Friday, June 9, 2010

Today we worked on patterns at the house. There were a lot of patterns at the house that were ready to go out with flats and instructions. I ended up heading to the office around 10am to take the new patterns and try and get them out so they can be sampled and come back on Monday.

When I got to the office I patterned some squares for them to use as a template to cut fabric to sell them as quilting squares. When the squares were cut and came back from the women they weren’t very straight, so I tried making the templates out of cardboard. Hopefully that will help them to draw straight lines.

After leaving the office the few of us who went to the office went to Melcom and bough some groceries. We also went to a new market in Elmina that is smaller and closer to the office. It was nice because it wasn’t so crowded and didn’t smell so fishy. We all pitched in and got some groceries to make a fiesta.

When we went to make tortillas we realized that we bought cornstarch instead of corn flour. You clearly can have a fiesta with out tortillas, so Ellen and I walked across the street to see if they had any flour at Sea Top. Kristina, who owns the bar and who we know fairly well because we hang out there often, told us that she didn’t have any flour but she had some at her house, so she sent someone to go get some for us. She bagged it up and gave it to us. When we asked her how much to pay she said we didn’t need to pay that she was dashing it to us. It was the first time I had been dashed anything. It’s cool cause it means that we’re friends. Its like we bring her business by hanging out there and so she wanted to do something nice for us.

It had been raining a lot all day and it was pretty muddy out. Nick suggested that we all go for a walk. The walk turned into a giant mud fight. Everyone was splashing in puddles and throwing mud everywhere and all the Ghanaians who were around looked at us like we were crazy. Later we realized there was probably a lot of poop in the mud we were throwing as people pretty much just go to the bathroom where ever, but it was really fun and totally worth it. J

Thursday, July 8, 2010

I can’t believe its already Thursday. This week has gone by really fast. It seems like now that I’m getting down to the wire time has really started to fly by. I only have 11 days left in Ghana and I’ll be in the States in 12 days.

I stayed at the house again today to work on flats. The power went out pretty early in the day and my computer didn’t really get a chance to charge so I ended up going across the street to the hotel to charge my computer.

While I was at the hotel I Skyped with Mark. I feel like we talked about food a lot, I can’t wait to have a slice of pizza or a Mexi-Melt from Taco Bell. We also talked about what he has planned for the first couple of days after I get home. Thursday we’re going to a Tigers game and then the Canoe Trip is that weekend, so we’re heading up north early Friday morning. I’m really excited; I just hope my jet lag isn’t too bad.

I finished some more flats today, hopefully now that we have flats the women won’t get so confused when sewing the garments because they’ll have something to look at. I also had to write instructions on how to actually construct the garment. It was actually kind of difficult because I’m pretty sure the women don’t know all the English terminology. It was almost like I had to dumb everything down.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Today I started work at the house. I worked on drawing more flats so we can start getting samples made. Around 10am I went to the office to continue working on flats. The volunteers who are working on fair trade are presenting a workshop on proper practices and I wanted to attend it.

I didn’t end up being able to go to the fair trade workshop, because everyone was on Ghana time and the workshop didn’t end up starting until 1pm. I ended up running a few errands in Cape Coast, and then coming back to the house.

At the house I worked on flats some more. They’re looking really good. I’m excited because I will have things from every step of the design process to put in my portfolio.

Samples haven’t been coming back as quickly as they were before. It seems like the women are having a hard time reading our patterns. Its kind of funny because you could give them a garment and they can pretty much make an exact replica, but if you just give them a pattern they get really confused. It’s kind of a big problem and something Global Mamas really needs to work with the women on in the future.

After work I took a shower. It was so nice to be clean. I’m really looking forward to my first real shower when I get home. A shower where there is hot and cold water and some legit water pressure. It’s the little things like that I miss most from home.

Later in the evening we went across the street to Tom and Steve’s house. They brought real cheese with them from England and shared it with us. It was pretty much amazing.

Tuesday, June 6, 2010

I woke up this morning and made rice for breakfast. It was my first time ever cooking rice and I have decided it’s much harder then it looks. It ended up taking forever and didn’t even taste good. I was pretty bummed at my failed attempt to make a delicious breakfast.

I worked from the house today. I worked on drawing flats of the animal softies. I finished the giraffe and worked on the lion rhino and elephant. I also worked on flats of the other garments that are going to be sampled. The romper we sampled came back and the seamstress was really confused on how to sew it because they don’t know how to read patterns. We’re going to try and have flats and typed instructions to send out with each garment from now on.

We took the afternoon off work to go to a Festival in Elmina. The festival was in celebration of the river that runs through Elmina. It was a really cool experience. There was a parade where they carry all the chiefs around on chairs down the street. Everyone was singing and dancing. Then we went down to the boat races. There were so many people you couldn’t really see anything. A Ghanaian man saw me in the back and offered me his spot standing on a bench. I went from not being able to see at all to pretty much having a front row seat. I feel like that would never happen in the states.

After the festival Ellen, Nick and I went to a restaurant that served African and Cuban cuisine. It was really good. I got chicken and vegetable stew with rice. That’s probably the second time i've eaten meat since I’ve been here. We also ordered a glass of wine with dinner, and they just gave us the whole bottle.

After dinner we walked back to the house. Everyone was blaring music it was crazy how many people were out and about celebrating. Apparently the festival lasts all week. I wonder if they will be playing music so loudly every night. Thank goodness for the huge fan in my room that is so loud it over powers ALL other noises or I wouldn’t have gotten any sleep.

Monday, June 5, 2010

Today Tanya and her husband came to the office with us. It was fun to show them where we work. When I first got to the office I finished my journals from last week and sent them to Tanya. Then I went to try and extend my visa.

The woman at immigration was so rude. She seriously made me want to cry. I think I would have been fine if someone else went with me, but because I was all by myself it was really intimidating. First she yelled at me for the way I filled out the form. In an email I got from Renee before I arrived in Ghana she gave us instructions for how to fill out the immigration forms when we were on the plane. I filled out my second immigration from following the same instructions, but apparently the immigration officer did not like that. She yelled at me for using an Accra address, and again for putting tourism as my purpose for visiting. It was also difficult because I had a hard time understanding her English. Every once and a while someone else would come in the office and they would talk about me in Fanti. I could tell because they would both stare at me for a minute and then start laughing. Finally she started processing my paper work. They had to keep my passport, which is nerve wrecking in itself, and then told me I had to come back on the 19^th to collect my passport. I leave on the 19^th from Accra, and told her I wouldn’t be in Cape Coast. Reluctantly she ended up changing the date to the 15^th. She gave me a receipt and told me that if I lost it I wouldn’t be able to get my passport back. It just seems crazy to me because there is a quicker turn around on visas when you’re in the states and you have to mail your passport.

When I got back to the office I worked on drawing flats in illustrator of the softies we’re having sampled. I also helped take pictures of some of the new samples that came in so we can send them to Renee and Kristen to get them approved.

For lunch, we took Tanya and her husband to the place where we get those really good egg sandwiches.

We left work a couple hours early and went to the Cape Coast Castle with Tanya and her husband. It was really cool to go there and experience history, but it was really depressing because that is where they used to ship out slaves from. It was almost awkward because you were there with a bunch of Ghanaians, and it was almost like they made me feel like I was personally responsible for everything that had happened.

For dinner we went to Oasis with Tanya and her husband, I got a vegetable pizza. It was pretty much amazing. Its crazy that in two weeks I will be able to eat real pizza again. At Oasis, they had drumming and dancing.

After dinner we came home and went to Sea Top for a drink. We ended up calling it an early night. I came home, read for a while and went to bed.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

HAPPY INDEPENCE DAY!

This morning everyone went to the pool, so Ellen and I made streamers out of Red, White and Blue scraps and hung them on the porch. We also made a sign out of scraps of interfacing that said happy forth of July. It was weird being here, cause obviously no one here celebrates the holiday. We didn’t listen to, I’m proud to be an American or watch fireworks.

Tanya and her husband arrived around 6pm and we all went to lunch at Elis.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Today Ellen and I went to Stumble Inn to hang on the beach. It was pretty much a perfect day. We laid out all afternoon, were fed AMAZING food for lunch and dinner. Hung out with everyone after dinner and bummed a ride back to the house at night.

I think I'm obsessed with the ocean, I don’t really know what it is but I love when the waves push me over, it’s so liberating to me. The down side to spending the day at Stumble is the sand mites. I came home with a million bites again and I know I will be completely miserable tomorrow.