Our nursery rug

They say that by the time the second child comes around, the most you will be worried about is "do I have enough diapers?"

With your first child, most parents go a little overboard on the nursery, clothes, and safety issues. And I have to say, we are following that same path having spent the past few months trying to customize Anders's nursery. That being said, I am not sure if I have shared the story of the rug we are having hand-woven in Africa. (A little overboard?....perhaps.)

A few years ago, we took a trip to South Africa with Adam's family. My brother-in-law, Ryan, is from Cape Town, and it was the trip of a lifetime seeing the culture and enjoying time with his family! We spent about a week in Capetown and then went on safari for a few days. The experience really had an impact on Adam and me; particularly a tour we made of a township called Khayelitsha. According to Wikipedia, in South Africa, the term township usually refers to the (often underdeveloped) urban living areas that, under Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites (principally black Africans and Coloureds, but also working-class Indians). Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities. In some cases, there isn't running water or electricity, while others are more sophisticated.

While in Khayelitsha, we visited a non-governmental organization called Philani. The group works to reduce malnutrition and poor health in the community and focuses primarily on women and children, as they are the most vulnerable. At Philani, the women work by weaving rugs and handbags while their children are provided an education at the school on the grounds. The goods produced by the women are sold to tourists, providing not only a sense of pride but also a little money to feed themselves and their children. It is a wonderful organization that does great things for people who certainly need the help!When we began thinking about the nursery decor and how we would want a rug, we decided that it would be awesome if we could have one made by the Philani women. Now, to begin the process, we had to remember the name of where we had visited. Luckily, we had bought a very small mat while we were there and never removed the tag. In addition to that, Ryan contacted his friend in Cape Town that had organized the tour for us, and she was able to confirm the contact information. Then we found ourselves thinking, "Okay, now how are we going to choose the design and the colors, and then how will we get the payment to them, and then how will we know what we will be getting when it is all said and done?"

We assumed it would be a very, very primitive process, and in a way, a leap of faith. To our surprise, we sent an email with our request, and within a week, we had heard back from the group. After a few weeks of emails back and forth, we agreed to colors, a price, and a general design. And even before we had wired the money, the two weavers had already set up the loom, excited to begin our project!
What was fascinating (and lost somewhere in the translation) was that the weavers thought that we were having our 9' X 6' rug woven for a daycare nursery where many children would be playing on it. They could not fathom that a nursery for a single baby could house a rug of that size. (Kind of puts things into perspective, and we didn't have the heart to correct them.)

The Philani group has updated us throughout the weaving process with photos and stories, and just recently, we received an email that our rug was finished and being shipped to port. Once the rug leaves South Africa by boat, it should take about two-three weeks to reach us. So the expression "on a slow boat from China" now becomes "on a slow boat from Africa" for us. Also, assuming the transportation strikes don't hold it up for much longer, we should have the rug sometime toward the end of June. Just a minor "TAB" moment (that's Africa, baby!).

One of the things we have come to love about the Philani group is that they remind us that we are so very blessed. We hope to use the rug as a teaching tool someday to teach Anders to appreciate other cultures and be thankful for the gifts in his own life.

We are looking forward to this unique addition to Anders's nursery! :)