Once you pop

Up at 6am in the dark for a cold shower. It is the Harmattan season which means it is dry, windy and very cold at night. There was a party somewhere last night that was very loud until about 4am, when the mosque and the dogs took over. But the earplugs we have seem to be doing the trick. We wander round the base wearing head torches and pack an old and manky cool box to keep us going for the day.

Driving through the villages is amazing. Very few vehicles ever pass by so the children run out to look and go wild when they see us, with more Opoto shouting and waving. I feel a bit like a member of the royal family, waving and smiling for the whole journey.

Filming goes well again in the morning as Salay and Daniel and the others begin to get into their stride. Lunchtime is hard though. The children of Barmoi sit patiently around us, many wearing ripped clothes with swollen bellies, whilst we eat our lunch of rolls, coke and Pringles. There are too many of them to feed properly but we give them some crisps. Unlike the carol choir, these kids share them, down to the last crumb. We then play clapping games and Pat-a-Cake with them until it is time to start filming again.

The last scene of the day is the hardest yet, Israel disappears, the nurse he has chosen is like a piece of wood and Salay is rolling her eyes and refusing to understand our English. It transpires that our filming day of 8am – 3pm (chosen to avoid the hottest part of the day) is much longer than they are used to and they are all getting tired. We ask Israel what he would like to do differently but he is non communicative so we decide to keep going as we are, as this seems the only way to get the film done.

On the way back into Kambia we come across many young people and another parade. Much to our embarrassment Murray seems to think that getting us home is a higher priority than a traditional tribal procession so he attempts to drive through the middle of it. We get a good look though, and are of course obliged to pay someone. We return to the base and Greg and Toby sit down to capture and edit whilst James and I whip up some pasta.