A bag of frozen chicken parts?

Ncamile, Kim, Hlengiwe, S'bonga, Nqobile.

This week I had fun.   I don’t have fun very often. I LOVE my job and my life, but “fun” isn’t really a word I would use to describe by life, but this week I had fun.  My cousin Kim came to visit with her husband Joe and their friends Carol and Barry.  Since I first started my marketing business in Canada back in 1988 I wanted to hire Kim, but children, location, time and space never allowed us to work together.  But now, here we are in our 50’s and I have finally been able to hire and work alongside one of the brightest, creative, hard working sales people that I know.  In January Kim became the North American Sales Manager for Khutsala Artisans, based in Chardon, Ohio and this week we had fun together!

Kim came this week to work with the Khutsala Artisans team. We spent time talking about sales targets, pouring over spreadsheets, designing jewelry, packing boxes to ship and suitcases to carry.  She also came to encourage, thank and love the workers who are responsible for producing the product that she sells.  Let me give you an idea of what this team did in 2016.

In 2016 (only our 3^rd year in business) our amazing team of 100+ artisans produced:

• 3,152 assorted key chains (hearts, giraffes, flowers, elephants, Africa)

•  54,836 Christmas tree ornaments (4 different designs)

• 3,592 3D beaded giraffes, elephants, zebras and owls

• 297 Angel decorations/tree toppers

• 475 of the cutest reindeer decorations!

It total they have handmade 62,352 pieces of art made from wire and colored beads, and that does not include thousands of pieces of jewelry that were produced as well.

Before Kim came she told me she and her friend Carol wanted to buy a “treat” for all of the workers to thank them for learning a new trade and making each item with love and excellence. I spoke with our Production Manager and asked what would be the perfect treat, and a plan was made.

Yesterday the Khutsala Artisans stopped work early and sat in a dark room while I showed them our brand new website (www.khutsala.com).  Of the 105 people in the room, only four are on Facebook and the rest did not know what the internet was, but I did my best to explain. They were so excited to see their own faces on our site and squealed with delight when they saw the really awesome 1-minute videos that we have about how some of our things are made (you really need to go watch them – they are fun - https://heartforafrica.myshopify.com/pages/how-its-made). 

And then we announced what the real “treat” was. Each person would be given a 2KG (4.4 pound) bag of frozen chicken parts and a 2L bottle of Coke.  The room literally erupted in screaming (remember the day that Oprah gave away cars to her audience? Kinda like that.).  They jumped, they sang, they danced and after everyone received their frozen chicken and Coke there was a spontaneous dance party at Khutsala. A bag of frozen chicken parts showed our people that they are loved and appreciated - and last night their families all got to eat chicken!

“Khutsala” means “hard working person” in siSwati, and each of these artisans have worked hard this year to learn how to make beautiful products so that they can provide food and school fees for their own families. BUT as Kim and I discussed, if we don’t sell the product, we won’t need to keep them employed again next year.

Today I am asking you to go to our www.khutsala.com website and start your Christmas shopping.  This new website allows for Canadians to shop too (finally!).  We have many new and beautiful items for sale.  Your shopping will literally save the lives of the families whom we employ and 100% of the profit goes directly back to providing for our 141 (142 on Monday) children who call Project Canaan home.

If you are interested in hosting a jewelry party at your home or help us sell our goods, please email me at janine@heartforafrica.org or kime@heartforafrica.org.  

Live from Swaziland … hoping you will shop at www.khutsala.com today!  

Janine

PS - we also have some handmade wood and sisal ornaments. The wood and the sisal are harvested directly from Project Canaan.

 

Farm closed, let the beading begin.

Writing a blog every week has its challenges.  Sometimes I just want to write and tell you all the sad things that happened that week, mostly because misery loves company. But then I know that I would lose some of my readership because the blog was just too darn sad all the time.  Another reason to not do that is because there are so many good news stories to share as well.

Two weeks ago we had to close our vegetable farming due to lack of water.  It was a heartbreaking and discouraging week and we had to retrench a lot of people.  But some had the opportunity to go and interview or “try out” at the Khutsala Artisan building.  Today I have good news to report.

Khutsala is a siSwati word for “hard working” and it is a very inspirational word.   We started this jewelry making business at the end in 2013 and it grew rapidly, largely due to an amazing team of young Swazi’s and people like you who bought our goods.

As of last week, Khutsala employs 127 people who are mainly focused on our Beadcraft.  We are making, and plan to sell 40,000 Christmas tree ornaments this year (up from 13,000 in 2015!) and we recently designed and produced three different garden/plant decorations that are in the US available on our website as of Friday.  A perfect Mother’s Day gift, and 100% of all the profit goes directly back to buying diapers and formula for our 112 babies!  https://squareup.com/store/heart-for-africa.

Everyone who buys our Beadcraft says that it is the best that they have seen. We pay very close attention to the beads themselves, the wire wrapping must be tight and the frame has to be exact. 

For every artisan that we hire, they are providing for an average of 13 people back at home. 

Here is a brief story, written by a young man who works on new designs and trains others to make 3D animals.  I am sure you will be inspired by his story. 

“My name is Sibongaliphi Manana. I am a guy aged 26-years.  I was born 22 September 1989.

I live at Gebeni Community, which is an hour drive from Project Canaan.  I attended my primary school at a nearby school, Gebeni Primary School.  This is where my parents decided that I stop schooling in Grade 5 due to lack of support for my school fees.

I come from a family of 7 children (5 boys and 2 girls) and I am the fourth born.  Both my parents were unemployed, they were only making traditional sandals, which didn’t have a good market.

As I was staying home I started helping my father and when designing the sandals and that is where I got skilled.  Without realizing I was talented, life was hard at home and so I decided to look for a job on the farm at Project Canaan.  Luckily I was employed in July 2013.

I started working on the farm, then later with God’s help, I heard they wanted to start a handcraft center called Khutsala Artisans.  Knowing I was talented, I decided to apply for a job and move from the fields to join the Artisans.

From there I was able to help my family with food and paying for my little brothers school fees.  This is where I realized I belong to Khutsala Artisans because I was able to come up with new designs. 

This helped me a lot and I was able to build a house for my parents and get electricity.  Before this, we had no electricity at the house. I did not just stop there, I also took some of my salary and attended driving school, and now I have my driver’s license.

In conclusion, I give thanks to Project Canaan for the provision of a job, which helped my parents and myself achieve many things.”

I hope that you will support the Khutsala Artisans by shopping today at !  https://squareup.com/store/heart-for-africa.  And don't forget that 100% of the profit goes directly to buying diapers and formula for our 112 babies!

 

If you are interested in being a part of our Christmas ornament sales team, please contact Kim Evinsky at  kime@Heartforafrica.org.  

Live from Warsaw, Poland … enjoying the weekend before the International Egg Commission Conference.

Janine

Everything is easier in America.

I was quite surprised to have 675 people read last week’s blog, but then as a Journalism Major, I wondered if it was because I had the word “alcohol” in the title? It is with that thought in mind that I gave this weeks’ blog the title “Everything is so easy in America” (and just for the record, it’s easy in Canada too!).

I know there are many of you who immediately got your back up and thought “Janine, you have no idea about my life and how hard it is”, but calm down, and take a minute to see it from my eyes.

Internet.  Every hotel we have stayed in has FREE HIGH SPEED WIRELESS INTERNET.  In fact, every coffee shop, gas station and restaurant that we stopped at also had FREE HIGH SPEED WIRELESS INTERNET. What’s the big deal?  Well, if you do all your banking (personally and corporately) on line, it can take hours or days to simply make a money transfer or pay a bill with highly unreliable internet.  I awoke early one day this week and spent three hours working on line.  At the end of the three hours I felt that I had completed a week’s worth of work.  There is no such thing as “free internet” or (“high speed” internet for that matter) in Swaziland, but we all depend on it for day-to-day communication.  It is easier here and so much more can be accomplished (and with much less frustration).  Of course when my Internet isn’t working I do spend more time with people rather than looking at my screen in the privacy of my house.  Maybe that isn’t so bad?

Credit cards. I can use a credit/debit card everywhere I shop here.  For gas, clothes, coffee, GASOLINE and hotel.  This is not the case in Swaziland.  We live in a cash society there and can’t fill up the car with gas without cash.  I am not a good cash carrier and have found myself on “empty” digging through the car looking for coins to get a few Rand of gas to get me back to the farm.  Did you know that the average credit card debt in America is $15,956 PER HOUSEHOLD?  Total US credit card debt was $801 BILLION as of December 2011.  Maybe cash is an okay way to go?

Phones.  I used to be so incredibly dependent on my phone when I lived in Canada and the US because it was attached to my ear much of the day.  Right now we are here with no cell phone because our AT&T contract has expired and we don’t really need one on this side of the pond (and of course we have free Wi-Fi at most stops remember?).  My phone in Swaziland is really a lifeline though.  It doesn’t ring often (with the invent of texting and the high cost of calling), but when it does ring I answer it with great anticipation that it will be a Social Welfare officer calling about a child in need.  Yesterday the phone rang in Swaziland and we learned of a newborn baby who was birthed in a pit latrine (outhouse) and left to die. The police rescued the baby, arrested the young (orphaned) mother and are doing some further investigation. They believe that we will be allowed to pick up that baby next Wednesday and bring him/her home to El Roi.  I am so thankful for live phone calls in Swaziland.

Food.  There is food everywhere here.  Fast food, prepared food, good food, bad food, comfort food, cold food, hot food, lots and lots of food.  I know why I put on so much weight in the past few years and why it was coming off in Swaziland.  It is a combination of immediate access, low cost, laziness and food processing.  While I have thoroughly enjoyed more than my share of PF Chang’s, Tim Horton’s, McDonalds, Jimmy Johns, Swiss Chalet and Subway, I look forward to going home and making all sorts of things with the large bag of tomatoes that Denis and Anthony bring me each week from their kitchen garden on the farm. Yum!

Water.  I will admit that after checking in to a Holiday Inn Express I went to brush my teeth and wondered where the kettle was to boil the water.  Duh.  ALL the water is clean here!  I was thankful.  While we love our house at Project Canaan, we still don’t have clean water to drink and the entire team has been struggling for 12 weeks to get the problem fixed.  Of course we don’t have to walk to the river and collect it like most of our Swazi brothers and sisters, ours comes right out of the tap in our house and for that I am really thankful. I will also admit being surprised and excited that there was toilet paper and hand soap in EVERY public bathroom we stopped in from Florida to Ottawa.  What a wonderful treat (that I always took for granted).

What is my point?  My point is that the United States of America and Canada are wonderful places to live.  If you were born there or are living there you must be thankful for all that you have and for the people who have made it “easy” to live there.  I know that nothing is easy, but you live in countries where everything works or if it doesn’t there is someone to call and quickly get it fixed.  There is a high expectation that everything will work, and that is awesome.  Our expectations in Swaziland are lower, or maybe simpler is a better word.  And I will say with all honesty that I am thoroughly enjoying that.  Yes, I get frustrated when my Internet stick shuts down again, or when there is no TP in the bathroom that I ran in to, but life is simpler, slower and I am finally (maybe for the first time in my 48 years) taking time to stop and enjoy the view, smell the roses, enjoy the dogs, savor the tomatoes or comfort a crying baby without that burning need to rush off and accomplish more.

This is likely the most boring blog I have ever written, but it was “easy”.  I am in the comfort of an air conditioned hotel room, Ian and Chloe are sleeping comfortably and Spencer is in class at Florida State University (one of 9,000+ University/College options in the US alone). After I am finished this I will have a hot shower, make coffee in the pot in our room, pack up and get in our own car, drive to Ottawa to see Ian’s family for the night then fly back to Georgia for a day of shopping, visiting and packing before flying home to Swaziland.  On this twelve day trip back to the US and Canada we will have flown 16,000 miles (26,000 km), driven 2,208 miles (3,560 KM), been to 4 countries, 7 states/provinces, stayed in 6 hotels and eaten at countless coffee shops and restaurants.  I am thankful for all that we have had the opportunity to do and see.  I loved being able to see Spencer get to FSU safely, loved seeing my cousin Kim and her family after their tragic loss and loved seeing Ian’s family in Ottawa. But now I am ready to go home, my new home, where the rooster is up at 4AM, the sun comes up at 6:15AM, the dogs are playing by 6:30AM and the world spins much slower and maybe more deliberately.  It’s not easy, but as Ian so often says, “if it was easy, everybody would be doing it”. :)

Live from Ottawa, Ontario, I am starting my journey home.

 Janine