We arrived in Cape Coast at dusk last night. The ride was bumpy to say the least. The van we rode in was on its way back to Cape Coast after picking up calico (Raw Fabric) for Global Momas earlier in the morning. We picked up many other Ghanaians who were also traveling to Cape Coast along the way. At one point there were 13 people in what would be considered an 8-passenger van in the U.S It was definitely an adventure.
When we arrived at the office today George, a Ghanaian who works for Global Momas, took Sarah and I on a tour of the city. He was very helpful and knew a lot about the history of Cape Coast. The only problem was, it was difficult to understand him through his accent.
On our tour we went to the market. The markets here are very different from stores we have in the U.S. It is very intimidating because there are so many people everywhere. There are no sidewalks here so people just walk in the streets with cars whizzing by. They also have very few foods I recognize and everything is left out in the heat all day because they have limited refrigeration systems, It is very nerve wreaking as a first timer, but I’m sure over the next couple months I will become familiar with the market.
After our tour we returned to the office. Maria, the office manager in the Cape Coast office gave us a brief orientation about things to expect as far as the electricity going out and other technicalities. We also talked about some up coming projects she expected us to take on in the near future. Next, Maria gave us a tour around the office, which consists of three rooms, the main office where she works, the quality control room, and the room where the calico is stored, which is also where we will be most of the time.
We then met with Dorcas who is the quality control manager. She took us through the basic steps of what she does on a day-to-day basis. There are approximately 7 people who work with Dorcas in quality control. They check the materials that come in from the batiking to maker sure they are free of flaws. They also check the finished garments after they are returned from the seamstress in order to ensure there are no mistakes.
After learning about quality control Maria told informed us of our first project which was to resize the kids hoodie. We worked on this for most of the afternoon. When we finished the hoodie we went back to the main office and the power went out. Maria informed us that this happens often and they are never informed of when it will happen or when it will come back on. The power did not come back on for the remainder of the workday.
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