Women's Sewing Co-op gets a grant from the U.S. Ambassador's Self-Help Fund!

The Women's Sewing Co-op is the proud recipient of the U.S. Ambassador's Self-Help Fund. We're receiving funds this year that allow us to build the project and make it sustainable, and include workshops on leadership and financial management as well as work that I'll do around marketing and distribution.
The grant also gives us money to expand our product line. Here, you see Tina trying on a sample apron my sister brought us from El Salvador. The Co-op members loved it so much that Miriama ended up wearing home (or trying to) the sample they made, because my sister wouldn't part hers. It's fitted, feminine and functional--and we're now making it with West African lapa. Note the handy little side pockets. We won't need to embroider ours, but the pockets will stay.
Here are Miriama, Bendu and Josephine (left to right). Bendu single-handedly ran our booth at the U.S. Embassy Craft Fair and earned more than $600 for the Co-op in one day. Miriama, to the left in pink, will be the next team leader as we expand to 20 members in the coming months.
Matilda is our newest Team Leader. Here, she's tallying and handing over bags that her team members have sewn.

Over the next year, I'll be working with the Co-op to achieve the following:

1. Try to scale-up Co-op membership to 30 women.
2. Train team leaders in consistent quality control and management.
   
3. Market and distribute the monthly output of the Co-op, which now is over 100 products, both locally in Liberia and internationally.
4. Expand their product line to aprons, yoga mat bags and more.
5. Brand the Co-op as a women's microenterprise program and show buyers the positive effect product revenues have on members' lives.
6. Build the Team Leaders' capacity to effectively run and manage the Co-op on their own.
   
7. Build Co-op members' skills in business management and financial literacy.
8. Develop a Monrovia-based network of suppliers that the Co-op can directly liaise with.

If you're interested in giving us about any or all of these, let me know. I'll be blogging about how we're working towards these goals throughout the year, and your support and guidance is much appreciated.

(Eating) barracuda

Photos courtesy of Tamar Losleben.
A few weekends ago, we were chilling at the campsite watching the fishermen pull in a particularly good catch when a young man came up in a wheelbarrow. With a four-foot barracuda in it. Having just bought a nice rosy grouper for $8 and already planned how to cook it for lunch, we were not really in the market for another freshly-caught fish.

But when someone comes to you with a four-foot barracuda, it tends to change your mind about a lot of things. Most pressingly, should this become my new Facebook profile picture? And what are we going to do with all this fish?
Of course, we bought the fish. For $22, after having photographed ourselves holding it and using it as a weapon in various different ways. The fisherman was amused, and Sam--our Chief of Security and the Community Chief's son--took the occasion to comment on Nathaniel and my way of doing things, in general. Apparently, we are very chill and respectful, which is good to know. We'll keep it that way.

Lucky of us, since my stint cooking at Nana's, I've assumed the occasional use of their fridge and freezer for just these kind of situations. You know, when a man brings a four-foot barracuda to you in a wheelbarrow before lunch. So, the new campsite security cheerfully skinned and chopped the fish into manageable pieces about the size of a 2-month old puppy. We took one to A.B., the Project Leader of the monthly Community Beach Cleanup and the proud father of a new baby girl he named...Elizabeth. We grilled giant barracuda steaks for dinner with coconut cream sauce and rice. We put the rest of the giant hunks of barracuda--or 'cuda' as it's called here--in the freezer and took it back to Monrovia.

This might have to become a habit.

Dreading a hair cut

In the 71.4% of my life that I've spend outside of the U.S. (where my only passport is from), I have had a lot of haircuts. There was the hairdresser in New Delhi who made is possible for me to be mistaken for a boy for almost a year. There was the hairdresser in Egypt who cut my chin-length bob so asymmetrically that my mother allowed me to skip school while she called a retired hairdresser friend. There was the hairdresser in Arusha who almost gave me a mullet as I was talking on my cellphone.

Given that historically I've lived in countries where "straight" or "white" hair is an anomaly, I have to be prepared for situations like these and handle myself appropriately--ideally, even maturely. Instead, I don't let anyone cut my hair. I have been in Liberia eight months, my hair growing to the length of a Victorian spinster, sticking faithfully to this rule.

Finally, I became too hot, my hair became too straggly to do anything but ponytail (see recent photos for proof), and I began to cave. Enter Adi, a Thai man who cooks, massages and cuts hair in Liberia. Adi came over on time without getting lost, pulled a plastic chair onto the balcony, and after agreeing that my hair had suffered from so much sun and sea, began clipping.

Adi began clipping very, very fast while talking to me about cooking Thai food and getting me to teach yoga at UNMIL. I no longer felt hair on my back or neck and told myself, "This is either going to be really bad or really good." Which ones of those was, at that point, out of my control.

I lucked out. Now I have wispy, wavy locks liberated from weightiness. I keep turning my head back and forth. I will not tempt fate by letting anyone else cut my hair here, but I'm glad I took the chance.

Where I am today.

Sometimes, it's important to settle for a minute and take a look at where I am and what I've done. It's nice.

Coming soon: Eco-walks through the rainforest

Photos courtesy of Tamar Losleben.

We're looking for an ecology and community tourism intern to help Robertsport Community Works set up eco-walks in the coastal rainforest. The job posting on Idealist is here, if you're interested...

Here are some photos of the 'bush walk' we took with Ben and company when our sisters were visiting. It's worth noting that Nate and I have been planning to do this walk for months. It took the insistent presence of both of our sisters to get us out of the water and into the forest--even though the forest is, obviously, pretty awesome. Hence, the need for an intern to help us set up the project. We're realistic in what we expect of ourselves.
You can see, in this clearing, how tall the forest canopy is. Although it was the middle of the day in dry season, characteristically one of the hotter times of the year, we stayed nice and cool in the shade.

Ben is a natural in the forest, just like he is in the water. Here, he and Samuel are collecting kola nuts that fell from the tree. Kola nuts are a natural stimulant and appetite suppressant. You crack them open, take a little bite and chew it while it permeates a bitter dryness throughout your mouth that makes me wince. After, though, a sip of water tastes like sugar dew, so it's kind of worth it.
Here, Sameul--Alfred's little brother--holds kola nuts they way they fall from the tree. Samuel and Emmanuel brought along socks to stuff with kola. I think they planned to sell what they didn't eat to the grownups back in the village.
There were some pretty cool looking trees in the rainforest. this once looked painful. Ben explained that you can chop off the pyramid spikes with a cutlass, remove the thorn and bore a hole in them to make jewelry. Below, a close-up.
Gnarly, right?
Here's Emmanuel, who you may have seem in other campsite pictures because when he's not in school, he brings us fresh coconuts to drink in exchange for notebooks, pens and now a set of watercolors he requested after seeing my sister paint. Emmanuel was a perfect forest guide, stopping to let us catch up with the others, pointing out flowers, mushrooms, trees and all kinds of useful things to know--and eat. Actually, Emmanuel's knowledge of the forest is so thorough that the walk became more of a culinary tour than a nature walk, complete with tastings of 'dog' something-or-other, 'bush ground-pea', just-picked kola, and water that you could drink from the bottom of a freshly-chopped vine. We might not be able, because of sustainability issues, to include all the snacks on the locally-guided walks. When Emmanuel, who just turned 13, gets a little older, he'll be a great guide.

Here are some more shots. I look forward to welcoming our future intern and to announcing the commencement of the walks over the summer. We hope that starting community eco-tourism will increase visitors' appreciation of the rainforest and aid in larger conservation efforts.