THE FLIP FLOP FACTORY WITH SAWA

It was SAWA time today.  The South African Women’s Association meets on the last Thursday of each month and they change the locations which is pretty cool, as not only do you get to meet a bunch of wonderful ladies, you also get to see some of the sights of Nairobi.  The other great thing is that they alternate which side of town they have the monthly functions, so one month it is on the ‘others side’ from us and then the next it is ‘our side’ of town.  Because this month was the ‘other side’ of town, Elsabe picked me up at 8.30am for a 10.30am function as you just never know what the infamous Nairobi traffic was going to be like and today I think our quick trip should be credited to Elsabe’s driver, James, as we travelled some back streets (I didn’t know where we were at times) getting us to Marula Studios at 9.30am, a whole hour earlier than the start time.  The great thing about the studio is that they have a small café right after the entrance, so we were able to take a seat and order a coffee (me I got a plate of delicious soup) and Elsabe and I just chatted the time away and before we knew it the other SAWA members started to arrive.  I even met the South African Ambassadors wife today, rubbing shoulders with the important people, I am.    

Marula Studios is a unique shopping experience that supports "home-grown" talent and resources. This hub of creativity, offers a plethora of innovative products and services that are sold to boost local trade and applaud African ingenuity.  With over 40 suppliers from East Africa, there is a gift shop that presents an impressive selection of gorgeous products that will tantalise your inner shopaholic. All proceeds generated from sales provide a livelihood to community artisans as well as help support marine conservation efforts. Now who can argue with a shopping philosophy like that and it takes away the guilty spending!!!!  The studio is also the heart of the award-winning FlipFlop Recycling Company, and this is the place where the magic happens where you can watch and learn how the highly-skilled team transforms old flipflops into colourful creations.  Their tag line is “Cleaning Beaches and Creating Masterpieces” and what a great job they are doing.  Elsabe and I got some time in the shop before everybody arrived and they have some amazing stuff in it, some of it was expensive, but I was hooked on the flipflop art, and I especially LOVED the giraffe that stood 1.5m tall, but it had a price tag of 20,000KSH (250AUD) and as AWESOME as the giraffe was I couldn’t justify that amount of money before a BIG trip and for what was really a pair of thongs (well more than that but you get my drift).  It is hard to believe that the pieces we were looking at were made from thongs, flipflops, jandals-depending on what part of the world you live in and I was looking forward to taking the tour to see how this magnificent art was made.  I think I have an affinity for anything with a lot of colours (eg: Kazuri beads) and I just knew I was not going to walk out of there empty handed!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is always a good turnout with the SAWA group of ladies and I really like that.  We settled into a table and sat with the South African Ambassadors wife and I met a new friend called Deborah.  It is funny sometimes when you just click with people and I know I have made a great new friend, I am just a little bummed it is a week before I leave the country for 4 months, but as Elsabe and Kelly keep telling me, they will all be here when I come back and you know what, they are right.  I value friendship so much and I am just so lucky I have met some amazing women here in Nairobi.  Friendship is everything, something I don’t take for granted and I value so much.  After everyone had arrived and we were watered (coffee and tea) and fed (delicious samosas) it was down to business on the current fundraising updates and also updates on the annual ball that will unfortunately be held while I am away (bummer dude) and it is a fancy dress of ‘Arabian Nights’.  It would have been great to attend and we found out today that all the tickets have been sold, so it has the earmarks of a great night.  We did get an update from Julie about one of the charities that we support called Wings of Compassion.  SAWA have a dedicated committee who work tirelessly to create successful fundraising events which enables us to help the various Charities we support. Every year the newly appointed committee selects 3 main Charities we will support and specific tangible goals are set for each. The charity coordinators then work hand in hand with the teams to achieve these goals.  Wings of Compassion is a rescue home for teenage girls who become expectant as a result of rape, prostitution, early sexual relationships and/or drug abuse.  The home was started to provide a safe environment for these young girls in order to get them off the street or out of their bad situations. They provide shelter, food and love but they also help restore hope to these teenagers through one on one counselling sessions, giving them a chance to go back to school, offering technical skills and becoming care givers to their babies thus empowering them to reach their destiny.  SAWA have committed to helping them purchase their own land as currently the home is established on leased land – the long term vision is to re-establish the home on their own land and build an education centre to provide education and training to the girls which will empower them to become self- sufficient and able to care for their children.  It was uplifting to hear of the positive news coming out of the home and the work that was being done and it just makes you realise how lucky I am, really it sounds so cliché, but when you see/hear this stuff everyday here, it gives you a reality check.  
Visit their website: http://www.wingsofcompassion.net

   

Once ‘business’ had been taken care of, and another thing I like is that this part of the mornings is that they never seem to take more than 10 minutes and then we were asked if we wanted to do the tour of the FlipFlop Recycling Company.  YES PLEASE.  So we were broken up into 2 groups as there were 30 of us and we started out tour of the small local ‘factory’ so we could see every step of the fascinating process that turns recycled flip-flop waste into stunning works of art and crafts.  Like many Kenyan ‘factories’ the term is used loosely with most of them small buildings or sheds, with plastic chairs and tables for the workers and none of this massive industrial buildings you have pictured in your head when you think of factories.  Today was no different and we got a tour of the main 7 sites that each process an important part to get the final product.  So how do you turn dirty old flipflops recovered from beaches and surrounds into art?  The BIG question is where do the flipflops (I’m loving that word) come from?  The old flip-flops and the now more ubiquitous Crocs, are gathered from Kenyan beaches where they wash up as plastic waste. Teams of mostly local women working for the Flip-Flop Recycling Company collect the flip-flop refuse to help clean up the beaches and stop animals and fish from getting sick or even dying if they ingest this waste. Bundles of flip-flops are then trucked to the workshop at Marula Studios in Nairobi.  Where did the idea come from?  If you have travelled to a developing country you will see that children are always creative in turning washed up refuse and trash into toys. Everywhere you go in Africa you'll see recycled materials turned into cars, soccer balls, planes and motorcycles. Julie Johnston, who born and raised in Kenya, was working at the Kiunga Marine National Reserve on Kiwayu Island, in the Lamu Archipelago. She noted the environmental hazards of plastic flotsam and jetsam polluting beaches and blocking the path of newly hatched sea turtles trying to reach the sea. She also observed local children using the plastics to create amazing toys. Julie, together with Lamu community activist Tahreni Bwanaali, launched the Flip-Flop recycling company in 2005. They now sell their end product at the Marula studios and export to stores all over the world. The company employs more than 100 women to collect discarded flip flops from Kenya's beaches and inner cities.

What an AMAZING idea huh!!!! 

So the next question is how does a dirty broken flip-flop transform into a beautiful sculpture of a giraffe?  As we toured the workshop we were shown each step that was simply laid out for all to see.

v  We started the journey watching the evolution of trash into treasure. We saw the collection process that sees the company pooling in a variety of recyclable waste. 

v  Then the flip flops are washed, dried in the sun, and then sorted by colour.

v  The flip-flops are then cut into blocks roughly the same size and glued together based on set colour schemes.

v  The colourful blocks are then carved using basic kitchen knives into animal shapes, Christmas decorations, key chains, bottle holders or whatever has been custom ordered. It's amazing to see what can be delicately carved by the artists with just a simple knife.

v  Once the shape is as close as you can get using just a knife, the pieces are given a final smooth sanding using a simple wheel/sanding machine.

v  The last stage is the final wash to get the last of the sanding particles off the product and to let the amazing colours shine through.

v  The finished product is then taken next door to be sold at Marula studios, or shipped worldwide.

I do have to mention that when we saw the flipflop sanding section, these poor guys have to sand back the final product to make it smooth and they are sitting at sanding machines, with painters masks on (it was a very fine dust) and they were sporting these goggles and Elsabe said that they looked like the yellow guys (the Minions) out of Despicable Me 2 and she was right and Deborah, Elsabe and I couldn’t stop laughing.  And I want to make it clear we weren’t laughing at them, but at the goggles that they were wearing.  We had found the Kenyan Minions!!!!  We also got to see where the flipflop beads were made and the smaller flipflop animals that are stamped out of a mould in the thong.  For products made from flip-flop beads, a simple hole punch is used to squeeze out a bead shape from a recycled flip flop and then simply sewn together to make wonderful beaded curtains, necklaces, earrings and coasters, woven together with wire and glass beads.  Again a lot of colour and beads and I am sucked in and we also got to try on a pair of ‘Minion’ goggles for some photo opportunities, we crack ourselves up, the three amigos we were!!!!!  After seeing the whole process it gave me an appreciation for the price tag that was swinging from the giraffe in the gift shop.  To make something the size of the giraffe I was looking at, takes 3 days, but I forgot to ask how many things make up that particular sized giraffe, but a lot of work and many hands later, they certainly earn the cash asked.  I was sad to leave that guy at the shop, but maybe I will buy it later on, like as a birthday present for me, from me, when I get back from Australia?  In the meantime I wasn’t leaving empty handed and I bought 4 beaded coasters and an elephant the size of a football that would suffice (the small version of the giraffe didn’t quite look the same) until I egged myself up to buy the giraffe (the BIG one that is).

Once the tour had finished, walked by the playground they have for the kiddies and the area of the playground was surrounded by bits of flipflops, so if the kiddie’s dell they would be cushioned by them and it was spongy to walk on pretty cool.  They also hold workshops for kids, which I think is great as they spread the word to our next generation about recycling (especially in Kenya where it is still trying to find it’s recycle groove) and teaching them about support marine conservation.  We then walked back into the other entrance of the gift shop some more and the last order of business was to have the draw for the free gift.  Every month you sign in on a sheet and there are numbers from 1-30 listed next to each name.  It is funny how it worked out as Elsabe and I were the first to get there, but by the time we had signed the sheet we were numbers 20 and 21 respectively.  Well I was just using my Aussie larrikin charm, saying I had the winning number and telling Izzy, the Marula manager, to pull put number 21.  We gathered outside for the draw and I said 21 would do just nicely to the group, just jokingly and then they pulled the number out and I said is it 21, again the larrikin coming out and low and behold it was NUMBER 21!!!!!  It was hilarious and I had 20 off faces all look at me in surprise and I am sure my face was the same when they showed me the winning number!  WOO HOO!  Being the only Aussie there were some ‘rigged’ cries, but no re-draw cries, which I would have done in the same situation.  So I had a pick of some of the smaller priced items in the gift shop and ran with a flipflop pencil holder that would come in handy at home.  I’m a WINNER baby and the way it came about was just ‘bizarre’ and fluky and AWESOME and I had a lot of ladies complimenting me on my positive vibe and luck coming to people who ask for it, literally, and I guess sometimes it is true.  Maybe we should stop at the casino on the way home, or I should wish for something I really want, to test my new positive vibe!!!???  Yeah and maybe I shouldn’t push my luck.  21 is the new 13….. and I WON!!!!    

I had a great day, met a new amazing woman, spent time with another amazing woman, we made a coffee date tomorrow morning, and we drove to Village Market for Elsabe to drop me off and we decided to sneak in a cheeky late lunch and then with a wave and a kiss we would be meeting up for a coffee in the morning before I take the MB for lunch and bowling tomorrow afternoon.  It was great to visit Marula Studios and if you get a chance it is well worth the stop.  It can be done easily of you are visiting the Kazuri Bead Factory, Purdy Arms and the Karen Blixen Museum as they are all within a 5 minute drive and even the Elephant Orphanage is also in the vicinity, so there is no excuse to not stop at this amazing little place making a difference to the future and for future generations.  It's a fantastic way to benefit the environment by cleaning up the beaches; it also creates local employment, and offers the visitor a colourful choice of gifts to delight anybody’s taste and budget.