Gifts Gifts Gifts!

The women of Idoome were so wonderful to us last week and each day as we left would bring out gifts to thank us for our day of teaching. The first day, pictured above, consisted of a Jack fruit, a bag of maize, and a bag of greens. We were so pleased and touched to receive these!

This picture is of some of the gifts we gave them on the last day, again, thanks to your generous support of Sewing Hope. Among other things, we gave 20 pairs of Fiskar scissors, 20 clear plastic rulers, and 30+ 6 yard peices of fabric. We are also having a proper cutting table built for them, sending their teacher to additional vocational classes, and supplying a salary for their assistant teacher, Rose.

So, it was really very amazing for us to receive their gifts on the final day of our classes. Pictured above, you see a huge papaya, a whole branch of Matoke bananas (one of the staple foods here), some more maize and eggs, and yes, that's right, you see clearly....a live chicken!!!! Judy accepted it gratefully, did a little dance with it and then they promptly stuffed it in the trunk for the ride home. ha!

English class

One new thing for Sewing Hope this trip has been an english class, taught by Judy. We have capitalized on her ESL training and have started pretty much every day with an English/Lusoga class. It has been really fun to hear the women speak our language and, especially, to learn theirs. It has also been a very easy ice-breaker and bonding time for us to get to know the new groups of women. I just thought that this was a really great and quite representative picture of Judy during one of her classes.

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!

Goodbye Georgette, hello girls!

We've had a change in our team....Friday, after a wonderful last day in Idoome, we welcomed our new team of Courtney, Rachel, and Shannon, and had a farewell dinner for Georgette. It has been great to have our new girls here, as they not only bring a new set of skills, but a great sense of humor and lightness to our group. We have been introducing them to the local money, the local transportation, and the local food. It has been great!

But, Judy and I do miss Georgette. She has a frankness about her that is refreshing and easy in this culture. I saw her relate to people by telling them in all sorts of ways how their culture and our culture are different, but more often than not, similar. It was always fun to hear her perceptions and opinions on things, as she either saw them in a different manner, or we saw them the same, but she put things in a way I wished that I could've. Those of you who know Georgette, please take the time to look at a few pictures and ask for her best stories. We have had some good belly laughs...and Georgette, if you are out there, please write something for me to post here....maybe the story about the bug man...or buying the needles...or your triumphs during knitting class.
Here is a picture of Georgette fitting a dress with the women of MOHM. This feels like a memorial or something. Ha! Sorry about that!