To Everyone I Owe an Email: An Apology

You may have noticed (or, of course, you may not give a shit) that we’ve barely said anything for about 2 months, and that’s mainly because we’ve been so RIDICULOUSLY busy. Festival preparation is going well, having taken the time to really try to understand the market here and see how best it will work. We’re assembling a team of what we like to call “sick ndividuals” to help us push it forward, have been continuing to speak to artists and DJs, and over the coming weeks we’ll be approaching sponsors so we can actually afford to put this bitch on. We’re also developing a really exciting charity concept, which I’ll give a more in depth update on soon.

But that’s been just one of a number of things taking up our time…with our respective backgrounds in different types of events and marketing, we planned before we came here that, when times get hard (fast approaching), I would look for freelance work in the corporate world while Kofi would lead on our own events. But with the time we have, we have to make sure that whatever it is we do will benefit the overall project in some way.

So...

I’ve been working with an advertising agency, working on the account of one of Ghana’s biggest mobile phone companies. The mobile phone market is absolutely mental out here. There are no restrictions on advertising – EVERYTHING is plastered in branding. The football pundits wear Vodafone t-shirts, even some of the houses people live in are painted in MTN branding. The market is booming and the competition between brands and the advertising tactics used is just insane. But anyway, trying to do festival stuff around the work isn’t easy, but it’s a great experience, gives me a really good insight into Ghanaian people and culture, and provides me with a package which includes somewhere to live and a guy called Sammy to look after me. Kind of like my mum. Except he's Ghanaian. And a man. (see pic)

Aside from this, Kofi is leading on some contract work with the British Council, who are employing us to help out on a mini festival they’re producing in April - a pretty good experience for what we’re looking to do, I’d say. The event is called WAPI (Words and Pictures), which encourages young Ghanaian creatives to network and offers them exposure alongside some of Ghana’s well known artists. It’s put us in touch with a lot of the right people, from radio stations, managers, DJs, artists, the list goes on. And it means we can eat for a few more weeks, which is ALWAYS handy.

So, for the past few weeks it has been NON-STOP, we’ve learnt A LOT about trying to work here and if you throw in trying to do all of this in a city where a 4 mile journey takes an hour because of traffic, electricity could cut out for any given moment for any duration, and it peaks at 35 degrees and rarely goes lower than 25 at night, you get an idea of what the fuck is going on out here...it’s madness.

BUT IT’S ALL POSITIVE :-)

Aside from this, our Ghanaian accents are vastly improving, and the man who shouts “Eddie Bauer 24” at me every day as I walk home from work is doing very well. I haven’t had the heart to tell him that the name he’s looking for is actually hit US TV series, 24’s “Jack Bauer”, and that I don’t actually look like him - I’m just white (WE ALL LOOK THE SAME).

All this and I’ve just got my internet back after 2 weeks, so just watch as these email replies FLY back in yo FACE.

I hear England is less snowy – nice work.

oh and, er, we haven't really taken any pictures recently. So just look at the one of me and Sammy again.

LOVE AND PEACE X