T.G.I.F.

Friday.
I'm so sleepy.

I woke up this morning at a more normal time. Made my coffee, Did a little reading in bed. Typical 5:30 a,m. behavior.

It is the interns last day today, so most of them did not work. It is NOT my last day, so I had to come into the office and do everybody's work. I took a taxi this morning, and it was a fairly uneventful trip, until the very end when we went to pay and he told us that he did not have any change. Pain in my you know what. I think i mumbled something about how he shouldn't pick anybody up unless he has change. Between the four of us in the taxi we managed to find exact change, but it was definitely an annoying way to start the morning.

Today went by so slow. It is cold and cloudy outside, so all I really wanted to do was drink coffee and read. I think the entire office felt the same way, because we all were dragging a little bit. We are FINALLY getting more fabric this weekend, so we can send out more samples. I spent the better part of my day making adjustments to stamps, printing them out, and tracing them onto the foam. It was my goal to get all stamps on foam, so that Monday morning we can call the women to come in and have them test a few more samples.

Between stamping, we had a marketing meeting about one of the websites we have. It needs a lot of help. That is one problem when you are working with a company that is so small. You have to depend on volunteers to do things like web design, which is really a fully time job. We also had a meeting about quilting. We are trying to get some batik fabrics out into the wonderful world of quilters, but it is a bit of a challenge figuring out what prints and colors to sell together in a set. One of the girls rolled some of the fabric into a "jelly roll" and it looks SO cute. I don't know much about quilting, but it looks like the "jelly rolls" that my mom buys, so I think we are off to a good start.

I think I am going to be frazzled now that I am the only one on the design team. Oy, that's a lot of pressure.

I will try to do something exciting this weekend, so that I have something to write about. Also, I will try to post some photos :-)

peace. love. I'm cold.

I use antlers in all of my decorating....

Thursday.

Well, wasn't I surprised when I woke up at 3:30 this morning. I just rolled over and was wide awake. I couldn't fall asleep so I listened to some music, made some coffee and read my book. Eventually I went down stairs, but only when it was getting close to work time.

Jessica and I were patterning, and one of the other girls asked if we were going into the office. We both stopped and looked down at what we were wearing and began to laugh. Both of us were still in our pajamas, but not just any old shorts and old t-shirt pajamas...we had on matching sets. So, I guess today was "wear your pajamas to work day." I hope you all got the memo!

Working from the house was pretty successful today. We patterned all day, and got quite a few sizes done in a few different dresses. Its panic time because tomorrow is the last day for the remaining interns. The pressure is on!

That's really all I have for today, because I only left the house for dinner.

Tomorrow I will actually go into the office.

Peace. Love. Sleep.

Chips and Guac make any day OK

Wednesday.

As much as I LOVE to sleep, I have really come to enjoy waking up early in the morning, making a coffee, and reading in my bed for a few hours. Of course some days I hit the snooze about 10 times...but today was a definite reading day.

I went into the office today because I needed to send some samples out. When I arrived I got right to work getting everything organized and on a "to do" list. It is always better to have things written down when you are asking for multiple samples.

In the middle of my madness I took a "break" and colored in color wheels for the women who were attending our workshop today. We hold workshops at least once a month for the women. This month we covered book keeping, visual merchandising, basic color theory and 4 of our women became fair trade certified. For the most part the women really got a lot out of what we were telling them. We had a role play portion about how to treat customers when they come in, and the women thought it was so funny. As prizes we gave away more of the Clinique bags! One of the women was also given a first aid kit, making her one step closer to fair trade certification. It was interesting when she asked me what the antibacterial wipes, the advil, and the neosporen were.

After the workshop I came back to the house to work on making patterns in multiple sizes. Let me tell you...I have never done this before, so if these garments turn out it is going to be a miracle! :-) Note to CMU pattern making class...have a section on grading patterns! So far it seems to be working, but I guess I will really find out once the samples come back. There is one new dress that I am obsessed with, and I hope it becomes a yes for 2011.

I worked up until dinner, and I think I will stay home tomorrow to continue patterning. There are only three of us working on patterns this week, and we have been working to Disney music the entire time. I bet most interns can not say that they patterned to Disney all summer. We are so cool.

Peace. Love. Measurements.

Daddy Vic.

Saturday.
This trip is taking a long time for me to get out.

We had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to catch the bus back towards Kumasi. The stop was right across the street from where we were staying, and it was a little bit creepy at that hour of the morning. I actually now refer to the time between 3:00 - 4:00 as creep hour.  There were goats sleeping all over the road, there was a call to prayer happening, and two lonely street lights were shining.

When the bus came it was pretty empty, and we had no problem getting a seat. We went towards the back, trying to get maximum leg room.  This was not a direct bus, so every half hour or so we would stop to pick up more people. It finally got to the point where every seat was full, and we started filling with people who had to stand.....the same people that we almost had to be just 24 hours before.  Now, I can tolerate many things, but having people in my personal space at 4:30 in the morning is not one of them. I thought I was going to have a panic attack, or snap someone in half. Too many people in such a small space is a nightmare! The man behind me kept moving my chair, causing my body to jerk around, and someone kept touching my toes. To add to my early morning joy, it was the same bumpy road that we had to go back on, and I literally felt like I was on a roller-coaster.  I have a video of some of the ride. It is ridiculous.

There was one funny part of that bus ride though. At one point we were stopped, and there were a few stands outside the window. At one of the stands there was a goat just standing outside the door, and he looked like he was waiting for it to open. Jessica and I had just about lost our minds at this point, so we decided to narrate what that goat must be thinking. We did this for way too long, and then at one point I finally said, "I'm her mom" **Side note, you should go to youtube and search "Kittens inspired by Kittens" and you will fully understand that statement!** So, when I said this, all of the other girls responded with "Noooooo she's not!"  We all started laughing about it, but there were three women in the back who just started cracking up, and they kept repeating "noooo she;s not!" It was so funny, because they had no idea what it was from, but were still laughing about it.

A miserable 4 of 5 hours later we were finally off the bus, and in search of our next one. We had a bit of time to kill before the next bus, so we stopped to get some coffee and eggs. After our bus stop brunch we decided that it would be smart to use the bathroom.....sorry mom, but i just have to tell another bathroom story :-)

At bus stops and taxi stations you normally have to pay to use the bathroom. Well, when five girls go into the bathroom, and there are only three spots to use it is going to take a little longer than normal. So, we came out of the bathroom and the man looked at me and said, "What is the problem" and I looked at him like, what are you talking about, and he said "Why so long?" I laughed and told him that we were having lady problems. Then he looked at me like I was speaking Spanish, and asked what lady problems. I then gave him a look that was along the lines of...."do you really want me to say it?" So, I simply said to him...."PERIOD!" There were a few other men around the bathroom listening to our conversation, and they all let out a WOAAAAHHHHHH when I finally responded. Thats what you get for asking a lady what took so long in the bathroom.

The second bus ride was not as bad as the first, and I ended up finishing another book.....in total I read 2.5 books during driving time on this trip. When we got to Kumasi we were going to stay at a "backpackers lodge" It was a short distance from the bus station, so we walked there. We had originally booked a room for the next night, but when we decided to come back early we called and asked if we could switch it to the night before. The man said that it shouldn't be a problem, and said that they would have a room for us. We walk into the "lodge" and we tell the woman that we booked a room, and she tells us that there were no open rooms, and there were two beds open in one room, but there were people praying in it. We tell her about our call the day before, and how we were told that there would be a room for us. She tells us that she has never talked to us, so we call the number back that we had used the day before. Well.....it ends up that it is the cell phone of the owner. How we ended up with his direct number....we still are not entirely sure. So, we tell him that there is no room for us, and he asks if we would be willing to pay 10 cedi for a room at a different spot. At this point we didn;t mind the two extra cedi, and agreed. Basically we just needed to know that we had somewhere to sleep.

We were confused as to where exactly we were going to be sleeping, but the owner said that he would come pick us up and take us there. We were sitting out in the court yard waiting for him to come, and saying how we were a little sad that there were no rooms, because it looked like a really cool place. About twenty minutes later the owner came and asked if we were ready to leave. We walked outside to find a really nice SUV ready to take us to our hotel. Ok, I know that right now some of you are thinking that I am an idiot for getting into a random car and agreeing to let it take me to a hotel. This thought did cross my mind, but I didn't have a bad feeling, and there were five of us, and cell phones, and it was still daylight. So, have no fear, I am not a total idiot.

We open up the door to the car, and it starts talking...."Please watch your step" Of course we all had to start laughing about it. We drove about 5 minutes away into the "suburbs" of Kumasi. It is a really interesting city, because it has all levels of living. There is extreme poverty, and just a drive away it looks like you are in beverly hills. We pull into a nice neighborhood, and come to the hotel. It was so modern and cool looking, so we were instantly excited about the fact that we had to change locations. Clearly we were getting the better deal. He asked if we would be ok sharing a room, and we said yes, and just figured we would have two in one bed and three in the other. A woman showed us to our room, and we literally squealed with joy! Really, it was a little embarrassing. We acted like it was the first time we were in a hotel. The room was HUGE. There was a kitchen area, a living area, a huge king size bed, and a queen and full mattress pulled in for the rest of us! PLUS, there was a tv, air conditioning and a bathroom WITH a tub AND hot water. Really, it was a dream!

We told the owner that we wanted to go to the restaurant that he owned for dinner, and he told us that he would hang around and drive us back. We washed up and then were on our way. When we pulled up, we asked him for directions on how to get a taxi back to the hotel after dinner. He looked at his watch, and asked if two hours would be long enough for dinner, and then told us that he would come back and take us home. I still feel like some of you are judging me right now, and thinking that I am an idiot, but he was not creepy. I think he thought....these girls are traveling alone, and I need to make sure that they are safe. Really, I was thinking this through the entire time. The restaurant was all Indian food (as he is Indian) and it was SO good. Plus, they had American tv channels, and we got to watch E! for a little bit after we finished eating.

On the way home we asked about how he got into the "travel" business, and he was so excited to tell us the story. The restaurant was originally a gift store, then a grocery store, then a grocery store with cold snacks, then a grocery store with small meals, then a small restaurant with a few grocery items, and then a full blown grocery. It was only within the last five years that they have ventured into the hotel business.

The next morning we got up and packed our things and set out to find the market. We heard that it was one of the largest markets in Ghana and West Africa in general, so we decided that we just had to check it out. We had to walk a little ways to get to the main road to find a taxi, and on the way a kind woman stopped us and decided that she would find us a taxi. We got dropped off at market, and we entered in. It was intense. We were in the used clothing section and it was a zoo. People were grabbing at us, and hissing and it was one of the most uncomfortable moments of this entire trip. Plus it didn't help that we all had our backpacks on, so we were bumping into everyone. After about five minutes of the madness we got back out onto the main road. We debated for a while if it was worth going back in, and decided that we would walk the outside first to see if we could see anything good. Once we had been full circle around the market we stopped to ask if someone knew where we could get Kente cloth. This traditional African cloth is made in Kumasi, so we had to get some!

The man we asked told us that yes, it was in the market, but we would not find it without someone. We told him that we would be fine, and we just needed directions. We basically just say this to all men, because we don't want them to follow us. He gave us the directions, and off we went. Well....after the first left turn we were already completely clueless. However, not 60 seconds later he came running behind us laughing and said " I thought you could find it on your own." We laughed it off, and once again we had found an extremely kind person who was more than willing to help us out. He took us to the bead section, then showed us his store, and a few other locations around the market. Then he took us to the Kente man. It was Sunday, so all of the vendors were not open. But for the one man who was open, it was his lucky day. We went a little cloth crazy and bought a ton of cloth from him. He was so excited that he ended up giving me some for "commission" and he gave the guy who took us some money. He told him that without his help, he would have never made that much money. We were happy to help him out.

After the market, we decided that we were too tired to explore any more, and our kind market guide put us on a trotro to the taxi station. We got a trotro back to Cape Coast, and it was another minor nightmare. It was one of the tros that can fit 24 people, and there is zero leg room. I have never been so uncomfortable in my life. To add to the ride, there were frozen fish strapped to the top of the tro. Every time we turned, or swerved, melted fish water would fly off of the roof and come into the windows. IT smelled like death! It was so disgusting that we once again couldn't help but laugh at it. As if the fish, and the anti leg room was not enough for one afternoon we broke down. I knew that this day would be coming soon, so I was not really that surprised when it happened. We pulled over, and the opened the hood. After about five minutes we decided that it would be a while and we got out.

First we stretched out legs, then we walked up to the front to see what was happening. They were breaking sticks off of some trees, and we asked what the problem was. They told us that there was a hole that should not be there. One of the girls looked at the drive and said...."so you are filling it with sticks?" Yep, that was the plan. We decided to leave them to their plugging and we went in search of a bathroom. After we used the woods, we decided to do some road side yoga to calm our nerves and stretch our legs. One of the woman thought that we were so funny, and said to the other passengers that we were enjoying the sun. About a half hour and 10 yoga positions later we were back on the tro.

We got back to Cape Coast and for some reason the door was open. A taxi driver decided to hop on for the ride and started asking "WHERE GOING", we all just glared at him and said no. He then told us that he would take us anywhere we needed to go, right now. We just ignored him, and he continued to tell us. Finally the woman next to me said to him, "Where is your taxi? On the roof? How will you take them?" The entire tro started cracking up, and you could tell that she was rather pleased with her quick come back to the man. Eventually we made it back to Elmina and practically passed out from all the driving.

To quickly recap my past two days:
work FanIce work rock cakes work coffee, and i was interviewed for french radio. Yeah.....Im so international.

If I think of any other really good details I will be sure to post them.

peace. love. Radio.

Holy Mole!

Friday.

It rained all night long, so despite having to wake up at 3:00 in the morning, I slept pretty well.

Bright and early at 3:30 the taxi came to pick us up from the Catholic guest house. We asked how much it was going to cost, and he said 10 cedi. we said no that was way too much money, and he tried to tell us that he lived far away and it was an odd hour of the morning, so 10 was fair. We said once again that it was too high, and he gave us the same line once again. So, I looked at him and said, "You are ripping us off, and you know it...THAT'S NOT NICE!" So he shook his head and laughed a little and then agreed on 5 cedi for the ride. Nobody messes with me at that hour of the morning!

So we get dropped off at the station, and it is super creepy. Creepy mainly because it is 4 in the morning. We ask a few people where we can buy tickets, and they tell us that you can not buy them until the bus gets there. We take a seat on a makeshift bench, and ask another person about the tickets just to be sure. An hour later the bus pulls in and tons pf people move towards it...all of them with a ticket in hand. Apparently they purchased them the night before. At this point we are just annoyed, so we find the driver and ask if we can get a ticket sill. He tells us the bus is full, but we can buy a ticket and stand. So, for about twenty minutes we actually consider doing this. Then a group of Mormon siblings approached us and asked where we were going. I explained to them that we were trying to go to Mole, but the bus tickets just screwed that over. They were also on the way to Mole and asked if we wanted to rent a trotro with them. It ended up being 4 times the price, but at least we got to sit.

The road from Tamle to Mole is basically a dirt death trap. I am sure that road eats at least one car per day. The ride was hell. We thought the back door was going to fall off, and at one point two of the seats actually did break off and fall! We were cracking up and yelping at all the bumps, but the driver was not happy. At one point we had to pull over and fix the tire. The best part of the ride was when one of the guys pulled out a bag of skittles....and shared them with us!!! I have never been so excited for skittles in my life!

Eventually we made it to our destination in Larabanga. The hotel in Mole was full, so we stayed outside the park at the Salia Brothers (sp?). When we got there we dropped off our bags, and got our new friends a room for the night as well. Then we got back into our rent-a-tro and drove to the park. As soon as we pulled in there was an elephant standing right off of the road! It was so cool. We took some photos of him, and then found a wart hog nearby. We booked an afternoon safari, and went to get lunch. We were enjoying a peaceful lunch on the porch, overlooking some elephants at the watering hole, when all of a sudden there was a monkey very close to us. We looked at him, then he got closer. Then he was on the chair..then the table..then he was running across the table and he took a sandwich right off of one of the girls plates and ran away. We all started cracking up, and the staff responded by getting slingshots out. That made us laugh even harder.

After the excitement of lunch, we went and sat at a lookout and watched some animals run around. Then it was time for our walking safari. I had been told to wear closed toe shoes, and I did. However, the park ranger told me that if I step on a black mamba I would die. I of course told him that I would be fine, which made him go into graphic detail about what exactly would happen, and then made me put rubber boots on. Now, I am a size 7 shoe, and I had to wear size 10 boots. Lucky for me, I was able to slip my shoe inside of the boot for added comfort.

The first part of the safari consisted of us hiking down into the woods. Let me remind you...I had on a dress and boots that were three sizes too big. Obviously I was the last one down. We walked for about two hours, and there were a ton of animals. At one point we were surrounded by monkeys, and it was a little creepy. While we were waiting for something I asked the guide if I could hold the gun for a little bit. I think that must have been the first time that anyone ever asked him that. He looked at me, and said why would you want to? I told him that it would really add to my safari look...after all I did have the boots on. So, he agreed but said I could hold it as long as I did not point it at him. That comment left me with a shocked look on my face and I said that I would never think of it! So, I held the gun, and took a picture. After that, there was more walking and more animals.

We called the brothers to pick us up, and they sent a sweet 4x4 to come get us. I think we should have taken that on safari with us. When we got back into Larabanga we said that we wanted to go visit the mosque. It is one of the oldest in west Africa. They walked us over and we got a brief history of it and of the town itself. It is a 100 percent Muslim community, and they have a very small school that was started by a peace corp volunteer.

After our visit we went back to the "hotel" and we ate a bunch of snacks for dinner. We decided that because we had good luck at the park, and we went to the mosque, that we didn't need to spend another day in the area. Our new travel friends were going back to Kumasi in the morning, and we decided that we would go with them. We went to bed fairly early, and all of a sudden music just started blasting! It was so so loud. Apparently it was ladies night in town, and we were stay right next to it. We thought this was both funny and annoying, and we went up onto the roof to check it out. We couldn't see anything, so we had a mini dance party and called it a night. *note* you can sleep on the roof at the Salia Brothers, we didn't just climb onto a random roof.

Somehow I eventually fell asleep, and I only had to use the squatty potty once in the morning.

I'm sleepy now so I will continue with more trip details tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Peace. Love. Muslim dance party?

The Quest for Mole

Thursday.

I woke up this morning at 4:00 am, midnight your time. And we were out the door by 5:00. We walked through the dark field to Shell and grabbed a taxi in record time. We asked the driver to take us to one of the trotro stations in Cape Coast and he took us to the wrong one. We said that we needed a tro to go to Kumasi, but he was trying to get us to take a bus. So, while we drove from Elmina to Cape Coast, and then back towards Elmina and once again to Cape Coast we fought with him on if we could or could not take a trotro to Kumasi.

We were right, and found a tro that was almost full. With the addition of the five of us, we topped it off and we were on our way. As we were pulling out of the station people started yelling about the tire. So the driver got out to look at it. Clair and I were in the back intently listening to them talk about the tire issue, and Carla was a few rows ahead laughing at us, because clearly we had no idea what they were saying. Finally Clair just said "is the tire OK?" And the driver said yes, so she said "ok, let's go!"

It was about a 4 hour ride to Kumasi, and the tro smelled slightly of hot dog poop. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, because you all know! We made one stop for a road side pee, and overall made pretty good time.

When the trotro dropped us off we took a taxi to the STC bus station. We were keeping our fingers crossed that we could take a STC because it has AC, and soft seats and is really nice. If this bus was full we would have to take a metro bus, that has wooden benches. We got to the station and there were still tickets for us, so we bought them, went pee and got a diet coke for the long drive. Side note on going pee at the STC station. I had to use the womens urinal, which is basically a room of tile, with a tile gutter you stand over and pee. Awkward. This is the reason why I wear dresses when I travel.....however I will confess to it now, because it really is funny...at a later stop to pee, I once again had to use the lady urinal, but I ended up peeing on my dress. I'm disgusting.

The bus ride was nice during the first half when three of us shared the back seat that was meant for five. However, after the pee on the dress stop we picked up more passengers and then we were packed in. It was a bumpy ride to begin with, but being in the back seat just made the bumps 10 times more bouncy. Also, we had the pleasure of watching a horrible soap opera. The volume was so loud and blown out, and after five hours we had enough!

We finally made it to Kumasi. We decided that because we had been sitting for so long, that we would walk to the place we are spending the night. Of course all of the taxi drivers were trying to tell us that it was too far to walk. Lucky for us we had ripped out a few pages from a travel book that had a map. It was nice walking because we got to see more of the town and the people. There are some really big and beautiful mosques here, and the people were all very friendly and welcoming. They all just wave and say hello. The little kids are always the best.

We made it to the Catholic Guest House, which really makes me feel like I am at church camp. We went to check in, and they told us that there was no reservation for tonight, and that the reservation was for Tuesday, but we didn't show up. So we had to go through the fact that we called for TODAY about 10 times. Then we said, ok.....do you have rooms for us? She said no, and we had a small small panic attack. But the she sat at the computer and there was suddenly two rooms open....so, we have a room.

We all decided that we were too lazy / tired to venture out for food, so we ate at the guest house. Big mistake in the food department. We ended up getting spaghetti! Not what we had in mind, but we were so happy that we could just walk right back to our rooms. We are going to bed now, because we have to leave at 3:30 am to get bus tickets!! Ahhh early morning. Once we arrive tomorrow we will have two nights in the same spot, so we get a normal amount of sleep one of the nights!

So far, so good on our journey.

Peace. Love. 7:30 bed time.

T.G.I.W.

Wednesday.

I had a day of no taxis! It was amazing! Maria drove me to and from work. Oh the joy of stress free travel.

The other day I went to Shell to buy a FanIce....ok, let me be honest....it was 4 FanIce, but that isn't the point. I bought one that I thought was frozen orange juice. This morning I decided that I would have my frozen orange juice with my breakfast, so I bit the corner off ready for oj, but instead I got a pineapple ice lolly. Oy. It was still amazing, but just not what I wanted at 7:00 in the morning.

Our day was pretty much the same as yesterday. We were on a mission to get as many samples back as we could, photograph them, comment on them and then send them off for other comments.

I don't think that I have any good stories from the day, because I was sitting at my computer most of the time. At lunch I broke down and got a diet coke with my egg sandwich. It was the best lunch ever! I even took the time to sit down and enjoy it at the spot where it was made.

Also, the shorts that I purchased yesterday are not Global Mamas, but they are made by one of the Global Mamas. Sabina has a shop that is right down the street from the office, and she is one of the nicest women in the entire world. She is so sweet and puts EVERYONE before herself. She has a really interesting story, but I think I will share that with you at a later date.

Tonight we are having a goodbye dinner for some of the volunteers who are leaving this weekend. Next weekend the rest will go, and then there will just be three of us. It is going to be so so so so quite around the house!

Today is like a Friday for me, because I am taking the next five days to travel north. I would not expect any blogs from me, because I do not know what cell coverage is like in small villages, but I will bring my phone along just in case I can update you on my adventures, because I am sure it will be an adventure!

Five of us are going North, with our main destination being Mole National Park. It is our goal to see some wild animals this weekend! We are planning for the worst, but it will be fun /  and funny no matter what, because the group that is going has a good attitude.

My posts have been short lately, but that will all change this weekend!

Wish me luck, we are leaving at 5:00 am!

peace. love. adventures.

Salute Your Shorts

Tuesday.

I just wanted to stay in bed and read all day. Its going to be a week or two before I can spend the weekend doing that.

Every Tuesday I forget that its no fishing days...aka no taxi days. So, we were standing on the side of the road trying to get a taxi to Cape Coast and a driver on the opposite side of the road pulled over with a full taxi and asked if we would wait for him to come back. I said No, keep going! What a fool, like we were going to stand there and wait for him to drop people off and come back. Annoying.

Work was busy again today. We were still sending patterns out to be sampled, and trying to hunt down the ones that were already out. Then I was sending interns out to work with seamstresses, while I was fixing patterns and photographing new products. The day went by pretty fast because we were doing things non stop.

Today I decided to treat myself to a little gift. I bought some WILD shorts. They are patchwork shorts with really bright and bold designs, and they have an elastic waist band. I will try to post photos of them, because they are funny. However, at the same time I feel like they are very J.Crew goes to Ghana!

Not much to say for today, and you did not comment yesterday....so that's all for now.

Peace. Love. Shorts.

Monday Blah.

Oh Mondays.

I already miss my rooomate. Katie and I arrived to Ghana together, and today she packed her bags and went home. It seriously feels like we just go here and were secretly counting down the days until our return flight.

I got up early this morning so that I could drink tea and read on the porch by myself. I have been a bit crabby the past few days, so I needed some alone time....that lasted all of 20 minutes.

When I got to the office I really can not remember what I did. It was one of those days where I was running around like crazy doing 10 things at once, that now this morning feels like a week ago. AH. Ok, let me think....someone went to get me an egg sandwich for breakfast while I updated one of the product spread sheets. After I had everything up to date I had to add more photos of new samples that we got in, and try to figure out what samples went out to who. This was pretty much hell, because the main woman from quality control was not in today. She had not filled out the sample sheets, so nobody knew who had what. This was basically the stress of my entire day. Samples are hell.

Trying to calm myself down, and find some order to the madness, I sorted out the sample fabric into potential keep and absolute no. The cut the stak down by about a third, but there are still so many options to pick from. Around 9:00, Katie and Hillary came into the office one last time. It was strange, because it didn't feel like they were going home, so we were all just like "see ya later"

Around lunch time I took a walk to the bank, and it was so nice outside! I just wanted to skip work and go to the beach for the rest of the day. When I got back I had to explain patterns to a few seamstresses, and I think that is one of the most stressful things ever. Even though we are both speaking English, the language barrier is just too much sometimes. Then I have to have someone translate, and who knows what comes out of that. Needless to say, one of the seamstresses came back with a pattern hhalf sewn and completely confused. STRESS!

And I don't even want to talk about the tote bag that came back looking like a baby sleeping bag.....

On the bright side....I ordered my lunch in Fante today and the woman was so excited that she gave me a double high five!

Also, I thought of something else from the night in the tree house. While we were walking through the mud, a few of us thought it would be funny to apply war paint to our faces. After all, it was just us, and we were in the middle of nowhere. So we are walking, and enjoying our funny face decorations, when suddenly we hear voices and we are coming up to a small village. So we panic and try to get the mud off, but we basically end up just smearing it around our faces...making it look like we have been walking for days and days. With the help of a little spit, I was able to look presentable by the time I met the chief. Woops!

I will end this post on that happy note.

Peace. Love. Mud.

A Hot Wired Car, Killer Ants, and A Night In A Tree.

Saturday /  Sunday

I started my morning with a bowl of real Kelloggs Frosted Flakes! When I went to Krobo for the beads, we did a workshop with a mother and daughter who are from the UK, but currently living in Accra. Well, they came to Cape Coast for a batik workshop, and brought an eight pack of little cereals, oreos, dorritos, chocolate chip cookies, and three NEW fashion magazines. They said that they thought we were so nice, and just wanted to do something nice for us because we were here volunteering. It was so nice of them!

Around 11:30, nine of us left to find our way to the tree house. It is in Kakum National Park, but it is on the complete opposite side than where the canopy walk is. Because there were nine of us, we had to split up into taxis to get to the tro tro station. Well, we all said that we were going to meet at Abra station, but when our taxi pulled in….we were the only obrunis to be found. So we are all just standing around waiting for the other taxi to come, and we just stand waiting….and waiting…and waiting. Finally, we decided that they must be at the taxi stop that is down the street. So we all walk to the end of the road, but once again they are nowhere to be found. At this point we are a little upset, because if you tell someone that you are going to meet them at a taxi stop….you meet them there. We think of one other station that they might be at, and we catch a taxi there. As we pull into the wrong station again, we get a call from one of the girls from the other taxi. We ask where they are, and she says “Oh we are here!” Well, come to find out “here” means that they are at the next tro stop 45 minutes away. So, apparently when their driver was taking them to the location where we were all told to meet, they realized that this was the wrong stop. Rather than just going with the plan, they decided to just go on with the directions, and leave us completely clueless as to where we were going. 

Eventually, we get to a spot where we can catch a tro to the next location, and when we get there we were told to look for a man in a Gucci shirt, and he would take us to the site. We pull into the station, and have very little faith that there is going to be someone there to take us to the next location, but sure enough as soon as we step out of the tro, Gucci came running towards us. We got into his taxi….that was literally about to fall apart, both on the inside and outside. I wanted to take a photo of it soooo bad, but my camera is just so obvious, so I think one of the girls in the back got a shot of what it was like. So, the driver gets into the car, and I am trying to roll down the window because the smell of gas is so overwhelming, that I think I am going to throw up, and he twists two wires together, and off we go. The ride was jerky, due to the fact the car was going to die at any second, but then we hit the dirt road, and it was a whole different story. We were weaving from one side of the road to another to try to avoid the giant craters. This ride took about an hour, and we just kept going deeper and deeper into the jungle. I just kept thinking that if something happened to us, nobody would ever find us out there.

FINALLY, we make it to a small village, and we try to get out of the car, but because there are no handles on the inside of the doors, we have to wait until he opens them up. I take a huge breath of fresh air, and we meet up with the others. We get a small tour of the village, where I held a baby goat, and then we went back to the main area for dinner. We had rice with red sauce and yams.  At this point it was only 3:30 in the afternoon, but after the crazy morning, it felt like it was 10:00.  After we finished eating, it was time for the two hour hike to the tree house. None of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into, we just read in the travel book that you can sleep in the tree house, and thought why not?

In case you didn’t know, it is rainy season here. The hike to the tree house was deadly. The ground was so wet and muddy and slippery, we were sliding all over the place. When we weren’t sliding, we were trying to avoid huge puddles, and then we met the ants. The man leading us out to the tree house said, ohhh the ants are very bad right here, walk fast. We didn’t think much of it, and started walking faster, but then we felt the horrible burn and sting of these army ants. They were all over our feet, and we couldn’t just brush them off, we had to literally bend down and pull them off of our bodies.

Once we were in the clear from the ants, we stopped and he pulled a cocoa pod down from one of the trees, and we had a little snack. The cocoa is so slippery, and it tastes like a sour popsicle. You just suck on the flesh, and spit out the bean.

As we continued to walk through the jungle, we eventually were not even on a path, and we were just climbing over fallen trees and jumping over puddles. Every-so-often we would hear someone yell ANTS! And we would all start walking really fast doing high knees, so that they could not get onto our feet. Yeah….just picture 9 people walking through jungle doing high knees in a single file line. It was quite walk. At some points I felt like it was a Disney attraction or something. All of those plants just did not seem real to me. 

Two hours later we made it to the tree house. It was literally a platform build around the tree with a tin roof and bars around the edges. We climbed up the looooong ladder, and at that moment I decided that I was not going back down that ladder until morning. I took a quick sip of water to swallow my malaria pill, and then I put the water away. It was dark shortly after we all got up the tree, so we settled into our spots for the night. My spot consisted of a beach towel and a sheet. Once we were all settled in, we basically had a sleepover, and we busted out all our snacks and passed them around. Then of course we tried to tell some ghost stories, but they were the kind of stories you would tell in 4^th grade, so they made us laugh more than anything.

The animals were so loud all night long. I kept thinking of those noise machines that some people fall asleep to, that are sounds of the rain forest. I think that it would be pretty annoying to fall asleep to all that noise every night, but that’s just me. Monkeys are so loud and I swear they just scream for fun! I didn’t get much sleep, because there were 9 of us crammed into a small small platform. We basically had an inner circle of sleepers, and an outer circle. Somehow I was stuck on the outer circle, and ended up practically smashed against the edge of the railing. I started out really hot, but as the night went on, I got colder and colder and colder. To add to my suffering, I had limited space to move, or stretch, or sleep. I think I slept for maybe a total of 2 hours, and when I woke up in the morning I felt like I was 90. My bones were hurting from the cold, and from sleeping on a board. Come to find out, none of us were sleeping, and as soon as it was light outside we all started laughing at how horrible sleeping was.

We packed up, and climbed back down the ladder, and finally I was able to pee! We had a longer hike back because we stopped to learn about the different trees and plants that are in the forest.  My feet were absolutely killing me by the time we got back to the village this morning, and my shoes were wet from all of the mud, and there is a rip in the toe of my TOMS.

When we got back to the village, they gave us breakfast, of eggs, toast and tea. It was so good. People in Ghana know how to make their eggs! Two taxis were sent to come for us after breakfast, but of course only one of them came on time.  I waited around for the second taxi, because I was not in any rush. Eventually he came, and it was a much nicer ride than the one I took to get into the village. 

Once we made it back to Elmina, we were all so tired. We went to the pool for a little bit, but there were some strange characters hanging out. I dont know if these girls were drunk or what, but one threw a glass of beer at some guy, and then of course it broke into a million pieces all over the cement. Then they were just being annoying, so we just went back to the house and hung out until dinner. 

Ok, I think thats all for the tree house. If I think of anything else I will post it tomorrow.  I know it sounds like it was a nightmare of an adventure, but it was so cool sleeping up in the trees!

peace. love. trees. 

Rain Rain Go Away

Friday.

I woke up today and it was so cold and rainy outside.

Yesterday I had planned on coming back to the house early for a catalog meeting with a few of the designers, however, because shipment went out this morning and I was stuck folding....that meeting never happened. So, this morning I made sure to stay home and have the meeting

My entire morning was spent over at the hotel with a few of the other designers brainstorming ideas for the 2011 catalog. In the past photos have been taken here in the Cape Coast area. This year we are hoping to do a photo shoot in the U.S. So we found images of possible locations, and came up with lifestyle photo ideas.

At lunch time we were all so hungry, so we went down to Eli's to see if she had any leftovers. We figured there was a good chance, because last night there was a big group that came to eat at Eli's and they ALL ordered something different! I think Eli is just too nice, and she agreed to make all of the different dishes! That's insane. When we eat there we all get the same thing, and she cooks all day for us. I can't even imagine how long she spent in the kitchen last night! Crazy. But, we had egg sandwiches and ground nut soup.

After lunch we finished our catalog meeting while drinking coffee and eating rock cakes. Dare I say it was a relaxing day at work?!?

After work it was time for my birthday party!! Everyone in the house went to Stumble Inn for dinner, drumming and dancing. I am still not sure of all the facts, but somehow my roommate Karrah was involved in setting this all up. It was so cool! I will admit, when I first found out about a drumming and dancing night I was a little worried. Then when I had to sit front and center I was REALLY worried. But, it was so cool. There was flipping and fire eating and then I was forced to go in front and dance for my birthday. Have no fear....the entire thing is on video.

Tomorrow I am going back to Kakum National Forest to spend the night in a tree house! Let the birthday weekend go on!

Peace. Love. Eat fire.

B-Day

Thursday.

Rewind to 1986…the greatest day of my parents lives!


I stayed in my bed most of the morning (aka the hours between 5 and 7), and only got out when it was absolutely time to get ready for work. When I went into the kitchen, a few of my friends/roommates/employees said that they had something for me, and pulled out a bag with a blob on smashed chocolate in it. I started cracking up, because I really had no idea what it was. Katie told me it was a John Long, and then I started laughing harder because I really had no idea what it was. Translation – it was a Long John doughnut. When they were in Accra yesterday, they stopped at bakery and got me a chocolate doughnut. From traveling it was a little smashed and melted, so they stuck it in the freezer to try to get back to normal. Once I found out that it was a chocolate doughnut, I didn’t care how it looked! It was the closest thing to chocolate cake that I was going to get today! So thank you Katie, Nick and Ellen.


I had to catch a taxi this morning, and the jerk tried to charge me 3 cedi for the ride. I told him to just move along and I would catch a different taxi. Normally, when you say this, they will say ok, ok, ok, 80 peswas….get in. I guess he was set on this price because he got mad and drove off, but not before stopping to tell another driver the story. RUDE!


On my way into the office I stopped to get a bag of water, and a mini Fante lesson. The woman who we buy our snacks from all day long has decided that she will only sell to us if we speak in Fante. Legit reason, but I think I have lost a few brain cells in the heat, and I can not for the life of me remember how to say anything she teaches me. But, she is always so happy to tell me over and over what the words are.


This morning at work I did a little folding for the shipment that is going out tomorrow, and I fixed a few stencils for the prints we are testing, and printed off patterns to be sent out to the seamstresses and told other people what projects they should be working on. At this point, I thought everyone would know what we need to get done, but I guess I was wrong.


While I was folding garments for shipment, they called me into the quality control room, acting as though there was an issue with something. Maria was saying, “Did you see this…” when the entire quality control room broke out into the birthday song. Of course I hated this, because I don’t even like going out to eat on my birthday, for fear of it slipping out that it is indeed my birthday, and then being publicly humiliated in front of people trying to enjoy their food. Anyway, apparently in Ghana, if it is your birthday they just like to throw things on you. So while happy birthday was going on I had water thrown at me. It was so awkward, but I guess I was lucky because they normally throw soapy water, or wet rice on their friends. Its not very fun, but I laughed with them.


Once the round of Happy Birthday was over, they went into “How Old Are You” and “May God Bless You” I thought the singing would never end. So, once I told them my age they made me make a wish. So, in my head I made a wish, but then they wanted me to say it out loud. I told them that you can not tell your wish, but they insisted that I say one. I was trying to think of something funny to say, but then one of the workers yelled out that in one year I need to be married. Then another worker yelled out that I need to be married and be a global mama, with a global baby. I had to break it to her that that was a bit of a far off wish……now I think they are looking for a husband suitable for me.


For my birthday lunch I went with classic goat rice, and I went all out and got a coke. What more can a girl dream of……other than yam balls and egg stew at dinner tonight.

So, before I came to Ghana, my brother and his wife made me a dvd, appropriately called “Peace. Love. Ghana.” When it was given to me, they told me that I could watch it that day or hold off until I was home sick. I decided that I would wait until I had a major break down here…..once a few weeks went by and I was still OK I decided that if I had not watched the dvd by my birthday, then I would use it as a birthday gift. So, today I put the dvd in and had quite a pleasant surpise.


Most of you reading this probably know what the dvd was all about, because you are on it! But for those of you in the dark, It was a collection of video messages from my family and friends. It really made my day, and actually made me a little homesick.


So….a few movie comments.

Cuzin Katie: I like that you are petting Olive in the video and I hope you are still growing your hair out!

Cuzin Bryan: SO FUNNY!

Nana: I bet you never thought you would be on a video all the way in Ghana.



AJ and Uncle Neil: Thank you for constant prayers and support.

Fultons: SO CUTE! Jackson totally stole the show on that one….and I am glad Karrah still managed to get a shout out in there.

Kaley: What animal was out the window distracting you from Yaya?

Lauren, Greg, and Emily: SO SO FUNNY! Thank you for the most wonderful poem about Ghana…or should I say GA-HA-NA that will ever be written. Lauren, I would have had the same reaction that you did.

Batman and all of the Stolman Family: You are the cutest! Brad….I will be sure to take note of how to say “I have to use the bathroom”
Laura Jay I love the little pep talk

Michael and Jen: You look like business officials. But I love the peace. Love. Ghana.


Karrah: I miss you!!! Your video made me wish that I was on the black couch with a huge mug of coffee watching Ellen and eating friendship bread!

Thank You for all of the notes on the video as well.

And thank you all for the birthday wishes and emails, it really means a lot to me!

peace. love. 24.

BEADS!

Ok, so I finally had long enough to come to the hotel and up load the bead photos for you....

First you crush the glass.

Then you sift out the powder from the chunks.

Then you cut the cassava to fit the center of the mold. 

Fill the mold. 

Bake at 350* for 20 - 30 minutes.....ok not really.

BEADS!

and THIS is just one small small table at the bead market!

peace. love. beads.

Happy Bastille Day!

Wednesday.
If I was in France, I would be watching fireworks under the Eiffel tower. BUT....this is Ghana. I am sitting outside, but its cold and cloudy.

I lucked out this morning and I got to ride into the office with Maria. It is just so much more of a relaxing start to the day when you don't have the hassle of the taxi.

The internet has been so bad at work all week, and only half the power has been working....it makes for very frustrating times. Even though I know that work takes 10 times longer here, it is still sometimes a major frustration to me. I had some serious spreadsheet work to do, and it took me most of the morning to get it finished.

Then, Maria and I lost our minds. I was in the main office talking about something, and one of the women came in to give us her samples for the design contest. Each of her entry sets included a hat. Obviously, we felt the need to put these on our heads and started cracking up. Patience decided that it would be a good idea to document this moment, and I believe it will end up on facebook. After seeing that photo people are going to be submitting applications like crazy.....we are a fun office

A few minutes later we really lost our minds, and we decided that we were going to try to make quality control laugh. We tucked our lips up (like a who) and then we tucked our bottom lips in...so we had no lips. Now, this was a very difficult face to keep, because our teeth were slippery. So, we walked into the quality control room and they just looked at us. No reaction at all. So while Maria and I are basically wetting our pants, they are all just looking at us completely confused. Finally, we got one to crack, and then the others joined in. We showed them how to do the no lip face, and in return they showed us how to do a monkey face. One of the guys looked at me, and very seriously said, Sarah...what is the point of this? I told him that the point was fun!

After my moment of crazy, I went back to work doing a number of things. On the way back to the house our taxi driver got into a fight with another taxi driver because he almost cut him off...then he apparently told the other woman in our car that we should all keep our heads covered. Once he said that, she was all in a tizzy saying that women do not need to cover their heads. It was a strange day. Is there a full moon or something?

And now, my favorite part of the day....food. Dinner tonight was so so good. One of the girls decided that she wanted to celebrate her birthday tonight, so we had....chips and guac, garlic mashed potatoes, salad, chocolate chip ice cream, and fruit pies. Dinner went from 6:30 until 9:00. SoooooooooO good.

Tomorrow I seriously need to start watching my portions. Haha

Peace. Love. Lippy.

Did I do that?!?!

Tuesday.

Ok. Don't be mad, but there will not be a photo update today.

When I went over to the hotel after work, I realized that I had forgotten my charger. My computer was completely dead, so one of the girls let me use her adapter. Well, I put it into the wall, and nothing happened. So I wiggled it around a little bit and for a second my computer actually charged, but as soon as I moved my hand away from the wall it went off again. Once again, I wiggled the plug.....when all of a sudden all the power went off in the hotel. Now, I'm not sure if I am to blame for it or not, but I threw my things into my bag and quickly switched off the plug. Oops.

Today I worked from the house. I really enjoy working from the house because I end up getting a lot accomplished. Today there was just three of us, and it was very successful. We had a meeting about the 2011 catalog, and we came up with some really good ideas that we will propose later this week.

After our meeting we patterned two new bags, and we fixed a couple of patterns that just weren't working out. For lunch we walked over to the Shell station...yeah...I bought lunch from a gas station. In the states I don't even buy water from the gas station. To make my purchase even more interesting...I got a pre-wrapped tuna sandwich and a chocolate milk. Surprisingly it was really good.

After work I went swimming at the hotel to de stress, and then the whole possibly blowing the power thing happened.....so I came back to the house and watched a movie.

Now, a short Q and A:

1. Katie -- I measured my hair today from the bottom of my hair down and it is 15 inches. What is your measurement?

2. A dread bead is for Michaels hair, however I could not find one to fit.
3. People are afraid of Pepo because of his size. Most dogs in Ghana are small, and most people do not keep them as actual pets around where I live.

Ok. I will try for photos tomorrow.

Peace. Love. Oops.

Rasta Row

Monday.

I ate too much red red at dinner, and now I'm too full/sleepy to write.

People were crabby at work today, and there was no power. I spent most of my day folding dresses for our shipment, and I might as well just always do the folding, because half the time I have to re-do other peoples work.

To make up for this lacking post, I will post photos tomorrow.

Peace. Love. Gluttony.

Bead Bohemia

Saturday.

I slept for 12 hours last night. It is so quite at this house, even the roosters don't start until later in the morning.

Well today I did something that I never thought I would do in my entire life. I hitchhiked to the office. It kind of happened by accident, because I thought we were getting a trotro. We got in and there was only one chair, and when we dropped he just went on his way. It was then that Rebecca told us that we just hitchhiked.

We waited for two random people to come to the office for the bead workshop. We went with a man named Moses and made glass beads by hand. First we had to smash up broken glass. Then we sifted the broken glass to get the fine powder out. The powder is the part that goes into the mold, and eventually turned into a bead. After we sifted the powder from the glass pieces we prepared our molds. Each mold is a little bigger than the side of a cd, and has a little less than 100 spots carved out. In order to make sure there would be a hole in the center of thebead we had to stick a thin piece of cassava in the center and trim it flush to the top of the mold. Once this was completed we mixed in a powder dye with the powder glass.

To fill each mold, you simply pile the powder ontop and pat it in. Then shake it around to make sure it goes into every crack, and tap the bottom on the table. You then blow off the extra powder and you are ready to put them into the fire. They stay in the fire for about 30-45 minutes. Once you pull them out they cool for a few minutes, and then you dump all of the beads out nto a bucket to be washed. Give the beads a quick scrub between your hands and there you have it! Recycled glass beads!!

After our workshop was completed we set off to find the bead market, aka heaven on earth. Rebecca took us around to show us all of the fair trade bead makers, and at first I was so overwhelmed. Literally, my brain was on bead overload and I thought I wasn't going to be able to buy a single thing because there were just so many options. Then I snapped out of it.

My first purchase. Old African trading beads. These are a bit on the pricey side if you buy an entire strand, so I got three individual beads. What is interesting about the old African trading beads is that some women prefer to spend their money on these, because if there is a currency change the beads will consistently hold their value, where the value of the cedi might drop. After purchasing the old trade beads, it was a bead shopping spree. I just couldn't resist all of the hand painted beads. Hillary was laughing at me, and said that my eyes were huge every time we got to a new table. Its probably a good thing that I live in Elmina and not Krobo, because I would spend all of my money on beads. If any of you ever come to see me *hint hint* I will take you there.

On out way back to the house from market I ate some questionable meat from a street vendor, and then we just hung out at the house for a little bit until dinner time. For dinner we went to the Krobo version of Eli and he had yam balls. These were different than the ones I am use to, because these had a hard boiled egg in the center. Still sooo good though!

Hillary and I were major nerds when we got back to the house after dinner and we looked at all of our beads. I have no clue what I will do with all of these beads, but even if I just look at them I will be happy.

Sunday.
How many tros does it take to get back to Elmina?

Hillary and I were out of the house by 8:00 this morning, to ensure that we would have enough time to find our way back to Cape Coast. First we got a tro that said he would take us to Accra. We got in, and after many drops and pickups we made it close to Accra. Key word being close. We randomly pulled over and the driver said "Obrunis....out!" We said, are we going to Accra? He said No, I will pay. So he called another tro over and paid for us to get to Accra. Somehow I got stuck in the very back corner of this tro, where I counted 23 people surrounding me. Did I mention that I had to pee?

We told the driver that we needed to go to Circle Station, and I don't know who messed up, but where we ended up getting out was not circle station. After wandering around for a minute, we asked a tro driver how to get to Cape Coast, and he walked us over to a different tro and told us that he would take us to the stop. Into tro three we went. Again, shoved into the back, bladder maxed out and backpack balanced on my lap. We started driving, and we just started laughing because we had no idea where we were going. Thank God for the man next to us, who explained in clear English where we could drop. Finally we made it, and it was just in time to grab the last two spots in a fast car that was headed toward Cape Coast. We jumped in, and sill....I have not been able to pee. Because all I could think about was having to pee, I was a bit on edge. Adding to my annoyance was the man directly in front of me and the woman right next to me. First, the man decided that he didn't want to breath the air, so he wrapped a bandanna around his nose and mouth, looking like an idiot out of a western film. Then, he had this tiny can of chips that he balanced on top of his bag. I seriously think he thought I was going to take them, because every time I made a move he would put his hand on the chips. The girl next to me was a whole different story. She took up the entire seat with her crap, leaving only half a butts worth of seat for me. Then she was chomping her gum and bumping into me, and it literally took all I had in my body not to snap.

Finally, we made it back to Cape Coast and the driver dropped us right in the middle of market. Still....I have to pee. We basically power walked to the taxi stop, praying that they would be there on a Sunday afternoon, and thankfully they were. 5.5 hours from the time we departed I was finally able to pee. Gah!

Peace. Love. Bladder Control.

Sitting in a tro....waiting to go to Ho

I'm starting todays post as I am stuck at a trotro station in Accra trying to get a ride to Krobo. This moment could also be referred to as a hellish nightmare. It will be a miracle if I get to the right destination by the end of the day.

My morning started when Hillary and I left the house at 5:30 and walked through the dark to catch a taxi. Note to self, taxis are scarce at that hour of the morning, so we stood for a good 10 minutes waiting for one to come. We took the taxi to Cape Coast and waited for a fast car to fill up. Fast cars run from Cape Coast to Accra without stopping. It took about two hours this way, and the air conditioning was blasting and the gospel music was jamming! It was quite the ride.

At one point the car stopped in Accra and I thought it was time to get out...but it was not. Luckily we asked the driver. Finally we were at the last stop, and we had to catch another taxi to a different station, so of course we were swarmed by drivers wanting to give us a ride. We got in and country music with extra bass was blasting in our ears. He turned around with the window crank in his hand and asked if I would like to get some air. The traffic in Accra is chaos, so it was stop and go all the way to the station. The best part was every time we had to stop, the driver would completely turn off the car.

By the time we made it to the station, Hillary and I had to pee we were forced to pay .20 to use a stall that smelled like a barn. Bathrooms like this are the reason I wear dresses....easy bathroom access. We had to sit and wait until the trotro filled up.....so we sat for a long time. While we were sitting we were swarmed by vendors selling everything under the sun. Including a traveling salesman who was selling a product called wormzap. Ew. I think we had a shopoholic in the tro with us, because she was buying things left and right....literally.

Ok, so now it is hours later and I did make it to my desired location! When we left the Accra station Hillary and I said to each other DON'T FALL ASLEEP! We had no idea where we were going, and we were not positive that our driver knew either. So what happened about 20 minutes into the ride? We both passed out. I woke up as we hit a pothole and my face smacked against the window. The ride pretty much went downhill from there. The woman on the end had her legs spread so far apart that Hillary and I were literally in fetal position smashed against the window. Can you say personal space??? Just as I thought my tail bone was about to rip through my skin we made it. I noticed a sign that said Kpong, so I told the driver to let us out.

We pulled over and the car was instantly swarmed by vendors. We had no clue where we were going, so we asked for directions and eventually found our way to the Global Mamas office. Rebecca was frantically working on organizing beads, so we tried to help, but really we just looked at all the pretty beads.

We left the office early and went to dinner. It was only 3:00 but it felt like 7:00. We took a tro to a hotel that we actually considered staying at. It was pouring rain when we got there and continued to rain harder and harder. It was soooooo loud on the tin roof. A man at the table next to us kept coming over to talk, and wanted to introduce us to the head of police....awkward.

When we were finished with dinner it was still raining so we tried to call a taxi to pick us up, but when that didn't work out we just started walking in the rain. Eventually a taxi picked us up and we made it back to the volunteer house. This house is so nice and so cute! Its just a little ranch style house tucked away in some trees.

It is still raining and thundering now so I am really excited to go to sleep!

Peace. Love. TroTros.

No No...not a tumble weed. A tumble WEAVE!

Thursday.

Ohh the tumble weave. This is a bit of a new sight for me since living in Ghana. Some places in the world experience tumble weeds blowing across the streets. However, here in Ghana we get to experience clusters, or even entire braids of hair blowing around. The tumble weave can show up at any time, so you must always be on the look out.

I do not have a taxi story from this morning, because I got to ride to work with Maria in her new car! It was so exciting! Yay for cars, and now once all the interns leave we can go on adventures with Pepo to the beach for a fraction of the cost!

I had about an hour of success at the office this morning....then the power went out. Although I do have a laptop, it is older than dirt and has no battery life. Therefore, when the power goes out, so does my computer. Fail. Whenever the power goes out at the office, we usually get it back fairly quick. However, when two hours went by today with no power, I was starting to get frustrated. After I had a snack break, I decided that I would run a few errands, and if I got back and there was still no power, then I would go home and work from the hotel. Thankfully when I got back the power was back on.

First item on my to do list, was to get a copy of a certificate so that I could get my visa extended. I had picked up the paper work earlier in the week, and I had extra photos with me, so I just needed one more piece of paper. I went down to the immigration office, and of course they were closed. Rather than walk back to the office and turn around to go back I decided that I would just sit until someone came back. I should have known that I would find another husband during this time of sitting. Well, I guess technically Wendy found another husband.

When someone finally came back to the office, it was a big ordeal and I ended up getting yelled at for handing someone my forms with my left hand. GAH!!!!! I just don't think of these things. Of course, after I got yelled at all I could think about was not using my left hand, and how maybe I should just tie it behind my back, or chop it off all together. I was so distracted by these thoughts of how not to offend this man again, that when he handed the papers back to me......I took them with my left hand. Great job Sarah.

In the afternoon we got a few more samples into the office, so we took photos and I sent them off for comments.

To make up for the taxi ride in the morning, I had a very eventful ride home. We were walking down to the usual taxi stop, and Sam called us into his taxi. I don't know if there were gas fumes, or if we were suffering from heat exhaustion, but the five of us in the taxi were slap happy. I think Sam was a little loopy as well, because he was joking right along with us. However, I think he was more so laughing because we were laughing. Nobody really gets our twisted humor around here.

I came to the hotel to blog this, because I may not blog for the next few days if my phone continues to fail at life. Tomorrow morning, bright and early I am off to the region where we produce our jewelry. It was a sudden trip offered to me, and on Saturday I am going to take a bead making workshop! I am SO excited to do this, and to go to the bead markets.

I will be sure to post photos of the beads!

peace. love. jewelry.

Karrah goes to Thailand!

If you didn't already know...I have some pretty amazing friends.  Seriously, I know that most people think that their friends are great, because why else would you be friends with them right? But I was lucky to find a great group of friends during my final years at Central.

One amazing friend in particular is my former roommate, and fellow fashionista Karrah Wood! Karrah is doing her graduate internship with an amazing company called The Village Experience.  When she took this internship opportunity, she agreed to move down to Indy for the summer and work on producing a wholesale line for the company. Well, a few weeks into her internship an exciting opportunity came up for Karrah, and she was offered a trip to Thailand to work one on one with a few of the organizations The Village Experience supports. 

Knowing what an amazing opportunity this is, I thought a blog shout out was called for.  Karrah MUST get to Thailand! (maybe via jet pack?) It will be a life changing experience, and she is one person who will make the most of it!

Check out her blog at www.karrahwood.blogspot.com for more information.

peace. love. karrah wood.

Photo Update!

Because I missed a day of blogging....I have a small small treat for you.

This is outside of the Elmina Castle

The town of Elmina, where I live.

CMU @ Cape Coast Castle.

View from Cape Coast Castle.

On the roof!

Just your typical Tuesday afternoon in Elmina.

Yep.

Ektorp.

Frightening.

peace. love. more to come.

Cell Phone Fail

The internet is making me crazy! My blackberry has been useless to me, and that is why I did not blog yesterday. So, this will be two for one.

Tuesday.

My plan was to stay at the house and pattern, however after receiving a few emails with updates about current samples, I decided that it would be more beneficial to go into the office and get things done.  I guess it was a good thing I went in, because it was a zoo.  In a nutshell, there were multiple issues with the patterns we had done, but because I was not the one who had made them, I was also unsure as to what was going on.  We ended up having to re-pattern a few things at the office, and take one of them home. I think I could write an entire journal on the frustrations of work yesterday, but because it is in the past and we have solved most of the issues, I will just continue on with the rest of my day.

I took a half day, because it was the start of the fishing season, and in Elmina this is a BIG deal. On my way to the taxi I decided to stop and get a sandwich.  While we were waiting for the eggs to cook they insist that you sit down and wait.  So a few of us are sitting there just minding our own business, when out of nowhere some white girl pops out and is like "Are you waiting for a grilled cheese?" We were like yes.... then she says, "What the F! How did you find this place? It took me like three weeks to find it."  We just sat there staring at her, thinking,.....did you think that you were the only person to know that you can get a killer meal here? Idiot. Then we were forced to listen to her talk about herself while our sandwiches cooked. I think it was the longest three minutes of my life. Finally, we got our food and we walked away as fast as we could.

We filled a taxi right away, and as we were driving one of the girls asked if her window went down or was it broken. The driver responded, please....I am coming, and continued to drive.  She then quietly said....ok, its just really hot back here. Next thing we know, he is pulling over to the side of the road, opening her door and manually pulling the window down. Talk about good service! After that happened, and we were back on the road, we pulled up next to another taxi full of Obrunis. We thought it would be funny to yell OBRUNI! to them, and they laughed. Then we took it one further, and said What is your name. Well, they did not hear us yell that one to them, so we said it again, but still no response.  Our driver thought that this was funny, so he leaned out his window and said ALLO! WHAT IS YOUR NAME! By the time this happened, we were driving off and laughing hysterically.

 Finally we made it home.  For the festival, there was a processional scheduled for 11:00, so when I showed up at 1:00 I was right on time. :-) I have this Ghana Maybe Time down.  First we were standing in an area where all of the village chiefs were lined up, dressed in their formal garments. Then it occurred to us that this was the spot where it would begin, so we walked further down the street to a spot where we could see it in action.  Soon after we sat down the procession passed by. It started with men carrying a staff from their village. Following behind these men there were some dancers and drummers. Then all of the chiefs were carried on what was basically a glorified chase lounge. Some had people fanning them along the way, others had more of a serious group escorting them down the road.  It was really cool to see all of the different clothing, and jewelry worn by the chiefs.

After  March of the Ektorp was finished (some of you will get that joke), we ventured off into the downtown area to see what other festival activities were happening. Everyone along the streets were dancing, and singing and having a good time.  We knew that there were going to be some kind of boat races happening, so we asked a random rasta where we might find these....then followed him through a series of twists and turns and somehow ended up near the river. Of course it was packed full of people, and I could not see a thing. A few people moved over and insisted that I step up to see, but after a few deep breaths of underarms in desperate need of deodorant, I gave my spot up to someone else.

That evening I had dinner with Tanya and Paul once again. We went back to Eli's, because I insisted that they try Yam Balls and egg stew. It is one of my all time favorite meals here. I have recently discovered it, but I could eat it everyday....and you know how I am with my food ruts.  After dinner we walked back to the house, where we were dead in the middle of a music battle. Shell had music, the restaurant in front of the house had music, and the store across the street had music. I'm not just talking about a little music either, Guinness dropped off speakers to all different spots around town, and they were using them to their full power. Apparently I can sleep through anything, because I was the only person in the house to sleep through the night. I have to thank my industrial fan for that!

Ok....a quick Wednesday re-cap

I stayed at home for an hour to pattern a new tote bag design. Then as I was walking out the door at 9:30, Peter the taxi driver was standing there. He was told to come to the house at 10:30 to pick up Tanya and her husband and take them to Kakum. I told him that he was early, so he offered to drive us to work, and I was not about to turn down door to door service.

We got to work, and we were hosting a women's health workshop, so things were pretty quite. One of the girls and I went to get lunch, and by the time we got back to the office it was a complete zoo. The workshop had ended and the women were all in the main office. It was complete chaos. Women were dropping off samples, and picking them up, and a rat ate half of our crayons, and I was fitting a dress, and checking a bib and it continued like this for the remainder of the day.

By the time I got back to the house, I just came to the hotel to try to check my emails and write this blog.  I got about half way through, and then it was time for dinner. Once again I met up with Tanya and her husband. We thought we would try something completely new, so we went to a African/Cuban restaurant. We walked down a long dirt road to get there, and the music was once again bumpin'. I think there were three options for dinner, and we all ordered the chicken with veggies and rice. It was definitely the right choice. It tasted just like BBQ chicken....for a minute I could have tricked myself into thinking that I was in Michigan eating at a cookout....then a bug jumped onto me and that thought was over.

On the way home, I thought it would be a good idea to just take the same road back to the hotel / house. Sorry Tanya! It was a bumpy dirt road, completely dark and in the distance there was a hint of fog....so any time someone came walking towards us it looked like a scene from a horror movie.  Thank you for being a good sport about it :-)

Ok, I think thats a good re-cap of the past two days.

peace. love. BBQ.

Are we playing animals?

Bright and early this morning I met Tanya and her husband outside the gate of the house for a day at the office. We thought we would take them the "authentic" way and walk through the back and pick up a taxi at shell. We got a taxi fairly quick, and we were on our way.

Once we got to the office I showed them around a little bit and then there was folding to do. God Bless Tanya and Paul, because they just jumped right in and helped knock that folding out! After the folding was finished I had to send out a few samples and work on one of my projects, so everyone ran to the bank and did a little shopping.

By the time everyone returned it was about time for lunch. On our way we made a stop at one of the seamstresses shops where she was working on a new sample. Let me tell you....I am so excited for this particular sample, and I really hope it gets through to full production. It is so small, but so cute!

For lunch we had sandwiches at a stand near where we pick up taxis to go home. I had an egg and cheese sandwich and it was so good! She makes them right there in front of you, so it is served steaming hot. We took a little bit of time to actually sit and eat....normally I just sit at the desk and keep working.

By the time we got back to the office we had about an hour before I had scheduled us to leave for the castle. I tried to find random jobs for everyone to do, but our main focus these days is patterning, and there is no room for that at work.

We were finally about to leave for the castle, when we were asked to take toilet paper home for the house. So we all shoved rolls into our bags and went on our way.

The castle was both beautiful and depressing. We were taken into the cells with no light and little air, and then through the door of no return. It is one thing to read about slave trading, but it is something completely different when you are walking down the same halls and seeing a tiny part of what their last days were like. However, I feel that one of the most disturbing parts was the large engraved stone placed into the wall, which commemorated the visit of Obama.....

After our visit we went down to a popular resturant called Oasis. I finally caved in and had a cheese burger. First I made sure to ask what animal the meat was coming from, and then once he said beef I still confirmed by saying COW?!? It was so good!

After dinner we had to find a taxi in a random location because it was after hours. We the interns took the first one that came along, leaving Tanya and Paul behind. We departed by saying "hope to see you at dinner tomorrow!" Yes, that may have been a bit dramatic I know.

Peace. Love. Beef.