Saturday, February 12, 2011

Jackie. This isn't a flower, this is you being lazy--(or focusing more importance on other things--good call dad!)

So we have all now gotten our dresses made by the woman down the street named Jackie. She is a very sweet woman, and is a good dress maker, but she isn't one of the greatest dress makers ever. She is a tad lazy. We all got beautiful dresses made that we love, except pretty much every dress needed some kind of minor adjustment. These adjustments haven't been extremely tricky, but Jackie isn't really into over working herself, and so some of the adjustments we are all thinking need to be done by others. My dress is beautiful, and jackie adjusted the straps to fit me perfectly, except instead of cutting the material and restitching it, she simply pinned it up, and then sewed it in place, saying, "oh they're flowers!" haha i mean jackie, i may not know how to sew very well, but those arent flowers...those are a product of your laziness. But I actually like them, so they are okay. I also bought a kaba-a traditional african dress which is basically a pretty potato sack with cool interlaced top material stitches, which I also love.
March 8th is womans day here, and apparently all the women buy this specific print that comes in either pink or green and wear it on womens day. So next outfit is these dresses, perhaps made by doobs mother, who makes really nice things!

2 comments:

  1. Your comments about Jackie remind me of an experience I had at Gustavus involving a student dying of a brain tumor and his African-raised father. I'll send details in an e-mail message.

    I'm interested in the focus/purpose of Women's Day and the values that undergird it. Is it uniquely or explicitly Cameroonian or more global? Do transient women like yourselves get to participate fully or as observers rather than participants?

    Pictures of the dresses would we cool.

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  2. This had me laughing! But how great do you feel in a dress that was made specifically for you?! Spoiled, right?! Too good.

    And yes, get Women's Day gear and be sure to go to the parade! It is an experience and many discussions and debates follow! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did though, and really feel that solidarity with the women! I don't know why, even though it's an international holiday, it is so big in the 'roon...maybe because it's the one day a year women get a break from patriarchy?

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