New from India

The shipment from India is due in Canada any day now and hopefully in the next week or so you'll be able to see it all in the store.
Lots of great new stuff, and lots of old favorites including rag rugs that many of you have been asking for.

We have just put up the summer tents and are filling them with some fabulous stuff.

Hopefully the summer weather is here to stay.

New from Thailand

The shipment we sent from Thailand is about to make landfall in Canada.
Hopefully all will be through customs and in the store by the long weekend. Here's hoping.

Here are just a few of the exciting pieces that will be arriving.
Beautiful light chiffon tops for layering, the lightest of cotton dresses and blouse in whimsical butterfly and floral prints. Fringing is getting a lot of action this season. Also look for the cosy coat/cardigans for those cooler days and evenings.
Bwana Johns in Minden is open Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays now. After the May 24th weekend we'll be open 7 days a week!
Looking forward to another great season.
Hope to see you there.

New arrivals

The stuff we spent the winter buying, designing and manufacturing, and then packing are starting to arrive in our Bwana Johns stores in Canada. It is just like Christmas opening up the boxes and rediscovering the things we bought for the new season.

The first to arrive is the shipment from Nepal. Lots of new things and a lot of old favorites as well.
Fringing is big this year and we have lots of clothing and accessories featuring this.
The felted accessories we have are so cute.
Knitted skirts add to the layering look-over leggings or by themselves.
Throw a poncho over the whole thing for a cozy outfit for cool spring weather.

At this time of the year the stores are open only a few days a week.
Click here for contact info to find out when we are open so you too can discover the fun stuff that is arriving.
It won't be long before shipments from Thailand and India also arrive. We'll keep you posted.

Travelling and buying in India and Nepal

Steve and I just returned from a month in India and Nepal.
It sure is nice to be back in Thailand again.

It has been a few years since we were last in India. As always it was pretty chaotic, but we managed to do some great buying there. We found some new suppliers and renewed our acquaintance with some old ones.
As always it was great to return to Nepal though it was shocking to see the damage from the earth quake. Not so much in Kathmandu but in the villages outside the city.
The beautiful iconic old 3 story farmhouses built of stone and mud didn't have a chance. Most of them are now piles of rubble and are slowly being replaced with 1 story corrugated tin dwellings.
The recent blockade on the Indian border prevented fuel and cooking gas from coming into Nepal, so the people have really been suffering.
Our suppliers were so happy to see us and take our orders so they could continue to rebuild their lives. We'll have some wonderful thing to put in our store this summer.
Our friend Ram took us to his village -Angaputar-about 2 hrs to the west of Kathmandu.
It was badly damaged, though Ram said that because the earth quake hit at mid day most people were outside and so escaped injury.

 Ram has taken on himself to re-build the school in his village. It is called The North Pole International Academy. Like alot of the rebuilding going on, the feeling is if they wait for the government to come up with the funding it will not happen,

Ram has built 3 new classrooms. The next step is to rebuild the toilets and septic system, and then repair the original building so they have more classrooms and office space.

The numbers of children that now go to this primary school are rising each month. Any child that can not afford it, Ram has arranged for them go to school free and they will also be supplied with a free school uniform and books.

The country side here is beautiful.

The day we were there the potato harvest was in full swing. People just getting on with their lives in spite of the hardships.

 Ram lives with his wife and twin sons in Kathmandu when he isn't in his village helping with the building of the school. His 85 yr old mum and dad still live in the village. Below is his mum.

A few miles down the road was the high school. It also got flattened in the earthquake and is now functioning out of temporary class rooms as the school is being rebuilt.

Just across the ball field from the high school is the Blind Institute,
As you can see below it was completely wiped out. The children that lived there are now living in tents. It was heart breaking to see these blind children trying to function in this environment.
The rebuilding of the Blind Institute is dependent on government funding and ruling and the paper work to getting started is very slow coming through.

Steve and I made a donation to Ram to help him rebuild the school in his village.

Ram was very appreciative, but a lot more money is needed to see the project through.
If any of you would like to donate to this cause,Steve and I will personally deliver the money to Ram so he can continue re-building the school.
You can donate by contacting us at Bwana Johns.
This summer we will also set up a donation box in the store.

Mountain High

Last weekend we went exploring. We have discovered a wonderful little town up in the mountains called Om Koi.

We travelled up there with Khow Soi (on the right) who helps us roast coffee, Her sister Kluay Mai and her mum Fai.
Fai has started sewing for us,which is working out great for both of us.
At over 1000 meters the climate is wonderful in Om Koi. One morning it was 5'C, though that wasn't normal. The days are a perfect temperature for exploring on foot.

Amongst other things they grow lots of coffee there.
Above the coffee is having the pulp removed from the cherry. Below the coffee is drying in the sun.

While exploring the town we came across some women weaving sarongs for the local market.

There are a number of hilltribe villages in the area. Karen and Lisu tribes predominantly.
There is a bit of trekking in the area. We met some of the Lisu women organising the trekking and some more selling produce in a nearby market.

Hopefully we'll get to spend a lot more time in this interesting area.

Merry Christmas

For the next 10 days we are planning to have our Minden store open everyday, so everyone gets a chance to shop for those last minute presents.
Meanwhile Steve and I are enjoying the warmth of Thailand.

One of the first things we did when we arrived here was to top up our roasted coffee.
We were lucky to have Kow Soi to help with the roasting again, along with her friend Ahm.

A few days later we took a trip to Sooks village to see how the coffee was growing for this season.
It looks like we'll be able to harvest soon.

Steve,Sook and Sooks father checking the coffee in the fields.
Meanwhile Sooks mother stocks up on the fire wood. We are at quite a high altitude in Sooks village and it is quite chilly in the mornings.

The classic Christmas poinsetta flower is used for hedge rows in the village.
The slash of red through the fields is very dramatic.

A very Merry Christmas to you all from all of us at Bwana Johns

Popup Bwana Johns on the West Coast

We recently bought a building on the west coast and have been spending a bit of time there. In the small community we are in they had their annual Winterfest, so we decided to turn our living room into a popup Bwana Johns for a few days. It was a great way to meet our neighbours and I think they are ready to see more of us.



It was fun to see what we could do with no fixtures. From old laundry tubs to lengths of plywood on plastic tubs we somehow made it work. The blank walls were of course perfect for our art and photos. I think in the end it looked pretty good.
Now we are in Thailand enjoying the warm weather and getting ready to start production for next summer. It's a tough job.....