Today's Journey: FABRICS!

While there is a very good chance all of these new fabrics we purchased today will be gobbled up by a few special orders, we thought we would share with you some of the beautiful, new prints we found in Owino today!

HUGE Earth Day Online Sale This Weekend!

www.awavamarket.com

Our April Gulu Trip (mostly) In Pictures!

by: Kate von Achen

Sorry for the delay. After our return from Gulu, the Awava camera stopped working properly. Luckily we have an amazing, tech-savvy friend, David McCann, who saved the day (and the pocket book)!

Our journey to Gulu almost two weeks back was fantastic. While Darlyne and Hanna had made regular visits to the ladies, I hadn't been up since just before heading for the US for the holidays so it was nice to get back to my home.

So many exciting things have been happening from yet another new workspace for the tailors, to new product designs and new babies and pregnancies, it was so much fun to go and celebrate! And of course to do A LOT of work.

We met with the women of Konye Keni, buying up lots of new paper bead goodies and discussing the new eco-friendly jewelry designs and why we were introducing those. There's a lot of excitement around learning new techniques and working with different materials from Awava, our customers and the artisans!

We spent a lot of time working with the tailors on new products, which we're having trouble keeping in stock even though they're not even ready yet! It's amazing.

And now for the fun stuff......PHOTOS!

Akello Susan with the birthday girl!

Lucy adding our order to her accounting books (which are meticulous 10 months after our business skills training)!

Darlyne working diligently to put our new ordering system to work!

Concy putting some finishing details on some of our new kitenge table mats!

Esther hard at work (there's a baby in that belly)!

You can't tell, but this boy has no pants. And we're not sure where he left his parents either...

Lucy wanted to get our new sun dress sample done so badly, she wouldn't even stop working to hold the phone!

Distracted by phone calls, Lucy still managed to make an AMAZING new dress (coming soon)!

See ya soon Gulu!

My favorite part of the drive between Gulu and Kampala is crossing the Nile River.

There are usually tons of monkeys around!

Save the date! 5k for Fair Trade!

Many Fair Trade events center around discussion, panels and fairs, which are always fun and informative, but the FAAST 5k campaign is a new and exciting way that The International Service Teams in Kansas are working to raise awareness and support for organizations working for social justice.

Get out and run on Saturday~May 7th to make the World a better place for all (and the stick around to buy some beautiful, ethically made items from the vendors)!

New Eco-Friendly Jewelry Coming Soon: Mukwano Earrings

Awava has new eco-friendly jewelry making its US debut in D.C. this Sunday and will soon be available on our website!

Made from 100% recycled sterling silver and adorned with various stones, our Mukwano Earrings are sure to be a hit! In fact people in Kampala have been eating them up since International Women's Day!

Mukwano is the Luganda word for friend. We chose this name because Awava had many friends lend a hand in the evolution of these amazing new gems. Kylie Grater of Early Jewelry worked with founder Kate von Achen over the holiday season on jewelry design and technique, and even helped her figure out what to buy to get this new program started. The various stones used on the Mukwano earrings were given to Kate by Glenna Gordon two years ago before leaving Uganda. Glenna actually also gave Awava its name!

Since the various gem stones we have for the Mukwano earrings are hard to find in Uganda, the earrings will all be limited edition. And since so many friends lent a helping hand in this jewelry revolution we are now embarking on, we have decided to give "sub-names" to differentiate between the stones using names of Awava's friends.

Please stay tunned to the website for these items to be available, but in the meantime, here's a sneak preview!

Kylie

Glenna

Laura

Zara

Molly

Adrienne

Lindsey

Lisa

More stones and friends coming soon...

Our Uganda Friday: Friday Night Lights (Basketball)

by Darlyne Komukama

These blog posts are intended to show you a side of Uganda that you are not privy to in more conventional media while also providing you with fun ideas for what to do with your weekends. The ladies of Awava, here in Uganda, share many interests and this leads us to write about artsy cultural events mostly. I want to change that up today.

Basketball is a big part of Uganda's urban culture and the season is eagerly followed by avid fans at the Y.M.C.A in Wandegeya. Friday Night Lights is a chance to get the fans and the players interacting while keeping the players fit off-season. The idea is that the fans get to play with their favourite players! The fans applied with the name of their favourite player in a text message promo and 10 teams were picked out.

The final is today, 15th April, 2011 at Y.M.C.A in Wandegeya starting at 7.00pm with Team Ikong versing Team Koma. The entrance fee is only Ushs 5,000 Come out and watch Uganda's best play alongside their biggest fans or just catch the slam dunk competition or take the half time challenge and possibly win yourself 2 million shillings!

See you there.

Brilliant New Fabrics Going into Production Next Week!

Thanks to Awava's amazing friends Alexis Coppola and David McCann, we received some beautiful new kangas from Zanzibar AND the Awava camera has been fixed (also by David) making it possible to bring you this eye-catching preview!

Be sure to stay tuned to our website for these available patterns in fantastic new products!