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)

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.

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.

I'm Baaaaaaack

That's right. We're safely back home in Ghana after lots of traveling. My apologies for the delay in posting but it's been quite a busy few months. In mid-November, we flew back to the US. Dan spent a week at training in Orlando and I worked from my parents' house in Tampa. On Friday, we flew to Vegas for a quick weekend trip... something we did almost every football season when we lived in San Francisco.

We returned back to Tampa and spent Thanksgiving week with both of our families. It was a very enjoyable few days having everyone together. After the holiday, Dan headed back to Ghana and I remained in Florida. Frankly, it was significantly cheaper for me to remain in Florida since Dan and I were meeting in Europe three weeks later. Considering my job allows me to work remotely, it worked perfectly.

Fast forward a few weeks... wonderful weeks filled with quality time with my parents and some of my best friends.

When Dan and I planned our European Christmas Vacation, I was looking into flights. At the time, the easiest route of travel was Lufthansa from Accra to Frankfurt and then directly to Tampa. (Yes, there's a direct flight from Frankfurt to Tampa... surprising, I know). Expecting to fly through Frankfurt, I invited my mom to fly back to Germany with me to explore some German Christmas markets. Of course, she eagerly accepted... and, shortly after that, Lufthansa stopped their service to Ghana. This required some airline/flight finagling but we managed to get it sorted out.

So mid-December, my mom and I flew to Frankfurt. We arrived in the morning on a Wednesday. I needed to get some work done during that part of the trip so I worked early mornings, before dinner, and before bed. After sending some emails, we took the subway to the Christmas market. We roamed the market and had a mug of gluhwein (warm spiced wine) to properly complete the experience. Honestly, neither of us were fans of the drink but the mugs were incredibly cute, soooooo.... worth it. We got the obligatory Christmas tree ornaments and just made note of the items we were interested in for future reference.

Thursday morning, we took the train one hour north to Cologne. We checked into the hotel and went out to see the market there. Ok. Ok. Markets. Cologne has 7 Christmas markets, and we were determined to see as many in our one day as possible. So after a quick stop at Starbucks, we fired the starting gun and we were off. Cologne's markets were much better than Frankfurt's. So much so that we were having trouble deciding on what we wanted to get as souvenirs. We made it to a total of 5 of the 7 markets before we felt like we were seeing the same stuff over and over. We stopped for a glass of wine and a snack and waited for the sun to go down so the Christmas lights would illuminate the largest market (which was just next to the city's beautiful Gothic cathedral).

We walked around again and went back to our favorite places. There was a band playing live music and it was definitely more lively with everyone being off of work and enjoying their evening. I got a wreath, some matching handmade garland and a wooden German Christmas pyramid. My mom also got a pyramid, another one for her friend, and some Christmas cookies in the shape of the cathedral. We went back to the hotel carrying our load of gifts and even the woman at the check-in desk remarked about how we "did some shopping" haha.

Friday morning, we boarded the train back to Frankfurt with our loot in tow. We rested at the hotel while I worked and walked down to a really cute hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant for dinner. On Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and my mom headed back to the States and I flew to Turin, Italy to meet Dan and start our holiday vacation. More on that next time...

Walking like an Egyptian - Cairo Part 1

After a few days in the modern architecture of Dubai, it was time to head home. When we booked our  flights we intentionally gave ourselves a 20 hour layover in Cairo. This meant two very early morning flights and a definite lack of sleep but I think we would both say it was ABSOLUTELY worth it. I could probably write four blog posts on just the 17 hours or so that we spent in this historic hotbed (literally)... but we will see how well I can condense.

We arrived and purchased our visa on arrival. We booked a room at a hotel very near the pyramids for $60 and I exchanged emails with the owner before the trip letting him know what we wanted to do and coordinating the timing. A driver was waiting for us at the airport and told us it would be about an hour to the Pyramid View Inn.

Along the way, we marveled at how developed the city is, but also the history contained within it. It's an interesting juxtaposition both when compared to Dubai but also just contrasting some new areas of the city with the old mosques or buildings lining the Nile that have clearly been there for centuries. Many buildings are unfinished with rebar exposed on the top floor. We were told this is because the government does not collect property taxes until a building is finished so people intentionally don't finish them. There are families living in them but they purposely didn't build the final/top floor to avoid paying taxes. In addition to our Tour de Cairo by car, we discussed what we wanted to see and do while we were there. Our driver mentioned that there was one thing that he highly recommended that we hadn't included. He didn't elaborate and eventually pulled up outside this small shop and turned off the engine. Ok, I guess we're getting out here.

It was the Egyptian Papyrus Museum. We walked in and there was a very knowledgable gentleman who spoke very quickly and gave us the rundown on how papyrus paper is made. Here's the Cliffs Notes: papyrus is a plant with a long stem that grows along the Nile. They cut a stalk off of the stem and peel off the outer layer exposing the inside of the stem. They them cut this inside into strips and use a rolling pin to flatten them out into long skinny strips. Once soaked in water, the sugars in the plant are ready to adhere the pieces to each other. They are aligned parallel vertically and then another layer is done horizontally, so essentially the front has vertical stripes and the back horizontal. I was surprised to learn that it is not woven like a basket. It is then put into a press to squeeze out the excess water and stick everything together with the plant's natural sugars. He explained that there are many knockoffs around Cairo made from banana stems. He warned us that they are very cheap but do not last because while banana is a decent alternative texture-wise, there is too much sugar in the banana so over time the paper eats away at itself.

We ended up buying two pieces of artwork from the museum, the perfect souvenirs from our express visit to Egypt:

After the museum, we were taken to the Inn where we dropped off our stuff, changed clothes and had a quick bite to eat before heading out to the pyramids. The entrance fee for the pyramids compound is a whopping $11, but you get hounded by people trying to sell you water, horse-drawn carriage rides, camel rides, etc etc. We walked in and past the Sphinx, then turned right and went around the Pyramid of Khufu (aka The Great Pyramid of Giza), then continued past the backside of the Pyramid of Khafre and ended in front of the smallest, the Pyramid of Menkaure. It's about 12km between all three pyramids so not exactly a short walk when it's 110+ degrees outside. By this point, I was overheated and, according to Dan, sporting quite the attractive sunburnt nose. So we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest.

Here are some photos from our exploration up close and personal with the pyramids:

 Sphinx and Khafre/Up close with Sphinx's busted face (Thanks Napoleon)

Pyramid of Khafre/Dan with Pyramid of Khufu

 For sake of showing how big the rocks are

 Us in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza (aka Khufu), and up close with the base of the same pyramid

I'll stop here and save the remainder for the next post! :)

Quick stopover in Dar Es Salaam...

...en route back home to Ghana. After our time in Zanzibar had come to an end, we flew back across to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. We thought we would spend a day or two there similar to what we did in Addis Ababa. We arrived around 4pm on Friday and promptly got stuck in afternoon traffic on the way through downtown out to Oyster Bay.

Oyster Bay is a lovely area that appears to be a somewhat new development. We stayed at the DoubleTree hotel on the water and had a lovely view from our room. After checking in we walked next door to the Slipway hotel which had a cute outdoor market of some shops and restaurants. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we sat down at a restaurant on the water and had an early dinner and some Tanzanian beer (aptly named Tusker and Kilimanjaro).

After lunch/dinner (lunner? dinch?), we browsed the shops a little and then headed back to our hotel for a rest. On Saturday, we woke up and Dan indulged my desires to visit an art centre. One of Tanzania's famous artists was Edward Tingatinga. When I was doing research on what to do in Dar, I stumbled upon the TingaTinga Art Centre. We took a little motorized-golf-cart-looking-thing (yes, that's the technical term) over to the art centre.

I wasn't sure what to expect aside from the photo I found online:

photo credit: here

We walked in and it actually smelled of acrylic paint. There were artists painting while we walked through, all of whom were very nice. Per the lady who was helping us, there are approximately 60 artists who work at the centre and were all trained in various styles including Tingatinga. There were a number of paintings done on stretched canvases that were hung on the walls or leaning in stacks against the walls. Additionally, there were rows and rows of stacked canvas that were available for purchase as well. I was completely overwhelmed.

We decided it best to buy items that weren't stretched so that they would be easier to transport home. We could always get them restretched and framed when we get back to the States but they would be less likely to get damaged if they were rolled and safely packed in our luggage. After some debating and decision making, we picked out two pieces that we liked. We also got a trio of colorful painted wood fish and an obligatory Christmas tree ornament. A little negotiation with the woman and we were on our way back to the hotel with some neat souvenirs.

We went back to Slipway that afternoon and I found a hair salon. I creeped past the window to see if there were any patrons who were white (or had white clients in their chairs thus knew how to cut European hair). Luckily there were. I entered and a South African man came over to ask how he could help me. I asked for the price of a women's haircut and if he had any availability. He quoted me 50,000 shillings, about $25, and that he could take me right away. Boom. First haircut since London in April complete. Hooray!

We went to Cape Town Fish Market for dinner that evening and enjoyed a nice sunset. Had a glass of wine and some sushi before heading back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep. We got up around midnight to finish packing and head to the airport for our 3:30am flight. A quick stopover in Addis and we got home safely around lunchtime. After unpacking we went to grab some food and groceries and relaxed at home to finish off our vacation before heading back to work on Monday.

A Carpet Ride Down Memory Lane

Today's post will be a flashback to our carpet hunting experience in Morocco. Why, you ask? Because our carpets arrived on Monday! So let's backtrack to our visit to Coin Berbere in the medina of Fes. The shop comes highly recommended on TripAdvisor.

This is the outside of the shop (Photo credit: here)

They also own the shop across the street which has a massive second floor. We browsed around a bit up there and Abdoul came to assist us. It was positively overwhelming. We were given some mint tea and then he just went to town. He kept laying carpet after killim after embroidery out on the floor and I was just in awe. Eventually, he suggested that he go back through everything he had laid out and Dan and I could say yes or no to whether we liked it. He said he would use our responses to narrow down the style that we liked and then we could see some more. The walls are just lined with massive stacks of folded carpets:

Photo credit: here

Eventually we got it narrowed down to two. Dan and Abdoul negotiated the total, including shipping to Ghana. We paid and filled out the necessary paperwork for the shipping and left praying that it all turned out okay. It was 05Apr (actually Easter Sunday), and he said 2-4 weeks to ship. Also, one of our rugs required a repair as one of the corners was missing a chunk and some of the edging fringe. He said he would take care of it and we again prayed that it looked okay when we received it.

Last Thursday, Dan received notification from DHL that a package had arrived at Ghana customs and was in the process of being cleared. As you probably recall, from previous posts, visiting customs is no walk in the park. We also weren't sure of the value that Abdoul had put on the package so we were worried about the amount of customs fees. In reality, the amount was so reasonable that Dan was worried he'd have a hard time justifying the value of such a sizable package.

On Monday, Dan put on his "prepared to sweat at customs" outfit and went off to work. Imagine his surprise when he arrived to his desk to find this neatly folded parcel:

Wait, so he doesn't have to go to customs, be heckled, sweat his butt off, and pay an arbitrary fee? They are just... here? No fuss? Well alright then! He brought them home that evening and I unpacked and vacuumed the heck out of them. The one with the repair was so well done we actually had to dig through our photos to figure out what corner was repaired. You can't even tell. So here are our Berber carpets from Morocco. 

The orange one is under our dining table, and the red one is in the guest room. Should you ever be in Fes and in the market for a new carpet, go see our man, Abdoul!

Stinky Tanneries, Impressive Ceramics, and Berber Carpets

Let's face it... This is the Morocco post you were expecting.

On Sunday, we woke up and went directly to the tanneries. Fes is known for their leather tanneries and particularly for the stench of them. We chose to go first thing in the morning hoping to avoid the heat and maybe lessen the intensity of the smell. Seemed to be a good decision. Navigator Dan got us there and we picked one of the many leather shops to go up and get a view of the tanneries. Working in the tanneries is a generational gig, so it’s passed down through families. The white vats in the back are made of limestone and filled with water and pigeon poop (hence the smell). Apparently, pigeon poo is very acidic which eases with the removal of hair from the animal hides. 

Once treated, sometimes for weeks depending on the animal, the hides go to the colored vats to be dyed. The colors are all natural coming from spices or natural occurring elements (ex. Yellow is saffron, blue is indigo, brown is cedarwood, red is poppy, etc.). The gentleman was very nice and knowledgeable. After browsing the shop’s offerings, Dan and I picked out a nice “poof” made of camel skin in black and brown colors. (We learned that camel and cow should be the poof material of choice since it is more durable whereas sheep and goat should be your selection for handbags or jackets since it’s softer.) They sell the poofs unstuffed for ease of transport but we will stuff it when we get back to Ghana to make a nice ottoman for extra seating in our living room.

The mess we created while trying to pick out our poof

After the tanneries, we were picked up at our riad by Mohammed, who was to take us on a tour of the sights outside the medina itself. We saw the Jewish quarters, the palace, went to a museum, a garden and a school where artisans learn to make the ceramics and mosaics that Morocco is so famous for. We were in awe of the handiwork. Sarah and I actually got to sit at a potter’s wheel and play with the clay. Then we were shown how the designs are drawn onto the pieces by hand and painted before being fired and glazed in a kiln. 

The mosaic work was truly impressive as each tile is cut by hand using a sharp hammer and done solely by eye (with no pattern). Once the pieces have been cut, the mosaics are assembled FACE DOWN and cemented on the back to fasten the work together. It’s quite impressive work and probably quite nervewracking when you flip over a sizable piece and pray you don’t have a yellow tile where a blue one should have gone. We chuckled that it would be like cutting out a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle by hand and then assembling it upside down without looking at the picture. Dan and I had some ideas of what we wanted to purchase but the items were quite expensive. We settled on two coffee mugs painted in the Fes blue-and-white color scheme and a ceramic slipper that said Fes as our Christmas tree ornament.

Handpainted tagines in the store

Mohammed dropped us back at the riad so we could put away our purchases and we set out in search of a place for dinner. Dan found a nice riad in the center of the medina that had a nice restaurant that we had read about on some travel sites. We made a reservation for a late dinner and went to the last stop on our medina shopping store… the Berber carpet shop. The gentleman in the shop was very kind and spoke good English but I have to admit I was quite overwhelmed at the selection. The sizes, the craftsmanship, carpets vs. killams vs. embroidery, 47 different Berber tribes that all craft differently, geometric patterns vs more organic ones and in all different colors. Dan and I got things narrowed down to two, a carpet in red and black with a more square shape and organic pattern and a killam in orange, red and cream in a more geometric pattern that was a bit more rectangular. Dan negotiated with the man on price and shipping to Ghana and voila! We bought two rugs in Morocco. The shopkeeper even threw in a small rug as a hospitality gift. The cherry on top was that while checking out we noticed business cards of people who had visited "Coin Berbere". There, in all its glory, was a business card for a Professor of African Studies from the University of Florida. The Gator Nation is everywhere.

 Obligatory photos of Moroccan architecture 

(Left: entrance to a mosque, Right: inside a former school)

We left aglow of our final purchase of Moroccan souvenirs and walked back to dinner. The four of us shared wine and a nice dinner for our last night together in Fes. Topped off the night with a walk back to our riad that included getting lost (since all the storefronts were now closed up and all looked the same) and the assistance of a young boy to get us back to an area we recognized. 

On Monday, we left Fes and took the train back to Casablanca to spend the night. We intended to go to a mosque when we arrived but traffic was a disaster and we were all pretty wiped out from our adventures. We walked to a French restaurant for dinner and  said our goodbyes. We had a fantastic trip with great memories, comfortable and affordable accommodations and a genuine appreciation for the handicrafts and life of Fes. We highly recommend it!