Teaching and Learning @ the Tailoring Workshop

The bags are ready! The tailoring assessment period is over… contracts are signed! The six months tailoring project begins!!! AND… We already know 70 more words in Malayalam including:

Budhimutt joli= hard work;

thunni= fabric;

and (my favorite!)

uhchabashanam… oru mani!= (lunch time!)

I’ve truly enjoyed working with the women this week. I was very glad to find out that they are as exited as we are about being part of this tailoring project. Our first assessment week included 5 women, neighbors from our rural community in district of Wayanad, Kerala. One of my favorite parts of this assessment week was sitting down with the each woman to talk and learn more about their stories, their families, their dreams and future aspirations. I truly admire their resilience and positive spirit. They are such hard-workers!! …very dedicated to seeing their community thrive.

In our individual meetings we had some tea and listened to each of them talk about their families while encouraging them to ask us any questions. It was very rewarding to hear them reassure us (with a beautiful smile) that they too have enjoyed working together this week.

One of the most touching stories was that of one of our older members.

She lives alone and during our conversation she said that, at 53 and a widow, her house feels lonely. Solitude allows her too much time to think. Getting teary, she told us that she really enjoys tailoring because here, at the tailoring workshop, she can joke around with the younger women and always keep her mind busy with her stitching, which keeps her from feeling sad or thinking about the past.

Work is hard to find around this area, especially for a woman her age. The government offers job opportunities; however, most of them involve hard labor such as crop harvesting or road construction. Both projects are physically taxing and almost impossible for an elderly woman in a delicate health condition.

Yet, this proud 53 -year-old grandmother says she is “DETERMINED not to become burden to anyone in her family,” so she comes every day with a huge smile and a truck full of jokes, enough to keep the women giggling for a long while. Her playful personality serves to warm up the working environment, lessening any anxieties of learning new tailoring designs and dealing with our language barrier. After all… one does not need to know the language to dance to the rhythm of her Tamil songs.

I’m truly happy with our team. There is much to learn from this great group of hard-working women! They have fought so hard to raise their families, yet their smiles and laughter can lighten up anyone’s hard Monday morning.

More on our experiences in the tailoring workshop coming soon…. !