After my stay at Hand in Hand, I travelled north to Tamale, spending 5 hours on the bus with another person I had just met the same day, a Dutch student called Marlou. She had been working in a village just outside Kumasi, and was taking a break for a couple weeks to travel around the country. We met up with Lars and Wendy who had travelled north the day before, and all 3 joined me to visit Daboya the next day. We woke up to catch the only bus that travels the bumpy road down the 60km that took more than 2hrs to drive. Upon arrival, we were dropped on the banks of the White Volta, where we had to proceed by canoe (above) to the village itself.
Throughout our guided tour (with Musa, who is part of the Eco-Tourism scheme set up in Daboya) we were followed by a group of grinning, but slightly intimidated, young children...all wanting to be photographed.
The "Chief's Shop" - where fabric gets sewn together into Smocks. Musa, on the far right, with his buddies from school who all work in the textile trade.
Musa showing off a "Guniea Fowl" patterned smock - the bottom half balloons out so that it can be swirled around as pictured below:
Young boys at their weaving stations
The indigo dying pits - a bunch of yarn being "aired" so that the oxygen in the air can activate the desired colour.
When it first emerges, the yarn is more of a turquoise colour, almost green...and has to be dyed multiple times to achieve the dark blue colour used to weave.
This is a fantastic photo of the dyer shaking out any leaves from the dye bath that have gotten stuck inside the yarn during the dying process
everything around the pits turn indigo, its a lovely sight since the colour is so rich
Even this man's hands, shoes and trousers are stained with the pigment
Having a go myself - much to the amusement of the locals!
My favourite photograph so far - two men relaxing and sewing next to the indigo-painted mosque
Close-up of the hand stitching on the old man's smock
Having a go at weaving too - the little boys either side of me were going lightening fast just to show that they were more skilled than the Obruni (local name for white person)
Fisherman mending his net in the shade - with a house being painted in the background
We caught wind of the fact that a fresh batch of fish had come in - so we went down to the river to take a look
A fisherman in his canoe, showing us his live bait
The salt beach where salt comes to the surface and is collected in the dry season - now it is flooded due to heavy rainfall.
My hands still stained with indigo
Musa showing off a hand-man smock he has woven and stitched himself:
No lack of colour with her signature glass beads - mostly made from recycled glass here in Ghana.
A beautiful wall piece that was part of a recent exhibition she had with a painter - and now shes adapting this particular style to be worn too. All hand embroidered!
More batik and great baskets, good light too
The yellow walls with blue door frames is reminiscent of Bib's house - good choice ladies!
Our TV-watching or reading chairs - Trish sits on the right on her very old piece of Ewe Kente cloth, and a cushion she has sewn an Ashanti strip into, and I lounge on the right on a beautiful indigo ikat from Nigeria. All hand stitched old cloths.
A yummy bowl of beads above...and lots of beautiful baskets for storage below
Lyla the African Grey Parrot - she is amazing and loves to copy sounds. Her favourite, starting at 6am, are exact replicas of taxi car breaks as they turn the corner next to the house, car alarms, cat call whistles, various other exoctic bird noises, and her incoherent radio mumbling. "Hey Bird!", "OK" and "Wow" are all done in careful copying of Trish's voice - and her birdy cackle and bird dance are equally amusing! She loves to have her feathers stroked so she sticks her head out of her cage in anticipation, but if you're not paying enough attention, she might take a bite out of a finger for you...
Her mini jungle verandah and gin-and-tonic drinking spot
Taking photos of her trade beads: some old (above), some new...and some painted (below)
Trish's "shop" doesn't look out of place in her living room...
Scarves found in the second hand market: mostly Indian
The blue kitchen - lots of bottles saved to be melted down into beads?!
Finally, a great kettle that has been stamped by hand, from Bida
