When the Accordion Exhales

I have this theory; time in Ghana functions like an accordion. The inhale of the accordion is very slow, stretching out and making its constant ominous sound. Once the musician begins the exhale, the first push gives a little resistance because of all of that built up air, but then the instrument seems to glide more comfortably the rest of the way inward until it has finished, almost sighing. That is exactly how I feel my time has passed in Ghana. At the beginning I kept looking at ALL of the days ahead of me knowing that the time was full of opportunity and the slow meandering life which I was growing accustomed to. Now, with only two months remaining of my time I am definitely feeling the push of the accordion closing upon itself.

My time here is coming to an end.

“Ghana Time” exists in its own universe. This is owed partially to the very lax, practically snail pace, at which most Ghanaians manage their daily activities. I would owe the remainder of the “magical” time zone to something in the air. The sea breeze from the south and the desert winds from the north mingling with the verdant landscape seem to have some natural calming effect on the senses. I would say I’m a naturally anxious person but “Ghana Time” has massaged that out of me.

I have been anxious, or maybe more eager, for my return back to the states in December. However, now that the date is approaching more and more quickly I can safely say that I am truly going to miss Ghana and it’s crazy concept of time.

This weekend I had the opportunity to walk around Cape Coast with Eana, Emi and Katharina at a very relaxed pace. We had breakfast at a restaurant on the beach and watched children play in the surf and fisherman bring in their catch. After breakfast we slowly wandered past various funerals, all of the mourners in their elaborate black and red wrappings. We took our time perusing every fabric stall, stand and shop along a stretch of road from Ghana’s natural border with the sea to the bustling market, maybe a kilometer or more. In spite of all of the activity around the city, one thing was clear: there was no hurry. It was amazing.

One unexpected, but wonderful part of this day was running into 8 of the women in our organization. Some were simply walking along the street, some were mourners in the funerals and others were working in their shops as we strolled by. I stopped to chat with each of them. While we were sitting in the shop of the final woman, right before we went home, the “Mama” asked, “Why must you leave Ghana?” Of course my answer was easy to explain since Ghanaian women are always happy to hear about weddings but it made my impending departure seem all of a sudden too close.

The women and volunteers here have become a part of my ever growing family. There are so many beautiful, and sometimes quirky, characteristics that make Ghanaians and their country so wonderful. I want to soak it all in to fortify myself for the change of pace that awaits me. As Ghanaians often remind each other in morning greetings "Nyame ama edzi akye" (God has granted you with a new morning). I want to enjoy each of my new mornings and not rush the time. I pray that I can do my best to enjoy all of the simple changes in the “sound” as my accordion of time in Ghana is quickly approaching its final sigh…this time.

1 Year and Counting

A little over a year ago, on August 8th, 2008, I arrived in Ghana. My first few days I experienced the country through the windows of a van.

So much has happened since then as my experiences have become progressively more up-close and personal. I have shared many of my most interesting experiences with you, but many I have overlooked. I kept telling myself that I was going to get better at “this whole blog thing”. I had always intended to do at least one blog a week, but, clearly there is not 52 weeks worth of blogs here for your perusal. However, as one wise friend recently noted, “I wish you had been writing like, a weekly blog of your daily adventures…but if you spent all that time writing, I guess you aren’t spending it DOING.” And “doing” I have definitely been. So, even though I haven’t been so adept at recording all of my adventures, I can assure you that I have been EXPERIENCING my adventures in the full!

In this last year my adventures have taught me so many valuable lessons. Specifically I have seen growth in my understanding of myself, my faith, cross-cultural business and the Fair Trade fashion industry (perhaps I can’t yet call it an industry…maybe “movement” is more appropriate). I’m sure that the depth of this learning is rooted in the fact that I am doing this “thing” that I was really meant to do. I can exist at this point in my life and reflect back on the amazing links over the past few years that brought me here and for the first time I am not worried about what will come next (part of that faith learning I am talking about…Mt. 6:25-34). It was not a sensible decision, to quit my stable job with benefits and leave a comfortable and fun life in New York, but I knew it was the right decision. Now I am more certain of that than ever before.

I have always been proud to say that I am a self aware person; however, since being in Ghana I have realized the importance of nothingness to experience true introspection. I like to do, to be busy and have activities in my itinerary. But, sometimes this is simply a distraction from thinking. In the quiet of the Ghanaian lifestyle I have learned to be still, something I used to be awful at. Now that there is nothing to distract me, I have no choice but to spend significant time evaluating myself, my relationship with God and my path in life. As Elijah learned in 1 Kings 19, God speaks in the stillness, asking our purpose. Peace and quiet provides an incredible mirror for your soul.

I have learned how important being in the moment really is to me. Even in New York, surrounded by all of the “busy” I often found myself compelled to just stand in a place and take it all in. A valuable part of being in the moment is having that full-on sensory experience. For me this translates into many things. I like to really SEE things; perhaps that is why I am always staring at people (sorry Joni). I love to walk. I love water…swimming in it, sitting next to it, drinking it, driving by it on my way to work, living near enough to it to hear the waves as I fall asleep.

I like to physically solve problems and puzzles. I love to wake up before everyone else and experience the quiet of early morning. I like to color with crayons and mold clay and sew…in spite of years of training I still prefer feeling my artwork in my hands over the convenience of computer aided design or having some one else do the work. I am a verbal/external processor and a kinetic learner. Most importantly I have learned that I need to see, hear, smell, taste and touch God. Not only do I need to spend quality time every day reading my Bible and praying but I need to know God in my actions and serve God in the flesh of the human family (Mt. 25).

It has been invaluable for me to recognize all of this, and so much else. Understanding this helps me grasp why I am able to thrive in some settings and not others so that I can be wise in how I spend my time and energy. This clarity has also helped to free me from worrying about tomorrow. Now I can only look forward to what lay ahead because I know in each moment of “now” I am being prepared for the journey.

The Mom Gene

There are a lot of things that I love about the work that I am doing. But, I would have to say that the area where I feel most natural is in my work with the volunteers. So far I have had 17 volunteers come through and I have enjoyed every one of them. Let’s face it…I love being a “mom” even if it is to people my own age.

The most rewarding aspect of working with the volunteers is seeing them get excited about fair trade. Our volunteers come to us for a variety of reasons, but few of them have a solid grasp on what fair trade is and how it works. And, much like a mother, I want to share my ideals with my “children”. I want the volunteers to really understand fair trade and leave feeling like they have experienced it on a personal level. Recently, after presenting the orientation to a large group of volunteers, one of them came back from lunch and said “None of us really knew about fair trade, but now you’ve gotten us all excited and we were all talking through lunch about how we want to start fair trade businesses.” As silly as it may be, this thrilled me!

Getting to be a part of someone’s unforgettable life experience is a delight. I had a similar sense of joy when I was a resident assistant in college. I simply enjoy seeing people learn and grow as individuals and use that knowledge to better the world.

Each of the volunteers brings different skills and gifts. The beauty of the work we do is that there is not one skill or gift that would prove to be unbeneficial. This year we have done projects on everything from marketing to computer training to design to workshop development. Seeing the projects come to fruition and the volunteers recognize that the work they have done will truly make a difference is immensely rewarding.

Of course, I also love the family atmosphere that comes with having lots of volunteers in the house. At our peak this summer we had 14 volunteers in the house at one time! We enjoyed large, family style meals together and then gathered on the porch or in the living room to play cards, catch phrase, "If", or…to simply talk. The noise and activity made me feel truly at home.

As things have quieted down after the summer rush I am enjoying the time to reflect on the great people I have been privileged to work and live with, as well as learn from and teach, so far this year. To any of you volunteers that might read this, thank you for sharing your time and energy with us; the women, the organization and I have benefited greatly! I am excited to see who else will journey our way throughout the rest of the year.

First Hand Experience

Just like most things in life, you don’t know what Ghana or Fair Trade is all about until you see it up close and personal. We have been fortunate enough to have some clients willing to come and see what we are all about. I think this proves to be an incredibly eye opening experience. It is not all as idealistic and fairytale as we’d like it to be. And yet it is still incredible. But you can’t piece together the puzzle until you become a piece of it! Even my explanations of how things work pale in comparison to my personal experience, some of which I could never simplify enough to present to you.

This current rambling is arising from a frustrating recent encounter with a customer who I wish would just come and see how things work here. Because, frankly, they have no clue! This customer has placed one of our largest single item orders and they are one of our first mass market retailers. Their daunting quality control regulations are incredibly restrictive, considering our resources. It is really interesting to be on this side of the looking glass! When I was in “massmarketland” receiving products for review, my critical eye was always turned up to turbo power, but now, when these same critical eyes are turned on me and my women, the defensive shields go up!

I mean, we are working literally within the confines of natural capacity…hand washing, hand powered sewing machines and natural sunlight. So we are going to need some forgiveness when it comes to jumping stitches, uneven topstitching and the oversight of a faint stain. Seriously, you try sewing a perfectly straight line when you are powering your sewing machine with one hand and guiding the fabric with the other!

But how can our customer ever really understand this when they are used to industrial machines. I’m not just talking about the sewing machines either, but also the human power behind mass produced product which is seen by the mass market retailer as just another replaceable cog in the machine!

In spite of this, we will do the best we can to create a “perfect” product while standing firm in our goal: not treating our women like machines. But, I just wish that this customer and all of you for that matter, would come and gain some much needed first hand experience so that there could be an overall understanding of the value in this approach to production! Fair Trade is not just a marketing commodity (think organic at Walmart!).

It needs to be seen and appreciated for all of its bumps and bruises because that is what makes it real! It is a real human struggle to have fair interactions between the consumer and the producer. And it is important to understand as a consumer that you will not get perfect, cookie cutter product, but that is where the value lies. It is, in part, this realness, this pure human interchange that takes place, even if it is messy at times, that makes the trade fair. It is in this refusal to treat our producers as machines, or even as helpless individuals who deserve a handout, that we strengthen ourselves as part of the global marketplace without diminishing the globe in the process!

Yen Dze Dze

There are many little phrases that Ghanaians say, mostly out of habit, but they are niceties that the American culture has all but annihilated. Comparing every day occurrences such as walking down the street, taking a cab and eating between Ghana and New York (as well as the majority of the US) is a little disheartening. There are a couple of these niceties that I think could help bring back a sense of community and one in particular that I have been dwelling on a lot lately, I’ll get into that shortly.

When you walk down the street, or do anything where you are remotely interacting with another individual it is common courtesy to at least look them in the eye and say “Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening”. If you are going to be engaging with an individual you continue with “How are you?” or “How’s the work”. The typical response, Ghana being a highly religious nation, is “By God’s Grace”, a very fancy way of saying fine, thanks only to God. It’s also very typical for people, especially taxi drivers (even ones going in the opposite direction) to randomly ask “where are you going”. Now they are willing to help you with directions if you stop to say “I’m going to Accra, how do I get there”, but I suspect that some people mean this more metaphorically and hope for a more insightful response.

Now, on to my favorite expression in Ghana: “Yen Dze Dze” which most directly means, “let us eat”, but its more involved meaning is “you are invited to eat, what is mine is yours”. Before people eat they always say this and it is very common to find people sharing one bowl of fufu between 2 or even more people…and (those who fear saliva, like me, brace yourself) they eat it with their hands!

Now, this in itself is a beautiful custom. However, I have found myself seeing this concept carried across many aspects of Ghanaian life. There is such a sense of community and there is very little need, unless you look in the larger cities like Accra. Whatever little people do have is shared amongst, at least, their family. And, family is even a broader concept here…all of the women I work with are my “sister” or “auntie” depending on their age. There aren’t even many adoptions that take place within Ghana because someone from the extended family will inevitably take care of a child that would otherwise be neglected.

To me, this shows that “Yen Dze Dze” is more than a nicety, it is a way of life. It is incredibly reflective of the early Christian church, and the encouraged formula for community in Christianity and most major religious communities. Acts 2: 42-47 of the Bible describes the early Christian community as one where they learned, ate and prayed together. They lived together and shared everything in common. They sold their possessions and the proceeds were given to anyone as they needed. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, especially in light of the economic crises in the supposedly “1st world”. It is not that the developed countries are lacking in resources…but in the ability to share those resources. Few have a lot while the majority have little. And, this disturbs me.

In the “developed” world, we think we have all the right answers. But what is so right about a nation where my fiancé and I are still likely to make less money than our counterparts simply because of our sex or skin color…or where the unemployment rate skyrockets while bailouts are given to the people at the top of the corporate ladder. Would it be so bad for those who have billions to just fall on their behinds and have to rely on someone else, God-forbid! Seeing how little the “global” crises has affected the average Ghanaian goes to say a lot about what they value and it shows the strength of having a more shallow ladder of success and a very evolved sense of community.

So, in light of all of this….I say Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening to you whatever time of day you are reading this. How are you? If you are fine by the Grace of God, I encourage you to share your blessings with those around you. If you are not fine…don’t be afraid to ask for help. We should not be afraid of admitting our failures and asking for help. This economy can teach us what it is like to truly rely on someone else and to give whatever we are able to ensure that no one is in need. I hope you feel challenged…use that and go out and do something for someone else…offer to babysit for the woman in your building or neighborhood who is working 2 jobs to pay her bills, buy some fruit for the homeless person you pass everyday and take a minute to stop and at least ask their name, visit with the elderly person that lives near you and is all alone, clean out your closet and take it to a local collection site and DON’T buy something new, volunteer at a school or a shelter or a soup kitchen….do something to become a part of the larger community. Maybe it will open you up to being emotional or hurt…but it’s about time we all start FEELING again!

So… “Yen Dze Dze”!

Educate a Woman

I have had the pleasure of sitting across from our business manager, Patience, while she does the annual interviews of all of the women in our network. It is amazing to hear the stories, their triumphs and their dreams. Everything from “thanks to the orders from last year, I was able to afford my wedding” to one woman who stated with a very proud smile “I even give loans to my husband!” This is what makes being away from home and my loved ones worth it.

The stories keep rolling in:
“I am paying for my moms hospital bills”
“I am sending my 3 children to school and supporting my sister”
“I bought my first car”
“I put a down-payment on land”
“I have started my own business”
“I have finished building my house”

It is amazing the accomplishments that having steady work can afford! The women in our network amaze me. Their determination is remarkable. Many of these women batik and sew with children bound to their backs and work tirelessly not for themselves alone, but so that they can hire or train more women. They see their success and do not hoard it but try to spread it as broadly as they can. From what I can see, the theory “educate a man, you educate (empower) one…educate a women, you educate (empower) many”, holds true. I am proud to be a part of an endeavor that seeks to educate women and dignify them through sustainable work. The success of each of these women is completely a testament to their own work ethic; I have nothing to with that. However, I am happy to be able to help create the crack in the glass ceiling that has kept poverty so ubiquitous; just a small crack, but one that some of these women are widening and slipping through to the other side.

Independence Day - Mar 6 2009

Now...Ghana has an unusual number of public holidays and I never know what they are for. I will come into work on Wednesday and my counterpart will advise me that "tomorrow is a holiday, the office will be closed". During my 6 months here, I think I have already experienced 6 such days. Finally we had a day off that made sense....

On March 6th, most of Ghana was shut down to celebrate Ghana’s 52nd year of Independence. After a painful history of rule under the Portuguese, Danish, Swedish and British, ultimately the people of the Gold Coast, Empire of Ashanti and British Togoland merged to become the first democratic sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa: Ghana! Ghana’s first president was Kwame Nkrumah. He was anti-colonial as well as the first African president to push the ideals of Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah laid most of the formal groundwork for Ghana even as it exists today. Ghana is built on the principles of freedom, justice, equity and free education for all, irrespective of ethnic background, religion or creed.

To honor the day, two of the volunteers and I went to Edumafa, a little village right on the beach where we are starting a new cooperative that will make paper out of pineapple fibers. First we stopped by to visit the school which was celebrating by having the children parade and then line up in ranks. After all of the classes were at attention the headmaster set us forth on an obruni parade to walk in between all of the classes to honor the children. It was a little awkward, but funny to see all the little ones giggling at our rhythm-less march.

Then we spent the rest of the morning out on the beach, enjoying the company of some goats and watching fishermen haul in a catch. One of the village girls, Suzzy, invited us to join her on a trip to the Coconut Forest! Now, I have experienced my fair share of forests…mostly of the temperate variety. A Coconut Forest though was something entirely new in my book! Several boys joined us and offered their services to climb the tree and cut down the coconuts. Here is a picture of one of them scaling the GIANT tree!!! Look closely he's on the tree in the center of the picture...Can you believe it?

Then he cut them open and we all partook in wonderful fresh coconut milk and “flesh”. It was quite an expedition and a solid way to celebrate independence if I do say so myself.

Walking on Broken Glass - Mar 1, 2009

Yesterday I made the journey east to a little town called Odumase-Krobo which is an area renowned for their beads. I had to take 3 tro tros and 1 cab about 7 hours to get someplace that would have taken only 1 car and about 3 hours in the States. The reason for the trek was to visit another cooperative site that we have established and to participate in a run-through of our new bead making workshop before it is available to customers. I attended the workshop with our finance intern and two visitors from Sweden who came on a Fair Trade tour.

We met with our bead making expert, Moses at 8 am and walked to his home/workshop. Moses has been a bead maker for 25 or so years and he learned the trade from his brother. Until our organization started buying his beads, Moses had to take on a second job as a farmer to provide for himself, but he has seen his orders increase drastically since joining the cooperative.

The workshop is about 10 wooden posts with a woven palm leaf “roof”. It hosts 1 working (and one crumbling) kiln made out of local clay. The kilns bear a vague resemblance to an Egyptian sarcophagus (pictured here). There is one work table covered with white clay molds and about the floor are bowls of dyed glass powder, broken molds and finished beads. The ground within and surrounding the workshop is embedded with a mosaic of glass shards that miraculously all of the neighbor children manage to run around without even a scrape. It would be hard to place the purpose of this workshop if you just stumbled upon it and did not understand the process.

What I find most exciting about our bead collection, and most of the beads made in Odumase-Krobo for that matter, is that they are made from recycled glass! The process goes a little something like this:

1) Collect used glass bottles (we have bags and bags that the embassies in Accra allow us to collect) and old window panes.
2) Pound said glass materials using metal pestle and mortar (pretty sure we used old car parts) until they are a fine powder. It’s just like pounding fufu! Here's a picture of me. Moses said I showed “good force”…ha…which I think means… “you are strong for an obruni woman”
3) Mix fine powder with dyes with fun names such as Danger (red), Sea (bright blue) and Forest (dark green).
4) Cut cassava sticks and place them into clay molds. They will burn away and leave the hole in the center of the bead.
5) Fill the mold with colored glass powder, make sure that there are no air pockets and blow away excess.
6) Place molds into Kiln for about 20-30 minutes and take them out to flip over the beads within the bold
7) Place molds back in for an additional 10-20 minutes
8) Remove beads, cool and polish them
9) String beads and take them to the market for sale.

Within a day it is possible to make around 1,000 beads with one small working kiln. During our workshop we made about 250 beads with “character”. Here is a picture of the bracelets we made with our beads. We decided that they gave us a power similar to Captain Planets’ Planeteer rings! J

After the workshop we rounded out our education with a visit to the bead market. The market as a whole was amazing; it felt like going back in time. Many of the sellers were stationed under gigantic and likely ancient trees that provided a much needed shade. Each stall had it’s “specialty” that the neighbor to the left and right also specialized in. The bead section of this market is exceptional because it is one of the largest Ghanaian bead markets (nearby Koforidua boasts the largest West African bead market within Ghana).

The stalls were fascinating. Some of them had very unique beads and very expensive prices to match. Many of them did begin to blend with their neighbors, much like the banana sellers we had just passed. The most common types of beads were the painted beads and the powdered beads (like what we made). The rarest beads are the “old” beads, also called trading beads. The trading beads that are currently in existence are all that will ever be (supposedly) and they come from Europe as far back as the 13th Century. A bracelet size strand (about 10 beads) could cost around 40 cedi. But I fell in love…they are amazing! The colors and designs are incredible!

Here is an interesting Link that will give you a visual and some more information about trading beads:
http://www.africadirect.com/productsdesc.php?ID=36257

Beads in general are very important in Ghanaian culture. For women, they start wearing waist beads at a very young age and only her husband is allowed to see them as they are said to be essential in giving women their curvy figure. Beads are also important to the chieftaincy and in various rituals such as puberty rights, weddings and funerals.

Inside the Belly of...The Gentle Giant

I pretty much hit the ground running in Ghana on the 27th of January. On the 28th it was off to Cape Coast and a brief stop at the office. That night was my first semi-official staff meeting and strategy planning time with my boss. It is so interesting to see how the concerns of businesses are all the same: people, money, sales and processes. The major questions being how do I create my product/provide my service the most efficiently and how do I keep people purchasing my product/service?

Now, if I was looking at these questions and concerns from inside the belly of the corporate beast I already know the answers. I’ve seen them enacted every quarter while working in corporate America. The new trick is learning how to face them from a Fair Trade perspective. People are not just computer monkeys and machines, money is not horded by those at the top of the pyramid, sales are not the top priority and processes are not just decided by the people writing the checks.

Basically, Fair Trade businesses do not live by the motto of “profit before people”. The unfortunate side is that this can often come at a great cost, literally and figuratively, to those who hold the fair trade policies most dear. It is not easy functioning as a fair trade company with sustainable interests in a world designed for disposable EVERYTHING!

There are so many things to consider…It’s not just a “is this person an under performer? If “yes” then fire” situation. For instance, there is one seamstress who is the sweetest person and a hard worker…BUT, she is not a very skilled seamstress! Over the years the products have been shuffled around and this seamstress has failed to do most of them up to standards. Instead of asking her to leave the group, she was given the simplest products we could muster…sarongs and napkins! They are just squares that need straight hems. Maybe this is not the most efficient way for production to be handled, but it keeps this seamstress in work and her smile cheers us up every time she drops off her order of napkins!

Here is another example that might just boggle your mind:
Our organization has had several problems with theft from the women. Now, when someone is caught stealing, they are brought before the entire group and a decision is made cooperatively since, as the founders believe, these decisions affect everyone so everyone should get to decide. Every single time, the vote is: “let’s give them another chance; we don’t know what their circumstances are that led them to steal”. Now, for the corporate beast…this would not be tolerated! For the gentile giant of fair trade…this is just how it works. You take into consideration the feelings and cultural standards of your employees.

Crazy, I know…but crazy by what standards?

Needless to say, my mind is already being stretched and challenged. I am excited about the tasks ahead of me and look forward to sharing my tests and triumphs with you as I go!