.

Actually it feels impossible to summarise properly what was such an emotional, difficult, wonderful, challenging and amazing experience.  I'm so glad I did it, and I wouldn't change my experience for the world.  I won't deny that acclimatising back to my 'normal' life has been really hard.  Working on this project and the children we worked with touched me deeply and it's something I'll never forget.

So, both Kasia and I would like to say one last final THANK YOU to everyone who helped to make this fantastic experience possible for us.  That's:

Dorothy, Kirsty McL, Lucie, Kirsty C, Al, Moira, Georgie, Susie, Hazel, Ros, Em, Andy, Jack, Christine, Liz, Marcin, Magda, Ina, Janusz, Ania, Marek, Claire, Sylvia, Joe, Emma, Kay, Neil, Ali, Susan, Pauline, Neil, Caroline, Ian, Migs, Rich, Katie, Astrid, Thomas, Caro, Helen, Moira, Ivona, Marc, Neil, Zoe, Christine, Rach, Jessica and Eli... (and of course AKOSIA and The Street Academy!)

THANK YOU!!

With so much love and appreciation,

Kate and Kasia

xxxxx

Project week 4

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.

At the beginning of the week, we had promotional posters printed advertising the final show, and Elliot, Daniel and Setri went out in the wee small hours of the morning and flyposted them all around town.

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. 

 Humu and Benedicta in the Mall

On Wednesday we started working on the stage design for the final show - Gonzo had come up with a great idea for a circus-type feel, with lots of bright African fabric and big animals.  To make the animals, first we needed lots of cardboard:

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!

 Prince cutting out a dragon drawn by Joseph

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.

 After all the performances were over, it was time for the main event and the screening of the two films that the children had made over the course of the project.  The lights were dimmed and the children sat and watched themselves on the big screen, cheering and clapping at what they had achieved.  For most of the volunteers, this was the first time we had seen both films in their entirety, and it was a very proud and emotional moment.

Emotions continued to run high for the rest of the night, with a certificate-giving ceremony after the films followed by an impromptu dance party with all of the children until our time ran out and we had to vacate the venue.  It was so sad to have to finally leave all of the children, but at the same time we were all so happy to have had such a great show and to have had such an awesome experience with the children on the project.

Week 1 & 2

Ok... We are in the week 3 of the project and I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet (Kate was doing all the hard work:).
All is going well, the kids are awesome and they seem to enjoy the project a lot. Working with them is an exhausting but also extremely satisfying experience. A great thing about a film making project is that it is totally inclusive and everybody can contribute no matter what their skills are. The kids are doing storytelling, acting, storyboarding, costume and set design, directing, camera work, singing, dancing etc. There is something for everyone. Here are some random pictures from week 1 and 2.

The morning games and activities:

 

Storyboarding:

Lauren getting a drumming lesson from Patrick.

 Kids came up with some awesome stories for our movies. Here is Harry explaining the plot to everyone.

 More storyboarding.

 

An auction and a craft fair...

Hello!
Kate here :)

I have a couple more fundraising events to tell you about!

First of all, at the moment a limited edition print of one of Kasia's beautiful illustrations is being auctioned online via my sister's amazing blog, here.  The auction ends on June 20th so only a few days left!

Also in fundraising news, next weekend I will be selling my handmade fibre art jewellery at the Bruntsfield Makers Market, at Christ Church, 6a Morningside Road, Edinburgh, EH10 4DD.  

The market runs from 11am - 4pm and entry is free!  All proceeds from any work that I sell will go towards our fundraising.  It would be great to see you there if you're in Edinburgh next weekend!

Finally, we would like to say a massive thank you to more amazing sponsors: Hazel, Ros, Em, Andy, Jack, Christine, Liz, and Marcin - you are all splendiferous!!

The Edinburgh Half-Marathon!

Hi!  Kate here :)

As part of my fundraising efforts, I'm running the Edinburgh half-marathon later this month, on the 26th May.  Just 2 1/2  weeks to go..... gulp!

I've been a runner for a couple of years now, and I totally love it.   No matter how hard it may be to drag myself out of bed in the mornings and get out there in some very attractive skin tight attire, (particularly at 5.45am which is what I'm doing on Tuesdays at the moment!) it's difficult to beat the almost meditative headspace that running provides, as well as the fantastic post-run endorphin high.

However, apart from a few performances with the incredible NVA for Speed of Light, I have never run with other people, let alone in any sort of race (unless you count sports day back at school....but let's not go there!).  The Half-Marathon will be my first ever proper experience of this, so I'm super excited but really rather terrified at the same time.  I'm totally up for the challenge though! Apart from my major goals of a. actually finishing and b. not coming last (or getting swept up by the sweeper bus that travels behind the runners at race-time-limit speed), if everything goes to plan, if I could run the race in around 2 hours 20 minutes I would be well chuffed.

Here's a video of me enjoying a 10 mile training run a few days ago.  It was pretty windy!  I'm grinning because I'm about to eat a yummy strawberry and banana energy gel, and I know that around the next corner is an amazing 2-mile downhill stretch :D weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!

Life really is amazing. If someone had told me 3 years ago that I'd be about to run a 13.1 mile race along with thousands of other people, and would enjoy it too, (let alone that I would be doing it so I could go to Africa to work on an incredible project with an awesome charity) I would have wondered what planet they had recently arrived from.  And yet here I am!  Loving it :D

~*~

In other news, I want to give a massive shout out and thank you to more fantastic sponsors: there have been so many of you and Kasia and I are just so grateful and amazed! Neil, Caroline, Ian, Migs, Rich, Katie, Astrid, Thomas, Caro, Helen, Moira and Ivona you are ALL COMPLETELY ACE!!  Thank you so much!!!!

Kate xxxx

Thank you #2 (and rewards)

Hello!
Kasia this time:)

First of all a big thank you to everybody for being so supportive and awesome. The amount of positive feedback and support from everyone is quite overwhelming. This whole fundraising thing is pretty exhausting but it is also makes us realise that we are surrounded by the most amazing people. It is good to be reminded about this! It actually makes me want to dance and sing and hug random people on the street:)

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Moira, Caroline, Neil and Ian for sponsoring us!
And to Katie for all the support and good advice!

And here are some of the limited edition digital prints of my artwork I've got ready for our backers. I will be holding a few online auctions with these too. We will keep you posted!

all artwork copyright kasia matyjaszek

Thank you #1! (and some origami)

Hi!
Kate here :)
The last couple of weeks or so has been a bit of a blur setting up the fundraising site and this blog, as well as getting our heads around the reality of going to Africa in August.  Neither Kasia or I have ever done anything like this before, so it's all new to us.  Fundraising is quite a daunting thought...!

Since we started to let people know about our goal, we've already been really touched and overwhelmed by people's generosity - so I'd like to take this opportunity to say an extra "THANK YOU!!!" so far to Marc, Neil, Zoe, Christine, Rach, Jessica and Eli for their donations.  You are AWESOME :D!

So, donations = rewards (yay!), and Kasia and I are busy preparing these.  Here's what I have been working on tonight:

Origami :D

Have a great week!

Kate xxx

Hello!

We are two friends living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Kasia is an artist and works as an Illustrator for children's books, and Kate works as a Speech & Language Therapist.

We are volunteering on a project in Ghana with the charity Akosia. We go there for a month in August and we will be working on a filmmaking project with a group of children, along with other local and international volunteers.

Over the next few months we will be fundraising to cover the costs flights and medical expenses to allow us travel to Ghana and contribute to this amazing cause.

Through this blog we plan to keep you updated about our fundraising activities and also to write about our experiences when we are actually out in Ghana working on the project in August.

You can make a donation through our fundraising profile here.

You can also buy items from our shops here and here, proceeds of which will also go towards our goal .

Thank you everyone for visiting and watch this space!

Kate & Kasia