Moving Along
The Peace House ladies have spent the last couple of weeks mastering the sewing machines and working on new products. Along the way, we've learned different braiding techniques, finally sewn some straight lines, and even sold a few of the new products to visitors. So far, they're at 8 new products, plus super sweet sewing skills added to their repertoire. I'd say we're moving right along!
Necklaces & keychains....a couple of the new products made from African fabrics.
These necklaces made from recycled t-shirts and paper beads are the ladies' favorite new product so far.
First people to buy some of the new stuff. The girls were quite excited!
Marbles
There's an awesome road that I walk once or twice a week just to get out and about. It starts just down the hill from where I live and goes around the top rim of this set of hills. After 30 minutes of walking, just after the road becomes much thinner and more like a trail, you'll meet these boys. They're usually playing marbles in the road, and last week they tried to get me in the game.
Skills!
Look what the ladies have been up to....sewing on the treadle machines! They've covered all the basics and are sewing somewhat straight lines.
There were a couple of days that I was unsure of whether or not we would all get the hang of this sewing business. That's when "Miracle Man Muzeyi" entered the scene. MMM is the repairman who came to Peace House to do maintenance on the machines that were all breaking down last week. He ended up spending almost 5 hours with us, teaching the girls how to care for the machines and giving them beginner sewing lessons. It seems a lot of important info was lost in translation when I'd been teaching them. By the time MMM left, all of the ladies were sewing away. It really felt like a miracle.
I find it no coincidence that "Miracle Man Muzeyi" was running late and showed up in the afternoon instead of the morning. The ladies had the morning off to recover from the safari we took this past weekend (details on that later), so had MMM been on time, none of the ladies would have been there to learn from him!