January 10th was our 1 year anniversary. It seems like a long time ago that we opened the doors to Be, Christy, Eunice and Charity, our first 4 Global Mamas. Over the past year the ladies have learnt to batik over 100 designs and to sew 30 different items. When we first opened we were making 70 items a month, in December we made over 1000.
Sadly it's nearly time for us to leave, we now have just under three weeks left of our 18 months in Ghana. Paul and Kelsey are taking over from us and have been managing the workshop since the beginning of Jan. We continue to assist them with training so that they will be confident running the place when we're gone. We have just purchased and built two new sewing machines, and word has spread through Prampram that we will be hiring again so a number of ladies have visited this week looking for a job.
On Friday we are having a meeting with our directors to discuss the next phase of the Prampram workshop expansion. We are proposing going to shift work so that we can maximise our output without additional capital investment. This will also enable us to double our head count in the current location.
Over the last couple of months we've been working on product development and training for the 2012 catalogue. The catalogue went to print last week and it looks great, PramPram made the front cover :o)
Christy hard at work
There are some great new products; my favourite is the 'Melinda' skirt and I've bought 2 already. For those of you who've been out here visiting already I can only apologise that this wasn't available until now. It knocks socks of our previous skirt designs.
All the batikers and seamstresses are now producing the new products for the first shipment to the US which leaves at the end of Feb.
Throughout January, we've had a great time with our visitors Paul and Nicky, and Tom and Rachel. We spent some hectic days in downtown Accra, visited the Akosombo Dam, saw baboons and alligators, walked across tree top rope bridges, made batik cloth and recycled glass beads, visited Cape Coast castle, played lots of chess and drank plenty of beer!
One morning, whilst walking on the beach with Rachel and Tom we found a sea turtle nest on the beach being 'sniffed out' by the local dogs. We decided to step in to help the little ones, and carefully dug up and moved 80 of them to the shore line. From there they happily flapped into the surf and out to sea.
Thanks very much to all our visitors who have helped to make being so far from home that little bit easier.
With only 3 weeks to go we are thinking about our return to England, there are so many things that we will miss but one thing that we will certainly not mind leaving behind is the cockroaches. Here is what happens if you leave a mug of hot chocolate in the living room over night!
And on that note...
Love Tim and Lyd xx
