Dance to the Beat of Your Own Drum, Day 11

Greetings from Ghana! Here we are with day 11 and what a day! This morning, our malaria meds were accompanied by tuna sandwiches and fresh mango and watermelon juice prepared by our fabulous chef, Nana Ama. After an adjustment to our schedule, our van headed out at 10 for our first adventure of the day. We headed towards North Legon where we had the pleasure of touring and learning about JACCD Design Institute Africa. 

JACCD DIA is a "university for creative minds" that started 27 years ago as a fashion design intitute. They now offer 1, 2, and 4 year programs in various areas including graphic design, photography, screenwriting, journalism, architecture and media production. Last month, they graduated 420 students. They said if you were to sample 10 designers in Ghana, 8 of them would be graduates of JACCD DIA. Following along with an overall theme of our trip, they said a passion for entreprenushrip is at the core of all they do. We got to tour their newly reopened facilities and saw a lot of the spaces where their students learn and cultivate their creativity. We ended our tour with an introduction to the founder, Joyce Yeboah Ababio and then headed to the rooftop for a catered lunch. This was one of our first aerial views on a clear day and was a great way to see more of the city. 

Following yesterday's tailor fittings and today's design theme, we headed to the Madina Market to pick out fabrics for many of our new outfits. Most of the fabrics for the women are cotton based and feature various colorful African prints. This activity has been one of my favorite things we have done so far. It's fun to see everyone's personalities coming through the designs and fabrics they chose. One of the designers we worked with is a graduate of the JACCD DIA and now has her own clothing brand, Ntifua Designs. Without giving too much of the final products away, be ready to see some bold, vibrant and beautifully created pieces of clothing that will always remind us of our time here. We will be heading to an even larger market this Saturday to spend some more time shopping so I will leave much of the retelling of the chaotic and lively energy that accompanies a market to Sophie. 

Brief intermission to aknowledge Nicole finally finding some iced coffee!! She was very excited. Now back to the blog. 

After escaping the maze that is the Madina Market and sidestepping Tro Tro drivers vying for our business, we found our good friend, Bart the van, and headed toward home. Along the way, we picked up Dr. Kwabena and Dr. Ama's children from primary school. We also made a quick (only 11 minute) pit stop at another fabric store, Ntomapa, to pick up some rayon fabric for my design with Ntifua Designs. My fellow fellows were gracious enough to wait on the bus and remained patient during that process. After we all had our fabrics, we finally headed toward the SIT center where Jacob Bruce, a University of Ghana School of Performing Arts professor, was setting up some drums to lead our drumming and dance class. We learned a traditional drum and dance called Fume Fume. We spent a decent amount of time learning our dancing timing and did not save enough for our drum lesson. The group was tired after a long and hot day but stayed engaged and had a lot of fun. I don't have the capacity to upload a video so if you would like to see us dancing, please contact me. 

We ended our day with some spaghetti and tomato sauce! However, what may appear as a classic "American" pasta and red sauce is actually noodles with a tomato sauce with carrots, peas, onion, corned beef, and various spices. We were going to go out for another karoke night but have an early call time of 6 am tomorrow morning to head to Kakum National Park and Cape Coast. So instead, we are staying in with some card games and an early bedtime!

Quick shout out to my brother Peter Hoover before I sign off for the night. Happy 19th Petey!

Ciao! Kate Hoover <3