action

yes, it's true, you can see me and three fellow SIT students in the highly acclaimed, cinematic suspense thriller of the century: innocent souls. alex, amanda, toby, and i met kwame on thursday afternoon and naively anticipated a brief view of the ghanaian film industry. kwame took us to board a bus headed for the gold mining town of obuasi, about an hour outside of kumasi. we arrived fairly late in the evening at the super mambo hotel where kwame informed us we would be spending the night. despite our lack of preparation, we agreed and went to the roof top bar where we met the director of the film that we were about to star in. we woke up the next morning at 5:00am, but we were not alone. the entire cast and crew were also staying in the super mambo, and with them we boarded a bus to a near by village where the film was being shot. we ate breakfast with the cast and crew (about 40 in all) on location before filming. we first observed the taping of a scene in which a man fell from a tree while attempting to pick a mango. a thin piece of foam was used at first to catch the crashing man but after his first attempt, a group of men stepped in to catch him trust fall-style. the man hit his head on a rock and ketchup was used to show his injury. the director would keep rocks in his pocket and whenever someone on set was talking during a take, he would throw one at them.

next it was our turn. toby and i were costumed as middle aged fathers manning the barbecue at a saturday afternoon picnic. we played the parts of president obama's lawyer and body guard. alex and amanda were given outfits that were left behind after the last spice girls tour. they were 'our ladies'. the entire village (about 150 people) gathered to watch the filming of our scene! in the film, we had traveled to ghana with our friend david, who we met in america, to visit his family. what else happens in the film?? you and i will both have to wait and see. i do know that there is a godzilla like monster, and a small person (who was wearing a wisconsin badgers hat! and p.s. i saw another favre jersey yesterday!). we finished our scene and returned to kumasi.

on saturday i traveled to a village where i will be doing ceramics. it's an awesome outdoor studio with hand crank wheels and wood fire kilns. i will be working with a man named frank and his five friends and brothers. he is a former student of naab's and lived in china for two years teaching english and studying ceramics.

some new pictures are up! that's me and JK from the village, me and yemi, kintompo falls, and david with cassavas on his head.

love, dane