India Day 2: Go With The Flow

Our second day started out with a trip to the sewing factory where we met Vikram, Ruchika's brother-in-law. We sat in his meeting room asking question after question. This lovely man helped to demystify some of this culture for us. We asked about exporters, suppliers, fabrics, work customs, gender roles. We learned a lot and left for our sewing space with rolls of elastic, fabrics, and Velcro – all necessary for making MoonCatcher Kits.  Wow!

Ellie gets materials ready to start making MoonCatcher Kits.

At mid-day we went to meet our first group of women who were coming to show us their sewing skills. Five women dressed in colorful garb showed up to stitch.  Maureen commented that she and I look like country mice in our drab American outfits.  

The women were pretty amazing. It was fun to work with people who really know what they are doing and three of these women are talented seamstresses. The other two were eager to learn and hard working. They will get up to speed over time and I loved their enthusiasm for the project. These are the kind people we love to work with.

Ellie begins working with our newest group of potential MoonCatcher seamstresses.

We had some mishaps and found ourselves running to the balcony when two of our machines overheated. We quickly turned them off and aired out the room. Maureen, Ruchika, and I looked at each other and quietly reminded ourselves to Go With The Flow. Luckily the women were very good sports and were able to giggle about all of this. Back in we all went so they could show us they understood how to put a MoonCatcher Kit together.

We called electricians and the machine repair man and got things more or less under control. Tomorrow they will return (the women and the repair men) and we'll keep on working. 

Ruchika and Ellie