Blog 4

Blog 4 

6^th October.

Lets start with the Mananga Country Club,  just like you may see in some movies from Africa – the building was impressive in size as were the grounds, vast.  Where Corine lives there  is a guest house and a scattering of free standing houses.  I am not sure who occupies these apart from Corine, who has a book library for the children of the complex.   The country club is on the other side of the greater complex and is about 2 – 3 kilometres distance.   On arrival you walk into a room that would fit several of my little house and all I could think of was John Wayne and the movie - Hitari.  The John Wayne thoughts were fleeting !!!!  don’t panic.

At the end of this large room was a bar and so we propped ourselves up for a drink prior to dinner.  We ordered and then all these people came in from nowhere !!!  the local white africaaners – business owners mostly.  the men had been playing tennis and the women preening in prep for the weekly night out.  I was introduced to them all and have since forgotten names except for Bruce and Mandy,  who live close by to me and are cane farmers.

Once dinner is ready you get the call and head upstairs where it is delivered.  Another huge room with huge tables – not many joined together!!!

My steak !!!!  L   the cook needs lessons on how to cook a good steak.  Any offers ????  It was huge, the perfect colour, but slow cooked and a bit on the tough side. And I was hanging out for this !!!!  Corine tells me there is a decent butcher in Tshaneni and I can get my own decent piece of steak from there. 

While on the subject of food -  where I am living, rural , low-veld, the shops cater for the majority population which is indigenous Swazis.  Their dietary likes and mine are no-where near the same.  So shopping for me is a bit hit and miss.  Getting things that make a salad can be like a miracle and of course everything is seasonal here.  I have managed to get some lettuce, tomato and cucumber.  Last time at the shops I managed to find plain yoghurt and a decent juice.  The fruit is good and I have been having decent apples, mandarins and pears.  The pineapples are starting to come in now and I am told that stone fruit is also big during the summer.    YAY    - Oh for a bowl of cherries !!!!!  I am slowly building my supplies to suit my tastes.

Meat is my second biggest issue.  I am not sure how it is butchered, but it doesn’t look at all familiar to me.  I could become vegetarian in between visits to Tshaneni butcher.

My biggest issue is milk for Tea !!!  all milk is long life !!!   its OK in coffee but not in tea, so I am in the process of change -  weak black tea with a few drops of honey.  Nice !!!

Don’t fret I will not go hungry -  the shelves are stacked with baked beans – almost a whole aisle full.  And if desperate, in the freezer section there are bags and bags of chicken heads and feet.  -  remember  - sharing is caring !!!   the word for Chicken is  Tinkhuku.

Corine goes to Nelspruit in South Africa once a month to get the things she likes and cannot get locally. I am going with her next time.  Its about 2 hours drive from here.

Another reason for me to go – it has a place like a super large Spotlight.  The fabrics are good quality, much better than here, and the sewing ladies get some from there – normally is it Terese or Daran going shopping, but they have handed this on to me.   Wow the power !!!   

I know that I said at the end of blog 3 that I didn’t know where to start with the task of teaching these ladies to sew for a living. . . . .   before I get into that and how it will or may work . . . .

I want to concentrate a bit more on the ladies at Section 19 as they are the reason I am here.

Back in March, in the position description that gave all the information about the job, it stated that there was a room that would accommodate up to 20 desks with machines.   When I first came out this way with the AVI coordinator, and the area was pointed out to me, I asked if the desks and machines were already there.  I got the look that said ‘of course they are  - what do you think we just write this stuff for the joy of writing’ !!!     WELL. !!!

The reality is that the room does not exist

I mentioned in an earlier blog about using the veranda for sewing.  The ladies have their own machines that were provided by KuDvumisa with an expectation that the cost would be recouped in time as they made money with selling their items. 

I have only met 7 of the group and I am expecting that more will join later.  2 of the women are not from Section 19 and are already fairly good sewers.  I have noted that they don’t like to share their skills and patterns and they dominate the sales when there is an open day.   I have a bit of a dilemma here.   As my reason for being here is to give the women of Section 19 the tools to earn money.  So what do I do about these other two?   Gently encourage them to stand alone and be a shining example for the others.    Right.

After meeting some of the women with Terese, I was to return on Thursday as a team of visitors from US (connected to an NGO called “HopeAlive268”   another one for you to google) would be arriving in the afternoon to look at the products for sale and interact with the women of the group.  Terese could not be there so I was to be the retail assistant as well as the spokesperson for the group.

I arrived 30 minutes early and they had already got the sales area ready – on the verandah.   They have been concentrating on making bags of many sizes and shapes, but predominantly a bag with long straps that go across the body / over one shoulder. There was also some crocheted items for sale, as that was their latest learned skill.

The ladies were all dressed well and eager to sell.  Three people movers arrived carrying about 6 – 7 people in each.  I didn’t really know how to handle this many customers at once.   The leader of the group is a woman in her late 30’s maybe – born in Swazi to missionary parents.  She speaks very fluent SiSwati.  She asked if I would address the group before they got into the sales mode to give them the history of the sewing project.   I did the best I could with the scratchy pieces of information I have been able to gain over time.  Fortunately they were more interested in why me and what are my goals and aspirations.  I found in this group of people of all ages, enormous support and encouragement and the offer of assisting with overseas marketing or obtaining materials etc.   

Then it was sale time and it became a bit of a frenzy.   One of the ladies who was the original teacher, herself a Swazi woman, took charge of the book for recording the sales and so,  not wanting to  make her feel uncomfortable or inferior and thinking that she would be familiar with this having been there in the beginning.   Alas I discovered at the end that she had not make adequate recordings of the items sold and who was the maker of each item.   Lesson learnt !!

At the end of the sale time, the group circled around with the women and, being from a Christian / religious based organisation we had prayer time and then a song which was in SiSwati , and sounded fabulous and everyone except me was singing.  I just did the movements and smiled a lot.  J

One of our ladies, Jane responded to them.  It was all very emotional and moving.  The senior of the group then called a group to pray with and for me.   Whilst I say that I am a spiritual person without any religious conviction, I know that I am in the right place at the right time doing what I am needed to be doing.  It is a very humbling experience that very gently keeps tugging at my heart. 

When the visitors had left, the ladies were very happy with the sales and I helped them to get everything packed up.

I returned the next day for more of the same.  This time Pastor Kay West, whose husband just happens to be John West,  brought two US visitors with her for sales and a donation of some food and some basic sewing items.  This was a very different day to the previous one.   One of the sewing ladies experienced the death of her eldest son the night before and was very grief stricken and withdrawn.  The visitors spent some time with her to counsel.  They also purchased a large number of items before the group prayers and departure.  Pastor Kay, a lovely lady, lives about 5 minutes from me and has invited me to visit any time.  Pastor Kay provides bible study for the people of Section 19 and another adjacent location every fortnight.  Most of the people I am in touch with here are Christian or a combination of cultural Christian beliefs.

I had made a commitment with the ladies that we would have classes Monday – Wednesday 9 – 3.  Thus giving me Thursday and Friday to do some patterns, prototypes, lesson construction and research etc. 

I am not sure what I have written before -  but what is  in my journal is –

“how do they live???  No electricity,  no sanitation, water from the cane fields that may contain chemicals, the grounds of the compound are uncovered  - by that I mean there is no grass, vegetation or paved areas, no gardens, no trees – except on the boundaries where there are a row of gum trees.  Adults, children, chickens, dogs all roaming around together in the mud, food scraps and heaps of leaf matter from the maize that is a stable food item.  I have been to several aboriginal communities in Australia and I have seen similar sights -  but there is one big difference.   $$$’s.”

Moving on.

I am about a week behind in news of whats happening, so I’ll try to type faster and get this one in the press for you so I can get on to the no. 5.

Last weekend -  what did I get up to???

Clubbing, dinners, theaters, other cultural arts pursuits. . . . . . .

I made a shower curtain. Remember I live in the sticks. . . .  I have a shower over bath situation and have been happy to clean the bathroom after each shower – until today.   I have a roll of black plastic bags and a roll of wide packing tape.  I taped 6 bags together and strung up a line from the curtain rail to the door jam !  very ingenious.   At last a shower without having to mop the floor etc.

That done,  then I got even more ingenious. -   there are no screens at windows or doors here and of course we must be approaching mosquito time, but already we have several 100 variety of flying things that like to come in for a visit when the light is on -  or off!  They don’t mind either way.  I have an insecticide infused mosquito net that, at my request, was a parting gift from my colleagues at WSG.  As it happens it is even greater than a mosquito net for the bed.  I had it installed, but just couldn’t bring myself to sleep in an enclosed chemical cocoon.     Then that  AHH  haa  moment.  I can cut it up and tape it to the windows.  You will be pleased to know that I now have screen at all windows except one and that one I leave closed until I can get some more netting.   I have noticed that some of the little critters still dare to come and I find them dead on the window sill or the floor in the morning.  So what may it have done to me after 2 years.   Thanks or the great gift WSG team -  it is of greater value than any of could have thought back then.

I was on a roll -   as it was getting hotter and I didn’t have any tops to wear that were really cool. I had a piece of fabric with me that was perfect, but no patterns, the only paper I had was kitchen paper towel, that will do to make a pattern.  A few hours I had made 2 tops and I wear them constantly and could start my own business, all ladies and girls in the compound want one.

This creativity was to continue for the day,  Nomsa, my neighbour wants to learn to sew, I gave her a lesson on the machine I purchased here, a very basic cheap Janome.  She is going to take some patience.  After sewing we cleaned my car.  I must mention that Nomsa  is my ‘maid’.  Nomsa helped me clean when I arrived and I call on her to clean, wash and iron at times,  she also keeps the outside tidy and rakes leaves and burns off when needed.   I noticed they all burn off regularly and wondered why is this so?    It is to keep the place tidy and reduce the incidence of snakes close to the home.   The greater area around my place is in need of a big burn and I will get onto it this week.

After dinner on Saturday I had a visit from Tanele, the mother of my 2 little urchins.   She came to greet me.  What a lovely woman and so easy and relaxed to talk with.  She was puzzled at how a person from another country could just leave home and go half way around the world to another place to work and help other people.  She also expressed a desire to learn to sew.   

Clocking up 2 students at home now.

Sunday 6^th October

Sunday’s listening to Macca is no longer on my menu!!   I don’t even have a radio.  Ii only my little ipod with  a few CD’s on.

I spent most of the day creating a spreadsheet to record the activities of the sewing group and sales, costs, profits etc.   and of course the necessary interruptions from the urchins who need to entertain me.  They put on a ‘show’ for me.  They had a visitor, Claudia from a nearby location and so they danced and sang for me.  I had the tablet with me so videoed it -  but have no idea where it went !!!

They are so disappointed -  as like all children –they wanted to see themselves in action.

Temperatures are in the 20’s – 30’s and variable and so far most nights have been comfortable for sleeping.   Apart from that first week with 42, there has not been a return of that yet -  but they tell me to expect lots of that in summer and that is just around the corner.

At the end of this Sunday 6^th , I was mentally preparing myself for the next day – being my first lesson day with ‘the girls’.