Forget Hollywood. Hillywood is where it's at.

I went to a very interesting opening of the 3rd Rwandan Film Festival today. The title of the festival is “Sharing Stories: Hillywood”—as in Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills. The film shown at this opening was a documentary called “Rwanda Rising” made by Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the UN.

Not to give the content away, the film was essentially an infomercial/60 Minutes interview segment on how great Rwanda is doing for an American audience, with guest testimonial by Wolf-slaya-o-witz (my boy has been busy), Quincy Jones, and Bill Clinton. All it was missing was the 60 Minutes ticking sound effect at the end. Just to make sure you all understand, Quincy Jones is the new spokespersons/experts on Rwanda. And the film was punctuated with Young’s insightful comments. For instance, Young tied the USAID coffee success story together with statements like “this coffee bush has brought peace, prosperity, and reconciliation to Rwanda.” No, I have no idea if someone in the room had significant shares in Starbucks.

AND . . . picture the commentator proudly describing the high percentage of female leaders in the Rwandan government. Cut to Bill Clinton with a knowing nod “that’s because during the genocide the majority of men were killed leaving a much higher female to male ratio.” I mean, can’t give the women ALL the credit, right? Frankly, I could not believe this was being screened in Rwanda. Apparently I was the only one since the audience (majority Rwandan) applauded heartily and gave Young a standing ovation. I guess it’s no surprise that the French diplomats were kicked out a few months ago—the Americans are doing a much better job in supporting the Kagame administration with near-propaganda quality films such as this one. Sigh.

Can you say Red, Yellow, and Green?

Ok, Ghana's 50th was probably the most exciting thing that has happened in this city so far. I mean, if the president of the World Bank, Wolf-slaya-o-witz himself, felt the need to show up on stage with Ghana's hiplife artist Rocky Dawuni for the occasion, then you know Accra is where it's at! Yes, the Wolf-slaya was getting down with some afro-funk on the most crowded beach in Accra. How screwed up is it that I could just walk right through security to the VIP section of the concert and enter a luxury resort hotel to use their bathroom, just because of my appearance or the colour of my skin? Yay, 50 years of independence.

Oh yeah, one of my Beninese co-workers has "Remember Jesus loves you more than anyone. Stay blessed in His abundant grace . . ." as his Skype slogan. AND the other day a car full of Elders and Sisters of the Mennonite crew pulled up to a restaurant in Accra as though they just left Ohio that morning. I'm slightly overwhelmed by religion these days.

These two kids and their dad saw us on the beach dressed like total lunatics in Ghana 50th gear. The dad was pretty impressed and asked if his kids could pose in a photo with us. I think we showed more patriotic spirit than 73% of Ghanaian that day. The fabric of our home-make skirts and shirts have a special Ghana 50th print. I mean, come on, how could you beat the umbrella hats? Somehow the last entry showed up on facebook with incessant shrieking. I have no idea how to fix it.

Ghana anyone?

It's Ghana fever in Accra in anticipation of tomorrow's 50th anniversary of ditching the British. Productivity is at an all time high in Accra. If you're a painter in Accra these days, you're a busy guy/gal. All the sidewalks have to be lined in white paint and almost every single building in the city is bedecked with the Ghanaian flag. Even the open sewage is being cleaned out (heaven forbid that we do this regularly! ). People are peeing and sweating red, yellow, and green.

In Accra, there is also this huge trade exposition area the size of 6 football fields that is supposed to be a trading area in the city, called "Trade Fair" with all sorts of buildings for vendors and traders, etc. Every year there is a . . . well, trade fair put on for about a week and vendors and businesses set up shop to sell anything and everything in the usually deserted stalls and halls. Yes, usually this place is almost empty! It's so weird. It's as though the 50th independence anniversary brought out THE Accra that was meant to be, but can't quite be bother to be in real life (as in, not during 50th anniversary celebrations). All the roundabouts are usually decrepit-looking or covered with old potato sacks. Now, they're bright white and freshly painted. All the streets are being cleaned and the traffic is not crazy. Maybe I'm crazy.

The exciting part is that you can buy an industrial gas station fuel pump, a wedding dress, really tacky furniture, and delicious jamaican goat curry all at the same place. I love Trade Fair; it's so hot right now. My roommate Lindsey has got to be the most excited person of all. We're going to get fully decked out in Ghana 50th gear. She even got Ghana 50th fabric from her work the other day. We bought Ghana 50th umbrella hats and are ready to rock; this anniversary is not going to know what hit it. I even saw a car that had a Ghana flag draped over its windshield. OBviously, the 50th is more important than road visibility. At least his horse has eye-holes cut out for him; it's such an animal! And I was totally not joking about the wedding dresses . . . a polyester explosion waiting to happen.