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)