Expect the unexpected...

Hi Family & Friends!

It’s Kari here!  I’m so excited to share my experience here in South Africa with everyone back home, but until I get there, here’s a preview.  Today I was able to teach some of the CHE’s, who have their own sewing business, how to make wine bottle bags. 

I have been looking forward to teaching this class all week & feel that my time in Sweet Home is my purpose for the trip.  I absolutely loved being in Sweet Home earlier this week – the people are genuine & so open to learning from us.  I was able to sit in on Alan & Mark’s business class on Monday & was interested to hear where the ladies were at within their sewing business (i.e. – goals & expectations).   

As we have discovered while being here in SA, things don’t always go as planned.  The ladies had gotten their sewing machines repaired & we were under the impression that they were supposed to be getting them back today.  But to our surprise, they hadn’t received them & we didn’t find that out until after we arrived in Sweet Home this morning.  So Sisanda (one of the CHE leaders) got on her phone & tracked down someone in the township who had a sewing machine we could use.  (By the way, I brought my old sewing machine to SA but we decided not to bring it today due to a converter issue).

Mark, Claire, Sisanda & I walked to go pick up the sewing machine & then walked to the building where we would I would be teaching the class.  The women soon joined us & I began my class.  Since we only had one sewing machine, I thought the best idea would be to have one of the women do the actual sewing & I’d just teach them how to assemble the bag.  My class took a turn off course when Sisanda, who was translating, left to go check on a member of the community, leaving me to figure out how I was going to communicate to these ladies.  Not only was it difficult to teach without my own sewing machine, it just got more complicated now that I didn’t have a translator.  Luckily, one of the ladies spoke a little English & we were able to communicate & I was able to finish teaching the class using simple English, gestures & smiles.

Overall, the ladies were excited & receptive to learn to sew something new & I was definitely in my element with the sewing.  The ladies are confident they will be able to sell the wine bottle bags to the local wineries (my original intent) & be able to bring in income for their business & families. 

Another exciting moment was at the end of the class, they asked me to teach them how to make reversible sling bags.  But unfortunately I hadn’t brought enough fabric & we had ran out of time.  But Claire said I could come back tomorrow & teach them then.  So back to Sweet Home I will go!  It will be great to spend another day teaching these ladies – I’m blessed to be able to pass on the knowledge others have given me. 

Love,

Kari