The Real Expat Wives of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea: March 2014

International Women's Day and the quest for a dress

International Women's Day

March 8th

What is international Women's Day?

International Women's Day, also called International Working Women's Day, is marked on March 8 every year and women around the world join together in celebration of the strength of women. Since 1908 this has been a day to celebrate the achievements of women around the world without regard to their national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political differences.

What started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily in Europe, including Russia. In some regions, the day lost its political flavor, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

In Equatorial Guinea, it is a day which the women look forward to as it is a day of celebration. There are parties but also marches as it is a day where the plight of the woman is highlighted.

Every year, the First Lady chooses a pattern for the fabric which all the garments for this special day are made from. This year's pattern was swirls on a white background and you had the choice of red, blue, green, yellow or black swirls. However on the day, many ladies wear garments from previous years so it makes for an extremely colourful day. I was under the impression that everyone would be wearing dresses but on the day we did see some trousers, tops and shorts.

In the weeks running up to the day, the shops and street stalls stated to display the dresses in many different designs. Some were like huge tents while others were extremely frilly and tight. We also saw shoes, handbags and hats made out of the special material.

My housekeeper told me that she and some of her friends were having a party and all putting in 5000cfa - £6/$10 to buy the food and she had bought a new dress.

Noble Energy were having a lunch in the Recreation Centre for all the ladies who work at the compound and the four Noble wives were also invited. We had heard talk that something may be organised so with this in mind we had gone in search of some dresses a few weeks earlier.

We had seen a tailor in the Mercado Central a few days earlier so 3 weeks before International Women's Day we went to see him. His shop is in the middle of the Central Market which is a bustling, noisy, smelly open street market enclosed within a walled and gated square. There are numerous holes in the walkways which are covered with wood and corrugated iron so sensible shoes are the order of the day!

He has a small bench, his antiquated sewing machine and a small room behind him which is smaller than my wardrobe but which has all his material, zippers and other essentials for his work. Again only Spanish could be spoken, so bit by bit we managed to make ourselves understood. Donna K had brought a dress and jacket she'd had made in Cameroon which she wanted him to use for her design, Donna V and myself each chose a two piece design from his books. Yndra decided not to buy one from him.

We all visited his little room to search for material we liked. Then he set about measuring us and jotting it all down. Prices were agreed. Mine was going to be 28,000 cfa, £35/$59. A 50% deposit was paid and we left happy in the knowledge that we had given him plenty of notice and we would all have new garments for International Women's Day.

10 days before the event, the GM's driver visited the tailor to confirm everything was ok. 4 days before the event, 2 of the ladies visited the tailor who said they would be ready on the Thursday morning. The lunch was scheduled for the next day so this was cutting it fine. On Thursday the tailor said they would definitely be ready on the Friday morning. This was getting ridiculous. I decided on the Thursday evening to go back to the tailor that made the men's shirt for me and see what he had ready made just in case. Again I was greeted like a long lost friend. He had 4 dresses left and I chose a tunic style in the swirly black design with an intricate embroidered pattern on the front. He did make the sleeves smaller while I waited but on the whole I was happy with my 25,000 cfa purchase.

On the Friday we were at the market at 9.15am. to see the tailor who was just opening up. He told us that Donna K's dress was nearly ready but the jacket still needed to be sewn. Donna K told him she'd take it as it was. Donna V's two piece was still at the cutting stage. Mine wasn't mentioned at this point. I told the guy in my best Spanish that it wasn't good enough. As we made to leave he asked if I wanted mine as it was actually finished. So the other two did not have a finished dress and I now had 2 items to choose from- that's what you call sod's law!

I took the skirt and top, stuffed them in a bag, paid and quickly left as we only had 2 hours before the lunch started. It was only when I arrived home that I looked at the items properly and was amazed at the work that had gone into the garments. The skirt was fully lined with an intricate design panel on the rear and the top had the same design panel on the front. I tried them on, loved them and asked my house-keeper to take my photo!

However I decided not to wear it to the lunch as I already had the tunic dress made from the special International Day material which could only be worn once a year and I would save the two piece for another special occasion which I am hoping will happen soon as I am dying to wear it!

I will be putting a blog on for the International Women's Day lunch shortly

At the time of writing the other 2 ladies are still waiting for finished garments from the tailor!

Can you buy a souvenir shirt when you are out ..........

Can you buy a souvenir shirt as a present for someone who is retiring. These words were mentioned casually by my husband recently. It sounds like such a simple request and in my old life back in the UK or Spain,I would have relished the thought of going shopping. Instead I was struck dumb trying to think of where I should start this search or if I could even get out of this task!

Firstly, this was no ordinary shirt - no, they wanted a typical Equatorial Guinea man's shirt. One with the President's face on it no less. Secondly, they didn't have an exact size - just that it was for a large man.

I asked around and one of the gardeners told me of an area where I could find the material for this. Apparently the First Lady is the person who distributes this material so is not readily available. Donna and I set off one morning with a driver heading for this area. The look of surprise on the driver's face should have been a big clue as to where we were heading. It was an area we had never been to before.Lots of people, cars and rubbish. We had to turn our heads away as some of the animals we saw were in a pitiful state and being there is not one vet here on Bioko Island, there is nothing we can actually do to help. It does amaze me that the locals don't seem to notice the state of the animals but then again I expect humans take priority over domestic animals. There were stalls down both sides of the busy main road and although we could see materials hanging on a few stalls, it became clear that the driver had no intention of stopping and letting us walk the route.

We ended up back in the main area of Malabo driving up and down streets looking for material shops. Eventually I asked the driver to stop and let us out and we walked a few streets asking in shops but getting nowhere. Suddenly on the corner of a street we saw a window decorated with some A4 sheets of paper with dress designs on them. We knocked and entered a small space of around 4m x 3m which was home to 3 vintage sewing machines, a cutting/ironing shelf, a tailors dummy, some material and 3 guys and 2 women.

The air conditioner was blasting out and it was a welcome relief to be out of the heat. As usual no one spoke English but I did manage to discuss the requirements for the shirt in my pretty basic Spanish and showed the main man my husband's shirt which I had brought along for size comparison. He started making chalk marks on the expensive blue shirt while I started to stress that he was going to cut it up! He did not have any of the material with the President's face on it but said he could get some. Eventually we both understood what I wanted, what he could do, when it would be ready and then agreed on the price of 35,000 cfa which is £44/$74.

Now considering the economy in Equatorial Guinea, this is a considerable sum of money but for a bespoke garment it was worth paying the money (and it wasn't my money!). With a 50% deposit, my receipt and a promise that it would be ready in a week, we left the shop happy that we had at least succeeded in part of the process. All we had to do now was wait with fingers crossed to see if it all turned out ok.

We then went to the supermarket where I saw a large guy wearing an orange version of the shirt I was looking for and I did consider asking him if he would literally sell me the shirt off his back but though better of it as did not want to be known as "mujer tonta de inglaterra - that nutty English woman".

A week later I returned to the shop to be greeted like a long lost friend, although he did ask where the nice lady with the brown hair who did not speak any Spanish was, so I think he was disappointed it was me that turned up and not Donna. I could not see the shirt hanging anywhere and started to panic but he reached under the ironing table and pulled out my bag and unveiled an extremely large shirt complete with long sleeves - I had asked for short - but appearing perfect in every other way. I was so relieved.

After much handshaking and nodding of heads, making sure I also had my husband's shirt which was still in one piece, I left the shop to bring the garment home. It was only when I got home and inspected the shirt, that I realised that the faces of the President had been sewn onto the material which was actually the material of the P.D.G.E political party. It had been sewn so expertly that unless you ran your finger over the material, you would never have guessed.

I was excited to show my husband the result of my hard work and after he had seen the shirt and agreed it was "nice", he then informed me that the guy who was retiring was not actually coming to E.G. after all!