So Chris is out of the country... which just sounds, well, weird. But he is actually, literally, out of the country.... (one could argue we are kinda already out of America being out here in the islands -- Hawaii has it's own culture, which is not "mainland American" but Hawaiian, Polynesian, and Filipino, and Brazilian...) but regardless... he is seriously not in America anymore, or Hawaii, or whatever...
Chris is on a plane right now that is flying over the Atlantic Ocean, and it is headed to Ghana, which is in West Africa... and I don't even know when he gets there. All I know is that he left over 31 hours ago. And it was sad, and the girls were devastated, and Kai is so sick, he didn't eat today at all. And I'm not writing this to complain... I'm just writing it to stick it down somewhere where it will be saved, and archived... because I'm sure that after he gets back (in 10 days) that I will be so fried that I will wipe the entire thing from my mind. :) I'm a convenient forgetter, or inconvenient sometimes I guess.
So what is Chris doing in Ghana?!?! That would be the question on your mind, if you didn't already know the answer right?
Chris has been working on a project/company since the beginning of the year, called Akin Clothing, and they have taken proceeds from buying, printing, making and selling T-shirts, and they have bought uniforms from businesses in Ghana, and they are traveling to a remote village and giving school uniforms to 80 children that cannot afford the require uniform in their village so that they may go to school. The company's slogan is "Buy a shirt, send a child to school" - and it's true.
Last October or November this kid here at BYU-Hawaii, Ben Howells, had an idea to sell shirts and he wrote proposals and appealed to BYU-Hawaii, and somehow through the administrative nightmare (this school is a literal nightmare... it actually haunts me) the school approved, and paid for, Ben to go to Peru and take uniforms to children. I think he only printed about 80 shirts or so the first time... and make stickers, and started a facebook page, etc... and he did go to Peru, by himself, without speaking Spanish. And another thing he did that was really amazing with his project, is that he didn't just give stuff out to any old kids, he got in touch with, and organized with a community, and they did a service project, and then children who participated were the ones that received the uniforms.
This is a video from his first project -- HERE :)
Ben went to Peru over the Christmas/New Years break... and then the new semester started in January... and Chris and our good friend Ammon (and wife Kaelee, who are our Hawaiian family here) started sniffing out the projects in SIFE - Students in Free Enterprise - a worldwide college organization - and they started working with Ben and Akin Clothing.
Very quickly many things started to happen.
Good things.
GREAT things!
Like, they had some generous people associated with BYU-Hawaii that took an interest in Akin. Ben started getting random checks in the mail from people who wanted to contribute to what he was doing. Chris and Ammon started working on marketing research and products, and all kinds of stuff. They have talked to amazing people from Skull candy and People Water... (? sorry I don't know more.. I'm not that ones actually talking to them, ha!!) And they have spend countless hours, of most day of the week, working (for free :) for months now.
They ran around our island and bought shirts, and got designs, and got them printed, and then got them sold!!
They competed in BYU-Hawaii's Business competition...
And won! :) 1st place for Social Entrepreneur Business Plan, and People's Choice Award.
Then they gave away a portion of their winnings :)
(good job guys! Way to be magnanimous)
The school paper put them on the front page... and did a follow up article on Ben and Akin... which I thought was pretty amazing.
They got the website up, just in time to be sold out of shirts cause word of mouth was like wildfire... but ... we did manage to sneak in a little trip to the post office with the kids to mail off a package or two on behalf of Akin...
The girls had a blast doing that and knowing that dad was going to go to Ghana soon....
... K... this is going to have to be continued until tomorrow night... but for now, just got to say -
I miss you Chris.
Be safe.
Have fun helping the children in Ghana.
And come home safe and quickly to us!
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