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!