Getting Up to Speed – Scarf Project

For the past month and a half or so Katie and I have been helping with Fount of Mercy’s latest project –handmade batik scarves to be sold in the good ol’ US of A.

The Scarf Project is our first attempt at selling goods made by Ugandans in the US market, and it is certainly a learning experience to say the least. What makes this undertaking possible is that the scarves are actually being sold by an organization called The GO Exchange.

What’s The GO Exchange? I’ll probably get this wrong, but here it goes. The website explains the organization as ‘a living and active global marketplace that changes lives; ALL PROFITS go to help care for orphaned and abandoned children’ (https://thegoexchange.org/). So basically it’s an online marketplace selling goods made by people in other countries, with the profits going directly to helping orphaned children. We sell the scarves to GO then they resell them on their website as well as at home shows – so if, come September, you feel like buying a scarf, you can! Just make sure you type ‘Fount of Mercy’ in the Affiliation box on the billing page so we will receive an extra 15% on anything you buy from the website! . . . and you probably want to really try to make sure you do that, seeing as we’re not making any money off of this, but simply breaking even – hopefully. . .

So what exactly does it take to create a one-of-a-kind, beautiful, hand batik scarf? Allow me to try to explain.

First you wash the fabric to preshrink the scarves. Next you cut to size and batik, as you can see Esther measuring a piece out below.  

The batiking is accomplished by painting melted paraffin wax onto the fabric. Making batik look good is actually way harder than it looks! Katie and I tried it for a couple of days and our scarves didn’t look nearly as good or get completed as fast as those of the seasoned Scarf Gang. That’s just a name I’ve taken to calling the employees at the scarf workshop (though they don't know it).

Once the wax has been applied it’s time to dye the fabric! Depending on the color, the scarves will stay in the dye bath for varying amounts of time. Below you can see Janet stirring the bath to insure an even dying of the scarf as well as what the bath looks like just after adding the dye.

  
After the dying is finished the scarves are hung on the line to dry and then boiled after that to remove the wax. Below, another of our interns, Yevette, takes the boiled scarf out of the pot.

A final rinse to get the wax pieces off follows the boil and then another round on the line to dry.

 
Next, the scarves are ironed between sheets of newspaper to get rid of any remaining wax off of the scarves. Hemming up all four sides comes next and then a final once over with the iron.
 

At home Katie and I apply iron-on transfer tags, then fold and package the scarves. And voila, a handmade batik scarf is complete!

  

Beauty and The Hairy Beast

Ok, completely random topic, but I swear, Ugandans have virtually no body hair. Really, it's like it's not even there! At least for the women . . . and with regards to their arms and legs (it's not uncommon to see a woman, young or old, with some whiskers on her face. But that is usually caused by a genetics or hormones, so it's completely different). You can pass them every day on the street, many different people, and the result is always the same, seemingly smooth arms and legs.

Now I'm not an overly hairy person, but put my arm next to a Ugandan woman's and I start resembling a Grizzly in comparison. Exaggeration? Maybe a little bit, but it paints a pretty nice picture. I know that these physical differences stem from different groups living and evolving in very different places, near the equator and very far from it. However, it is still comes as a shock to see how different we are, skin color aside.

Another seemingly small difference, but one I noticed nonetheless, is the curliness of Ugandans' eyelashes. Those things are curled! And I'm talking pull a U-turn and go straight back to the eyelid curl! If I had a good picture to illustrate this, I would show you. But I don't, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Class is in Session!

Looking into the classroom

Eight students sit in pairs behind four treadle sewing machines. Two teachers stand or sit at the front of the small room, next to the chalkboard.  And two white girls sit off to the side observing the classroom and its happenings. What does all of this mean? The time has finally come (well, actually it came about 2 weeks ago). The beginning sewing class has officially begun!

As most of you know, this sewing class is the butter to my bread, the main reason I wanted to return to Jinja and resume working with Fount of Mercy.  Having written the curriculum and trained Sarah and Margaret to teach it, I was very eager to see how my hard work would actually play out in the classroom.  This wasn’t however, without a few unexpected turns.

Sarah (r) & Margaret (l) in action

The first occurred before I even arrived in Uganda.  Upon my ‘homecoming’ I quickly learned that Margaret would not be available to co-teach our first round of classes. I was very disappointed at learning this fact, as I had taken quite a liking to her last February during training. Despite this setback, I was informed we had already found a very capable replacement teacher whose name, wouldn’t you know it, was also Margaret.  

With the teachers in place, the next step was arranging a start date for the course.  Originally we were told early August, and after shifting the date a few more times we had it. At 9am on Tuesday, July 23^rd Sarah, (new) Margaret, Katie and I met at the office then walked over to class, where we would meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am – 1pm for the next twelve weeks. 

I was a bit nervous to see how class would go. I was preparing for the worst (i.e. each class being a near if not total disaster and having to make monumental revisions to the curriculum) but hoping for the best.  I had no idea how it would go - I’d basically just met Margaret and had no idea of her teaching style or how she’d work with Sarah, among a number of other reservations I had

Learning how to thread the machine

weighing on me. But at the end of class that first Tuesday I couldn’t have been more pleased. Sarah and Margaret worked so well together!!! I don’t think I could have planned it better! When one teacher was lecturing the other would be writing on the board or demonstrating and vise versa.  To summarize, the first day of class could not have gone better!

 As mentioned at the beginning we have 8 students, 7 women and 1 man. We also have a ‘teacher-in-training’ named Sylvia. She is a member of the group but already has tailoring skills and will be learning how the class is taught from Sarah and Margaret so she can teach it to future groups. The classroom is small and each sewing machine is shared by two students.  The group varies in age, but I would say the majority of the students are pretty young (at least in comparison to the business classes, where most of the students were significantly older).

So far the four classes we’ve had have gone well. All of the students seem to be very smart and eager to learn, which is exciting and encouraging. However, it became quite clear this last week that learning measurements and how to read a ruler/tape measure is much harder than I remembered.  The result of this is getting behind schedule. My goal
was to get through at least 1 lesson each day,

Explaining measurements

but so far we've only completed 2. Only time will tell how long the course will actually take to complete.We estimated 12 weeks,but I don’t have much faith in finishing up that quickly. Things tend to take much longer than anticipated, especially when two people are sharing a sewing machine. I’m just hoping we can finish up before 16 weeks (especially because if we go much longer than 12, we’ll need to scrounge up more money to pay Sarah and Margaret with!).

Until next time . . . 

Leaving after class

Happy Birthday America - She Has Come!

July 4th.            The 4th of July.           Independence Day.          America's Birthday.

All good reasons to celebrate no matter where you are, even in Uganda. Since we had a lot of work to do we couldn't take the day off, but that doesn't mean we didn't do anything to celebrate. In fact we got pretty wild.

What did we do, you ask? Ate hamburgers and milkshakes, of course! Well, we WANTED to eat milkshakes, but the restaurant we were at didn't have all the ingredients for them so we had to settle for smoothies.

While sitting at the table waiting to get our patriotism on we are spotted by Ali, the man who teaches language lessons to most of the Mzungus in Jinja. Katie and I hadn't seen him yet this trip (though we'd often heard him downstairs in the mornings for Lori's lessons) so Lori asks if he remembers us.
"Do you remember Katie and Sarah?"
"Of course!" he replies as he shakes Katie's hand, not quite convincing anyone of complete recognition. Then he reaches over to shake my hand, a perplexed look on his face.
"Do you remember me?" I ask. His face falls into even deeper furrowed thinking and then -
"Ah! She has come!!!!" Click. Ali has now locked into who I am and, apparently, how much he likes me, rushing over to my side of the table to shake my hand again. This time with GREAT enthusiasm.

"How are you?! How is America?" he peppers me with questions. By this point everyone else at the table is just watching, dumbfounded by what just happened.

After Ali left, we fell into a fit of laughter.
"Whoa, I had no idea Ali liked you so much!"
"What'd you do, pay him extra?!"
"Geeze Katie, what does that make you? Chopped liver?"
And many more similar comments flew back and forth across the table. A short time later our food arrived and we tucked right in, finally leaving with full bellies and satisfied airs.

Happy birthday America, it was one to remember.

I knew it!

Last Sunday, I decided it was a lovely late morning to sit out on our deck and read for a bit. So I did just that. Just look at that view...

Here is the deck

Here is some of what you can see from the deck - Lubogo Road

So I'm sitting in the shade, reading and enjoying the occasional gentle breeze when I notice an overturned bucket sitting to my right. The only reason I noticed it was because it moved, or at least I thought it did.

I didn't pay much mind to this until about 15 minutes later it moved again . . . twice . . . by itself.  Instantly my mind jumped to my last trip when I heard horror stories about rats appearing in Lori's house. "There's got to be a rat in there!" I thought to myself. Then quickly decided to vacate the deck. As soon as I saw Katie I told her my thought - "I think there is a rat under there! Or i guess it COULD have been the wind but it wasn't really blowing hard enough to move a bucket . . . "

"I'm sure it was the wind," was her reply. But I could tell that's only what she WANTED to think, especially after the rat experience she dealt with last time.

After Sunday I'd forgotten all about the bucket and possible rat. That is until Eva, who helps out with house work a few times a week, came into the dinning room this morning asking, "who put a bucket over a rat?!!"

"I knew it!!!!" I wanted to cry out. But instead I just whispered it to Katie.

In the end, Jesse, the groundskeeper took care of the rat, but I still felt some satisfaction having been right that there was a rat under the bucket . . . even if it would have saved a big scare and disgust had I not forgotten about it and remembered to tell someone. Whoops. Oh well. No harm, no foul - right?

Happy Birthday to Me

Today, July 2, 2013, is my 24th birthday. How did I spend it? 8 hours of batiking and then waiting 2 hours for dinner of course! Actually the batiking was pretty entertaining, especially when wowing Katie with my useless ability to name each member of S Club 7 as well as confessing I can name, and describe, every person from the game Guess Who.  And at dinner - at the newly finished (as of a year ago, i think) Jinja Nile Village - we just so happened to be able to participate in some special marketing promotion/feedback gimmick which allowed us to get free food! The only downside was the service was very slow, even for Uganda - but hey, it was free . . . and tasty! :D

As a special my-birthday treat for you, here is a random picture of what you'd see if you were to sit on our toilet. Enjoy!

Painting on the bathroom door

Meow!!! . . . Please, Make It Stop

Apparently the idea of not not living with annoying cats for the next few months was a false one (no offense Leana). The apartment above Lori's, which we are temporarily living in, also houses the cat of the former resident. I forgot this.

Meet Meow. 

(She's more terrifying in this picture than real life. And yes, that is a cat-aract in her right eye - pun intended)

And believe me, the name could not be more appropriate . . . unfortunately for us. I made the mistake of petting her one evening and now she's taken to following me around the house and meowing loudly. The other night I forgot to close my bedroom door, remembering during dinner. That's strike one. 'She'll probably be in our room when we get back,' I'd jokingly thought to myself. Strike 2 for Sarah. Later that night Katie and I walk into our room, turn on the light and barely see Meow as she runs lightning quick off of my bed and out of the room.
"She was laying on my bed!!!!" I cried (only realizing after it came out I'd totally channeled Buster from Arrested Development 'it walked on my pillow!!!').

The next day before I'd gotten out of bed, I heard Tara through the door. "The cat pooped on my dress!!! I was going to wear this today!" Apparently Meow was mad that Tara didn't let her into her room the previous night and decided to let her have it. So it seems that not only is Meow super annoying, but vindictive too.

As a safe guard for myself, I've decided to threaten never to pet her again should she do something like that to my things. We'll see how well that works out . . .

Looks relatively innocent in this picture, huh?