SHOOTING RANGE at the LOCAL FAIR in SARIWON

NOSE-PICKINGS from my NORTH KOREAN DIARY 11.–21. April 2011

It costs one cent to put two on a horse

URSULA COMPLAINED to our guides (at all times, we had two “permanent” guides – one walking behind us and one upfront – and additional a local guide on site wherever we stopped) that the local female guide in Sariwon City made us look like foreign monsters when she interfered and finally stopped the two girls from dancing and their parents from singing and clapping.

Luckily, I was filming how official attitude was blocking my friendly encounter. As a result we pressed our guides for more contact to let us mingle with the crowd at the local fair.

We walked up and down the “Wedding Hill” passing by the fair attractions and the stands selling ice cream, engaging with the children and their parents or grandparents with gestures and a few words.

Sariwon offers real North Korean life of a small township.

For a minute, I was one of them.

Sariwon - we were all shooting...

I was as close to them as they were to each other, not even my camera got in our way. We were successful in making instant contact with the local people. We were not looked at as extra-terrestrial beings nor harassed as foreign aggressors even though fear is part of the official propaganda and often looks down from billboards.

Newlywed husband poses above Sariwon City

Kids at a wedding

Wedding in Sariwon