We against them

Misha fell in love with the XA 10 directly. Small, inoffensive, easy to handle and produces great images. He arrived around 9 on Wednesday, having missed the first train and arrived by taxi. We started working immediately by walking over to A.R´s café and immediately got talking with him about Somaliland. Even in Mosside, the Somali tribes don´t mix we realized after talking to many people at this great cafe. On this first stretch from Princess Road to Upper Lloyd, they all come from Somaliland, the northern part, still not recognized as a separate country. It was such an interesting time, that my wife and the girls showed up and we all had lunch there. food is great and the girls are used to the Middle Eastern atmosphere. So is Misha who speaks a bit of Somali and has pretty much just been there filming for the UN.

The main reasons for bringing Misha over at this stage, far before everything is funded and ready, are two. I wanted to catch the freezing cold before it starts to warm up and catch the everyday life of our family, which is a little base for the documentary. It is hard to do it all by myself. So, after having had a lunch we set off for Aldi, shopped and talked and on the way back we visited a furniture charity on Upper Lloyd. this was my first real eye opener how difficult life is for most people in Mosside, no matter what background or the color of their skin. This important charity collects and transports furniture mainly, but also sells books and other items all over Greater Manchester. They said the situation has drastically got worse by the day and people came to buy a sofa for example, and had very little money over. Like 10 pounds.

From here we walked and I talked to the camera about our life here and we ended up a Alexandra Park, where we came across a great character. Paddy. he had lived all his life around Manchester, including Mosside and said you could still get gunned down here!

There´s no doubt that everyone we have met so far are disappointed with the government, both the local and the one in London and feel like nobody cares. And they have therefore developed a we against them mentality, which I am beginning to fully appreciate and understand. And I had no idea it was this bad!

C showed up at 3 and she is quite a personality! Full of life, opinionated and knows Mosside. A gem in many ways! She told as a lot of important details about Mosside. And the difficulties having a family and getting life to end up level. But she has a great love for Mosside and the more I hear, the more I see and understand, i am beginning to understand her love! Because there is a feeling that we don´t judge any one and we stick together and help each other! A reality we learned quickly at the local pub, the Claremont, which didn´t allow us to film because the BBC had done such a misleading terrible job a few years back when they used the pub as a place where illegal things happened and they still today, many years later, feel utterly betrayed and sad. And the rumor, most dangerous pub in Manchester, as the locals say, bollocks!