Bead Village

We went to the Bead Village where they gave us a tour of the little factory and how they make the beads. I had no idea nor did i think that they actually made the colors and the beads from glass bottles and Fire. Basically they have green, brown, clear, orange bottles and they grind them down to powder to make the different colors in the beads. The young boys were so excited to show us the different ingredients and tools used in this process. They also use this type of branch to put inside the little holes to create the actual hole in the bead. They used this branch because they said that it was easy to cut and it would burn away in the fire not leaving any trace it was ever there. They allowed some of us to cut the sticks in the palette with the holes and then I was really eager to create my own beads, so I mixed some colors and tried to act like a pro while doing this.... not so easy as I though, but I worked it out. Then I went back to the group and placed my little creation in the fire, with the correct tool. I was nervous that my plate of beads would fall through the cracks and the powder would come out but I handled it as usual.

Most people admire the jewelry that is in Africa, but I'm sure they don't even have any idea how they make it. Africans are so handy, and they may not recycle but they definitely know how to make use of the little things that they do have. After we finished this we went to go purchase some jewelry. I'm a bargain shopper and I know how to barter well :-) I managed to leave with the last gifts that I needed to get for my friends and jewelry lovers back at home. One thing that would have been awesome is if I got to actually see how my beads turned out, or if they ended up throwing them away because they were so terrible. I doubt that, but still...

The kids walked us back to our van, they were so sweet and they just held our hands and talked to us. I didn't want to talk pictures of them, because I'm sure they get tired of that, so i just took an imaginary picture that will forever be stored in my heart. I actually enjoyed jewelry shopping at this little village because there were so many options and everything was neatly placed on the table for us. They were just patiently waiting for us to dip our hands into our wallet and take out every cedis bills we had to spend on bracelets, necklaces and earrings-- > and to my surprise, that's exactly what I did.