Sewing Workshop and Baseball
The other week my evening English class convinced me to add another hour of English for them every week, and to give the entire class in English to push them to learn more. I wasn't looking forward to teaching English, and even less to having a class primarily of teenagers, but these "kids" are awesome (I can't really call them kids because one of them is 28 and most of them are almost my age). Also, they told me I should have studied to be a teacher, not international affairs, because I should teach kids all the time. It's nice to hear I'm doing ok with them and even nicer to see them pushing me to make class harder, especially when I'm winging it most evenings.
I'm totally fine with giving them another hour, but our first extra class fell on the second day of our sewing workshop, and class got away from me by the end. Ironically, the last fifteen minutes may be what they remember the most because, after listening to some Lady Gaga, the conversation inevitably turned to sex. If nothing else, I'm pretty positive that "to want" is a verb they're not likely to forget. Whether they can conjugate it is another thing, but we're working on it.
I know they're practicing, though, because the same three guys in my English class also put together the beginnings of a baseball team when they heard John and the Tamarindos donated some bats and balls. Baseball has now become a weekly afternoon activity, taking over the soccer field with our too-few players and rocks for bases and only one glove and "Strike ONE!" shouted at full volume. The most we've ever had was seven-against-six mixed teams, but we still have a blast and we're getting better. Now we only spend half the time chasing balls and sometimes someone will even catch an out. Three of my host siblings join me, as well as three guys and a girl from English class and various other neighborhood kids and women. I'm hoping that if we make ourselves enough of a presence, some of the other soccer players will consent to join in, or to start learning volleyball (I saw them passing the volleyball around while we were playing on Saturday) and we will actually be able to field a team or two. For now we keep practicing and I need to look into gear donations so we don't risk breaking fingers and faces for lack of gloves and a mask.
On to the title topic. After ages of hinting on the blog about a sewing class for women in my community, it's finally here! If you're out of the loop, way back in January I started a women's group with the main attraction being that I would look for sewing classes for the women who got involved. I had no idea who could provide such a service or how to get it, but I promised anyway. By March I finally had a list of women with ID numbers and a group that regularly showed up to women's group meetings, so I reached out. My project manager made contact with INSAFORP (Salvadoran Institute for Professional Development), a government-sponsored organization that provides trainings all over the country in a number of professions.
With all the forms filled out and cartas de compromiso (I don't really know how to translate this - promise letters?) signed, I figured at least I had tried. I didn't expect them to respond, much less ask for more information. We missed the cut-off date for making dresses and skirts, but they offered a to teach men's pants and shirts. I figured anything was better than nothing, so I sent off another round of signed forms and even more letters. In May the glorious email finally arrived with our community's name on the list for a 130-hour three-week long sewing class provided by COINDES. The next day I received a phone call - they wanted to start the following week!
I called an emergency women's meeting, dreading to find that after so much back and forth and so many promises the women would back out when I told them they would have to commit to a class five days a week, eight hours a day. Thankfully they were on board with the idea and eighteen women, ranging in age from 16 to 50, committed to arriving every day, paying the electricity bill, and housing the teacher for three weeks. I sent out my list of attendees and on May 13 all of the machines and materials arrived in town. At 8 o'clock on May 14 lights we installed in the empty house we are using for the workshop, and at 10 am the teacher arrived to a full house. We learned how to put together the machines, how to make cuffs, collars, the slits in the sleeves in dress shirts, pant zippers and pockets, and how to make patterns. Today we cut the fabric for black dress pants and added pockets and zippers and made belt loops. Tomorrow we will continue to piece the pants together, hopefully creating a wearable finished product.
I'm having a blast learning to sew (they're letting me take the class too), although it is often incredibly frustrating and hot and it sucks when I have to take a billion stitches and start over or I have to re-thread the needle yet again because I wasn't paying attention and left too little thread before starting my next line. It's cool to be making something useful (I like bracelets, but really, how many bracelets could you possibly need?). I also think attending the class is making me more accessible, or at least more human, to the women in my community. Once they see that I have no freaking idea what I'm doing they are more willing to trust in their own abilities and realize that just because I come from the United States doesn't mean I know anything at all.
Once the class is over I'm going on vacation and my sister is coming to visit, but in July I'm giving a business workshop on how to run a small business and I want one of the women who knows how to make dresses to teach a weekend dress class. I am hoping these skills will turn into income-generating activities, but the big challenge will be coming up with seed money. Most of the women don't have working sewing machines, nor the wherewithal to buy materials. As we look to the future, that's the first big hurdle, but I'm excited to see where it takes us.
If you know of people or organizations willing to help us with either women's sewing or baseball, let me know!
New Book count: 38
Book count: 50
I'm not reading any new books for a while because Harry Potter is on TV this month (I have no idea why, and they seem to be showing in random order) so I got hooked again and I'm reading through the series. I'm also slacking because I got old GRE books and I'm working my way through the math. As of right now, I wouldn't even make it past the easy math questions. I don't remember equations for the hypotenuse of different types of triangles or the area of a circle or how to add fractions or probabilities (though that's probably because I never learned probability and skipped all of those questions on the SAT). Six years is a long time without math, and all of those equations I easily recalled in high school have trickled into the darkest recesses of my mind, squeezed out only under great duress. I have a few months so I'm not worried, but what with the learning new skills with sewing and baseball and re-learning math my brain may turn to mush before long. It's a good thing we have all manner of cute things in the house now (this little guy arrived on Saturday).
PS Shout out to my college roommate who is the best ever. Today I received an early birthday present full of chocolate and luna bars and peanut butter and earrings and an awesome card. She knows me so well. Also, a shout out to one of my best friends from home who spends her free time making logos for me just because she can. And to my brother, who's 25 today! When did we get so grown up???
I'm totally fine with giving them another hour, but our first extra class fell on the second day of our sewing workshop, and class got away from me by the end. Ironically, the last fifteen minutes may be what they remember the most because, after listening to some Lady Gaga, the conversation inevitably turned to sex. If nothing else, I'm pretty positive that "to want" is a verb they're not likely to forget. Whether they can conjugate it is another thing, but we're working on it.
I know they're practicing, though, because the same three guys in my English class also put together the beginnings of a baseball team when they heard John and the Tamarindos donated some bats and balls. Baseball has now become a weekly afternoon activity, taking over the soccer field with our too-few players and rocks for bases and only one glove and "Strike ONE!" shouted at full volume. The most we've ever had was seven-against-six mixed teams, but we still have a blast and we're getting better. Now we only spend half the time chasing balls and sometimes someone will even catch an out. Three of my host siblings join me, as well as three guys and a girl from English class and various other neighborhood kids and women. I'm hoping that if we make ourselves enough of a presence, some of the other soccer players will consent to join in, or to start learning volleyball (I saw them passing the volleyball around while we were playing on Saturday) and we will actually be able to field a team or two. For now we keep practicing and I need to look into gear donations so we don't risk breaking fingers and faces for lack of gloves and a mask.
On to the title topic. After ages of hinting on the blog about a sewing class for women in my community, it's finally here! If you're out of the loop, way back in January I started a women's group with the main attraction being that I would look for sewing classes for the women who got involved. I had no idea who could provide such a service or how to get it, but I promised anyway. By March I finally had a list of women with ID numbers and a group that regularly showed up to women's group meetings, so I reached out. My project manager made contact with INSAFORP (Salvadoran Institute for Professional Development), a government-sponsored organization that provides trainings all over the country in a number of professions.
With all the forms filled out and cartas de compromiso (I don't really know how to translate this - promise letters?) signed, I figured at least I had tried. I didn't expect them to respond, much less ask for more information. We missed the cut-off date for making dresses and skirts, but they offered a to teach men's pants and shirts. I figured anything was better than nothing, so I sent off another round of signed forms and even more letters. In May the glorious email finally arrived with our community's name on the list for a 130-hour three-week long sewing class provided by COINDES. The next day I received a phone call - they wanted to start the following week!
I called an emergency women's meeting, dreading to find that after so much back and forth and so many promises the women would back out when I told them they would have to commit to a class five days a week, eight hours a day. Thankfully they were on board with the idea and eighteen women, ranging in age from 16 to 50, committed to arriving every day, paying the electricity bill, and housing the teacher for three weeks. I sent out my list of attendees and on May 13 all of the machines and materials arrived in town. At 8 o'clock on May 14 lights we installed in the empty house we are using for the workshop, and at 10 am the teacher arrived to a full house. We learned how to put together the machines, how to make cuffs, collars, the slits in the sleeves in dress shirts, pant zippers and pockets, and how to make patterns. Today we cut the fabric for black dress pants and added pockets and zippers and made belt loops. Tomorrow we will continue to piece the pants together, hopefully creating a wearable finished product.
I'm having a blast learning to sew (they're letting me take the class too), although it is often incredibly frustrating and hot and it sucks when I have to take a billion stitches and start over or I have to re-thread the needle yet again because I wasn't paying attention and left too little thread before starting my next line. It's cool to be making something useful (I like bracelets, but really, how many bracelets could you possibly need?). I also think attending the class is making me more accessible, or at least more human, to the women in my community. Once they see that I have no freaking idea what I'm doing they are more willing to trust in their own abilities and realize that just because I come from the United States doesn't mean I know anything at all.
Once the class is over I'm going on vacation and my sister is coming to visit, but in July I'm giving a business workshop on how to run a small business and I want one of the women who knows how to make dresses to teach a weekend dress class. I am hoping these skills will turn into income-generating activities, but the big challenge will be coming up with seed money. Most of the women don't have working sewing machines, nor the wherewithal to buy materials. As we look to the future, that's the first big hurdle, but I'm excited to see where it takes us.
If you know of people or organizations willing to help us with either women's sewing or baseball, let me know!
New Book count: 38
Book count: 50
I'm not reading any new books for a while because Harry Potter is on TV this month (I have no idea why, and they seem to be showing in random order) so I got hooked again and I'm reading through the series. I'm also slacking because I got old GRE books and I'm working my way through the math. As of right now, I wouldn't even make it past the easy math questions. I don't remember equations for the hypotenuse of different types of triangles or the area of a circle or how to add fractions or probabilities (though that's probably because I never learned probability and skipped all of those questions on the SAT). Six years is a long time without math, and all of those equations I easily recalled in high school have trickled into the darkest recesses of my mind, squeezed out only under great duress. I have a few months so I'm not worried, but what with the learning new skills with sewing and baseball and re-learning math my brain may turn to mush before long. It's a good thing we have all manner of cute things in the house now (this little guy arrived on Saturday).
PS Shout out to my college roommate who is the best ever. Today I received an early birthday present full of chocolate and luna bars and peanut butter and earrings and an awesome card. She knows me so well. Also, a shout out to one of my best friends from home who spends her free time making logos for me just because she can. And to my brother, who's 25 today! When did we get so grown up???
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