Mbote Mes Amis!

What a year it has been! Actually, what year is it?! Things are crazy again thanks to the Omnicron variant. Just when I thought we can get used to living and Covid was going to go away soon. This is our new reality and we have to make the most of it.

We started 2021 by saying that we weren’t going to post any memes or texts saying that 2021 is my year. After 2020 I learned to just be appreciated of the little things and to continue to look forward not backward. I’m going to keep the same strategy for 2022. We continued our 2020 strategy of getting dressed up and feeling good. This small trick has been so helpful and I will continue it in 2022. As the saying goes, when you feel good you do good. Part of feeling good is how you present yourself to others. Plus it’s just always fun to play dress-up with my friends and daughter.

I’m grateful to have made it through 2021. Our business was able to continue to grow and make strides in 2021. We were in stores for the first time, we did zoom pop-ups shows and towards the end of the year, we were able to do in-person pop-ups. One of the toughest things this year was the shipping HELL! During the 2020 holiday season, the United States Post Office was a nightmare, and tons of packages didn’t arrive in time for the holiday. This year boats were jammed and items that I sent via container in August were stuck and the worst part is the shipping containers wanted to charge a holding fee 😡. We’ve missed out on purchase orders and couldn’t fulfill certain orders. All we can do is continue to apologize. Certain African countries were going through Covid surges while things were calm in the States. It made it impossible to plan travel to pick up items and do quality control.

We are so grateful for all the continued support we have been receiving. We especially thank you for your encouragement with our non-profit Les Amis de Mulunda et Georgette. With your help, we were able to do important renovation work at an Orphanage in Matete. With your purchases, we were able to support our elders in an old person home in Kitambo, continue to educate our women farmers at our farm in Lau, and were able to extend our help to two additional orphanages in the Kasa-Vubu neighborhood. We thank you for your support, advice, help and we hope it will continue. Our children, elders, farmers, and their friends and family thank you as well.

In 2021 we’ve improved our business operations, made some new design additions, and met new artisans. We were able to travel some this year but not like before. We are hoping to resume our travel in 2022. We need to be on the field with our people in order to be most effective and keep track of progress and make any necessary changes.

We thank you for being there with us during these really tough times. Please continue to share, support, and reach out to us. Below is a quick recap video of our 2021. Here’s to 2022!!

Bisous,

Ado

Cheers to 2022!!