Africa Recap, A few days at a time

As some of you may remember, Rule29 ventured to Africa last year to learn about the work that LIA is doing in Sub-Saharan Africa. (For a recap go here.)

Rule29 has since adopted Life in Abundance as one of the organizations we support through giving of our talents and advocate it as much as possible. To see an organization that trains and empowers Africans to become the catalyst of change in their communities is not only inspiring but, most importantly, sustainable. To highlight this great work we went to shoot a video documentary that focuses on one of their programs, showing the need and potential change that can develop through LIA.

Although we’d hoped to blog daily, sadly we had no internet connection and were only able to twitter once we figured out how to get our phones working in Ethiopia. So we have decided to dedicate one day a week for the next few weeks to tell the story of our trip. Stay tuned for bits on the progress of the documentary, some funny stories and a couple of heart-wrenching stories. We’ll take you on this adventure as much as we can, building up to the release of the documentary this fall. In the meantime, check out our initial Flickr set that we may be adding to over time.

OUR FIRST UPDATE:

Day 1-2 was pretty uneventful. Hooked up with the LIA team in Detroit, and after two more connections we finally arrived in Addis. No luggage or equipment lost; we were just excited as a team what the next day had in store for us. We had a quick production meeting and knew that tomorrow had us interviewing some trainers & the hardcore street kids, filming some of the programs and doing an interview with Dereje, our main character for this project. As jet lag started to creep in, we all applied some deet and went off to bed with the excitement of tomorrow in our minds.

For additional recaps check out J.J. Peterson’s or LIA’s blogs. J.J. always has kernels of wit and wisdom. And he also provided much comic relief as can be witnessed in the video embedded below. After a long day and three flats, eventually to be four, JJ lost it a bit.

We still have the credit cause on facebook. If you are interested in supporting this film and want to appear in the credits, please sign up and give here. Please let us know any questions you may have as we go through this, and please share your thoughts or any projects you’re working on for the greater good.

PS: Don’t forget to check out the coffee table book form last year, or the newly created limited edition letterpress poster.