I LOVE Global Mamas (Part 2)

Originally, I had planned to go straight from Cape Coast to Koforidua; however, we had an extra night to spend somewhere (because I wanted to be in Koforidua specifically for the big Thursday bead market). Global Mamas organizes a bead-making workshop in Krobo (which I couldn't find on a map), and because I found the other two workshops to be so worthwhile, I decided to give it a shot. The funny thing is...when we left Cape Coast, we had a vague idea of how we were getting to our destination, but not a clear plan. For an American who likes to plan things in advance, this was a wild concept--that I would just get on a tro-tro with 13 strangers and head towards Accra (about 2.5 hours) where I would somehow transfer to another station (the name/location of which I had no idea) to get on another tro-tro (for about 2 more hours) with 13 more strangers to a city I'd never heard of (we stayed in Atimpoku, a short ride from Krobo). Miraculously (to me at least), we not only made it, but we made it without any trouble. We got dropped at a random place in Atimpoku and were able to get our bearings enough to realize our hotel was only a short walk away. And, the whole trip cost us about $7 each!

We spent Wednesday morning in Krobo learning how to make beads with Moses and his son Kwesi in their bead-making hut (photo below). Global Mamas connected with Moses because his daughter, Gladys, started with Global Mamas in production, moved up into quality control, and now is the manager of the Krobo office. Moses explained that the beads were made from glass and there are several steps. First, the glass is pounded until it's in very small pieces (you can see a pic of me doing this...it's harder than it looks and quite tiring!) Then, you sift the glass pieces so that you end up with a very fine glass powder. Next, you cut the stems of the cassava leaves to fit in the holes if the clay bead molds (these stems later burn away and leave the holes of the beads). You then select your color and mix a powdered dye into the glass powder. Then you fill the molds with the powder and pound them on the table to get rid of excess powder. The molds are now ready to go in the kiln. (I felt extremely spoiled to have an electric kiln at school after seeing Moses's hand-built outdoor wood-burning kiln that he uses daily, photos below). A very long spatula is used to put the molds in (kiln is too hot to get close to it!) and after about 5 minutes, Moses "fired it," meaning he stuffed the back with new logs, causing the fire to burn with more intensity and at a higher temperature. Twenty to twenty-five minutes later, Moses checked on the beads and saw they were shiny, which is his indicator that they're done. After cooling for a while on the ground, we rinsed the beads and strung them on elastic string. Though simple, we're very proud of our handmade beads! There are photos of the steps below...again, sorry that they're all out of order. This blogger app isn't the most useful when it comes to photos!

Thanks to a great idea given to me by a parent at my school (thanks Summer!), I bought a Polaroid portable printer to bring with me. It's incredibly small (not much larger than a simple digital camera) and it enables me to print wallet-sized photos on the spot. Moses and his family were amazed by the ability to print immediately (frankly, so am I!) and so appreciative of being able to have photos to keep. In addition the the one with us (below), I took a family photo for them...and then Kwesi wanted one with just him and Derek too.

Overall, another very informative and enjoyable workshop organized by Global Mamas!