Sao Tome Weekend

I apologize for the inconsistency in my posting lately. Frankly, we haven't travelled as much in 2016 as we did in 2015 so I find that our day to day life is somewhat uneventful. However, this past Monday was May Day in Ghana so Dan had a three day weekend. This calls for a weekend getaway... Enter: Sao Tome and Principe. A small country of two islands in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Gabon.

We learned of Sao Tome back in October 2014 when we spent a weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. The board listed our flight's destination as Sao Tome so we thought we were at the wrong gate. Come to find out the flight from Lisbon to Sao Tome stops briefly in Accra... so there you have it. It's by far the cheapest flight we've booked while living in Africa and we booked a hotel in Sao Tome using points from the chain that we "lived in" while in Maputo, Mozambique last year. Such a deal!

Our flight left late afternoon on Friday, getting us into Sao Tome around 5pm. We actually buzzed the tower on the landing, which prompted a good Top Gun reference. Turns out the runway is not very long and we didn't come down at the right angle in order to be able to stop in time so Mr. Pilot had to pull back up, circle around and try again. Success on attempt number two, followed by immigration, a quick shuttle ride to the hotel and a sprint off the bus to check in before the masses. Our vacation was underway. We changed clothes and went down to the bar to watch some soccer and have an appetizer before dinner. There was a barbeque buffet at the hotel so we sat outside with the ocean breeze and had dinner and some Portuguese Douro wine, and then we cried in remembrance of what good wine tastes like. We got tired (actually I got tired) so we went to sleep at a reasonable hour after a long day of work and travel.

View from our room

Saturday morning, we woke up and went down for breakfast. Found some pool chairs on the ledge of the pool... the ones that when you sit down, your bum is actually in the water. Ah, yes, this is the life. Busted out our books, slathered on the sunscreen and just relaxed. A few hours later, we went in for a quick nap, showered, and decided to venture out for some lunch and a walk into town. We found a place that got good reviews, and the name Papa Figo has a soft spot in our hearts. Back in Maputo, we used to visit a tapas place called A Esquina. The first time we went, we ordered a nice bottle of red called Papa Figos. This became our wine of choice at the restaurant, which resulted in Dan being dubbed "Papa Figo" by the waiters.

We ordered one plate of "frango" (chicken), a "peixe grelhado" (grilled Joe Pesci.. wait, no, grilled fish) and beers and took a seat at an outdoor table. Lunch was tasty and after paying, we headed out for a post-lunch jaunt into town. Town was... disappointing. Surprisingly, nothing was open on a Saturday afternoon. We wandered for awhile, eventually gave up and took a different walking route back to the hotel.

For dinner, Dan had a crab salad appetizer and we both had some steak. After dinner, we sat outside for a bit and then walked to the "Beach Club", a nightclub/bar that is adjacent to the Pestana Sao Tome hotel. They had a nice outdoor patio, so we sat, listened to the waves, completely lost track of time... all the things you should do on a vacation.

Sunday morning, we reunited with our pool chairs and soaked up more of the Sao Tomean sun. The hotel granted us a late checkout, so we lounged until we needed to go get cleaned up and pack. After checking out, we found a table in front of a soccer match and ordered two prego no pao (steak sandwiches) and some white wine. After indulging in the last of our good beef and wine, we boarded the shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.

On Monday, I planned to work a half day... which somehow turned into a full day. Dan ran some errands for me and brought home some tasty lunch takeout. And just like that... the calendar flipped to May. 20 months down on this crazy adventure, 4 remaining...

Global Mama's Visit

On Tuesday, I took part of the morning off to go with the NAWA group to Global Mama's. Global Mama's is an NGO that makes various fair trade clothing, housewares, etc from batiked fabrics. If you've forgotten what batiking is, please feel free to navigate back to the workshop and/or GTP posts for more. Yes, batiks are a big deal in Ghana.

We arrived around 10am to a nondescript two-story house in Ashaiman where the bulk of the batiking and sewing goes on for many of the products that Global Mama's offers. We sat down for a presentation on the history of the company provided by Renae, a US woman from South Dakota who had previously done Peace Corps work in Central Ghana. After returning to the US and obtaining her MBA, she and another Peace Corps alum found themselves longing to do something with women's empowerment and economic development back in Ghana. This began the idea of Global Mama's.

The company was founded in 2003. At the time they had one direct employee who had her own team of another 6 ladies. As of 2015, they directly employ about 70 women with the total "tree" encompassing over 400 women. Starting off with 9 international volunteers, they have grown to over 500 people who wish to contribute their knowledge to the company in various ways. They originally had two retail partners in two countries, and now work with over 300 retail partners in 24 different countries. Total revenue in part of 2013 actually exceeded $1 million which was a huge milestone for the company. Unfortunately, sales have tapered a bit over the last few years due to Ebola rearing it's ugly head in the region. That caused a limit in tourists to the area and less of an influx of volunteers which caused quite a hit to the company as a whole.

Global Mama's has a distribution center in Minneapolis, USA where they send finished exported items for delivery in the US. They also have a distribution center in Europe to serve that area. The company is incredibly well run and it takes a very resilient team to succeed in this environment. Keeping in mind that water and electricity are unreliable in Ghana, costs can vary greatly depending on the need for generator usage. Add in government officials trying to get bribes or take money from the company for "taxes" that they aren't actually required to pay as a Fair Trade NGO, and business dealings get a little hairy. Renae touched on some of the challenges they have faced but the way they have handled all the adversity is very admirable.

After the presentation, we went upstairs to meet some of the teams of seamstresses. The head of operations, Dorcas, gave us a rundown of how the teams are assembled and how they work. The teams actually vote for who they want to work with in order to increase productivity and pair up people with similar work ethics. Originally, they let the "mamas" pick their own teams and, not surprisingly, many picked their friends. Soon after, they realized that they would rather pick people with the same drive so things were shuffled a bit. They have charts for productivity showing how many of a various item (dress, shirt, purse, whatever) a team made over a given week. They also recently instituted a First Class First Time policy which rewards teams who create a high quantity of garments but require less than a predetermined threshold of fixes/repairs. They learned that the productivity metric was causing the teams to rush to get more items finished, but that they were actually wasting time, because those items required extra hours in fixing issues found during Quality Control. The First Class First Time policy rewards teams who work quickly but with very few errors in their work. These teams receive sizable bonuses for their impeccable work.

After meeting the seamstresses, we went outside for a quick batik lesson. Many of us have done batiking before so they didn't spend a lot of time going over it again. We appreciated some of the dye color recipes to make rare colors and different stamping patterns that are so well known as Global Mama's products.

Probably my biggest shock was when Renae explained that the items in the Osu shop (which Dan and I have been to several times) are actually rejects. My jaw nearly hit the floor when she said this because we've bought some items from there and they are lovely. She said some of the issues might just be that the dye was slightly off from the standard color or a seam was not straight, or a pocket slightly off. Essentially, these items were thrown out by the QC group and cannot be submitted for export to the US or Europe warehouses so they get sold here at a discount. Hey, fine by me. Those of you who have received an item we bought at Global Mama's probably noticed that the tag lists the names of the "mamas" who created it. This is done for accountability so they are proud to put their name on their products but also for traceability if issues are found after shipping. This allows them to retrain the necessary people easily.

After our tour, we were given some free time in Dorcas's office with the fabrics that didn't make it through QC. They gave us a discount on the fabric by the yard so we all had a field day picking out some items. Afterwards, I hitched a ride home with one of the ladies and went back to work. See the link below if you'd like to learn more, browse the Global Mama's online store or donate to this wonderful operation.

http://www.globalmamas.org

Jambo Kenya - Nairobi Part 2

After Sarah collected us from Giraffe Manor, we took a drive out to a place called Kitengela glass. They make hand-blown glass pieces from recycled glass bottles. We received a quick demonstration from one of the craftsmen as he made a very pretty fruit bowl. It's amazing the simplicity of blowing air into hot glass to make everyday items. After the demonstration, we wandered the couple shops that they had on site.

Items made here are used for decor in many of the hotels and safari lodges around Nairobi and the Mara. Additionally, they are available for sale in those same places and other shops around town. As a result, the items for sale at this "warehouse" were offered at a wholesale discount of 30% off. I really wanted some sort of light fixture or chandelier-type thing. I had my "fun money" from the teddy bears I've recently made for people in Ghana, and I had a short list of items I was interested in procuring. We wandered around for awhile and I was having a hard time making a decision (shocker!... anyone who knows me knows I'm awful at this kind of stuff... I can't even pick a restaurant efficiently).

I finally asked Dan if anything appealed to him and he said, let's get three of these and two of those and we can do a cluster thing, hanging them at different heights. Done. So we retrieved the hanging lanterns, and I picked out some gifts while Dan selected a pitcher and decanter. The guy calculated everything up and gave us the discount and in total it came to about $180. Seriously? For custom, handmade, original pieces?! Sold! They packaged everything incredibly well and we were on the road again.

We stopped at a cute little sandwich place for lunch and then headed into the city center of Nairobi to attempt to find our hotel. Sarah isn't terribly familiar with downtown as traffic is usually a mess and she avoids it like the plague. She teaches 2nd grade at an international school in Nairobi and is almost finished with her third year. In June, she will pack up and move back to Florida. We met at University of Florida and have been sharing East Africa vs. West Africa stories for awhile. Since we knew she would be on her way out soon, we figured it was a good reason to get a visit to Nairobi on the schedule.

After arriving at the hotel, we walked to the Masai Market, a market of "artisans", (read as: people hocking stuff they haven't actually created), and shouting at you because your white and likely to buy stuff. I had a very detailed list of the items that I wanted to buy (cough, thank you, Pinterest). Sarah and I briefly discussed numbers on the way over because everything is negotiable. Once I had an idea of what the price should be, or even what I was willing to pay, then I felt okay diving in. There's a lot of people yelling to get your attention "sister! come look at my things!" A guy told Sarah he was Obama's cousin. It's a hoot just to listen to the things people say to get your attention.

I knew I wanted two beaded Masai collars that I want to frame and hang on the wall back in the US. I had a vague idea of what I wanted but had a hard time finding two I liked from the same person. Finally, we found some Masai women in the middle of the market who were surrounded by beaded jewelry. I found two that I liked and eventually got her to agree to cut her price in half. The other item I wanted was a couple shukas. Shukas are blankets of varying thickness that the Masai people usually wear draped over their shoulders or as a quasi-toga. They come in all different colors but red is considered traditional. I liked the idea of them as park blankets or even outdoor blankets back in the US on a chilly evening. I got two lightweight ones and one heavier one for about $22.

 The shukas we purchased and a photo of Masai warriors wearing shukas (credit)

After the market visit, we went our separate ways and got some rest. Sarah picked us back up in the evening and took us to one of her favorite restaurants for dinner. The food was good and the air was a little cool; a welcome change from the heat and humidity of Accra. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and Dan and I walked to a nearby pub for a nightcap before going to bed.

Sunday was much less eventful. Slept in, worked out, I got a massage, we had some lunch, etc. The highlight of Sunday was dinner. We'd been informed by a number of people (Kenyan, tourist, websites, etc) that the place to go is Carnivore. It's a sort of Brazilian churrascuria-type place with all you can eat meat. You get a little flag on your table and as long as the flag is upright, a constant flow of servers continue to come by carrying skewers of different grilled meats. When you admit defeat, you set your flag down on its side to signal the servers that they don't need to come by anymore. Carnivore is also famous for a drink called the dawa. It's sort of a twist on a mojito. It's vodka and lime and soda water with honey on a stick. You stir the honey stick in the beverage which sweetens it up like the sugar in a mojito (no mint though). So we enjoyed our drinks and our meat, which included the normal beef, chicken, pork, lamb and turkey, as well as some more obscure things like crocodile and ostrich. It was a fun way to end our trip.

A very early wake up call on Monday, and we were off to the airport to head back to Accra. Until next time, Kenya! Asante! (Thank you in Swahili)

Karibu Kenya! - Giraffe Manor & Nairobi Part 1

Welcome to Kenya! Dan and I arrived reallllllly early on Good Friday on very little sleep courtesy of yet another red eye flight. We were picked up at the airport and driven out to Giraffe Manor. To backtrack a bit: I found photos of this place on Pinterest awhile back and was absolutely dying to go. That said, it is not cheap so I mentioned it to Dan and then let it percolate for awhile. Upon the culmination of NFL season, we managed to win the fantasy football league and the winnings promptly burnt a hole in our pockets. Dan suggested Nairobi for Easter weekend and I was wavering on the idea until he promised me a night at Giraffe Manor. Well, twist my arm why don't you. (Side bar: giraffes are kinda my favorite.)

We arrived to the property around 7am and all seemed quiet... which was mildly disappointing in my comatose state. Then, we saw a baby giraffe when we were walking in. As we walked past the baby, a big one came around the corner and the gentleman carrying our bags said we must hurry and get inside because that is the momma. They brought us some coffee and told us that there currently weren't any tables available for breakfast but we were welcome to go out back and have a seat and watch the giraffes. Now, you see these photos online and you're thinking "that's amazing, but there's no way that's actually what it looks like"... oh, yes. yes it is. It is everything it looks like and more. So I spent a little bit on the back patio feeding Kelly the Giraffe. Ho hum, nothing to see here.

A breakfast table opened up and we were seated by the window. It didn't take long for Kelly to realize that we were going to eat without her so she shoved her head in the window and made herself at home on my plate. Once finished, she raised her head up a little too quickly and drooled on my head. Thanks, Kelly, love you too. Breakfast for the humans consisted of scones, fruit kebabs, granola with yogurt, eggs, sausage/bacon, toast with coffee and juice. No shortage of food for these weary travelers. After breakfast, we went to our room for a very quick nap as we were being picked up at 10:30am for an excursion to a local elephant orphanage.

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is open to the public for one hour each day. They have private appointments but they require reservations and I screwed that up so we went to the public showing. My main reason for wanting to come was to pick out a baby elephant to foster. A year of fostering is $50 and they send you monthly updates via email with what your elephant has been up to. The public "show" on Friday was absolutely packed. Given that it was a public holiday and holiday weekend, there were people everywhere. Much of the show was watching the babies be bottle fed and roll around in the mud while the trainer explained how they find the orphans, their plan for growing them and releasing them back into the wild. Dan and I have played with elephants of varying size in South Africa and Thailand so we didn't need to pet them and all that. We really just wanted to pick out one we liked and learn his or her story. We decided on a 22month old boy named Murit who was rescued after falling down a well. His little ears fold over at the top which we thought was cute so he won. While everyone was swooning over the baby elephants, I went up to fill out the paperwork to foster Murit. Murit's photo now graces our fridge in Accra alongside our family and friends.

Feeling warm and fuzzy about our good deed, we headed back to Giraffe Manor for some lunch. The giraffes were over at the giraffe center (a public viewing place where you can see and feed giraffes), which shares property with the manor. We had some soup and some really good fish skewers and then headed up for a nap. We were told to be downstairs by 5 for sundowners and more giraffe time. And here's a few of photos from that:

After the giraffes wandered off for bedtime, everyone went in for dinner. Dinner was a halloumi and red pepper starter, steak and potatoes, and dessert. They also brought a small chocolate cake with a candle for my belated birthday. After dinner, everyone went to the sitting room by the fire for more wine/cocktails and chatted. There was a couple from DC, a group of friends from London, a couple from Germany, a family from Denmark, and a family from Oman. Everyone was really nice and it was a pleasure chatting about what people's plans were around Kenya, where they have been or where they are going. We eventually went to sleep and set the alarm for breakfast the next morning. At around 7am, I scooted to the restroom and when I returned, Dan was laughing. I asked what was so funny and he told me to pull back the curtain. I left the windows open all night as there's no AC and the air is cool. I pulled back the curtain to find... Betty.

We spent the next half hour or so feeding Betty from our room, through the window. Seriously. Is this real life? Someone pinch me. When we ran out of pellets, we went downstairs for one last breakfast with the giraffes. It was drool-free and uneventful. We checked out and waited on my friend, Sarah, to arrive and pick us up for a local's guide to Nairobi. More on that next time.

Birthday Festivities

Last week was a whirlwind of celebrations. I am so grateful for our amazing friends here in Ghana and feel blessed to have crossed paths with such lovely people. Thursday was my 31st birthday and was a day of well-wishes, finished off with a tasty dinner out at an Italian restaurant with Dan. Towards the end of our meal, the sky opened up and dumped rain for several hours. We made a run for it to get a taxi home and slept soundly to the sounds of the rain. That rain may have flooded a bedroom overnight but, we will let that slide.

Friday, after work, a group of us got together at a new place called Kona Bar and Grill in Osu. We had a going away party for one of Dan's coworkers. Janni was on a 6 month exchange program from Copenhagen, Denmark. She has now gone home but it was a nice last night for all of us to get together. It was a surreal moment in the car to look around and realize none of the 5 of us in the car would still be in Ghana by the end of the year: Janni back to Denmark, Gabby back to Kenya, Veronica back to Uganda and Dan and me back to the States. All in all, it was a nice night with good music and good company.

Saturday was a lazy afternoon on my part. Dan, however, woke up and began preparing a birthday cake for me. A few weeks ago, I showed him a photo of a birthday cake shaped like the Death Star from Star Wars. He said "I could totally make that". I politely accepted his challenge and he spent the entire afternoon baking a cake and mixing frosting from scratch. His efforts were truly impressive. The final product was delicious, though maybe slightly lacking in the aesthetics department. It's the thought that counts and I greatly appreciate the thought and the effort... and the multiple sugar rushes that occurred over the weekend.

Saturday evening, Hannah and Robin came down to spend a few days with us. We were going out to dinner that night except for one small problem: the water pump was broken. They turned off the water at about 3:30pm and water was not restored until 9am the following day. Hannah, Robin and I decided to take our pre-dinner showers in the pool since we had no running water. I have to say we all looked pretty good despite maybe a slight waft of chlorine.

There were 10 of us at dinner (left to right in the photo below): Veronica, Selasi, Joe, Sharon, Dan, me, Robin, Rosemary, Gabby and Hannah. The food and drinks were delicious and the conversation was also very enjoyable. We left the restaurant around 11:30 and all headed home after being out the night before and a long Saturday in the kitchen on Dan's part.

Sunday was a day full of movies and lounging. The four of us got up and had breakfast, played volleyball in the pool, took naps and relaxed. It was a very nice birthday weekend filled with quality time with some of my favorite people.

GTP Company Tour

A few weeks ago, I RSVPed to go on a company visit of a local textiles company called GTP. In my last post, I talked about how to make batik through a workshop that I attended last Friday. (Note: if you have not read that, now is a good time. Otherwise, much of the remainder of this post won't make sense.)

....Waiting on the less-dedicated readers.... :)

Ok, so Tuesday morning, 35 or so women met up and caravaned to GTP's factory in Tema. The tour was organized through NAWA (North American Women's Association) of which I am a member. We arrived there around 10am and were seated in a training room for a short presentation on the history of the company. GTP is celebrating it's 50th year in Ghana and it's parent company is Vlisco. Vlisco was founded by a Dutch man who was fascinated with the batik printing in Southeast Asia. On a trip back from Asia, he stopped in Africa and the locals were enamored with the fabrics he was carrying. The idea to create a batik printed fabric in bright African colors and patterns was born.

Vlisco remains a Dutch company with it's headquarters in Holland. There are four brands under the Vlisco umbrella: Vlisco (manufactured in Holland), Uniwax (manufactured in Cote d'Ivoire), Woodin (manufactured in both Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana) and GTP (manufactured in Ghana). Vlisco is, by far, the leader in the market, with few competitors in the West African region. However, the market still remains untapped. Vlisco estimates a market demand of 175 million units per year, but the company only manufactures 25 million. This leaves the window open for knock offs... more on this later.

After the presentation, we were divided into groups to begin our tour of the facilities. We started in a room with bundles of raw cotton. The raw cotton is sent out for weaving and returned to the site. At that time, it goes through two machines: one to de-lint the fabric and another to treat it with a chemical to remove the starch that was added during the weaving process. After that the fabric is bleached and/or dyed to a solid color as the base for printing. It is rolled through a number of rollers fill with hot steam for drying and put onto massive spools.

In the next room, there a big machine fitted with a roller that is essentially a roller stamp. Fabric goes down and wraps around the stamp to be stamped with wax. After being stamped, it is dyed a secondary color and dried. It is then put through a machine that heats and boils off the wax. As the dye resists the wax, the part of the fabric that was covered in wax remains the color of the original fabric prior to stamping.

He takes us to another room to show us the handstamping method. There are about a dozen men handstamping piece by piece. They are phenomenal. No measuring, no questioning, no attempts to line up the stamp, just dips in wax and plop and it's perfectly in line and I'm in awe. They make me feel bad about my stamping efforts last week at the workshop. After stamping the fabric goes up and into the machine that melts off the wax and comes out on the other side.

Incredibly talented man hand-stamps/Fabrics coming out after wax removal

He also shows us a machine-method of doing the wax in colors. It's an assembly-line of rollers with each roller adding a new color to the fabric. Feels like an episode of How It's Made (or my favorite Sesame Street episode ever as a kid when they showed you how Crayola makes crayons... fascinating.) I digress... After being utterly stunned by the work that goes into these fabrics, we went to a less-exciting but still necessary section: the washing and drying section. After drying, the fabrics go through Quality check 1, where an inspector watches it scroll by and removes any flawed pieces. Quality check 2 is done in a similar fashion and then the fabrics are cut into yardages for sale.

While in this section, he shows us the new labels they are adding to their fabric. There is a problem in Ghana with counterfeit GTP fabrics being manufactured and smuggled in from China. They mimic the pattern and the copyright information on the border of the fabric so well that it is almost impossible to tell the legitimate fabric from the fake. The best way to tell is to wash the fabric as the Chinese knockoff isn't able to hold the dye well. Unfortunately for most buyers, by that point is too late. These new labels allow a potential buyer to scratch off a code and text it to GTP, who will instantaneously reply either confirming or denying the legitmacy of the package of fabric you're considering. While it's a little inconvenient for the buyer, it's necessary for them to protect their reputation and ensure that people know the cheap, poor quality fabric is not actually real GTP.

The factory in Tema employs about 700 workers (1000 total in Ghana including a smaller factory in the northern region) and those employees are divided into four shifts, keeping the factory running 24/7. This particular factory makes multiple style lines of GTP and Woodin fabrics. There are designers on site who work tirelessly to create new designs for the fabrics. In one year, the Woodin line alone will release 400 new designs. Dan and I frequent one of the Woodin stores in town. He has 4 shirts from there, our curtains are fabric from there, and several of our friends and family have Woodin shirts. After seeing the work that goes into making the raw fabric alone (not to mention creating the ready-to-wear items), I'm pleased we support this company... and will continue to do so.

Batik Workshop

At the last minute, a spot opened up to go to a batik-making workshop at a local special needs school. Caroline, a French woman, volunteers at the school and has organized about a half dozen of these workshops over the last year and a half or so. The New Horizon Special School is, as the name would imply, special. In total there are about 125 attendees of all ages. Those aged 6-18 go to school during the day and are taught a curriculum that is tailored towards children with mental disabilities. After age 18, there are several "workshops" behind the school where the adults are taught trades. They want them to feel like they have accomplished something on their own but also teach them a craft that would allow them to earn a living outside the school. Trades include (among others): beading, basketweaving and, you guessed it, batik.

The class was taught by "Auntie Mariana" and some other helpers. She gave handouts explaining the process of batik and we got right into it. We each got about a yard of white cotton fabric and she showed us various completed samples just to give us some inspiration. In the corner of the workshop sat probably 3-4 dozen stamps. The stamps ranged in size from about a 3x3 square up to a 10x10, some were sponges and others were actual stamps with big wooden handles. As we were picking out our stamps, she set up a "test cloth" and let us each try one stamp and one sponge by dipping it in hot wax and stamping on the white cloth.

Once we got the hang of it, we got started on our pieces. I wanted to keep my patterns as African as possible so I picked a stamp that sort of looked like blades of grass to me. I stamped in a checkerboard like design and then took it outside to be dyed. I chose yellow as my first color. Here's some photos of me and one of the helpers dying some of the fabric, and a photo of what mine looked like while the yellow was drying in the Ghana sun.

Next, we went back in and did a second round of stamping. There's a lot of thought that goes into what colors things will actually end up. My first stamps would be white (as the fabric had not yet been dyed). Once dyed, the wax should prevent those spaces from receiving color so they remain white. My second round of stamps would be yellow since that was the color of the fabric when I stamped. Once the second set of wax stamping was done, we dyed again in a secondary color. Some people did a darker shade of their first color (ex. light blue, then navy blue). I was in a toss up between green and blue as my second color.

She already had a big bowl of blue ready so I made the impulse decision to do blue. What I neglected to consider, whilst trying to recall my art lessons on negative space, is that the yellow undercoat with the blue second dye actually made it dark green. Hey, thanks for making my decision for me, color-wheel. After the second dye dried, they boiled a massive pot of water on a charcoal stove. The cloths were stirred gently one by one in the boiling water to melt off the wax. They were then washed with soap to try to remove the loosened wax and then hung on a clothesline to dry.

Once they were mostly dry, we brought them in and Auntie Mariana ironed the last bits of wax off the fabric and we took them home. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with my fabric but now I have all kinds of ideas in my head. I almost want to go back and make more and have the street vendors make me cushions for my patio furniture.... the options are endless!

It was a very fun day and the two Ghanaian ladies praised my fabric as their favorite while we were chatting. I'm not sure if it's because I chose the most African stamps or the color scheme or if they were just being nice but I'll just assume I did something right! Here's the final product hanging up to dry at home.