Who am I kidding! :)

So, I would love to give you a very detailed and insightful account of everything that has happened to me over the last month but given the spotty internet access that I have I just can't give you the information that I would like to, without getting back logged another month!





Instead, in the very Ghanaian fashion, I will learn to go with the flow...I will just jump in from this moment and if I am able to share some insight about times past I will do it in retrospect. I would, for now, like to show you a picture of the 380 year old tortoise that I met in Peki!!! Isn't he cool?


As I type this I am sitting in the Global Mamas' Cape Coast office. It is on a pretty busy main road and outside I can hear music from the ongoing festival. I will go to festival activities tomorrow and share with you about that experience soon. As is typical for mid-day, the sun is hot and high in the sky. I feel prematurely at home in this foreign land. This likely has a lot to do with the crash-course immersion experience of my first two weeks. Led by two of the most intelligent tour guides Ghana has to offer, we were ushered through the history, agriculture, art, food and beautiful people that weave into the culture of this place.





I have already had my hands in a couple of products for the Global Mamas wholesale catalogue that will be published around October/November. I have created two textile designs that will be used for little girls clothing and perhaps other things, helped to correct the fit of one dress, and created the patterns for a wallet and a jewelry roll! The textile designs are in production with a batiker and I should have pictures shortly. The wallet and jewelry roll will go into production next week. I will get to work on some new apparel designs as well as some jewelry and home decor designs...it should be fruitful!





The women of Global Mamas are, in short, amazing. Many of them have such a desire to expand their businesses so that they can hire more women and give them better opportunities. They have loads of great ideas and are excited about expanding the product. There are so many things I could tell you about the women as a collective, but I would rather give anecdotes about the individual women. For now, I will tell you about Esther, she is expanding her seamstress business to have a ready to wear portion. Out of a small kiosk in front of her work space she will sell already completed dresses and bags to passers by. She is one of the more accomplished "mamas" and she has been able to take on more employees and pay them more than the minimum wage (which is a little over $2 a day). We will work with her to help her make some signs to advertise her new kiosk!





Well, I have to go to the batikers now so that I can help with the production of the textiles.





I will write more as soon as I have another few minutes of reliable internet access!





Happy reading!

Off the Job

I have quit my job to become a vagabond...



Yesterday at around 10 pm I walked away from the desk of my corporate design job to begin a journey of self and fashion "discovery". A scary but also empowering move. Though I have enjoyed my time in the corporate world and learned so much...I am excited for a change.



I decided to leave my job because an opportunity presented itself which I could not pass up. Over a year ago I met Reverend Victoria Affram-Boyd. She spoke at my church about her desire to return home to Peki, a collective of villages in Ghana, West Africa. She wanted to take Mission Ambassadors to her hometown to build a cultural and spiritual bridge with our brothers and sisters in Ghana. I was immediately interested and signed up right away.



I will be spending 2 weeks with Reverend Victoria and 13 others learning about Ghana, Peki and the Christian Church there. We will meet with Chiefs, Bishops, Doctors, Students and every-day residents of the places we visit. We will learn about their history, their aspirations, their struggles, their joys and become family with them so that we can build a long term relationship and help them build their church and sustain their school and hospital. Visit the Peki Mission Blog link to learn more about what we will be doing!



Now the mission trip is only the beginning. In preparation for my trip I started doing research on the textile industry in Ghana and the history of apparel there (more to come later about that!). I came across some fascinating information but also came across a website for a volunteer organization called Women in Progress. WIP is a non-profit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty at a grassroots level by providing training and resources for women to start and run their own businesses. Please see the link for WIP for more information.



I have been passionate about fashion since I was at least 9 years old. However I am more passionate about the people and the environment that are taken advantage of in the name of inexpensive fashion. I am a Christian, and that has a strong influence on the way in which I hope to do business as a designer. I want to do my part to take care of the people and the environment that have been entrusted to us.



The apparel industry holds a lot of power, and it could be used negatively or positively. I will choose the path least traveled and work toward fair wages and working conditions, environmental protection, positive role models and responsible products. Together we can work to make a valuable product that we can all be proud of. It will not be a short journey, but I hope that you will join me along the way.



There will be so many exciting and challenging tales to come, please tune in often. In the mean time, I encourage you all to do your research before you buy just any old, cheap product and consider who or what may suffer because of our desire for the ultimate bargain.