Friday, January 27, 2012
Breakfast Joint
Remember i had a delicious sweet coffee at a breakfast joint??
Here is the sign for it! Starbucks doesn't come close!
Here is the sign for it! Starbucks doesn't come close!
The Dying Process
Between each stamping of the design in wax the fabric is dyed...first she measures out the dye ... then they put the fabric in the dye.. then they swish the fabric in the dye ...
TGIF (thank goodness it is friday)
Today i decided to wash my clothes... i had just about run out of the unmentionables and everything else...err.... needs freshening up! I turn on the tap and remembered 'ooops..no water'!
Last night after my wonderful day i had come home with a layer of dust and grime coating me...you can imagine, i had fantasized about standing under the shower... only to find there was no water at all!! This apparently happens every so often... actually it happened the first day we arrived (another day i was pretty grimey!) ... which was a Thursday, too... hmmm... is a pattern forming here?..
But don't worry... since this sort of thing happens often there is an alternative set in place... a big bucket full of water is kept near the shower with a small bucket. So... low and behold you have a manuel shower!! it felt delicious sluicing off all the grime. (i blessed Maggie silently)
Anyways back to this morning, i nixed the Washing-woman thing and went for breakfast.
I have cornflakes with tons of fruit diced on top... today i had a whole mango ... and replaced my milk with a fruit smoothie (as there was no milk- the smoothie was better anyway!)
Maggie assured me the water would come soon... no worries.
Maggie is the person in charge of the house. She is a wonderful person and seems to be Christianne's right hand woman...
And sure enough after breakfast the water was coming... so i rolled up my sleeves and went to work.. wow! had to rinse my stuff a couple times....(hey!..not because of me!) Then i hung all my stuff out on the line.
Now hold that thought: my clothes are on the line.....
Off we went to the Office.. went around saying hello to everyone ... popped out to put some money down on my stamps at Jerry's. .. then settled in to work.
I took a break with my camera again to record a bit more of the batiking process.. this time i caught them dying the fabric for the second and third time... The dye is mixed with caustic soda in these big basins... it is quite toxic so they wear masks and big protective gloves... It is quite beautfiul
when they lay out the fabric to dry in the sun...
At lunch time i had opted to stay in town rather than go back to the house. I hadn't ridden my bike as i wanted to to explore on foot a bit.
So i set out... this time i managed to ignore the fact that i was like this white sore thumb sticking out and just ambled around... It was fun... i bought a mango that was picked carefully for me, these funny little new fruits that looked interesting (and which Bernice showed me how to peel and eat later... oooh! sour!!) and some bananas that are half the size as ours but twice as sweet....then, i found some beads guarded by this wizened old lady and fought with her 'viciously' to bring down the price as she was demanding about 50x the normal price as i was a rich 'yevo' (which is 'white' in Ewe..it is not said in a mean way at all).
I had come into the store and saw this little old lady and thought i will buy some beads from her to 'help' her... they weren't even that interesting...but you know how we are... oh, my! it was so funny when i suddenly realized this was no 'sweet' old lady but a very canny negotiator!! A young girl and another woman (probably family) were trying to protect me and tell her to be reasonable but she had seen her meal ticket and wasn't about to let go!! So i got into it with her and we had a lot of fun. She ripped me off but not by a margin i couldn't live with!! :)
Exhausted by an eighty year old, i retired back to the Office.
During the afternoon i managed to get a necklace finished for funkyFrog... It was an interesting mix of african beads and beads from Panama given to me by Andrea and Etienne for Christmas... It had turned out very nice... I thought it would be fun if my new friend Bernice would be the model for it... She is a very lovely young lady...
Later in the afternoon everything had sort of sunk into this torpor... a kind of low buzz... it was so hot and humid! And then there was this BOOM! ... that i recognized...Thunder! Oh! It is going to rain, everyone murmured excitedly...
Do your remember my washing??? Of course, it is going to rain... What was i thinking quite smugly when i was hanging up my unmentionables in the sun? .... of course i was thinking.. 'well, at least i don't have to worry about RAIN here!!' (how provocative is that? (...better than a rain dance!!)
And ... did it rain? It pelted down!! almost like hail the rain drops were so big and hard!! It was wonderful to see the parched earth become wet...
I thought 'Oh, well! my stuff will just get another rinse!!
Finally, it was quitting time ... the excitement i had felt ... tgif... was the ladies off for the weekend! They have a great job but still they are eager to go home!! The babies are wrapped and excited chatter as they get ready t o do!! All of them tell me to have a good weekend and they will see me on Monday!
It seems amazing that i have only known these women for a week and already they have integrated me into their landscape... accepting me ... enjoying me!!
I answer back to them, 'Yes, have a good weekend and i will see you Monday!!
We set off home.. the landscape already looking a bit less dusty ... we arrive home...
and bless her, Maggie has brought in my washing for me!!
Last night after my wonderful day i had come home with a layer of dust and grime coating me...you can imagine, i had fantasized about standing under the shower... only to find there was no water at all!! This apparently happens every so often... actually it happened the first day we arrived (another day i was pretty grimey!) ... which was a Thursday, too... hmmm... is a pattern forming here?..
But don't worry... since this sort of thing happens often there is an alternative set in place... a big bucket full of water is kept near the shower with a small bucket. So... low and behold you have a manuel shower!! it felt delicious sluicing off all the grime. (i blessed Maggie silently)
Anyways back to this morning, i nixed the Washing-woman thing and went for breakfast.
I have cornflakes with tons of fruit diced on top... today i had a whole mango ... and replaced my milk with a fruit smoothie (as there was no milk- the smoothie was better anyway!)
Maggie assured me the water would come soon... no worries.
Maggie is the person in charge of the house. She is a wonderful person and seems to be Christianne's right hand woman...
And sure enough after breakfast the water was coming... so i rolled up my sleeves and went to work.. wow! had to rinse my stuff a couple times....(hey!..not because of me!) Then i hung all my stuff out on the line.
Now hold that thought: my clothes are on the line.....
Off we went to the Office.. went around saying hello to everyone ... popped out to put some money down on my stamps at Jerry's. .. then settled in to work.
I took a break with my camera again to record a bit more of the batiking process.. this time i caught them dying the fabric for the second and third time... The dye is mixed with caustic soda in these big basins... it is quite toxic so they wear masks and big protective gloves... It is quite beautfiul
when they lay out the fabric to dry in the sun...
At lunch time i had opted to stay in town rather than go back to the house. I hadn't ridden my bike as i wanted to to explore on foot a bit.
So i set out... this time i managed to ignore the fact that i was like this white sore thumb sticking out and just ambled around... It was fun... i bought a mango that was picked carefully for me, these funny little new fruits that looked interesting (and which Bernice showed me how to peel and eat later... oooh! sour!!) and some bananas that are half the size as ours but twice as sweet....then, i found some beads guarded by this wizened old lady and fought with her 'viciously' to bring down the price as she was demanding about 50x the normal price as i was a rich 'yevo' (which is 'white' in Ewe..it is not said in a mean way at all).
I had come into the store and saw this little old lady and thought i will buy some beads from her to 'help' her... they weren't even that interesting...but you know how we are... oh, my! it was so funny when i suddenly realized this was no 'sweet' old lady but a very canny negotiator!! A young girl and another woman (probably family) were trying to protect me and tell her to be reasonable but she had seen her meal ticket and wasn't about to let go!! So i got into it with her and we had a lot of fun. She ripped me off but not by a margin i couldn't live with!! :)
Exhausted by an eighty year old, i retired back to the Office.
During the afternoon i managed to get a necklace finished for funkyFrog... It was an interesting mix of african beads and beads from Panama given to me by Andrea and Etienne for Christmas... It had turned out very nice... I thought it would be fun if my new friend Bernice would be the model for it... She is a very lovely young lady...
Later in the afternoon everything had sort of sunk into this torpor... a kind of low buzz... it was so hot and humid! And then there was this BOOM! ... that i recognized...Thunder! Oh! It is going to rain, everyone murmured excitedly...
Do your remember my washing??? Of course, it is going to rain... What was i thinking quite smugly when i was hanging up my unmentionables in the sun? .... of course i was thinking.. 'well, at least i don't have to worry about RAIN here!!' (how provocative is that? (...better than a rain dance!!)
And ... did it rain? It pelted down!! almost like hail the rain drops were so big and hard!! It was wonderful to see the parched earth become wet...
I thought 'Oh, well! my stuff will just get another rinse!!
Finally, it was quitting time ... the excitement i had felt ... tgif... was the ladies off for the weekend! They have a great job but still they are eager to go home!! The babies are wrapped and excited chatter as they get ready t o do!! All of them tell me to have a good weekend and they will see me on Monday!
It seems amazing that i have only known these women for a week and already they have integrated me into their landscape... accepting me ... enjoying me!!
I answer back to them, 'Yes, have a good weekend and i will see you Monday!!
We set off home.. the landscape already looking a bit less dusty ... we arrive home...
and bless her, Maggie has brought in my washing for me!!
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