Day 9 Uganda: Sewing with the Tailors

I woke to birds squawking outside my window at the Abba Hotel in Kampala. Helen says they are probably some sort of crow. We weren’t leaving for Phoebe’s place until around 10:00 so I decided to get some organizing taken care of. The Internet still didn’t work but I was able to enter some expenses into what we laughingly call “the bible” and do some planning for the rest of the trip.

The view from my hotel.

We decided to buy the two sewing machines that we looked at yesterday. Phoebe called Fred, her loyal bodaboda driver, to go pick them up and deliver them to her house. First, we sat on the side of the highway waiting for Fred to come get money to pay for the machines. Sometimes I feel like what I Imagine a drug dealer feels like when we handle money here – except that everything we do happens to be legal. We pooled our money and counted and recounted thousands of shillings to come up with the $300 that we needed to purchase the machines. Truly, there was at least an inch and a half of bills by the time we had enough. Next there was the sly transfer of the cash so that no one passing by would notice that a “deal” is happening. Pretty funny!

On the way to the sewing guild, we stopped for bananas and mangos and checked out the prices of mosquito nets for my friends in Malawi.

The tailors were waiting for us by the time we got to the sewing center, and we quickly got to work. I had been asked to teach the women how to sew something. We started with napkins and then moved on to aprons. There is one young woman named Winn who caught on to the trickier sewing quite rapidly. She will continue to teach the others how to make a perfect product.

Winn models an apron that she made.

After everyone went home Phoebe, Helen and I ate outside under her lovely pergola. She had cooked a fabulous meal with plenty of vegetables, fish and wine, of course. It was our favorite meal in Uganda. Thank you, dear Phoebe.

Dinner at Phoebe’s.

While in Wakiso, we are renting an Air BnB from a secondary school teacher, Bena, who taught Phoebe in school and who is now her good friend. This place is charming and quiet and just right for our last 3 nights here.

As always at this point I’m too tired to stay up any longer. Off, to bed!

Oh andHappy St Patty’s Day!