clothing design and community relationship

today our family got up really early and left our house around 6:30am to go to Winneba, a nearby city (about  69km/43miles away from Accra). we were invited to the handing over ceremony of executive members of GHAFES's SNEC (the Student National Executive Council, i guess kinda like a national students government). since GHAFES is a student-led movement (literally students are in charge and doing stuff that some IV staff in the US do), it's a very important event.

Ghanaians dress up very nicely for formal occasions. i decided to wear this nice african print, local styled two piece dress. the whole dress is very fitted (when i sit down, i often feel like i can't move very much and have to be very lady-like and pleasant). the top has a zipper in the back. for local women who are nursing their babies, they just ask someone to unzip in the back and proceed to nurse their babies with one side of the top hanging off their shoulder. since i'm also nursing our 6-month old baby, although it feels strange at times to just unzip, i've gotten more used to it. and today as i was unzipping numerous times to nurse the baby (since the event was from 9am-12pm and we left at 6:30am and return around 3:30pm), i was struck with how even clothing design relates to people's sense of community relationships. it's almost impossible to unzip and zip up on your own (i've tried and maybe only succeeded once). you have to rely on someone else's help (usually another woman or relative). i wore this type of dress a few times to church on Sundays. a couple of times when hubby couldn't help me zip up, a woman sitting behind me or a female usher came to help me.

for a Chinese American woman who has always been very independent and tries to do everything possible without the help of other people, wearing a Ghanaian outfit forces me to have to rely upon other women's help. i suppose this is one of those things that i'm learning from the locals. God has created us as social beings living in communities. i think i have a long way to go before i can let go of my pride in self sufficiency and just embrace the fact that i need other people...