Day 5- Saturday at Cape Coast
We took advantage of the little time we had at the hotel we stayed at, the Coconut Grove and walked around. I bought an interesting bracelet there it is very popular design. It is called GYE NYAME and it means Accept God (I am editing this post with the correct interpretation. It is "EXCEPT GOD" meaning all other things fail Except God, God is supreme and overcomes all situations) I heard it phonetically and got the interpretation a bit off the first time. ) I used the same design when we went out to do Batik making.
You can see it on the wooden design in the photo on the batik design tool too.
The people here are very religious. I am not sure the percentages but there are a Christian churches on every street corner it seems like. Just about every denomination. And a number of mosques do. Lots of Islamic people as well. They get along well and seem very tolerant of each others faiths. Here are photos from Coconut Grove, Making Batiks, and Cape Coast Slave Castle.
We met with the women who make Batiks for Global Mamas. This is the organization that does internships for students. Batik means to design with wax. They start off by putting a wax design on a cloth. Then you take the cloth and you mix in the dyes with two important chemicals. The one chemical opens up the cloth fibers and the other makes the dye adhere to the fiber. Without those the cloth dye would fade out. After that you dye the cloth and lay it out on the grass to let it soak into the fiber. Then you take out all the excess dye and then another process where the wax is removed. Then you cook the cloth. Let dry and then you have your batik. We actually tried doing the wax part. Well, let's just say we wouldn't make it as Batik makers.
Both the women in the photos provide their Batiks to Global Mamas in the Cape Coast for export to the U.S. and were extremely grateful, and loyal, to Global Mamas for the market. Georgina is actually a teacher at Wesley Girls School and teaches how to make different traditional clothes.
While the cloth was drying we went back into town to Cape Coast Castle. It is one of three castles in Ghana. It was designed by the British specifically for the purpose of slave trade. It was really emotional. The guy took us to the places where the slaves were kept and showed us how they were locked up and dispatched. Really unbelievable what people can do to each other.
After that we headed back, got our Batiks and headed back to Accra for the night.
Sunday we are headed for Techiman. Out contact there is Greg Yeich is our contact there. In one of numerous serendipitous events surrounding this whole grant and trip to Ghana, he was sitting at a table next to me in D.C. I overheard him say something about Ghana and interrupted him and explained my interest in the weather indexed insurance for farmers. Turns out he was on break from Peace Corps experience in Ghana and he works with farmers. So we are now meeting with the NGO's and farmers that he works with. Pretty cool.
From this point forward the blogging will become a bit more challenging. But I will try to keep up.
Bye,
Jim
