Susan - July 15th 2008

Today was a day when everything seemed to come together for me. When the vision of what I thought this project would be came alive. Today George started by teaching how to warp our loom, which is very complicated and mathematical. He could see the women were discouraged, and they asked him how this would help them. He told them he lives a very nice life, and that he recently bought a car with the money he earned from weaving. He said that he needed weavers and spinners for his business and that he would hire them. And that they would be able to pay their kids' school fees with the money. Then their attitude totally changed and after lunch they were very enthusiastic. The women were late, but much earlier than yesterday and there were also about five men there too. After lunch they split into three groups one for spinning, one for weaving on our loom, and one group who worked on the three wall looms that George built yesterday. One of the women, Purity, was so proud of her double spun yarn. It really looked great. Others were proud of the tablemat they were weaving on our loom and the rugs they were making on the three wall looms. There was a lot of activity and excitement and it was great! George wants to train four people at his Nairobi shop for a month. The idea is to train four people so that they each become experts in one area-- spinning, weaving on a floor loom like ours, weaving rugs on wall looms, and dyeing wool. Then the four experts will come home ready to do their own projects, but also to train the others and each other in the other fields. I think this is a great idea. It will cost $400 per person for a month of training and Lilly will be fundraising for this when she returns. The men stayed even after I left at 6:30 pm and the women left about an hour before Lilly and I left. There is a lot of enthusiasm and I now have a lot of hope for this project. George has seen a lot of projects like this die after the organizers leave, but I am thinking now we have a good plan so that this project thrives. He will keep in touch with me through email when we return. We start the long trek home Monday morning. Tomorrow George will teach how to wash and dye the yarn. Fun!