So I am moved in and settled ( as settled as one can be in Africa) here in Cape Coast. Unfortunately life has been pretty bland thus far. Well, maybe not bland, just uneventful. The house I am living in is wonderful. Rumor has it, that it used to be a brothel, but those days appear to be over. It is a simple (seriously, simple) house with about 5 or 6 bedrooms, several bathrooms, living room, and a kitchen. I struggle keeping track of everyone, but I think there is about 10 people living there now and 14 starting next week. We have a women who takes care of the chores during the day, and a nightwatchman. The place is actually several kilometers from the office, about a 20 minute taxi ride along a beautiful stretch of palm fringed ocean. My days for the most part have been spent at the Global Mamas office in Cape Coast. This is where the Ghanaian crafts are sold in the store downstairs and upstairs is the "office" where the women conduct quality control on the products and the volunteers meet and work on their projects. It is a fun place to work and interact with the "mamas". My time outside of here has been pretty limited, but I have found a wonderful open air market that is great for adventure shopping, but that may be another story for another time. That is about all for now, I should be getting back to work. Thanks for the comments!
The Global Mamas office and King Street
Alice presenting the "Global Mama of the Year" award at the office
The store
5 comments:
Cool Grant! So how many people live in your village? How many people work in the global mamas' office? How have the mamas warmed up to you so far? What is a "normal" day for you like?
Hope you are still at least having fun :)
krista
aHey Grant! Sounds like fun so far. So, what do they sell in the shop? It looks like mostly clothes, but anything else? We can't wait to hear about you adventures.
Cape Coast has a population around 83,000 and Elmina, another near by village (and closer to the house) has around 25,000 people. There is around 8 locals that work in the office here and Alice, from the US manages things. I wouldn't say that the mamas have really warmed up to me in particular, in general they are pretty warm people. As far as a normal day, I will probably create a post on that one, it could get lengthy. Don't worry, I am having fun!
The shop sells a lot of clothes. The clothes are mostly batiked, which is a dying process here. I will be doing some batiking here soon so I will give the scoop on the process. There is also a lot of handbags, jewelry, and other odds and ends. One cool thing about Global Mamas is they produce a lot of stuff from garbage. They create bags by weaving garbage bags together. A lot of the drinking water here comes out of little bags so there is a bit of an overload of these bags. The women create pretty cool handbags and wallets by sewing these bags back together. It is amazing how crafty they are here.
Oh yeah, they do not sell clay pots, but don't worry, I am keeping my eyes peeled!
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