TAOST Idoome

So, hopefully some of you have noticed that it has been awhile since I have posted. Last week was a very challenging and very busy week, so I was not able to even get to the internet cafe until now. So, I am going to try to make up for lost time by catching you up on some highlights of the week with the wonderful women of Idoome.

We found, after arriving, that we needed to do some rethinking of the classes we had prepared for this group. Not only did we need to do some changing due to skill levels, but we we prepared for a class of 19, but each day our class grew until we had 36 women. The teacher, Mary, and Geoffrey (TAOST's director) were excited about this because it meant that the class was beginning to have a presence in the community....but for us, it just added stress and an organizational challenge with how to teach this many students at once.Our most successful classes were Georgette's bag class, where we managed to have 36 women make bags in a little over a day of class!!!!...and the rosette class, pictured above put together as a placemat. We also were requested to do a hand-knitting class, which we managed to put together despite knitting needles not existing in Uganda. We hired some girls to cut the teeth off rat-tail combs for us, then file them down as smooth as possible. We were actually very surprised with how well that class went. I must admit I was a skeptic! ha!

One amusement of each day was the small herd of cows which passed through on their way to get water each day around 2pm. The women never even batted an eye as they stomped, rather close, right through our class space. But, Judy and Georgette and I giggled every time, and managed to take a picture. Another thing I won't ever tire of is how the women tie their babies onto their backs as they sew or cut. They also hoe gardens, carry water, chop wood, etc. with their babies tied calmly on their backs. Judy has seen several babies not even tied on, but just holding on as their moms lean over to watch us do a demo. Brilliant little things. This baby clearly has a mind of its own and wasn't enthused by the photographer. ha!