The Workshop Comes to an End

The workshop for the Bitengye Designers came to a most successful end on Wednesday. Certificates were presented to all the women, and a draw made for some extra prizes. But the highlight of the day was showing Alice one of the two donated Featherweight sewing machines that she will take back to Rubingo with her. She was so excited! She already has plans to have solar power installed, and will be able to connect the sewing machines once the solar power is in place. The second machine didn't fit into our luggage this time, but will go to Uganda and to Alice the next time someone has a little extra space in their luggage. Then on Thursday the women packed
themselves and their luggage, sardine-style, into the "specials", booked to take them home to their villages. There were lots and lots of tears, probably because we told the ladies that we will likely not be back in Uganda until two years from now. Alice assured me that these were happy tears, not sad tears, but I think there was a bit of both. We told them we would not forget them, that we'd tell their story and sell the items they make wherever we can. It's a bitter-sweet thing to have them so independent now, and under Alice's capable leadership. We couldn't be more proud of all they've learned and the distance they've travelled over the two years
and three workshops we've conducted. But now it's time for us to withdraw a little, to let them fly on their own. I will continue to write about their individual stories, and of some of the things that have come out of our time here in Uganda, but in the meantime, I want you to know just how much your support of these women has meant to them. Their lives and the lives of their families have been improved so much. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Alice and Athens

Alice is always full of surprises, and when she produced this large-sized star quilt I was just amazed. And she's already taught some of the other Bitengye Designers how to make this "fashion". She's found a source of solid black cotton in the market since we last saw her, which always looks stunning with African wax fabrics. Yesterday she made a tree block, which might (or might not) become the centre of a larger tablecloth. And now she is working on a notepad cover - one of the samples we brought with us. "I have come to work", she announced yesterday, and the challenge is for us to keep up with her!

Another young woman ready to work is Athens, pictured here. She has been working in the ACTS office for the last year, and now she is going to take on the role of liaison between Alice and Kitambaa Designs. It will be Athens who receives the finished items made by the Bitengye ladies, makes an inventory of them, and packages them off to Canada. We will also place new orders through Athens, and have ready access to Alice and she to us whenever one of us has questions. One more step in preparing to hand over the project to Alice entirely. For any of you who bought the shorter paper bead necklaces when you were attending Quilt Canada in Calgary, it was Athens who made those. At that time she was earning the funds to go to Secretarial School, and she made the beads to help cover her costs. I hope to have more of those beads to bring back with me this year.

Visiting Rubingo

Yesterday was a long-awaited day. Joan, Ben and David drove two hours over worse-than-washboard roads to visit Rubingo. Sadly I had come down with a tummy bug and couldn't go with them, but they all gave me a full report on their return. Alice's new school - it has most of the doors and windows now, and has been plastered on part of the outside. Now it needs floors, plastering on the inside, tables and benches, shelves, beds and sheets and, and, and. So it isn't quite ready to move into yet, but Alice was so pleased to show it to everyone, and presented us with a big box of fruit in thanks.
Over 110 widows and grandmothers, including the five members of the Bitengye Designers who live in Rubingo, met with the "Muzungu visitors" in a nearby church. As always it was moving to hear their stories, and to be greeted and welcomed by people so full of determination and pride, but with so little material wealth. Alice accompanied the crew back to Mbarara in the evening, and joined us for the first day of her training today. It was so good to get back into the actual work of teaching new designs and to sewing.

Qualities of a Good Tailor

I was browsing through my Uganda photos this evening, and came upon a photo of a page from Alice's notebook. Written when she was attending tailoring school, it outlines the qualities of a good tailor. I thought you would enjoy reading it too. I especially like the one that says that a good tailor is always "smart". In Uganda this means "classy", or "well-dressed", as opposed to clever. But there are a few other points we might take from this too. Alice certainly is the model of a good tailor, from everything I've seen. (I hope you can read this!)

The Amazing Alice

Alice has completed her "African Thunderstorm" quilt and has moved onto another "new fashion". Her eagerness in learning new designs knows no bounds, so we have been teaching her patterns that she can teach the rest of the Bitengye Designers during the rest of the year, as they are able. She has agreed to continue as Coordinator of the group next year, which makes all of us extremely happy. And for our part, we have decided to spend a week just with Alice next year, so she can get some concentrated teaching time herself. She spends so much time in the workshop helping other students, help that she gives with patience and humour. When we interviewed her about her life, she acknowledged that she is responsible for 11 members of her family, including 6 siblings, 2 nieces, her mother and her auntie. She is the only one with work, and this is what fires her single-mindedness and her work ethic. "That's why I'm still single" she said, "I am responsible for so many." Getting married has had to be delayed many times." Alice is a gem of a person, and we couldn't ask for a more able Coordinator for the group.

Visits in Rubingo

We have just returned to Mbarara and Canada House after spending a very busy but rewarding four days in Rubingo. We made home visits to the Bitengye ladies living in that area, met with students who are being sponsored by Kitambaa and friends of Kitambaa, were treated to a performance by the Hope Choir, made up entirely of HIV positive individuals, and of course, we visited Alice and went to see how progress is being made on her new sewing school. It was so exciting to see the Bitengye ladies again. We had hugs all around, and then they served us ginger beer and told us about how much their lives have changed in the last year, now that they are earning an income. Many have been able to buy a plot of land, several bought chairs for their homes, and several more bought a table. Three had bought beds, so no longer have to sleep on mats on the floor. One bought a cow, one is paying school fees for two siblings and another is putting her daughter through tailoring school. So you can imagine the celebratory air of the gathering. I think most poignant for me was Anna's comment - "We left our miseries behind in Ruharo" (the location of Canada House and the workshop). As for Alice's school (pictured here), it has five rooms, including one large classroom, one small display and sales area, and three bedrooms, one for Alice and the others will be dormitories for her students. The building up to and above the windows has been completed, and now it awaits more funding to buy the metal sheets for the roofing. I've told Alice that she will need to make more bags!! We were so impressed by all these women had accomplished in the last year, and will tell you more in later blogs.

Alice's letter

This letter from Alice arrived just before Christmas - I hope you can read it once it's posted on the blog. It is a letter to all of you who have supported the Kitambaa Sewing Project, really - thanking us and telling us that the Bitengye Designers are looking forward to seeing us again this year. Well, today we head down to Rubingo, where Alice lives and her sewing school is being built. Also where five of the other women live. This will be very exciting! We will be visiting the women in their homes, talking to them about how their sewing has gone in the last year, and what impact it has had on them, as well as meeting with other grandmothers and widows, and seeing some of the other projects underway in the same area. We will be out of email and intenet access for the next 4 or 5 days, so will send you photos from our visit once we're back here at Canada House.

Alice's Sewing School

Last Friday (the last day I was able to post to the blog), Perez drove us to Rubingo, about two and a half hours over red and rutted roads, where Alice has her sewing school. This is it. I was standing outside when I took this photo, so it gives you an idea how small it is. There is another room of almost equal size attached to it, with woven mats on the floor, which her students use when it is raining. Otherwise they study under the corrugated iron roofing attached to the side of the building. She has purchased a "plot", a good sized piece of land, on which to build a new school. This will include a dormitory for the girls who come from far away to learn. She has already got the sand, aggragate rock and building blocks, and the plot has been levelled. She will be making bags for us to sell at home, which together with the other items she has made, will help her save enough to start building.
On the way down to Rubingo, we stopped to see 3 of the secondary school girls sponsored through Kitambaa - Barbra, Loidah and Barbra. I had hoped to post a photo of them too, but this computer isn't going to cooperate today, so I must wait for another day. Thank you to all who have posted comments or sent emails, in response to the blog. I haven't been able to reply, but certainly do appreciate them.

Thursday at the Round House

It seems very strange to think that we have come to the end of our day - the ladies worked until 6:30 this evening, and have just left us and are walking up the hill to the community centre where they have supper. Meanwhile you are just getting up at home. They are terrifically keen, and hard working, and all are making progress. Today, however, we realized there are some who have never used a ruler before, others who have never used an iron, and none had used pins before. So in addition to Alice reviewing the threading of a sewing machine, as seen here, we spent much time on these basics. Alice is amazingly patient, and Joy and Perez both help with translation, and somehow between us, we are all learning. We were also joined by a new student today. Sheilla is the daughter of Generous, and while she has been taught tailoring, she is unable to leave home to work, as she is caregiver to her mother, whose husband died of AIDS in 1998, and who is now quite ill herself, despite access to treatment. We hope we will be able to teach her some things to make at home, as she already has a sewing machine.

Alice's Tailoring School

Meet Alice. Alice lives in Rubingo, a rural area about 2 hours over rough roads from Mbarara. Mbarara is where the Kitambaa Project will be conducted, and is 5 hours southwest of Kampala. I met Alice two years ago and was impressed by the quality of garments she was making. She will be teaching our students the basics in sewing with a treadle sewing machine, during our first week of classes. Joan and I tried our hand (our feet) at sewing on a treadle machine ourselves last week, and will clearly need significant help from Alice ourselves!


These were some of Alice's students at the time I visited her. They were carefully taking down instructions in their notebooks, and practicing making various styles of garments using only heavy brown paper, needle and thread. No pins, no fabric, no chairs. But they do have a transistor radio. We will be visiting Rubingo and Alice's Tailoring School at the end of the three week of classes.