Everyday one of us will see a Malawian wearing a t-shirt that is just hilarious. The other day Kim saw a pregnant lady wearing in a t-shirt that read "beer is what gets me up in the afternoon", another day Shant saw a very thin man wearing an XXXL t-shirt that said "wide-load". We all saw a man wearing a sorority t-shirt. The list of funny shirts goes on and on. I talked to Terrie about where the Malawians get these clothes and why they wear them, and she said that she is not totally sure, but she is reading a book about fashion and clothing in Malawi. Terrie has heard that the clothing industry is really suffering here because clothes that are imported in are cheaper. What is interesting is that in the market there are tons and tons of random worn clothes plied on top of each other. My theory is that when we in the US donate clothes to a "charity" they sell our clothes to organizations here that then sell them to people to sell here. I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it is strange. Where do they get these worn clothes with American logos on them? Terrie thinks that the book she is reading will further explain where the street vendors get the clothes. Terrie believes that the people here cannot read what is on the t-shirts, and they just buy what they can afford. Most women still wear African style long skirts/wraps that are made from fabric that is sold on the streets here (I am not sure where the fabric comes from). The middle class people wear very western style clothes.
Terrie has a tailor that comes to the house to make her clothes, table cloths, purses and whatever she wants. We can buy fabric and ask him to make whatever we want. He is making me a dress right now! I cannot wait to see it!
Let me know if you want anything made!!
Love you all!
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There are tons and tons of second hand clothes that come in here.. the first lot are brought in by traders from Tanzania and are seen in the all markets and the second lot are, like u say, donations from the US!! they are mostly brought in by this group called DAPP and can be found in the trade fair grounds in Blantyre and in other places.. yes... u really get to see some really cool slogans on them, though they might seem quite out of place here!!! If you have time check our DAPP.. you can also see thousands of second hand books from the US, right from Economics to books on anatomy to fiction. .. I thrive on DAPP for all my reading. .. its quite nice to buy a good paperback for K 250 when the going price is K2500, thought the books can be a year old.!!! nice to read ur blog!!!
ReplyDeletei'd like the "beer is what gets me up in the morning" shirt. size medium, please. :)
ReplyDeletehey niamh--how much would it cost to get a dress made? i might be very interested--did you get yours?
ReplyDeleteHey Niamh! Love the blog. This morning, I heard the following story on NPR and thought of you. It was an interview with the founder of The Acumen Fund. She talked a bit about the second-hand clothing market and how it actually enables the people who resell the clothes to move up to the middle class.
ReplyDeleteInvesting in an interconnected world
By John Hockenberry, Noel King
Guest: Jacqueline Norvorgratz
Wednesday, March 25 2009
By now, we’re all aware of the dark side of the world of finance. But there’s another side to finance that starts with a youthful impulse to save the world and evolves into something both savvy and humane. After a funny encounter with a child wearing her cast-off sweater in Rwanda, Jacqueline Novogratz realized how interconnected the world really is. Novogratz has been at the front of a movement that combines social investing and social entrepreneurship in some of the poorest countries in the world. She is founder of The Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm that supports small businesses in developing countries, and author of the book The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.