At this point, I've lost track of days:

I'm learning to weave Kente cloth! I asked the local kente weave master, Steven if he would be willing to let me come watch him for an afternoon. In Ghana, Kente weaving is only done by males, so I was unsure of what his response would be. Luckily he said yes! This morning I went to his residence for the first time to watch him weave. After lunch he asked me if I would like to learn, and of course I said yes! I had been sitting quietly on a stool behind him all morning watching his process, and felt pretty confident that I could do it. He was just doing a black and gold striped cloth (it was a royal cloth. black and gold are royalty colors), on two harnesses...simple stuff. haha. He spoke little english, so I couldn't really ask questions. The loom was very different than the jack looms I have worked on at school. The tension was controlled by a giant rock sitting about 50 feet from the loom, on which his length of fiber was fixed. The heddles were made of string, and the beater was fixed to a stick that was fixed above the loom. It took me awhile to get used to the positioning, I felt like I was squatting low to the ground, because I was! The pedals were just ropes with balls at the end that I positioned between my toes. He was SO surprised that I knew how to weave, he just kept laughing and covering his head with his hands, as if in shock. It was a wonderful afternoon.