Day 29 (saturday)

A look inside the kente weaving building.

Just another view of the building.

Me giving weaving a shot.

Me and two of the girls: Malayka and Hekaya.

Mommy and Neema.

 

After waking up at 4 and being kind of restless, I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours and then got up just before 7 and made my breakfast. Today it was a slow process for sure. I was now ready for the day which included going to Bonwire (pronounced bon-ray), which is where they weave the kente cloth (super excited about this). We left the house just after having some lunch (banku and stew) and headed north, which is a part of town I haven't been to yet and met up with Celine. From there we went to a station to catch a taxi and went to Bonwire. The second we got out of the car we hassled by peddlers. I really stick out like a sore thumb so as soon as I got out of the car a couple guys came running down an alley screaming and trying to get our attention to sell us their things. We walked around a bit and stopped at one shop that already had pre-woven fabric (the stuff is so cool and has different meanings based on different designs) and then went up the alley and into the place where they weave (which just looked like a run-down storage shed) and we got in and saw the machines. They are all made out of old wood and look like they are going to fall apart at any moment. We got to watch some weaving and it was incredibly fascinating to watch and I got to try some weaving. You have to take your shoes off as you control the movement and speed of the different sections of weaving with your toes (*there are only men here that do this work and mostly men overall). I got a bracelet made by one of the guys who was originally running down the alley (he didn't charge me but said if anyone else wanted one that I could come to him and I think I will do that). I'm certain that every person wanted to sell something (you just have to be persistent with your NO's) so, race and ethnicity aside, I met some people from Texas who were the most ignorant people I have come across yet (when the sellers were bombarding them with wanting to buy things, they began making condescending remarks and responses. It's very interesting when people don't think someone understands you they think speaking slower and using your hands makes it easier but it was the content of what they were saying rather than how they were saying it. I'm willing to bet that they didn't understand the references being made but I did and was very disappointed...as I stated earlier it is about bargaining and if you have any doubts or are simply not interested, simply being persistent with saying no or i'm not interested will be great...it is their goal to sell everything so they will be persistent too). We continued to get some super friendly hellos and people wanting to make things for us (for $) and finally walked away (one of the younger girls followed us all the way until we got to the taxi and asked me for money) and Celine gave her some. It began raining and we went to mom and dad's house (Maureen's campus family) and it really started coming down. We had some food and spent most of the night there but dad finally drove us home and we got in just before 11. Hmmm, going to church tomorrow (Maureen suggested it so I obliged) and it should be interesting, oh well, I'm open.