From the Walrus, This is Not a Safari

Most textiles and clothes are made in Asia, sold to the West, discarded in the West, and donated to charities who have too many dresses to know what to do with them. Then the charities send them to Africa. For example:

Fictitious Original Owner: Cindy Showalker’s 8th birthday party in Miami, 1993. Cindy and her mom went shopping at the local strip mall and found this doozy on sale. Cindy really loves the color pink, especially when there’s an iridescent sheen involved. Mrs. Showalker thought it was expensive, even on sale, but she swiped the plastic anyway since Cindy only turns eight once. Cindy only wore the dress once, and then Mrs. Showkalker gave it to their Hispanic maid, who already had so many party dresses that she passed it on to Goodwill.

Actual Current Owner: Lucy Mugisha, Gayaza District, one hour east of Kampala, Uganda, 2008. Lucy loves this dress when she rides bicycles with her friends. She wears it everyday since it’s her only dress besides her school uniform. Lucy just turned seven, and was getting a bit old to be running around the village without any pants on. Her tata (dad) bought it at a used clothing market in Kampala when he went to find the family a new frying pan. Incidentally, he is color blind.

Fictitious Original Owner: Marsha Osmond wore this lovely get-up to the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. She loves figure skating and even has her own pair of skates! She was so happy when Sara Hughes won the Gold Medal that she spilled her orange soda all over her dress. After some scrubbing, her mom still couldn’t get the remnants of the stain out so she passed it on to Salvation Army.

Actual Current Owner: Michelle Odihambo, refugee camp in Busia, on the Kenya-Uganda border, January 2008. Michelle loves the silver trim and delicate faux-pearls on this party dress. She hardly noticed the soda stain while she was playing in the mud near her village in Kenya. When fighting over the contested 2007 Kenyan elections erupted, she and her family crossed the border quickly, Michelle of course wearing her favorite dress!

Fictitious Original Owner(s): N/A. An NGO that tries to reach lost Jewish communities worldwide was so happy to find some Jews in Uganda, that they bought them some brand new clothes.

Actual Current Owner(s): Babwire and Nakato Asiimwe are twins. Babwire means “came first.” Nakato meaning “came second.” They wore these dresses on Rosh Hashanah in Fall 2007, during which they greeted everyone in their lovely new dresses and a resilient “Shabbat Shalom.” It should be noted that Rosh Hashanah fell on a weekday in 2007. Mazel Tov, girls!

Fictitious Original Owner: Kristen Knudson wore this dress for her Christmas dinner in 2006 in Olso, Norway. She enjoyed singing with her family and twirled in circles to show off her dress to her old brother Oyvind. Her favorite part of the dress was the fabric rose. She wanted to cut it off and use it as a hair ribbon when she outgrew the dress, but her mother convinced her that another little girl would enjoy the dress intact.

Actual Current Owner: The dress ended up with Farida Ramathan, who lives in a Kampala slum called Naguru and wore the dress on a recent Saturday to prayers at her local Mosque. Farida’s favorite food is chicken and her father is a famous, amateur blind boxer . She likes the dress because her favorite color is blue. Her mother purchased a dress too big for Farida in hopes that she could wear it for several years before passing it on to her younger sister.

Fictitious Original Owner: Sarah Beth Stetson wore this dress to her first Communion in Des Moines, Idaho, in the spring of 1997. She looked so lovely, but almost tripped on the bow at one point, and almost choked on the Communion wafer. The chocking is of no relation to the qualities of the dress, which was, truth be told, stunning.

Actual Current Owner: Winnie Aol changed into this no-longer-exactly white dress after she finished school in Gulu, Northern Uganda, on a warm day in May of this year. The sleeve is torn and the netting not quite what it once was, but that’s what happens when you wear a Communion Dress every single day for months on end, wash it by hand, and wring it out, and leave it to dry in the dusty Northern Uganda air. She’s still thinks the dress is pretty!

Fictitious Original Owner: Tea Party 2003!!! When Sasha Mason went to her very first formal tea at the mansion down the street in Dallas, she felt as light as a spring flower and as yellow as the sun. She ate sandwiches with cucumbers and no crusts, and drank tea with lots of milk and sugar. She soon thereafter hit puberty and found the crisp taffeta unaccommodating to her burgeoning womanly parts.

Actual Current Owner: Agnes Okello wore this dress in Kampala, since coming to Kampala is a special occasion when you come from the rural northern parts of Uganda. Her flip-flops (called “slippers” in local parlance) broke, but a piece of string and a stapler and some ingenuity helped fix the broken strap, and Agnes enjoyed her trip to a suburb of the bustling capital very much.

More Little Girls in Pretty Dresses…