Monday, May 31, 2010

Today we took the morning off work to go to Kakum National Forrest. They are upping the price tomorrow. The price for Non-Ghanaians to do the canopy walk will go from 9 Ghana Cedis to 30 Ghana Cedis tomorrow. Therefore we decided we should go today so we didn’t have to spend so much money.

Once again we tricked a Tro-Tro into taking us there and bringing us back. I almost feel bad because they just sit and wait for us to be finished instead of driving other people, but apparently it’s a better deal for them too because they are making more money and its nice for us because then we never get stranded.

The canopy walk was amazing. Words or pictures just don’t to it justice. I never wanted to come down. The view was just unreal. There is another option where you can spend the night in a tree house in the forest, which would be awesome, so I think we are going to look into doing that sometime.

We came back to work for the rest of the afternoon. We have a shipment that we have to send out by Friday and each individual garment has to be folded and placed in its own plastic bag. For the rest of the afternoon we folded and bagged garments hardly making a dent in the mass amount of garments to be folded.

We ship all the orders that go to the U.S. to Kristen in Minnesota and then she ships them individually to the customers. That way it makes it easier on the customers because they don’t have to deal with customs. It also helps with distribution costs. As my parents have recently discovered its extremely expensive to ship to and from here. They said it was around $230.00 to ship a 5lbs package. It also gives her a chance to take a final look at all the garments and make sure they are up to Global Mamas standards before sending them out.

After work I made Mac N’ Cheese with noodles and laughing cow cheese. It was not nearly as good as Eli’s, but it got the job done. I’m trying not to eat at Elis everyday. Whenever I go there the food is so good I eat myself into a coma and I’m trying not to spend money.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Today we took the morning off work to go to Kakum National Forrest. They are upping the price tomorrow. The price for Non-Ghanaians to do the canopy walk will go from 9 Ghana Cedis to 30 Ghana Cedis tomorrow. Therefore we decided we should go today so we didn’t have to spend so much money.

Once again we tricked a Tro-Tro into taking us there and bringing us back. I almost feel bad because they just sit and wait for us to be finished instead of driving other people, but apparently it’s a better deal for them too because they are making more money and its nice for us because then we never get stranded.

The canopy walk was amazing. Words or pictures just don’t to it justice. I never wanted to come down. The view was just unreal. There is another option where you can spend the night in a tree house in the forest, which would be awesome, so I think we are going to look into doing that sometime.

We came back to work for the rest of the afternoon. We have a shipment that we have to send out by Friday and each individual garment has to be folded and placed in its own plastic bag. For the rest of the afternoon we folded and bagged garments hardly making a dent in the mass amount of garments to be folded.

We ship all the orders that go to the U.S. to Kristen in Minnesota and then she ships them individually to the customers. That way it makes it easier on the customers because they don’t have to deal with customs. It also helps with distribution costs. As my parents have recently discovered its extremely expensive to ship to and from here. They said it was around $230.00 to ship a 5lbs package. It also gives her a chance to take a final look at all the garments and make sure they are up to Global Mamas standards before sending them out.

After work I made Mac N’ Cheese with noodles and laughing cow cheese. It was not nearly as good as Eli’s, but it got the job done. I’m trying not to eat at Elis everyday. Whenever I go there the food is so good I eat myself into a coma and I’m trying not to spend money.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Today we hung low key again. It was rainy again so we just hung around the house. We looked for board games to play and found a murder mystery dinner game, so we played it at dinner. It was really fun. I was the host and everyone had character to act out. It was fun because everyone got really into it. I think were going to look for more games like that online and maybe plan to play one once a week.

There is a new person coming this week I think around Tuesday or Wednesday. The house is really filling up fast. It reminds me of being a summer camp.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Today the plan was to go to the pool and relax, but then it rained. We all hung at the house all day. I worked on my final paper for my internship and started drafting a pattern for my final project. Nothing too exciting, just a nice relaxing Saturday!

Friday, May 28, 2010

We didn’t go to work today, we went to the city built on stilts, Nzulezo, instead. We left the house at 5:30am and got a Tro-Tro to take us to Takoradi, which is about an hour west of Elmina. From Takoradi we should have had to transfer to another Tro-Tro or to a bus to take us the rest of the way, but Ekiate negotiated with the drive and he agreed to take us the rest of the way. Originally we thought the ride would be between two and three hours. It ended up taking almost four and a half. That is along time to sit in a Tro-Tro smooched together with other passengers. Next time maybe we will splurge and take a fast car. Tro-Tros stop often to pick up and drop off other passengers fast cars take you straight there, and they have air conditioning!

When we were getting closer to Nzulezo the road turned to dirt and there were millions of potholes. I’m really surprised our Tro-Tro didn’t get a flat tire or worse, get stuck. In order to complete the journey to Nzulezo we had to take an hour canoe ride through a lagoon. We kidnapped our drivers and paid for them to come to Nzulezo with us. We thought it would be nice because they have probably never been and that way they didn’t have to just sit and wait for us, but mostly because we didn’t want them to leave us there stranded with no ride home.

The canoe ride was my favorite part. We all sang songs and were laughing and having fun. It reminded me of being at summer camp. It was a good bonding experience for all of us. I was secretly terrified that our canoe would tip over, not because I cant swim or I was afraid of what was in the water, but because I was scared my backpack would get wet and all my electronics would be ruined. I thought I was doing a good job hiding my terror, but Sarah claims she could read my face like a book. Thankfully we made it to Nzulezo dry... well dry except for the fact we were drenched in sweat after sitting in the midday sun for an hour.

The village was amazing. It just boggles my mind that people live there away from everything on top of the water. The village wasn’t very big but they said 500 people live there; it must be pretty cramped when everyone is there. During they day they canoe to the mainland. They said most of them work in agriculture so they have to canoe for an hour each day to work and an hour home. I bet they’re all ripped.

After the canoe ride we hopped back in the Tro-Tro and traveled home. By the time we got back to Elmina we were all exhausted and starving. Thank God for Eli and her Mac n’ Cheese.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

When we got to work this morning we went straight back to sketching designs for our stamps for our batiking project this afternoon. After looking at most of the batik designs that global mamas already has, I think the simpler the design the better. I feel like the more details you try to add the more cluttered it looks. After sketching many ideas it was hard to decide which one to use for my stamp. Even though this is my first time batiking I am hoping that I like the end result so that I can use it for my final project. I don’t want to have to pay for the workshop again. I ended up choosing a design I made out of dots and lines. It’s really simple, but still cute.

After deciding on which stamp we were going to use we had to cut a block of foam into smaller squares. Then, we carved our designs into to the block. After this we went to on of the Global Mamas, Georgina’s, home to finish the batiking process.

In order to get to Georgina we stuffed all 7 of us, plus the driver, into a 5-person car. It was quite a cramped ride and by the time we got to Georgina’s we were all dripping with sweat.

Georgina went over the basics of the textile chemistry they use to dye the fabrics. She went to a University in Ghana and has a degree in Textile Science. As well as being a Global Mama, she is also the Head Mistress at a school here. It seemed like she really knew what she was talking about and was passionate about textile design. The way she cared for the industry reminded me a lot of Usha, the textile teacher at CMU.

Georgina taught us that the word batik means to draw or write with wax. The first stage in batik depends on the color you want the stamped design to be. I choose to leave mine white. So the first stage for me was to stamp my fabric with wax. Then you get the fabric wet in cold water. Next, you place the fabric into the dye. After it is totally saturated you hang it to dry. Then you repeat the process using different stamps or colored dye depending on the intended end result. I died mine yellow first and followed it with green.

Something interesting I learned today while we were batiking is when you mix the dye they use here it turns to a color other then the color it will be at the end. For example, the yellow was purple at first and then by oxidation the dye turned from purple to yellow while on the fabric.

Everybody Wants to Know a Vomiting Obruni

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

This morning for breakfast I made a grilled cheese sandwich. We have a gas stove in the house that you have to light with a match. It makes me nervous, knowing my luck I would be the one to burn the house down. I haven’t really figured out how to control the heat yet either so it got a little burnt, but I ate it anyways and it was nice to have something familiar. My stomach is still not really feeling adventurous about food.

We have pretty much got a system down about getting to work. Usually we have to wait for everyone to leave the house, and then wait for everyone to get a taxi. Today as soon as there was a group of four ready we just left. It worked way better. I hate waiting around for people.

When we got to work we started working on the Meredith dress. I suggested that it would be more efficient if we split up so we weren’t all working on the same thing. So, while Carla and Ellen worked on the dress pattern Nick and I worked on creating a layout of the kids ruffle dress. Afterwards, we looked at a spreadsheet from Renee about which items they would be dropping for the 2011 catalog. We also looked over the new items they want us to design for the new catalog. I will be concentrating on Mens Wear and Childrens Wear. It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us. I’m excited.

Alice also emailed us back about the kids hoodie pattern we made corrections to last week. She agreed that the sleeves are too long and they needed to be shortened. The pattern design book we have here says sleeves for kids 2-4 should be 15in from shoulder to wrist, which is what we did, but it is sort of out dated. Alice said she has a newer book that says sleeves should be only 13in so I shortened the sleeves 2in on both sizes.

We spent a lot of the afternoon trend forecasting. We looked through magazines and on the Internet for different inspirations and ideas. The power went out for a little bit because there was a big storm, but it didn’t stay off long, which was nice because my computer battery was almost dead.

After trend forecasting we took a quick look ahead at what we will be doing over the next couple weeks. Tomorrow we are taking a batik workshop where we will get a better understanding of the laborious dying process. We also get to batik our own fabric. So, after trend forecasting we spent the rest of the afternoon at the office brainstorming and sketching stamp ideas.

When we were catching a cab back to Elmina after work we ran into the driver whose taxi I threw up in on Monday. How embarrassing. It’s one thing to get sick around someone you will never see again and totally different when you’re going to run into them all the time and you’re now labeled puke face. But he had a good sense of humor and we laughed about it. Then he dropped us off and asked how he could see me again. I laughed and told him I’m sure I’d see him around, but seriously, who would want to hang out with a vomiting obruni?