8.

Well today was definitely an adventure. One of the things I said I wanted to learn about was African style dresses and dressmaking. I have visited Joyce’s shop where she apprentices girls to teach them the dressmaking business. I have also gone to the Kajaimpau Tharaka Polytechnic a few times (Polytechnic means that it is basically a trade school. This one offers stone carving and tailoring.) I asked Joyce what the difference in training was between a shop like hers and the polytechnic schools. She said that in the polytechnic schools you are taught the basics of sewing, tailoring, and embroidery, but in the end you are not taught how to run a business. The polytechnic program takes two years and you don’t get “certification” in the end so you end up taking a position in a shop like hers anyway. You need to learn how to work with customers, take their orders, etc. I didn’t ask what the tuition difference was however. So, today as the dressmaking saga continued, Cara and I had decided that we would employ Joyce to make dresses for us. This way we would be involved in the process. At 8 am, Cara and I met Joyce at her Dress shop and then we walked into Chogoria to get a matatu to Meru (Matatus are basically 15 passenger vans that drive back and forth between towns and are the easiest and cheapest way to get around if you don’t own a car). I have always been a little leery of riding them because they tend to be the worst drivers on the road. Even though it is illegal now (in 2004 a seatbelt law was instituted) they still cram more people than the capacity allows. At one point we had 21 people, a baby, and everyone’s luggage in there. This was when we crossed the police checkpoint, but the guy hoped out bribed the police and got back in. (Look of disapproval) He had to pay them a lot and they probably would have made more money off of the trip if they had just followed the rules. In America I would have complained that since I only got half a seat I would only pay half the price, alas. Matatu aside, we got to Meru and Joyce took us to the big fabric shops where she goes to pick out her materials. We went to many and Cara ended up with the standard batik giraffe on green, I got green and I forget what other color, but it wasn’t batik, just the pretty shiny material that the really nice dresses here are made out of. Joyce took us to where she takes her creations to get the fancy embroidery done. She does some simpler things with the machines in her shops for table linens and such (mostly flowers). I didn’t give her exact specifications about what I wanted, because I want to see what she would do on her own. The only thing I said is that I don’t want huge sleeves but I do want the embroidery. (There will be left over fabric so I ordered a matching one for my new niece when she gets a bit bigger) The fabric stores were really fun I wanted to buy everything. There were so many fabrics that were absolutely ridiculous and I loved them but would never wear them. I told Joyce I wanted bright green but with a pattern so she picked out this material that was lime green with yellow, red, and blue striped buckets on it! A few days ago I saw a lady with a dress that had cupcakes all over. Fantastic, but I wanted something that I might wear at least once. Joyce also took us to the Meru market and I got a few pineapples. They are little and very cute. The only problem is that all this citrus fruit that everyone has been feeding me is giving me canker sores. Once we got back to Chogoria Joyce took my measurements. There were about 4 other ladies just hanging around the shop (really just to see what my measurements were) My waist was 25 inches and this little old lady in curlers said, “well mine is 15” and laughed. I can guarantee it was nowhere near 15 inches. I thought it was really interesting that they use inches for tailoring. Everything else is metric; I just assumed that she would be using centimeters.

Looking out the window there is a guy at Edwin’s cutting down the gorgeous purple vines that were arching across the path into their yard. It makes me really sad. I had this great view of fuchsia flowers draped gracefully just beyond the banana tree, and now they are all gone. Hacked down by a man with a really big knife.