This morning we drove up to the village, a little nervous to see Mr. Idiris, his family and the other villagers. For Esther the first time after a year, for me the first time. But since I’d seen all the video material and the clips over and over again I recognized all of them the first instant I saw them. It was like stepping through the screen into the real world. We were greeted with the greatest hospitality and all were very glad to see Esther again.
After having greeted Mr Idiris and Amina and a few others, we were invited into Mr. Idiris’ hut. There he first showed me the stick I made for him a year ago, and that Esther handed him for me. He told us that he had been using it ever since, and that is what it looked like - properly used.
More villagers came to the hut to greet us and after we handed out the presents we brought for everybody and we finally started the DVD of Nomadic MILK, a hut full of men and Binta, one of the participating women and some 40 children in front of the entrance.
They all liked to see the result of the work Esther did on her former visits, and afterwords we had a long discussion on farming, milk production, education and the purpose of working on a art project like this.
We invited the people from the village for the screening in Abuja on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow (or “nexttomorrow” as people say here) and after warmly greeting we left again. To be honest, a warmer welcome than here I never experienced before.
All children gather outside..
….but after a while the grown ups decide it is more easy to let them in.
And we continue to watch peacefully