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

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.

Weekend with Friends in Akosombo

Last weekend, we went up to Akosombo to see Hannah and Robin's new place. They've settled into their little cottage house on the grounds of Right to Dream Academy where Robin has assumed a new role as Director of Operations (or something like that).

We rode up there on Saturday afternoon and quickly got the tour of their new digs. They have a two bedroom place that they've painted and furnished, which we poked fun at because it took them almost a year to get a sofa when they lived here in Accra. It's really cute and suits them perfectly. Robin informed us that a few of the girls might be coming over to talk to Dan and me. One of the girls, Louisa, is going to be moving to the US in August to attend a high school in Connecticut. Robin wanted to give her the opportunity to ask questions to Americans and we were happy to oblige.

Around 3:30 there was a knock at the door, and twenty-something girls filed in. Each one walked right to me, extended her hand and introduced herself... impressive. They ranged in age from about 11 to 15. They took over the sofas, chairs and floor. Robin did a quick introduction of us and opened the floor for questions.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but things got really deep. I think I expected more, what's the weather like? or how is it different from Ghana? We did get those questions. But we also got some deep ones which really put us on the spot. Things like: who are your role models and how did you pick them? What's your definition of success?

It felt a little guidance counselor-like but we tried to inform Louisa of some of the challenges of school in the US. For example, we tried to address trying to figure out where you fit in, and cliques, and that there's nothing wrong with being labeled a nerd/geek/smarty-pants. I also tried to say a little about being a teenage girl in high school since it was a group of young ladies and we have slightly different experiences. This is especially important for Ghanaian girls because this culture is still very male-centric. Women clean and cook and basically do what the man expects them to do. It's still not fully understood/accepted for a girl to be better in the classroom, workplace or on the soccer field than a boy. Girl's sports are pretty well ingrained in US high schools so hopefully she will be proud to showcase her talents.

After our chat, Hannah, Robin, Dan and I got freshened up and went to the Royal Senchi resort for dinner and drinks. Went back home after and crashed.

The following morning, Leonora drove up so we had a nice morning catching up with her and showing her around the school. She basically runs the Ghana branch of an education foundation that works with low-income regions. They go to rural schools and provide a solar panel and satellite dish. The satellite dish then beams lessons that are taught centrally here in Accra out to the rural schools to ensure that those children get a chance at a decent education. As such, Leonora's company has access to quite a few education grants and curriculums which could be really helpful to Robin and the teaching staff at Right to Dream.

After we walked around, we sat down with two of the boys who had been asked to explain RTD's badge system. The badges, which are basically pins, are Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 and you have to score a certain level in three areas (academics, football/soccer, character) to move to the next stage. The Stage 1 criteria are more basic as it's intended for younger kids or kids that are new to the program. Stage 2 expects more from the kids and achieving a Stage 3 badge means you are ready to be considered for placement at a school in the US. If you fail to achieve the necessary scores at the end of a term, your badge can and will be taken away. With your badge goes your privileges. For example, one of the under 15 boys lost his badge and wasn't allowed to play in the tournaments with his teammates in Europe. The team ended up winning all their matches and the tournament and he was devastated. Not only has he learned his lesson and cleaned up his act, but the other boys, seeing his despair, have quickly realized they don't want to make that mistake. It was a very informative presentation and Michael and Perry did a great job explaining it to us and answering our questions. This is the second time we've been up to the school and the kids continue to blow us away with their English, vocabulary and public speaking to complete strangers.

After the RTD requirements had been completed, we went back over to the Senchi to spend the afternoon by the hotel's pool. Sunday was Ghana's Independence Day so there was a lot of live music and the hotel was packed with people. We stayed till about 4:30 and then rode back to the city with Leonora.

If you'd like to watch more about Right to Dream's girls program, please watch the video below. Note: yes, they all have short, cropped hair. That is standard for school-age girls in Ghana.

Weekend Getaway - Blue Diamond Beach Resort

Apologies for the lack of postings lately. Things have been very quiet/uneventful around here so there wasn't much to tell. But, alas, we did something fun last weekend so here ya go!

Last week some friends invited us to tag along with them to a hotel on the beach about 2 hours outside Accra. Considering we rarely get out of town given our lack of car and driver, we were pleased to be included. On Saturday, Sam and Alex picked us up at our place and we set out for the town of Apam. Apam is due west of Accra, about midway between the capital and Cape Coast.

Not surprisingly, we hit quite a bit of traffic so it took almost 3.5 hours to get to the place but the view was worth the wait. The room rates were very reasonable, though I admit that the rooms themselves were very average. No fancy bedding or other resort-like amenities. That said, we didn't mind because... Look at that view! Why would you be in your room except to sleep anyway? To be fair, they actually offer day rates if you want to drive over and spend the day at the beach/pool.

We arrived, checked in, dropped off our bags and went down to a table in the sand. We each got a fresh coconut and ordered some seafood for a late lunch. Dan and I split some calamari and each got grilled tilapia with some rice. Sam and Alex also split calamari and got the spicy seafood dish and a seafood salad. Everyone was pleased with the meal and given how long it took to be delivered, there's no question it was freshly prepared.

After lunch, the guys played some volleyball and goofed off in the ocean. Alex and I went and got hour massages. An hour massage was 180cedis... so roughly $45. Um, yes. Sign me up. After massages, showers and a nap, we met back up poolside for dinner and some drinks. Between the traffic, the sunshine and just the general lazy feel of the place, we all retired to bed by 10:30pm.

The next morning, I woke up and walked down to a hammock and just hung out listening to the waves. It reminded me of the condo my Gram and Gramps had on the beach when I was a teenager. When I'd spend the night, we'd leave the guest bedroom window cracked so you could hear the sound of the waves as I fell asleep. Dan woke up shortly after and came to join my "hammock vegging".

Eventually, the four of us went to the poolside for breakfast, which was included in the room rate. Tea/coffee, juice, an omelet, fruit and toast. Lots of food for someone who's about to sit around in a bikini... haha. After breakfast, we relocated to some lounge chairs by the pool and relaxed. With the view and the occasional dip in the pool or the ocean, it was hard to believe we were still in Ghana.

Another late lunch with our toes in the sand and we went back to the rooms to shower up for the ride home. There was much less traffic on the way home, which is common for Sundays here, so we made it home in an hour and a half. Dan and I had some incredibly gourmet peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and watched a movie before calling it a weekend.

2nd Annual Valentine's Day Fort-Build

Valentine's Day weekend was surprisingly busy, despite not having any concrete plans ahead of time. Friday night, Dan and I went to dinner with Robin. It was his last night here in Accra before going back to the UK for a few weeks. They are currently in the process of moving up to Akosombo so the house here is pretty much empty and certainly without food.

We went to a South African restaurant that is in a hotel/apartment complex that looked new. The menu was pretty robust for a "hotel restaurant". We got some chicken and seafood skewers to share as starters and a bottle of wine. For mains, Robin got short ribs, Dan got the pork chop and I had a steak. Few places here have steak, and even fewer have good South African beef so I figured I'd give it a shot. My steak was actually really good, the best I've had in Ghana for sure. The guys seemed lukewarm about their choices. Robin's ribs were not braised the way we would have expected short ribs to be, so he gave the chef a hard time (which he always gets a kick out of doing).

Saturday morning, we lounged around the house. Francis, the head security guy, had been bugging me about washing our windows. I held him off for awhile with the good ol' "it's harmattan, let's wait til April" spiel, but he was growing impatient. As I'm certain he needed extra money, and we genuinely like him the most of the staff, we said ok. We did, however, choose to limit his access to just the living room and kitchen. We rarely open the windows in any of the bedrooms anyway.

He came at 10:05 (impressively punctual for a Ghanaian) and got started. When he finished with the patio, I was really grateful. Mostly because I had been dreading cleaning the deck after harmattan and trying to de-dust our patio furniture and the grill. He did all of that and washed the screens/sliding glass doors. We had agreed on 75ghs but we were so blown away by the job he did that we gave him 100 (which is still only $25, to keep things in perspective). I might have him do it again in August right before the patio furniture gets packed onto the shipping container.

Saturday afternoon was spent by the pool, with a side of naps. We got cleaned up and went to our favorite restaurant, Bistro 22, for Valentine's Day dinner. They had red lights throughout the restaurant with silk flower petals and heart confetti on the tables. There was a live band playing "love tunes" on a guitar, saxophone and a strangely high-pitched male vocalist. We ate a lot, enjoyed playing a mildly successful version of Name That Tune and got carrot cake to go. Came home and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith whilst fork-fighting over the slice of cake.

Sunday was equally as relaxing (read as: lazy) while we watched a triple-header of soccer games. Last Valentine's Day, we were living in Mozambique. To refresh your memory... or mine, since I don't recall whether this story was told at the time... Dan offered to plan the activities for the day. When we left the hotel it was humid and over 100 degrees and felt like a sauna. By 4pm the sky turned black and was about to dump. We stopped off at the store for snacks and gave up on dinner reservations. Good thing we did because it was hurricane-worthy. Cars were stuck in the flooded streets, rain was blowing sideways, it was crazy. We took the mattresses and couch cushions onto the floor and built a fort of bedsheets and blankets, created a makeshift charcuterie plate and watched movies.

It was such a spontaneous but fun night that we decided to make it a tradition. So, this year was the 2nd annual fort-build-movie-watching Valentine's Day. We put together some snacks, built a fort with the sofa cushions and dining chairs and climbed in. We watched Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks and then cleaned up and crashed. Still fun the second time around so I suspect it will continue.

Things have calmed down a lot on this end now that the weddings and things have passed. I expect the next couple of weeks to be pretty uneventful... which is just fine. :)

Ghanaian Wedding Numero Dos - Gabby and Rosemary

Last Saturday, we went to our second wedding in as many weeks. This one, while taking place in Accra, was much more multicultural. Rosemary, the bride, is Ghanaian from the village of Ho (see Dan's post from Sunday about the Ho festivities... it's not what it sounds like, I promise). Gabby, the groom, is Kenyan on secondment in Ghana from PwC Nairobi... though he's been here three years now. Pierre, the best man, is Cameroonian, and used to work for PwC Ghana but now is on rotation in London. Jonia, the maid of honor, is Tanzanian, and used to work for PwC Ghana but is now on rotation in Dubai. And then there's me, Dan, Janni (Danish), and White Joe (English) rounding out the cast of pale folk. Yes, we have multiple friends named Joe so we do actually call him White Joe to his face.

The wedding was set to start at 10am "prompt". We left the house at 9:35 expecting to arrive around 10:15. We got lost... very lost. In Dan's defense, he knew where he was going, but there was a service road on the right of the highway. He didn't know he needed to be on the service road so when our turn came up, we couldn't make it through the cement barrier. We finally arrived at the church at 11:05 and were sat in the front row by the usher. Rosemary had walked down the aisle but, considering the priest was giving the "please silence your cell phone" spiel, we realized we actually were right on Ghana time.

The ceremony was a Catholic one with lots of standing and sitting but the service was very nice. The priest did well to try to merge the West African/East African cultures and made everyone feel welcome regardless of their personal beliefs.

During the ceremony, we noticed that some people had programs. Dan looked across the aisle to check a woman's program to see where we were in the service. He then whispered to me, "My name is in the program for the reception but I'm not sure why". We asked the usher for a program and she said they had run out. The nice woman across the aisle heard this and gave us one of theirs. Verdict: Dan is a "Popper of Champagne"... along with a few of Rosemary's friends, Gideon, Pierre, Gabby's brother, Dan and Albert. All I can picture in this moment is the scene from Dumb and Dumber when they pop Champagne and kill the endangered species owl. We had a good laugh over this. Thankfully, when that time came at the reception, no humans or owls were hurt in the completion of this task.

After the ceremony, there were multiple photographs taken. A list of the order of photographs was provided in the program just like it was the weekend before. We stayed for the "PwC" photo and the "friends of the groom" photo. Afterwards, we hitched a ride with George to the reception where we were seated and awaited the arrival of the newlyweds.

The reception was very nice and similar to Laura's with the western-ness. They cut the cake, there was a bar, toasts, first dance, etc. There was a buffet of food from both sides of Africa... Ghanaians love spicy food, whereas East African food has no pepper so they accommodated family/friends from both ends. The funniest thing is that our table was selected last to go to the buffet but they had run out of plates. We're not sure how that happened. You have x number of chairs, wouldn't you need at least as many plates and then some for people who come back for seconds or take two? Apparently not. So we had to wait for them to wash some plates. A lot of the food had run out by this point so we took what was still available and went back to the table. After the food was finished, and the drinks were flowing surprisingly heavily, the dance floor opened up. It was everything you'd expect an African wedding's dance floor to be. Best people watching experience I've had in a long time.

 Albert post-Champagne-popping/Dorothy, me and Ayesha

 Dan the Man/Photo with the newly married couple which escalated to...

 

this...

and then this...

As the reception was winding down, Pierre asked Dan and me if the after party could be at our house. Obviously, we said yes. The remaining booze was put into Albert's trunk and he and Dorothy drove us home. We got home around 6pm, took some showers and a quick nap. People started turning up around 8/8:30. At max capacity, there were about 15 of us.

By 1am, Rosemary was asleep on Gabby's lap and I casually started to pick up empty bottles/glasses. You know, the universal sign for "hey it's been fun but please get out of my house so I can go to bed". Everyone was very grateful that we had them over and the troops headed out. Suffice to say we slept very well after a long day in the sun and playing host/hostess.

Another wedding in Ghana complete.

Guest Post - Gabby's Traditional Wedding

Jeopardy Clue: A long handled gardening instrument, a promiscuous woman, and a city in Ghana.
Answer: What is Ho?

It’s wedding season in PwC Ghana.  A number of coworkers are getting married (not to each other).  Jen shared her experiences at a wedding last weekend which was done in the Ghanaian take on western weddings.  During that weekend, I was supporting a good friend with his traditional Ghanaian wedding in Ho (no funny pronunciation, it’s just the way Santa says it).

Cast of characters:

Author: Me
Gabby: (Male) coworker on secondment from Kenya
Pierre: Coworker from Cameroon/Ghana but on secondment in London and Gabby’s good friend.
Albert: Husband of coworker Dorothy
Rosemary: Gabby’s bride-to-be
The Kenyans: Gabby’s friends from Kenya
George: Partner at PwC

Albert, Gabby and I were drinking (juice) together and decided that we needed to have a party, one last hurrah with Gabby before he got married.  Unfortunately, Gabby’s weekends were being occupied by wedding stuff.  Apparently weddings don’t plan themselves. 

However, according to Gabby, he had to attend some traditional thing in Rosemary’s village (Ho) on 30 January.  “It’s in the afternoon and I just have to show up for five minutes, not say anything, and then leave.  We can go up to Ho together and have a good time”

Conveniently, that was also the weekend Pierre was going to be in town – so he’d be able to join us. 

The plan was simple, pick Pierre up from the airport on Friday, head up to Ho, enjoy a night on the town, and head to “this traditional thing” the following morning.  Hangovers be damned.

During the workday on Friday, there are a lot more details surfacing about “some traditional thing.”  It turns out that this is the traditional Ghanaian wedding we’re headed to.  It’s a little more than just going for five minutes and being done.  It seems that since Gabby’s family was in Kenya, he needed someone of stature to speak on his behalf in front of the elders.  Enter: George. 

Not only did Gabby need someone to speak to the elders, he also needed to give a gift to the elders and some of Rosemary’s family members.  Specifically, cash.  But not just any cash, new bills.  To assist with this, Gabby and I headed out after work to go to my bank ATM (closer than his) and start to sort through money that I withdrew.  What probably looked like a suspicious exchange was actually completely legitimate.

Gabby and I grabbed dinner while the Kenyans and Albert came to meet us. Pierre was set to arrive at 8PM on Friday.  Planes arriving from the UK or US generally take about an hour longer than other planes because people are always bringing half a dozen bags of goodies for their friends and family.  Pierre’s flight was no different.  About an hour delayed in landing and another 1.5 hours for baggage, Pierre was back in Ghana.  Since Pierre was staying with Jen and me, I was the welcoming committee while Gabby, Albert and the Kenyans were taking care of Gabby.

I get Pierre settled and we meet up with Gabby, Albert and the Kenyans and then we’re off in our caravan to Ho.  Oh, and we’re also informed that this wedding program is supposed to start at 7AM…

A few hours later we arrive in Ho at about 2AM.  Time to hit the town! Unfortunately, the town looks haunted.  You see, this time of year is harmattan.  Sand and dust blows down from the Sahara.  The further north you go, the dustier and sandier it becomes.  As a result, we’re driving through a quiet, poorly lit town with “fog” that restricts distance vision.

Early mornings and quiet villages can’t stop us though.  We arrive at our hotel and wake up the staff who were sleeping on couches and mattresses around the property.  Much to their chagrin, they open the bar for us and our night on the town wraps up around 6AM.  45 minutes of sleep later, we awake to get ready.  Quick showers and a quick breakfast is all we need (when you’re as naturally good looking as us, it doesn’t take much).  George had arrived in Ho and was escorted to meet the elders.  Pierre, Gabby, Albert, the Kenyans and I meet George at one of the elder’s home.

(Left to Right: Gabby, George, Pierre, me)

 

They say a few words and want to validate all of the gifts that Gabby had purchased for Rosemary and her family.  These are separate gifts from the envelopes of fresh cash.  Typically, the traditional gifts are a sewing machine, cloth, kitchen utensils, tobacco, spirits, and a stool (yes, like a small bar stool) among other things. Since we are running late, Gabby has to bring another gift to Rosemary’s family as a token of respect.  The elders recommend a specific brand of whiskey. 

Upon arriving at the venue, we are seated with the other men and listen to the priest and some of the elders say a few things.  The local language there is Ewe, of which I (obviously) and Gabby do not speak.  Luckily, Albert does speak it and is able to translate for the Kenyans, Pierre and me, and the elders translate for Gabby. 

Then the ladies come in bearing the gifts that Gabby had brought. (see Video) Traditionally, the family will accept each gift individually, but the process was sped up a bit with the mother just announcing that everything was accepted. Following the gifts, it was time for the bride to come out.  Except she needs a little extra “motivation” – meaning that the crowd needs to throw in some cash to help convince her. 

 

Rosemary arrives via procession with the ladies of the village, similar to the way the gifts came in.  The rest of the “ceremony” (about another hour) involved people giving speeches and prayers in Ewe.  After which, the father accepted the engagement proposal and both Gabby and Rosemary started to cry. Naturally, Gabby caught a fair share of flak from us.

 

 

After the festivities completed, we went back to the hotel to check out and made our way back to Accra. Due to lots of traffic, and multiple food stops suggested by a very convincing Albert, we finally made it back home around 9pm Saturday night.

My First Ghanaian Wedding

Last Saturday, I attended my first Ghanaian wedding. Friday night, Dan went with a bunch of the guys up to Ho (about 2 hours away) for Gabby's traditional wedding to Rosemary... more on this later as I'm currently negotiating with Dan to write up a post about it.

So Saturday, I was under the assumption that I was waiting for the guys to return and then going with them to Laura's wedding. In reality, Dorothy was coming to pick me up to be her date to the wedding, since Albert was also with Dan. Dorothy told me that the wedding started at 3pm. She picked me up at 3:15 (Ghana time). We got to the venue around 3:45 but a bunch of PwC people pulled in at the same time as us so we walked over together. Laura was already down the aisle and the ceremony was in progress. Everyone was very impressed by this.

The ceremony was nice and everyone was very excited for Laura and her new husband Kplom. After the ceremony, they took pictures. The wedding program has a list on it of the order of the photographs so you know when to be ready. Maybe 5th on the list was PwC, so everyone was congregating around the couple. I told Ayesha that I would wait for them in the back. She said absolutely not, you're part of PwC, so there I was in this photo... and yes, I was the only white person at the wedding.

Wedding program/fan

One interesting fact is that there are people all over the place with cameras. So they look really official but actually it's a ploy. They take your picture and then show it to you and when you say it's nice they go print it out, hand it to you and say 10 cedis. I almost wanted to applaud the mindset... almost.

After the ceremony, we went across to the reception. I didn't know what to expect but all the traditions were very western. The reception was long tables with tablecloths and nice decor. They cut a cake, did a first dance, guest book, etc. There was an open bar and a buffet of traditional Ghanaian food. The firm here is such a close group that everyone stepped up to help Laura on her special day. Ishmael was the photographer. Dzidj was the MC. It was sweet to see everyone support her. There had to have been 40-50 people from the firm there just based on the size of the two reserved tables.

After dinner and dancing, we went up to say our goodbyes. I wasn't sure if Laura even knew who I was but I felt like I should at least thank them for such a nice event and wish them well. I walked up and she said "Jen!" and gave me a big hug, asked Dorothy and I where the guys were and we explained they were stuck in traffic.

Dorothy dropped me off at home and I waited on the Motley Crew to return. When they got back, me, Dan, Pierre and Gabby went to Shisha Lounge for pizzas and drinks and toasted Gabby's married status. Gabby then spent the first night of his marriage sleeping in our guest room with Pierre. We made sure to give him a hard time about this.

Gabby and Rosemary's western/formal wedding is this Saturday so I'm very excited to have another party with everyone.

Jollof Training... or Parent Training?

Last Saturday, we went to Dorothy's for the day. Back in November, when Dorothy was in the US for training, she went to Costco and ordered a ton of stuff for her and another coworker here. It was sea freighted over here for a flat rate and had just arrived that week. One of the items in the shipment was an electric kid's car. Dorothy invited us over so Dan could put the car together and she could teach me how to make jollof.

Her driver came to pick us up and we went over to Tema. When we arrived, the kids were ready to "help". And by help, I mean, make it incredibly difficult for Dan to put together this car. The first issue we ran into was that the screws provided with the car were too small. The heads just fell straight through the predrilled holes. So new screws needed to be procured, then he was able to get started. Dorothy and I were in the kitchen listening to shouts of "Uncle Daniel, Uncle Daniel! I can help!" and "Uncle Daniel, Uncle Daniel! Can we drive the car now?!" He was very patient whilst having to constantly remove one child or another from the vehicle and hide the car's decals on top of the fridge.

 

 

While he wrangled the three crazies, I was attempting to take notes on jollof. I thought this would be pretty straightforward since jollof is a Ghanaian dish and Dorothy hasn't been here all that long. So I figured she would have just learned from scratch within the last 10 years or so and would have a real recipe. False... wrong on all fronts. 1. Jollof is also made in Cameroon, so Dorothy has been making it for as long as she can remember. 2. There is no recipe. 3. Dorothy cooks like my Grandma Maria...dash of this, scoop of that, no measurements... just autopilot.

So I tried to scribble down the ingredients, although I admit I have no idea what the correct proportions of these things are. Essentially, you make a stew with stock, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, spices, etc. Once the stew has been prepared and has thickened, you add in the rice. The rice cooks in the stew and absorbs it, making it a little red in color (from the tomatoes and tomato paste) and as spicy as you wish... It's very spicy in Ghana, which is fine with us. Once the rice cooked, we added in some diced carrots and green bell peppers.

In between stages of jollof cooking, I went to try to help Dan with the car. Maame Esi (pronounced like Mamisi) is 7 and genuinely wanted to help. She would get a screwdriver and wait for me to place the part and screw in the screws as far as she could. Ethan and Nathan (twin boys) are 4 and just were in a battle for who was going to drive the car first. Dan had to keep removing one or the other from the driver's seat. At one point, Nathan started pushing the car from behind.

Eventually, we finished the car and Dan broke the news to the clan that the car needed to charge... for twenty hours. This was not well received. They coped with this disaster and the 6 of us sat down for some early dinner. We ate and the grown ups had some wine. Dorothy packed us up some of the jollof and coleslaw to take home. We horsed around with the kids for awhile and then said goodbye to the clan and were driven back home.

PwC volunteering - Kinder Paradise School

Today we're going to do a flashback post: On Tuesday 1 December 2015, 28 PwC team members volunteered at a local school. We were on blog hiatus at the time but Dan was nice enough to send some photos and provide the company email recap of the day...

The day began when we arrived at Kinder Paradise just before 10am, after which we were introduced to the school's headmistress Mrs Aryee, and also a few of the teachers. Once we had finished with our introductions, we formed into our various groups to head the teaching sessions and also handed out pastries and drinks to all the children and teachers.

The PwC volunteering groups consisted of the following: 3 groups teaching English (group and individual reading) and 3 groups teaching Math to children aging from 6-18 years of age. 6 volunteers also paired up to give 3 career talks to students in J.H.S 1-3 on a range of topics which included: How to be a male/female leader in society, Being and choosing a role model and Self esteem and confidence building.

Prior to the visit, a plan was devised to ensure that all children in Classes 1-6 received a full hour of English and Maths tutoring. The teaching sessions began promptly at 10am and each session lasted approximately one hour.

The sessions ran up until lunchtime (12 midday). After lunch, we played a game of tug of war with the children and the male volunteers were challenged to a riveting game of football by some of the school's best football players.

All in all, it was a fun day where lessons were learned, laughs were had and friendships were made. We also donated our teaching materials (approximately 80 English and Maths books as well as story books) to the school.

Back in Ghana

The last two weeks have gone by pretty quickly, now that we are back in Ghana and caught up on laundry from the holidays. Hard to believe it's 2016 and our assignment will be over this year. We've been watching NFL playoffs, chuckling that there's only two more weeks of NFL watching from abroad. We will welcome a reasonable football-watching-timezone with open arms.

The weekends have been busy since we returned. Two weekends ago, we met Hannah and Robin on Friday night for dinner at a new (to us) place called Le Must (photo at left - credit). The food was decent and the ambiance was nice. It was quiet and we were the only people for awhile since people tend to eat late here. It was a good environment to catch up since we hadn't seen each other since before the holidays. On Saturday, there was a party at the tax partner, George's, house. He lives pretty far away from us and the party was supposed to start at 3. We decided we would leave the house at 3:45 which got us there around 4:30/4:45. We were the second people there. LOL.

Dan was giving directions to our taxi driver and he said "turn right here" and the driver said "are you sure?". Clearly, even he didn't believe we could be in the correct neighborhood, but alas, there was a big house and three Mercedeses in front. The house is beautiful but it's definitely the nicest place in the area (which is kind of the middle of nowhere). Come to find out it's basically the midway point between the village where George grew up and the office, which was the appeal of the location. There was a TON of food: soup, chicken, beef, three kinds of rice, grilled chicken, kebabs, and an entire roasted pig. By 7 or 8, most of the tax department was there and there was dancing and laughing and very loud music courtesy of the DJ who didn't seem to understand our many requests to dial it down. Various neighborhood folk kept trying to enter the party or get some food and George and his son had to keep escorting people back out the gate. It was good to see all of Dan's coworkers, especially my favorites, who I hadn't seen in almost two months.


I chatted with the other partner, Ayesha, for awhile and she paid Dan and me some really lovely compliments. She said how impressed she was with how much we try to go out and explore Ghana and see different places. She joked that we probably knew more of Accra than most Ghanaians who don't go out much and stick to the areas they know. Ayesha did a rotation in the UK and said she understands how easy it is to just stick to the customs/food/places/people you know but that she was genuinely pleased to see that we were outgoing people and open-minded to trying new things. (File under: qualities I never would have used to describe myself 5-10 years ago). It resonated with me because we really do try, but it's nice to know that other people see our efforts and appreciate them.

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were quiet with football. I checked out a new grocery store and found tortilla chips. When I handed Dan the bag, you would have sworn it was the $1.5 billion Powerball ticket. He almost ate the whole bag in one sitting. That night, I went out to Bistro 22 with Alex and Leonora for dinner to catch up on their holiday happenings, which was very nice. Another work week flew by and Friday night, we went out to Urban Grill for dinner. We'd only been there once before, for Dan's birthday, but I really like the place (photo at right - credit). They have a really good salmon dish, which is not a common fish here, so I enjoy it even more. We had some wine and split a tuna/avocado appetizer. Dan got roasted chicken. It's a little pricey but consistently good and has a great reputation among the expats.

Saturday afternoon, we went to a place called Wild Gecko with Robin and Hannah. A lot of expats shop there for Ghana souvenirs. Since our time here is quickly coming to a close, we wanted to see what they had to offer just to keep in mind. I was really looking for housewares that we could bring home, like a cool mirror or light fixture, rather than just a knick-knack. They had some things but nothing that wow-ed us and everything was really expensive. We shall keep looking. Afterwards, we got dropped off at home, everyone had a little rest (except Chef Dan) and they came back over for dinner that night.

We ate and watched the recording of the Golden Globe awards from the weekend before. After they went home, Dan and I watched some football until we fell asleep. On Sunday, we hung out by the pool for a couple hours and watched some movies. Enjoyed a good week for our fantasy football team and got some rest for the coming work week.