Susan - July 14th 2008

Today, we met with the three weavers/spinners from Nairobi who would train the women. I was excited, then disappointed. Although it was made clear that training would begin at 10 am, no one arrived until 12:30 pm. It's hard for me to say, oh that's OK it's Kenyan time when I know that we spent our hard-to-raise dollars (and some we don't have yet) on this training. So I used the time to quiz the lead weaver about details such as how to buy wool, what to look for, where to buy it, and took some notes. There were lots of other difficulties. There was no power, which is not unusual in Kenya, but this was the first time for me that there was no power all day. Luckily I had charged the battery for the video camera and the one for the camera and they are interchangeable. But I conserved the battery the best I could. The second one didn't start running down until we were losing light anyway. The other thing that happened was there was a problem with Karambu's one-burner propane stove, so she had to go out and buy several coal stoves to make tea for everyone. Also, Karambu's mom was brought to Nairobi for a doctor's appointment, by Karamana, Karambu's sister, and I thought that was unfortunate too, as Karamana is such an integral part of working with the women. I think there were six women and two men as well as several IPI staff members. I wish there were more, but they will have to train the others. The training was done in English, with Cathy, Karambu's cousin, translating into I think Swahili, but I am not sure. I videotaped all, with the idea that if things are forgotten, there will be disks to watch the video. George, the lead trainer, is a really nice guy. All the weavers that Karambu contacted up to this point did not want to share their knowledge because they are worried about competition and in general don't want to help someone else. But George wants to do it. He feels that others shared with him their knowledge, and he wants to share with others. And he was really good at it. I am not a religious person, but I feel like there was some divine intervention there. I was falling asleep in the car when I opened my eyes and saw his small sign. To find someone who is so helpful, who wants to share, and who is so skilled and speaks such good English feels like such a blessing to me. George gave an introduction. His perspective is totally different. He is all about production, how to do things as quickly as possible, but of course with much skill. So he feels that the baby wolf loom we brought is not the best option for the women and is too small for larger projects. We will still use it for scarves and other small items, but when we buy the next looms, they will probably be larger and we will probably buy them in Kenya. He has another Kenyan company do the wood working to make these production looms, and he and his staff assemble them. So here is another great reason to connect with George. He also has a different attitude about preparing wool. He starts with a fine grade of wool, picks out the large stuff, then cards (brushes) the wool to allign it and get out some of the dirt. Then after spinning the wool, it gets washed. He says it is much faster this way. It's not the way we originally taught the women, as we taught from a hobbyist sort of book, but we will switch to George's way. We taught the women to do all the cleaning before the spinning. The first part of the training was spinning and carding and some instruction on the loom we have. Then while the women were having their tea, George was in the back yard with his loom guy and they were building portable wall looms with wood that he instructed karambu to buy. He finished three in that time, and after he had his tea, he proceeded to teach the women (and two men) how to string it (not the technical term) and how to prepare it for weaving. He taught until the light failed. Remember we had no electricity. Tomorrow he will teach washing and dying the wool, as well as how to make a rug on this simple loom. I am very optimistic about the portable looms. They can be assembled in an hour, and the rugs he makes on them are lovely. But more importantly, they can be transported fairly easily to the women's homes--although I am thinking we will need to employ a donkey to do it--- and then they can work at them in their homes and only transport the yarn and then the finished project. We also talked about how alternately some women could have spinning wheels in their homes. This is vital for many of the women who walk two hours to get to Karambu's home. It's just not feasible to keep every thing at her house. George really liked the spinning wheel we brought, but he even talked about commercial grade spinning wheels. I can't remember the difference. I do know that it will be cheaper to buy the equipment here, and then we won't have to deal with shipping costs or tariffs. I asked the women to sing songs that they sing while they are stringing beads (another IPI fund-raising project) and they sang beautifully Christian songs of faith. It is amazing to me that women who have so little can be so joyful. It will be a great addition to Lilly's documentary. I started the day with an aerobics class, thinking about how odd it was to be doing aerobics in Kenya and then later in the day to be working with women who often don't have enough food and live without electricity or running water. I hope we can raise money to give each woman a spinning wheel in their home. I think they cost about 150 USD. George wants to keep in touch and come back for more training. I have to close now as it is dark and I need to call Cathy and ask her to call a taxi for me.