2nd Surf Liberia Contest next weekend!

I've been spending today getting all the details ready for next weekend's 2nd Annual Surf Liberia contest. Learn more here if you think you can make it. Email me if you plan to compete!

Here are the details:

The contest will run on the morning of Saturday, 23 October if the waves are good. If not, it will be postponed until the afternoon, or even Sunday morning or afternoon. Once we begin, the contest will take about three hours.

We have three partners supporting us this year: Soul Surfers Foundation, Seren Clothing and the Surf Resource Network. Soul Surfers sponsors our Surf Liberia mentoring program in the Uptown community, the Surf Resource Network is helping us run the contest and the boys at Seren Clothing (both of whom I went to school with in Cairo) did the t-shirt.

Solomon thinks its really cool. I agree. He's helping us have a first run-off of 60 made for next Saturday. We'll put them on The African T-Shirt Company, which will also see some new energy in the next few months...

We'll have live commentary, prizes for 1st to 4th place, and it's the best place to see all the local surfers side by side, representing Liberia. Nana's Lodge and Miss Boss Lady Entertainment are the lead Liberian sponsors, contributing to the Surf Liberia Mentoring Project and lending us a hand with the organizing.

Hope to see you at the contest!

Buying lapa for the Co-op

One of the best parts about mentoring the Women's Sewing Co-op is going to Waterside to buy the lapas. We usually go later in the afternoon as it starts to get cooler, driving down to Waterside from Mamba Point and checking the point to see if it's breaking. I used to walk there from Mamba Point down Randall Street, but got a little too much attention for my liking--and it was hard to carry all the lapas home. So now, we drive slowly through the traffic, squeezing our way between wheelbarrows ladden with wares and women with piles of cloth, flip-flops or some other commodity spread on tarpaulin on the ground.
I like to shop indoors away from the sun and crowded streets. Mostly run by Lebanese families, the cloth shops sell lapa in sets of three--enough for an 'African suit' or plenty of bags and aprons sewn by the Co-op. Each lapa is two yards, so a set of three is six yards of fabric--it's important to make sure the lapa comes in one solid piece. The juxtaposition of bright colors and loud patterns can sometimes make my eyes spin and I need to 'cleanse the palette' while I'm buying by looking at the ceiling or a solid color for a moment, before going on.
We've discovered, through trial and error, that some lapa patterns are extremely popular and stick around for months. Others, like our most popular 'honeybee' and often-requested 'jungle' lapa, show up for a week and then disappear. Even Solomon, scouring Waterside, cannot find them--one vendor suggested he travel to Guinea to find it, at which point we abandoned hope. We've since learned that if we like a pattern, we should buy three sets of lapa of it and hope it does well.
Lapas come in all kinds of colors and patterns. Here, you see one current pattern (seashell, bottom right) and two new ones (schoolhouse, bottom left and dragon fish, top right). We now buy 15 sets of lapa at a time--one for each member of the Co-op, who then sews beach bags, hand bags (and soon to be on sale) yoga mat bags and cooking aprons from the cloth.

The Co-op just started selling little hand-sewn hand bags that are perfect for going out at night or, as my sister in New York discovered, packing your lunch. Check them out here!

Legal Support

Robertsport Community Works is delighted to announce the beginning of a partnership with Alfred Brownell, the leading environmental attorney in Liberia. Thanks to a series of referrals and a highly visible "Green Advocates" sign near the center of Monrovia, we found ourselves speaking with a man who not only shares our vision and concern for Robertsport; but also a man who grew up in the very same neighborhood of Robertsport that we are working with today.

This improbable piece of good fortune charged our meeting with energy and vision. It was inspiring to see how harmoniously we think and plan for the community. We look forward to working closely with Mr. Brownell in the coming years and are grateful, already, for his generous help registering Robertsport Community Works with the necessary ministries.