Monday June 28, 2010

This morning I came to the office to work. There wasn’t much to do, but I wanted to come incase my romper came back. I ended up cutting out everyone else’s stencils which is a pain, but I didn’t cut my self today so that’s good. Then I colored everyone’s layouts which I actually enjoy doing because it takes me back to the good ol’ days when im summers consisted of coloring in my Trolls coloring book and running in the fire hydrant shape sprinkler in the back yard.

Once I finished cutting and coloring I worked on the batik and seamstress profiles. Everyone is suppose to fill them out and send them back to me once they go on site visits, that way I can organize them and try to find any information that might be missing. However, people haven’t been so good at doing that. I think its because things here are so unorganized everything gets lost in the confusion.

My romper also came back today. I was so excited, but then when I tried it on it didn’t fit right, it gave me a bit of a camel toe. So, I made some corrections and sent it back hopefully next time it will fit right.

After work the West Point volunteers came to Eli’s again for dinner. It was weird talking to them about their school and how strict it is. I think I would go crazy with so many rules. Their teacher who was with them said that most people from West Point are really socially awkward because their social lives are pretty much put on a stand still the entire time they’re at the school and then after graduation they’re in the military for five years. However, All the people who were here seemed pretty normal and they were all really nice.

Quote of the day: “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens” - Kahlil Gibran

Pictures.

World Cup. Celebration after Ghanas win over the U.S.

Hillary and I watching the U.S. vs. Ghana game. Check out my Ghana Gear.

Ellen and I with two friends from the other NGO Nick and Tom. This was the night we stayed at the Stumble Inn.

Hawa, the women who I was going to batik with the day i got lost.

The biggeset spider I have ever seen.

One of the stamps I made after it was sampled. Its not lined up correctly because the people on the visit couldn't figure it out, but i think it looks cool anyways.

This is a sample bag made of scraps. I was the model for the picture we have to send to the bosses in Accra. Its so cute, i hope they like it too.

Nick and I with Chillin' Chillin'. She owns the store out side the office. Shes so nice, when it was raining she let me use her umbrella and wouldnt let me give it back until it stopped raining.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Today was sunny and we hung by the pool at the resort across the street all day. It was the perfect Sunday. For dinners we went to Elis and the volunteers from Krobo came down and met us for dinner. They’re all from West Point Military Academy. Everyone seemed nice, but they were a little too uptight for me. They definitely fit in better with “the others” then with us. After Elis we all went to the little bar across the street from the house and hung out for a while.

We talked to the other volunteers about Krobo a lot. I think we are going to try and plan a trip there for sometime this week. There are two big bead markets up that way and it would be nice to be able to go to them both, so we are trying to figure something out. Nothing too exciting just a nice relaxing Sunday.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

We woke up at Stumble Inn this morning and had eggs and toast for breakfast. They had really good food, but they didn’t have real coffee, which was kind of a let down. After breakfast I took a nap in a hammock. It was cloudy all day so we all kind of took it easy and relaxed. We played cards and hung out until lunch, ate lunch and headed back to the house.

Ghana and the U.S. played in football today. We all went to the shell station that’s pretty much right behind our house to watch the game. They had a big projector screen and projected the game on the side of the building. I wore my Ghana gear and was rooting for Ghana the entire time. Ghanaians who were watching the game assumed that since we’re white we were cheering for the U.S. even though we were totally decked out in Ghana gear. For the most part everyone was pretty nice, but there were a couple guys who thought it was necessary to blow one of those horns right in our ears.

When the game was finally over and Ghana won people went nuts. Everyone was running around screaming and cheering. People were so excited. I was so happy they won because it means so much more to people here. If the U.S. would have won not very many people would have even known let alone cared, they definitely wouldn’t have responded the way everyone here did.

Friday, June 25, 2010

This morning we all went to the office. It’s so cramped when everyone is there, but it also can be fun depending on the mood you’re in. We got feedback from the second trend presentation. I didn’t submit much with this presentation except one stamp idea and a bunch of different silhouettes. The feedback wasn’t as good as the first time, but I think its because they already have a pretty good idea about what they want the new products to be.

We didn’t spend much time at the office today we’re really trying to crank out patterns so that we can get samples made and change things that need to be fixed. After the presentation I had to go to the bank. It was raining the hardest I’ve seen it rain since I’ve been here. The sewers were flooding into the street. It smelled terrible. I didn’t have an umbrella so Chillin’, the women who owns the shop across the street, let me borrow one of hers. It was so nice. When I was walking back from the bank it was still raining and it was really windy. My umbrella was flying everywhere.

After the bank I headed back to the house to work on patterns. I started patterning a romper. It should be really cute when its finished. I got the top and the bottom started, but then I ran out of paper so I could retrace it or finish it. That’s the one thing that sucks about working from the house. If you run out of materials you’re pretty much screwed because there is no where to get materials in Elmina, and I guess even if there was you would probably waste half of the day running around.

After work we went to a resort where the other NGO stays called Stumble Inn. It’s in Elmina so not very far from the house. It was amazing. They are trying to create completely Eco Friendly lodging. The rooms were so nice and the food was super good. I think everyone had really good time hanging out. It is so refreshing to get out of the volunteer house.

A bunch of us went swimming in the ocean at night. I love swimming in the ocean and letting the waves toss me around. When we got out of the ocean no one thought that we just washed off all of our bug spray and we should probably reapply it, something we’d end up paying for in the next couple days.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Today I worked from the house all day. It was so nice to not be cramped a million people in the little office. In the morning I went through all the old patterns to make sure they weren’t missing pieces and to make sure everything made sense. I also looked at patterns from a design contest to make sure they made sense.

We also got the ok to make a new dress to sample, so Hilary and I started working on this. We decided the best thing to do would be to create slopers that everyone can use to make patterns from so we will at least have size consistency for the garments we make. We drafted an entire sloper before lunch. It was hard because the proportions for their sizes are off, so we did the best we could.

We decided to take our lunch break at the pool. It was pretty amazing. Even though we were only there for half an hour it was so relaxing to lie around in the sun for a while.

After lunch we finished drafting the pattern for the new dress we’re making. It should be cute. Originally we wanted to make just a skirt, but I think they want us to make it as a dress with a sleeveless bodice. Even though we don’t think that will look good at all we’re going to make a bodice to make them happy and put in our comments that we think it will look better as a skirt only.

After work we went to the bar across the street to hang out. It seems like everyone in the neighborhood is painting. I don’t know if its painting season or what, but everything looks fresh and is painted a new color now. We went to Elis for dinner and she painted it red with Coca Cola signs on it. It actually looks really good.

For dinner we had black-eyed pea burgers. They’re so good. After Eli served dinner and half of us were still eating “the others” took the left over food got up and left. It was probably the rudest thing I’ve ever seen. They all brag about being really proper brought up in wealthy families, but they have no manners. I feel like there is never a good time to brag about how much money your family makes, but if there were to be a good time to bring it up it would definitely not be when you’re in a developing country. I felt bad for Eli too, because when they all got up to leave Eli wasn’t even finished cooking. “The others” never cease to amaze me.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

This morning I had a site visit scheduled in Elmina at 8:30, so when everyone left for the office I hung around the house because it made more sense for me to leave from the house. I was supposed to meet Hawa at the “Flower Guild Junction in Elmina”.

When you are catching a taxi here there are special signs you have to do so they know which way you are going. I asked Maria which way I should point to get a taxi to Flower Guild Junction, and she didn’t know so she told me to ask Ellen, the women who takes care of the house. So I did, and she said “no flower guild junction, coconut guild junction”. Then she told me which way to point and that I would have to stand on the opposite side of the street then I do when going to work.

I flag down a driver and told him coconut guild, because it’s a share taxi and people are getting in and out along the way it took about 15 min to get through Elmina, but I keep seeing signs for Coconut Grove and figured that everyone probably said grove I just couldn’t understand them because of their accent. As we get closer I realize that Coconut Grove is a golf course and I'm probably not in the right place. The driver tried to drop me off at the golf course, but I politely tell him I need to be at the junction. He told me there are four junctions and he wasn’t sure which one, so I tell him to take me to the closest one. I pay him and get out of the car.

As I'm standing on the corner looking lost and confused as usual, with Hawa nowhere in sight, I decided to BBM Sarah. She told me that it is Flower Guild. So, I found a woman who looked nice and asked her if she knew of a Flower Guild in Elmina. She said no, it is in Cape Coast. I told Sarah and she got everything figured out. Apparently someone was wrong when they said Elmina in the first place and I should have been heading towards Cape Coast.

I finally caught a taxi back towards the house, but no one would take me all the way there because it was out of the way so I ended up walking for about an hour just to get back to where I started so I could catch a different taxi toward Cape Coast.

I finally figured out where I was going and found Hawa. We went back to her place to batik. She really wanted me to learn Fanti so she taught me a couple of things on the walk, which sure enough I have already forgotten.

When we got to her place she told me that since she is pregnant there is a man who works with her cause she cant lift heavy things right now. The man's name was Sam, and he actually ended up doing everything. He was really nice and very interested in the U.S. I’m pretty sure he wanted me to sponsor him to come visit, but I just kept pretending I didn’t know what was going on.

After my site visit I got a taxi back to the house and worked on patterns for soft ornaments. I made a chicken with crazy hair. I’m excited to get it sampled I think it will be really cute.

After work we went to the bar across the street to watch the Ghana vs. Germany football game. It was so cute how excited everyone was even though Ghana lost. They were just happy they got to move on to the next round. Ghana plays the U.S. on Saturday. I’m pretty pumped it should be a good time.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

We are finally starting to sample all the stamps we created, so this morning I got to go on a site visit and work with a women named Jennifer. She has been batiking for 12 years, and has been working with Global Mama’s for 4 years. She sampled a kid’s print I made of a chick and a popsicle stamp Sarah made for the Home collection. We had her make each print in yellow and orange, so it made it a little easier when it came to dying the fabric. It was so fun going to work with her, this is the kind of stuff I thought I would be doing everyday. I love working with the women and hearing about how Global Mama’s has helped improve their quality of life. Jennifer paid for mine and Sarah’s taxi ride from the office to her home and gave us popcorn to eat while we were visiting. Although all of this didn’t cost her more then five U.S. dollars it is a huge deal because that is probably more money then she usually spends in a week.

The way people live here is so amazing, and for the most part people her are so nice. In terms of U.S. standards their homes are shacks that should be condemned. In normal circumstances most of us wouldn’t go near them. The people here are so proud of the home they’ve built for their family and their community, and are more then happy to have you there. If they don’t have a chair for you to sit in they will give you the one they are using. If you come over and they have no food except for what they were going to eat for dinner, they will gladly give it to you. Being here has really taught me so much about community and caring for one another.

Here there are no homeless people because if you don’t have a place to stay someone will invite you to their home and give you the bed that they sleep in. It is really a beautiful thing, and even though they don’t have much in terms of material things they are the happiest people I have ever met.

I’m currently reading a book called “Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical” by Shane Claiborne, its pretty much about Christians in today’s society and how they’re not really living the bible in the way it was originally attended. It talks a lot about the separation between wealth and poverty and how 20% of people hold 80% of the world’s wealth and 80% of people share only 20% of the world’s wealth. If people were to love their neighbors as themselves the hole concept of poverty wouldn’t exist. This idea is so similar to the way people here live and I think it is the perfect book to read while I’m here. It gives me a better understanding of the culture here and helps me to look at everything in a new light.

After work we decided to get some sausages and beer from across the street. The obrunis that are currently living across the street from us were there and we hung out with them for a while. They seem like ok people and we’re trying to organize a hang out for Friday at the other house their NGO has that is on the beach.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Today the new Eminem album came out, so I got up early to go to the hotel and download it. I’m pretty much the happiest person ever. I remember when I found out I would be here when the new album is be released I was bummed I wouldn’t be able to get it until I got back to the states.

Our other friends who went on a trip this weekend didn’t make it back last night because a bridge was flooded pretty badly (I guess two people died trying to cross it) and they couldn’t make it. Honestly, I was pretty happy when I found out they wouldn’t be coming back because then we wouldn’t be cramped in the little design room. I got to work in the main office with air conditioning. It was super nice.

When I first got to work we finished cutting out all the stencils that we didn’t get to on Friday. I was pretty happy that I didn’t cut myself today, looks like my bad luck is gone. After cutting the stencils we had to trace them onto plain paper to show the layout so that when we give them to batikers they know how we want them placed on the fabric. It was kind of funny because we had to color the stencil with the color we wanted them to dye the fabric, but the only supplies we had were crayons. If we had a 64-count set of crayols it may have been a different story, but we had a few colors of poor quality crayons. In order to make different colors we had to try to mix the crayons together. It will be really interesting to see how the batikers interpret our coloring job, hopefully at the end of the day we will all be on the same page color wise. I have to admit, coloring with crayons took me back to being a kid and I was secretly enjoying myself.

I got to skype with Mark for a few minutes while I was coloring. He was getting ready for work. Its funny how when I’m at lunch everyone is just getting up, and when I’m going to bed everyone is just getting out of work.

For lunch I wanted to get rice from the lady across the street, but she wasn’t there today, so I wandered down the street a little ways and found someone else who had rice. Even though its just rice, I still get a little nervous every time I try something new because I’ve had such bad luck with food-So far so good though.

After lunch, I worked on pulling images from the Internet for the presentation we are presenting on Wednesday. It is always really frustrating when we have to do anything regarding the Internet. It’s so slow, and everything takes so long to load. I feel like I'm spending more time sitting and waiting for pages to load then actually doing work.

We also started taking pictures of some of the sampled new products that have already been made to send to Renee. It’s weird because ultimately they have the final say in things and they only have photos to look at. I think the colors don’t turn out so well on a computer screen as they do in real life.

I also made copies of the new Eminem CD for my new friends in Ghana. It was so cute how excited they were. I was excited too because I’m clearly obsessed and I love it that they love Eminem too.

After work we went to the house. I made the worlds best Mac N Cheese for dinner. I have now perfected it and I’m pretty sure I will make it even when I’m back in the states and velveta is available.

We also started watching the first season of Gossip Girl. I never thought I would be into that show because its pretty much the definition of trash television, but I have to admit I’m secretly hooked… or not so secretly anymore.

While we were enjoying our second episode of Gossip Girl for the evening, the others returned home from their weekend trip. They have quite a story to tell. Apparently it rained a lot in the east and two bridges were flooded. Two other people had died while trying to cross one of the bridges because their car got swept away by the current and they were stuck inside. When they got to the first bridge and it was flooded they turned back and stayed in Accra for the night, but then yesterday while driving they came across another flooded bridge and the tro drivers forced them to cross it. I guess water was pouring in the tro and people were behind pushing them across. One of the Ghanaians was leading them in a group prayer as they Then when they made it across everyone started chanting, “You cheated death! You cheated death!”

Pretty crazy story, I’m very thankful everyone is ok.

Thing from home I'm missing most:

Sunday, June 20, 2010

HAPPY FATHERS DAY! I would like to devote this post to my dad! Thanks for everything you have done and continue to do. I LOVE you!

In one month at 10:30 in the morning, I will be landing in Detroit. Pretty crazy how quickly time has been flying by.

Today was really mellow. It was pretty cloudy out and there wasn’t anything really to do. In the morning I drafted a pattern for school, and then tomorrow im going to have one of the women from Global Mama’s sew it out of the fabric I batiked at Judy’s last week because we don’t have access to a sewing machine.

For lunch a couple of us came to the hotel to eat. The food was good, but not THAT good, and really over priced. I don’t think we will eat there again. After lunch we just hung around the house together. I read my book for a little bit, and then we went to Eli’s for dinner.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Today was a perfect day. Lately, sunny days are few and far between. I fee like its been raining for a week straight. On most days the rain doesn’t bother me because I'm stuck in the office all day anyways, but on the weekends I would prefer it to be sunny and today it was. Everyone who stayed in Elmina this weekend hung out at the pool all day. It was so relaxing.

Ghana played at 2:00pm and they showed in on a projector in the hotel so we went to watch it for a while. There were so many people crammed into this little room that you could hardly see the TV, but it was still so awesome just to be in that atmosphere.

I got to skype with my family today too. They were all together up north celebrating fathers day. It was nice to see and hear from everyone. However, after talking to them a hearing they were eating viennas for lunch I was jealous. Across the street from the house there is a vender who cooks and sells sausages so I ate one of them for dinner, but it just wasn’t the same.

There was also a peace rally in Cape Coast tonight for a man who was killed on may, 31. Nick, Ellen, Hilary, and I made our way out there. When we got to the peace rally nothing was really going on yet. The women in charge talked to us and said they were running on “Ghana Time” so everything was a little behind. We decided to go hit up this restaurant down the street called Oasis. They’re ended up being a mixed crowd of Obrunis and Rastas at the Oasis. Its funny because the white people here are not very friendly, it seems like they all think they’re Gods greatest gift to the world, or that they think what they are doing is better then what were doing. It’s actually really annoying. Why can’t people be genuine and be doing things because it’s the right thing to do, not so that they can one up someone else. The locals however were supper friendly. We ended up having such a good time at the Oasis hanging out with the locals we didn’t make it back to the peace rally.

Thing from home I'm missing most:

PHOTOS!

My hut at Busua beach last weekend!

This is a picture of the front of our house. My room is upstairs far right, but facing the back of the house.

The inside of our hut at the beach.

The younger monkey from Busua. This was not the attack monkey... which i still have a bruise from.

Busua. He's so annoying.

My bathroom

Friday, June 18, 2010

It seems like there is no bus system here. Almost every morning on the way to work when we catch a cab there is a kid in the front seat on the way to school. It seems funny that parents just throw their children in a cab with someone they don’t know and expect them to take them to school, but hey, that’s Ghana I guess.

When we got to work we spend pretty much the whole day creating stamp templates and cutting them out. It was a pain, but it will be nice come Monday when we can send them out and get samples back this week. Then things should really start getting hectic. While I was slaving away to get all the templates cut out using a straight razor blade I cut my finger. It didn’t hurt very bad nor is it a very bad cut it just surprised me. That’s the third band-aid in three days. Everyone says bad things come in waves of three, so hopefully I'm safe for a while.

We had a pretty slow Friday nothing big happen and after cutting out stencils we folded and packed a few garments for a shipment that is going out in the morning. After work we went to Eli’s for rice and curry. It was so good. It was also super nice because 5 of the volunteers went on a mini vaca to the east side of Ghana and the office, as well as the house was pretty empty.

Other then that, a pretty low key Friday night.

Thing from home I'm missing most:

The fam!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

I cant believe its already Thursday! This week has gone by so fast. It seems like we were just chillin’ out by the beach not that long ago. I may start panicking soon like I'm running out of time here. Even though I still have a whole month left. I only have four weekends to travel and see as much of Ghana as I can.

At work today we finally got feedback from the bosses! I’m so happy because now we can actually get down to business. It seems like we will be busy the rest of the time. I think we are going to start pattern making next week too, which is awesome. They told us which stamps they like and which ones they didn’t. Mostly they like all of the retro geometric stamps. It is very clear, however, that none of them have any idea who their target market actually is. Renee and Kristen have all of the business aspects down, but no one has any marketing background or apparel background. Its kind of funny how everything here works.

After we went over our trend presentation and all the feedback it was time for lunch. I didn’t go for a walk today because Ellen, Nick and I were going to Judy’s to batik at noon. It was so fun spending time with her. She was so happy to have people around. She was also so helpful. She actually taught us what to do and then let us do. My fabric is not perfect. You can tell at the top where I kept messing up cause I wasn’t sure how much pressure to put on each size. I think that makes it way better though. I think batik is supposed to have imperfections and you’re supposed to be able to tell it’s handmade.

After batik we were having happy hour at Eli’s. She made guacamole and plantain chips. It was so good! She made us drinks too, and Global Mamas bought the first round. Wisdom who works at the office has a drink named after him called The Wizzy Special; it was four different kinds of bitters and a shot of gin. It was pretty strong. I couldn’t drink it all and ended up mixing half of it with my beer. There was Then we had black-eyed pea burgers for dinner, which were also amazing.

We hung out at Eli’s for a while after dinner, or at least half of us did. Half of the group is super fun and we all get along really well. The other half is really dull. I feel like none of them have personalities and they don’t know how to have a good time. They’re not adventurous at all so I wonder why they even wanted to come here. They are all really uptight and complain a lot. Something people have to realize about being here is that we are not at home and nothing here is so easy. For example, if at home you order a burger without ketchup and it comes out with ketchup on it, you can send it back and get a new one. Here, however, if you order a burger without ketchup and it comes with ketchup, you suck it up and eat it anyway. You don’t send it back, because first of all everything is made from scratch, but also because they probably don’t have any more meat or bread to make you another one and cant afford to buy more if they wanted to.

Thing from home i miss the most:

Freshly shaven legs

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Today we were suppose to have the measuring workshop with quality control, however, we decided to postpone it indefinitely. After we all measured the garments and came up with different measurements we decided the measurements on the spec sheets they have are “off” intentionally. After measuring the garments it is clear that it would be impossible for them to get the correct measurement without bending or stretching the fabric. We did not feel like it is our place to totally change their entire process.

There is also a thing here they refer to as “small boy syndrome”. Basically they believe that if you are older you are wiser, educational background doesn’t matter at all. So, we pretty much don’t stand a chance when it comes to giving them advice or other ways to do things. They don’t think we have a clue what were talking about and will forever think their way is better.

After deciding to postpone the workshop we sent an email to Alice trying to figure out what to do. Alice and Emi were the two designers that were most recently in Cape Coast, so she knows why things here are the way they are. They may not make sense to us, but more often then not they were probably done on purpose. Maybe they found it works better with the culture here and the way Ghanaians think.

Around noon I went on an errand through Cape Coast to buy the raw materials for batiking. Their crazies how long simple tasks like this take here. We had to go to 3 different shops in order to get all the materials we need. There is no such thing as a one-stop shop. It definitely makes me appreciate the convenience of things in the states. It took 2 hours just to find the materials.

After buying materials Nick, Ellen, Sarah and I headed home so we could go to Judy’s and experiment new ideas for batik. Unfortunately on the way home it started down pouring. IT was raining the hardest I've ever seen here. Clearly we cant batik in the rain. I ended up just carving my stamps so they are ready for tomorrow.

I cut my finger with the pocketknife I was using to carve my stamp. Thank goodness for the first aid kit my dad sent me with! I’ve used it twice in two days, but I’m sure that’s not surprising to anyone. I’ve always been pretty accident-prone. We joke all the time about how Ellen or I will be the one who falls in the open sewers.

For dinner today we had a potluck! It was amazing. The four of us all made something different to eat and then we shared. Nick made stew with potatoes and okra, Ellen made Thai rice with peanut butter and curry, Sarah made plantain chips, and I made cheese sandwiches. We decided were going to do this a lot for dinner or we will all throw in 2 cedis and see what we can make.

Thing from home I miss the most:

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

We are still working on our designs for the presentation we’re sending on Friday, and still waiting on specific feed back from the original design ideas we sent in. I feel like we are kind of in limbo and there is not much to do right now. It’s almost annoying, but that’s Ghana. I wonder if I will ever get used to doing nothing. I thought I would adapt to that pretty easily because id like to think I'm pretty laid back, but it way harder then I thought.

We are hosting a measuring workshop tomorrow with quality control. This should hopefully clear up any misunderstandings they have about proper measuring procedure. We met as a group and went over what were would go over during the workshop. Once quality control has measuring down there shouldn’t be any more inconsistencies between the garments. If the workshop goes well we plan to have one with the seamstresses as well. This way if something isn’t up to standards they will know and fix it, or if it can’t be fixed they won’t waste time finishing the garment.

It is important to help the women have a better understanding that by accepting items that are not up to standards it makes Global Mamas seem less creditable and in turn less people will order from them. They have a hard time grasping this concept. They think the more garments they pass the better.

For lunch we discovered a women right across the street that sells a good size bag of rice and red sauce. It was deliciously spicy. After eating I went on a walk with Ellen and nick looking for a Ghana football jersey. I needed to get some Ghana gear for the next match on Saturday. I ended up finding a yellow jersey with shorts for 10 cedi. This was pretty much the first souvenir I bought for myself.

After lunch I worked on the kids softies. I started drafting some patterns and using scraps to make them. I think these will be so cute. It’s just hard because we don’t really have access to a sewing machine.

Judy, the women who lives next door to the volunteer house, recently lost her husband. He got sick suddenly and passed away a few days later, it was his funeral we went one of the first weeks we were here. Since she is Muslim she cannot leave her house for 3 months because it is a mourning period. She has two young kids and gets really lonely. She also has a batik station and a sewing machine she said we could use. I think a few of us are going to try and go over there tomorrow to keep her company and also experiment with batiking and patterns.

On the way home today I was walking and tripped off a rock. I cut my foot, thank God for the first aid kit my dad gave me!

The thing from home I'm missing most today:

Monday, June 14, 2010

Today when I got to work I did some more work on the stamp library. Pretty much I just went through last years catalog and figured out which stamps were used for which garments and entered it into an excel document. It took forever. Sarah is working on a template to put them all in. its going to be sweet when its finished because it will have everything you could ever want to know about a specific stamp in one file. Once she finishes the template I’ll have to go through and add all the information I have into the template she created.

After working on the stamp library I took a lunch break. Usually for lunch I eat in the office and pretty much work through my lunch. By the end of the day I am so sick of being stuck in the office I cant stand it. I decided I'm going to start using my lunch to walk around Cape Coast. I feel like not only is it good exercise and a good break from work, but it will also allow me to see more of the city. I’m just going to walk a different way each day.

The rest of my workday I put together a template for the capacity building. The capacity building project involves going on site visits and getting to know the seamstresses and batikers and what they are good at. In the end we want to have a file that has profiles for each woman, what they’re strong skills are and what their weaknesses are.

After work I made the best pasta I have ever made in my entire life. I really think I’m becoming a better cook since I’ve been here. I even put fresh garlic in it. Nick is a really good cook and he gives me tips. He says I should start making sauces and soups because they’re easy and then I can eat them for a while. I might try something like that tomorrow.

I’m starting to feel like I don’t have much time left. Even though I’m only about half way through my trip I feel like there aren’t many weekends left to explore Ghana. Most of the places left to go are kind of far, which is why we’ve been putting them off. This weekend I think we’re going to try to plan a trip to Mole, which is a 10 hour drive north. We don’t want to have to travel with so many people because then we’re pretty much a walking target so there are 4 of us trying to plan a trip kind of behind everyone’s back. I feel bad because we don’t want to leave anyone out, but it makes more sense for us to split up and not travel in such a large group.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Today we hung by the beach again. The weather wasn’t as nice; it was cloudy, windy and kind of chilly. This combination of things, however, made for great body surfing waves. Once again I spent the day playing in the ocean, and loved every second of it.

We went to the surf shop again for lunch and watched the Ghana vs. Serbia football game. It is awesome how excited people here get about the games. I knew that football was a big deal here; I just didn’t realize how important it actually is to them. When a game is on, people literally drop everything to watch it. Our tro driver told us there was no way he would drive us during the game. No matter where people are, they find a way to get to a TV to watch the game.

After the game, when we were driving back to Cape Coast we saw so many people decked out in Ghana gear. It is so cool to see the whole nation untied. I feel like that is one thing we really miss out on in the U.S.

Overall- an AMAZING weekend. J

The kids in Busua were so cute... And thats a HUGE step for me. :)

Some more cute kids. Ellen dug a car out of the sand. They loved it.

The beach. There was an island. There was also a dead baby goat on the shore, so we had some African Vultures hanging around

My very first beach bonfire. AMAZING! bamboo burns a lot faster then i thought it would.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

I couldn’t sleep last night cause it was so hot in our villa. Ellen and I work up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep so we sat on the beach and waited for the sun to come up. It was an “oh Africa” moment. The beach is so relaxing and beautiful.

Once everyone else woke up we ate breakfast. I had real coffee another thing I seem to take advantage of in the states. The rest of the day we hung on the beach. I taught myself to body board. I’m pretty much obsessed now. The waves were pretty big and I had a blast playing the ocean.

For dinner we walked up the beach a little way to the Black Star Surf Shop and ate dinner. The shop is owned by an American man and a Ghanaian man. The food was amazing. By far the best food I’ve eaten since I been here. I’m debating spending every weekend at this beach just to eat the food.

While we were eating dinner some other obrunis came up to talk to us and figure out what we were doing. We seem to attract a lot of attention, its not very often here you see a group of 10 obrunis traveling together. They told us they were getting a TV to watch the U.S. vs. U.K. football game and then they were having a party afterwards and we’re invited.

We ate dinner and then hung out to watch the game. After the game they had a bon-fire on the beach and we all hung around the fire. It was almost like I wasn’t in Africa anymore because there were so many white people in one area. A lot of them were peace core volunteers or other volunteers working for different NGOs. Its cool to learn about all the different projects everyone is working on.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Today we’re took the afternoon off work to go to the beach! It was so hard to concentrate all day and you could just tell everyone’s mind was somewhere else. It was also supper sunny all day I just kept thinking about how much better life would be if I were at the beach instead of stuffed into this little room with million other people, and by a million I just mean the other designers.

Today Hillary and I worked on specs for the first part of the day. It was terrible. No two garments have the same measurements and it’s really frustrating. The only solution is to go back to square one and re-make the patterns.

After working on specs and getting extremely frustrated I started working on the stamp library. For this we have to go through and figure out which stamps have been used for which garments. There are also a lot of stamps that haven’t made it very far in the production process. For these we have to figure out how far they made it and why they were rejected. This is a very tedious process. Today I just went through the old catalogs and created a spreadsheet of which stamps were used for which garments that year.

Time was crawling today, because I was so excited to go to the beach. Finally, 2pm came and we left the office, packed and were on our way to the beach!

By the time we got to Busua, it was already dark. It doesn’t help that it gets dark here at 6pm. We ordered food from our resort. I had a cheeseburger. It was pretty much the most amazing thing ever. A cheeseburger and pizza are my two biggest food cravings here. So although this burger was not the best burger I have ever eaten, it hit the spot for sure.

After dinner we had a bon-fire. Their version of a bonfire is pilling 10 ft tall bamboo sticks tee-pee style and lighting it on fire. It was my first beach bonfire, and it was awesome.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

At work we are at a place where we can kind of all work on what ever we want because were in a transition phase. Mostly we’re just waiting for the go ahead from Renee and Kristin regarding our ne ideas. We got feedback from them via email this morning and they both seem really excited about our ideas. They said they see a lot of potential. I’m so excited! I was a little nervous as to what they would say because everything is a lot different than their previous products.

After getting some positive feedback I drew a couple silhouette flats in illustrator and then I came up with some more stamp ideas. After we already came up with our ideas for stamps Kristin emailed Sarah and asked us to make some stamps using their traditional symbols as inspiration. I made a really cute stamp out of one of the symbols. I just changed it slightly, so instead of just being a design it looks like it says, “love”.

After working on stamps Hilary, one of the new designers, and I worked on the specs. It’s so frustrating because nothing makes sense here. No two garments, even if they are the exact same size, have the same measurement. Then we tried measuring the patterns. This is obviously where the root of the problem is. They have no original copy of pattern, so it changes every time.

While we were working on measuring the patterns Maria came to let us know that some garments came from the seamstress and almost every single one was rejected because there were holes in the garment where the seamstress ripped the stitching out. We went on a site visit to see her and figure out what is going on. This was my first site visit. It was cool to see where the women work. This woman lived in an apartment building and worked on her balcony. It was hard to communicate the problem with her, but we came to the solution that her needle was too large and she needed a new one. I felt so bad because she was almost in tears by the time we left.

We went to the market with her to buy a smaller needle and a seam ripper. It was really cool to see where people buy their sewing supplies.

After the site visit we went to grab some groceries for the weekend. I just got the usual, some noodles, some cheese, some bread and butter. Ya know, nothing too crazy. I’m a little paranoid about food now considering I’ve been sick half the time I’ve been here.

After we got back from the market Hilary and I went back to measuring the pattern pieces of different garments. There is no room in the office now that there are so many people in the here so we went back to the house a little early and finished measuring the patterns their.

After work, Nick, Ellen, and I went on a walk to downtown Elmina. It was my first time walking down that way. I really liked it the town it is so cute and reminds me of something that would be in a movie. Its way more chill then Cape Coast. On the other hand, people there are not as used to seeing white people as the people in Cape Coast so they holler at us a lot.

Over all, a pretty successful day.. and tomorrow- THE BEACH!!

Wednesday, June 9 2010

This morning it pouring rain and my allergies were acting crazy. I feel like I can’t catch a break lately. I just want to feel good. I honestly feel like I've been sick half the time I’ve been here

Before work we went to the hotel to use the Internet. We had to email the presentation to Renee and Kristen and file was too large to send over the Internet in the office. I also added photos to my blog really quick. The internet at the office is not very reliable and they pay by usage not a flat rate so were not suppose to upload large images or files very often.

When we got to work there was a workshop scheduled at 9am. Since were on Ghanaian time and it was raining it didn’t start until close to 10:30am. The workshop was about being financially independent. It was really interesting to watch the women take everything in and ask questions.

A lot of the information they discussed seems like common sense to me because they are have been drilled into my head since I was really little. The women here had no concept of saving. The whole idea was totally unheard of. I have to admit I am not good at saving, my dad always tells me that money burns a hole in my pocket, but its not like I don’t know how to save.

Patience who is the head of fair trade taught most of the workshop. She is a really good teacher and knows what she’s talking about. I think it’s really nice that Global Mamas has workshops like this one in order to educate the women. One of their main goals is to teach the women to stand on their own. They encourage them to have business plans and separate business and personal accounts. They want them to be financial stable enough to be able to support themselves with out the help of Global Mamas.

The workshop lasted pretty much all afternoon. There were even too snack breaks where they provided us and all the women with candy, Fan Ice and pastries. Fan Ice is ice cream Ghana style. It comes in a pouch and u bite the corner off and then eat it. They are delicious. They come in different flavors the vanilla is like similar to vanilla ice cream, strawberry tastes like frozen strawberry Go-Gurt, and chocolate is like frozen chocolate milk. Each one is wonderful in its own way.

Another volunteer, who is also called Katie, is leaving tomorrow. She came in the first group to come after I got here, so her stay was only 3 weeks long. It’s still kind of a weird feeling that she is leaving because she is the first one to come and go since I’ve been here. We all went to Elis and had a going away dinner for her.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This morning I was feeling better. I wasn’t feeling good yet, but I was definitely feeling better. I decided I would come to work. I thought it would be good to get out of my bed and maybe have my sheets washed so all the germs are gone, and we had our trend presentation. I already missed putting all the ideas together which is my favorite part and didn’t want to miss the presentation too.

Three new designers from Iowa State came yesterday so today is their first day at the office. They spent the morning on the tour of Cape Coast, the same thing we all did on our first day in the office. It was honestly kind of nice that they weren’t in the office because were were all finishing our last minuet touches on out presentation and they wouldn’t really have had anything to do yet. It’s also good that they are coming at a point where we are finishing one project and getting ready to start a new one.

We finished and gave our presentation at 3:30. Maria seemed to really like all our ideas and was really enthusiastic about them. It was nice because a lot of our ideas are really different from the direction Global Mamas has taken in the past. We figured they would either love it or hate it.

After our presentation and discussing the new ideas it was pretty much time to pack up and go home. I was exhausted. Although I’m feeling better I’m still really weak and get really light headed from time to time.

After work I made a grill chesses sandwich ate a sausage and pretty much went right to bed. It seems like since I’ve been sick life here has been kind of lame and I am in need of a good adventure. Good thing we plan on going to the beach on Friday!

Pictures!

Nick and I on the way to Nzulezo

The fruit lady! She always sings when she's cutting the fruit for us.

Every store name has something to do with Jesus.

Mine and Sarah's beds with our nets on them.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Last night wasn’t any better than the day previous. I woke up in the middle freezing. The heat index was probably over 90 degrees and I had on sweat pants, a sweatshirt, and two blankets and I was still shivering. Then I woke u a couple hours later and was so hot that all the clothes I was wearing were drenched in sweat like I just jumped in the pool. Then I just fell back to sleep in my sweats cause I was too weak to take them off.

In the morning Maria came to check on me decided we should go to the hospital. I started crying. Then I sucked up and went. The ride there seemed to take forever because I was dreading going so much.

The hospital is pretty much indescribable. I feel like there is nothing I can say that will give enough insight on the experience. When I walked in the door there was a bumper sticker that said, “don’t fight people with aids fight aids”. I had to hold back tears. After waiting and waiting and waiting. I finally got checked in and they checked my vitals and asked my symptoms. They told me it sounds like I have malaria and they would have to do a blood test.

I was so nervous. That was literally my biggest fear coming true. Then, thankfully, in walked three American interns from Chicago, fresh out of med school. I felt so relieved. First of all, they spoke English, and helped me understand what was going on. They also assured me that everything is clean and sterile- that I would not get aids. I feel like if it weren’t for them I would have been a hot mess.

After the test we waited and waited and waited and waited for the results. When the results came I was happy to hear that I didn’t have malaria. Thank God. Maria and I dismissed it has some kind of African flu or food poisoning. We decided that we could go home and if I was still sick in a couple days we would come back. I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to be lying in my bed, not moving.

I laid around for the rest of the day and night and prayed I would start feeling better in the morning.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

I had a horrible night last night. I couldn’t sleep at all and kept having terrible dreams about people breaking into our house to steal all our things and kill us. When I woke up in the morning my whole body was acheing and I had the worst head ache ever. It felt like every few minuets some one was stabbing me in the side of the head with a knife and twisiting it slowly in a circle. I couldn’t help but cry everytime because it was so painful. It wasn’t a constant pain, but it came and went in waves. Looks like I wasn’t going to make it to the beach.

Sarah, Nick, and Ellen left for the beach at 9am and there was another group going at 11am. I told them there was no way I could get out of bed to go at with them, but I would try and make it with the next group. That, however, didn’t happen either. I was progressively getting sicker as the day went on. I pretty much didn’t more all day except to go to the bathroom.

At night, Maria came in to check on me. She said it didn’t look good, that I have all the symptoms of malaria, and that if I wasn’t doing better in the morning we should go to the hospital. That it is better to catch it and treat it than to not treat it and it get bad.

Great. My biggest fear. Going to the hospital in Ghana.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The original plan today was to go to the beach, however, it was raining when we woke up so we decided to cancel. Instead we just hung around the house. The weather started clearing up around noon. Sarah and I went to the gym at the resort and then to the pool. The pool was closed for chemical treatment. I swear they’re never really cleaning it. It never look any cleaner. I took a shower at the resort anyways it was AMAZING. There was actually some kind of water pressure and the shower head was attached to the wall. The showers at the house are the hand held kind. You have to somehow figure out a way to wash your body with one hand and rinse with the other. After feeling fresh and clean, I lounged out by the pool. I turned my chair around to face the ocean, listened to music and read a goo book. It was a delightful afican afternoon.

We went to Eli’ s for dinner but instead of getting a “meal” we just ordered some “snacks”. We got French Fries and Potato skins. Good American food in Africa. We just chilled out for the rest of the evening and decided since we couldn’t go to the beach today we would go tomorrow.

Friday, June 4, 2010

This morning we got started on our trend report. Its getting down to the wire now and everyone is feeling a little stressed out. We want to have a lot of our stamps designed and drawn in illustrator for our presentation so we can get feed back on them and get started on actually producing products. I also don’t think its helpful that we’ve been out of the office a lot this week. The fact that we have tons of stuff to fold and bag for the shipment isn’t helping much either.

Drawing in illustrator is really frustrating on my computer because I don’t have a mouse so I have to use my track pad. Can anyone say carpel tunnel? Carla let me barrow her mouse which is a little helpful but still very frustrating because its travel size so its pretty much just as bad as drawing with my track pad.

We did get a lot of inspiration and stamps drawn in illustrator. Everyone has really good ideas and it will be awesome once we combine them all. I’m excited to here what Renee and Kristen have to say about it because I think we will be taking Global Mamas in a totally new direction so people will either love it or hate it. I hope they love it because I think it will way more appealing to people in the U.S. It will loose a lot of its vacation feel and turn into more everyday wear.

The shipment is going out tomorrow morning. They ship every 6 weeks, so there was a lot of things that go into the shipments and there is a lot to get ready for. There was a lot of folding to be done and we couldn’t start folding until the women brought all the garments in. At 5pm when we were suppose to leave some of the dresses weren’t even here from the seamstress still. Sarah, Ellen, Nick and I ended up staying at work until 9pm waiting and then folding all the garments and putting all the finishing touches on everything. It was a long day!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

This morning when we got to work I started sketching some ideas for children’s stamps. I have a couple ideas that I think will turn out really cute and I cant want to turn them into samples. I also sketched some geometric shaped designs for the men’s collection. Its harder for me to visualize what those ones will look like when they are printed on fabric so it will be interesting to see how they end up.

While we were sketching some ideas the power went out so Maria brought us a ton of garments that needed to be folded and bagged. I will be really happy once this order is shipped and we wont have to fold and bag for a while. We folded for a while until the power came back on. Then we spent some more time sketching.

We haven’t been actually taking a lunch break. Usually we just bring food from the house and eat it through out the day so we never actually get a break. By the end of the day we are all really on edge from sitting in the same chair. Its funny because the last couple of hours of work everyone gets a little loopy. We decided it would probably be beneficial to everyone if we started taking lunches.

After lunch we sat in on a meeting two other interns were holding with the batikers and seamstresses. We ended up having to leave early because we went to finish the batking we started last week. Auntie Gina is also the head mistress at a senior high school so we met her at her school and she showed us around.

The schools hear are almost oddly familiar. The smelled reminded me a lot of the school my mom works at. The papers and report cards were similar to the ones I got in elementary school. The school was made of many different buildings though which is different then most schools in the U.S. They had a separate building for the dinning commons and different grades had their own buildings. Some students live on the campus so they have a girls and boys dormitory. The head master also lives on the campus and has a bungalow.

After visiting the school we went back to Auntie Gina’s house to finish batiking. I finished mine last week so I did a lot of waiting. Ghana will surely teach me patience. People here do little work and a lot of sitting around. I’m not so good at that. Its like they start a project and then get distracted and started something else. While we were their Auntie Gina would get up and disappear for like an hour at a time.

When we finished batiking we went home. Instead of eating at Eli’s we went across the street two this stand were this guy grills up sausage with peanut sauce. They were delicious. I would describe last night as the perfect African evening. We all ate sausage, drank beers, and listened to the ocean. It was so peaceful and perfect.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Today when we got to work we went back to working on our trend report. It seems like we are all gathering a lot of good ideas and inspiration and it will be really fun once we start putting everyone’s ideas together. I think its fun to work separately and then see the different ideas that everyone gets.

After spending some time on our trend report we went to shadow quality control. They have a pretty good system going, but there are definitely areas where they could use some improvement. I just feel bad telling them what to do. I feel like they have all been doing this for so long and they probably feel like I have no right to come in and change their system. When we were in Accra the first couple days here, Valerie told Sarah and I that they have “small boy syndrome” here. She was saying that even if you are educated or have more experience in a specific area they assume that since you are young your dumb and there is know way you could have a better idea then them.

After spending time with quality control and getting a better understanding of how they do think we went back to our office and did a write up on the process. We also all made suggestions on which things we think need improvement. We have to email them to Maria and then I think she emails them to Renee in the Accra office for approval. Then if they get approved we will start implementing them.

After quality control we went back to trend research and worked on that the remainder of the day. After today I have a good amount of inspiration and I feel like I’m ready to start sketching out some design ideas. I’m working kids and men’s clothing and prints. I’ve been mainly working on kids though and Nick has been doing a lot of the men’s. I like doing the kids stuff better cause there is a lot more room to be creative and a lot more you can do with kids things. Where as men’s are kind of boring because there are not too many things you can do.

Tomorrow where are spending sometime out of the office. We are going to Auntie Gina’s house to finish batiking. She is also the assistant head mistress at one of the schools here and she teaches textile design so we are going to spend sometime with her at school before going to batik.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

This morning Ellen and Nick are sick. They started feeling sick yesterday at Kakum and they were both still not up to par as of this morning. It’s funny because whenever people are sick people here just assume you have malaria even if the symptoms aren’t even close to those of malaria. I hope Ellen and Nick are feeling better tomorrow. Its way more fun at the office when everyone is here together and we can bounce ideas around.

Once we got to work we put our trend forecasting on hold so that we could fold the products that are going to be shipped on Friday. There are so many to fold. It seems like the pile is never ending. As soon as it looks like were starting to make a dent more items are being piled on top. Before doing this I had no appreciation for the fact that every time you get something in the bag, someone had to put it there.

It also seems crazy to me that we have to put each individual garment in its own bag. To me it is so important for companies to be sustainable. These plastic bags are very wasteful. Apparently they don’t have to bag everything for most companies but the customer who purchases the largest orders is really particular about how their garments are shipped. Apparently that company is not very environmentally friendly.

Sarah, Karla and I taught a folding workshop today. It is important that each garment is folded the same way and then placed into the same size bag so everything is consistent. We taught the people who work in quality control a good way to fold different garments so they fit correctly into each bag. Although folding isn’t very difficult, the people here are not very precise so it makes it harder for them to understand the concept that everything should look the same.

We also talked about what deadlines we have coming up. All of our trend forecasting as well as sketches of new products are due next Tuesday. There are new designers as well as other volunteers coming on Monday, and so on Tuesday afternoon were going to do a presentation to give them our ideas. This will help make sure we are all on the same page.

We also are going to start splitting up into small groups. With more and more people coming its going to start to get pretty crazy and if we all tried working on the same projects I don’t think we would ever get anything done because everyone has a different opinion about how to do the same task. Also, there is not a lot of space at the office, so when we split up into groups some groups can stay at the house and work on things like sketching and pattern making. Sarah thinks we should still rotate coming to the office and staying at home just to make everything fair.

After work Sarah and I went to the pool at the resort across the street. It was so nice to not be covered in sweat and be covered in chlorine instead for a while. It is really so nice having the pool across the street. It’s like an escape for the reality that is Ghana. We said we were going to tread water to exercise but I think mostly we just used that as an excuse to veg out at the pool.

Photo Update!

Nzulezo

My finished fabric

Stamping my fabric

Just another day at the office