Wednesday, April 1
Up early again and we three headed to Bugesera where Millennium Villages is located. We had not planned to stay long, but it seems the knitters were waiting, so we jumped in MV’s SUV (no normal car could handle the road down to the center) and we found quite a few of the knitters busy working on school sweaters. They’ve found yarn locally, in various weights and types, and have used 3 different keyplates to get the look they wanted for their sweaters. It was clear some yarn standardization will be important as the lack of a consistent type seems to be quite a challenge. I noticed there was
something missing however: row counters. They were shipped with the machines, but no one was using them. Turns out, the teacher’s row counter didn’t work so she didn’t show these women how to use theirs! No wonder it took them so long to knit the scarf order! If they lost count, they would have had to stop and manually count the rows – up to 980! Great for counting practice, but definitely not for speedy knitting! These kinds of things you just can’t know without being there. So I showed Laura and Patrick how to use the counter and they showed the others (thanks to Laura’s fluent French and Patrick’s native Kinyarwanda).
Up early again and we three headed to Bugesera where Millennium Villages is located. We had not planned to stay long, but it seems the knitters were waiting, so we jumped in MV’s SUV (no normal car could handle the road down to the center) and we found quite a few of the knitters busy working on school sweaters. They’ve found yarn locally, in various weights and types, and have used 3 different keyplates to get the look they wanted for their sweaters. It was clear some yarn standardization will be important as the lack of a consistent type seems to be quite a challenge. I noticed there was
something missing however: row counters. They were shipped with the machines, but no one was using them. Turns out, the teacher’s row counter didn’t work so she didn’t show these women how to use theirs! No wonder it took them so long to knit the scarf order! If they lost count, they would have had to stop and manually count the rows – up to 980! Great for counting practice, but definitely not for speedy knitting! These kinds of things you just can’t know without being there. So I showed Laura and Patrick how to use the counter and they showed the others (thanks to Laura’s fluent French and Patrick’s native Kinyarwanda). 
Then back to Kigali to meet up with Susan Moinester and visit the Ineza sewing cooperative that's part of We-ACTx, right across the street from where Laura lives. The sewers create bags, aprons, bathrobes, dolls and other items that Susan sells on her website and to other stores through her company, Manos de Madres (http://www.manosdemadres.com/). I bought a couple of items, but with my suitcases jammed with bags and other items to sell at the CGOA booth, it was impossible to buy much more.
This being my last day in Rwanda, sadly being an understatement, Laura, Patrick and I still had so much to go over, so it was back to the hotel to get more work done.
Tuesday, March 31
RAPP staff meeting at 8:00, then a meeting with Rwanda Community Works to discuss the last project for export, the Whitney Port Scarf. RCW is a spin-off of Millennium Villages (http://www.millenniumvillages.org/) and is dedicated to securing goods for export to the US and Europe. They started with the knitters at MV (80) and included some basket makers. Last year the knitters at MV made 2,000 scarves for Ms. Port’s collection. Patrick, Laura and I discussed machines, yarn, designs, etc. with Amy and Esperance from MV. After showing design ideas and how we ‘d like to be helpful in seeing that all the groups, especially the Cooperative Union, can be a part of these export orders. I ordered a few items to be sold at the CGOA convention booth (they’re a secret for now) and it was off to Mpore Mama for a technical meeting on the machine, new stitch techniques and new design ideas.
Getting to Mpore Mama, we drive through a part of town I haven’t seen for a number of years, and has it changed! The location of government offices, embassies and large NGO buildings. The new American Embassy looks like a fortress! In such a now-peaceful city, it looks so out-of-character, but security is number one for America overseas.
Mpore Mama has such a great center! It’s large, easy to get to, has many windows for good light and can accommodate many
of the knitters. Machines are set up on a few tables, so the women have obviously been working. While not everyone is there on time (many have had to walk quite a distance and it’s been raining, which slows everything down), once they arrive we get started. Picot stitch hem, butterfly stitch, two-carriage stripes, easy (in-carriage) intarsia, Fair Isle refresher and, everybody’s favorite, two techniques for knitting in beads. I showed the basics and then Immaculee showed why she’s such a great teacher, picking everything up right away and showing everyone the stitch again, answering questions in Kinyarwanda, something I’d love to be able to do, but probably never will. What’s so wonderful about knitting is that it crosses all language barriers. No need for translation when it’s all visual. It’s why we feel so close despite culture, language and individual economics – it’s all about knitting, design – and making money to support our families. 
And welcome to our newest teacher, Faina, from Mpore Mama. Check out her ruched bag design on the right. Faina uses both the Sweater Machine and a standard gauge machine - and has SO many creative ideas, I really need to take a design class from HER!
We give a ride to the reps from Rwanda Women Network where we go next for a meeting with Penina, the director of the Village of Hope, located in the center of an ever-expanding gentrifying neighborhood. When I was there in 2005 and first met Peninah, the Village of Hope was isolated at the top of a hill, surrounded only by fields and farmland. Today, they’re
surrounded by very expensive homes, but RWN’s founder, Mary Bilikungeri, is a very well-known, influential Rwandan who will never be forced to move the Village, though who the Village serves, women victims of gender violence and very poor, continue to have to move farther and farther away. All progress has a price for someone – but these new residents can certainly buy sweaters for their kids at school and buy nice knits at the local market.That evening, Laura and I had have dinner with Megan and her fiancé, Taylor, who leads capacity building for local NGOs for CHAMP (a partner of RAPP), a program of CHF International. Taylor was SO helpful in reviewing Rwanda Knits’ USAID grant application. It was so nice to meet the man responsible for keeping us all up many more nights “fixing” our application! All kidding aside, we were SO lucky to have Taylor’s suggestions to avoid errors in our application.
And we also learned about a wonderful bagel bakery in Kigali that produces bagels that rival those in New York. And just at the end of my trip! Oh well, they’ll be there next time…. But Laura can take advantage of them right away. The owner of the Papyrus restaurant is also involved in making cheese in the Italian style, working with a new dairy cooperative outside Kigali. Fresh mozerella and ricotta! Never would I have imagined it!
No comments:
Post a Comment