Women's Groups

This week Peace Corps sent two trainees to my site to practice teaching at my school- it was nice to hang around the school, but not to have to do any of my own teaching/grading. One nice thing about it was the fact that we have two HUGE tables in my library that were perfect for cutting out sewing patterns. Normally I cut out my pieces on the floor in my house which is dirty and prone to Hector steps- and at this time of year, there is some sort of itchy dust in the air from a local plant called 'buffalo peas', which is like itching powder, and has been known to settle on my floor. All of this inspired me to go talk to my carpenter who has made me a table, futon, coffee table and shelves for my house over the past few months- honestly, I'm running out of ideas of things for him to make me, but I have a spare room that I use for storage which I decided I could use a big ping-pong sized table in for cutting patterns, and hell, even ping-pong. I am very excited for him to finish so that I can teach my iwes how to play ping-pong. I told him just to make two saw horses and a table top so that the table could be moved outside for ping-pong tournaments. I can easily knit myself a net, so now I just need to find paddles and balls... maybe in a Chinese goods shop in Mzuzu? There are all sorts of strange imports from China at those stores. If I get replaced next year, whoever gets my house next is getting hooked up.

I also had a friend who lives a few hours away visit for a bit- he had some good ideas about income generating projects for my second women's group which I'm excited to try out. The group has been interested in making different jams and jellies, and my friend's idea was to package them in little single serving containers that can be bought in Mzuzu and sell them in the market for 10 kwacha each. Our group's eventual goal is to raise funds to build a primary school to replace the mud brick structure that is currently being used. If we made a more secure primary school, we could stock it with teaching and learning materials, but as it is, without doors, windows and just a thatched roof, everything that isn't nailed down is prone to theft.

Umoza is also going well, we are making little baby dresses while we wait for the school year to start, at which time we can sell our uniforms. I am learning a lot about sewing from my ama, Margaret, and I think that the other women are too. I bought a dress from the group to give my neighbors for their baby Melissa (named after me, poor kid)- she looked so cute! I'm still trying to decide what the group should make for me to bring back home at Christmas time, and baby dresses are definitely a possibility.

That's about all for now, thanks for the packages, letters, emails and phone calls- they've made the past 11 months go by fast (can you believe its been 11 months? I can't)

beeb