Wednesday is Market Day

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I usually wake up before Hope so I have started taking a walk in the morning while it is cooler. I usually walk in the neighborhoods which is must more peaceful that the main road that we don’t live too far from.



We started off the day at the office working on lesson plans. I had an assistant today, Maria. As soon as she saw me she walked right over, sat next to me and promptly took my laptop and phone. But, she sold a house and listed another so I guess I’ll keep her around ?



In additional to the financial literacy classes, I am also helping RWO get their sewing program started again. It stopped with COVID, but they have a lot of women who would like to learn to sew. I went through their machines to get them ready to be used. I started with the electric sewing machines, but manual sewing machines are more common here. I think I used a manual sewing machine in college so it has been awhile. I will definitely need Google to help me with those machines. I have two electric machines ready to go so I think we will start lessons next week. The long term plan is RWO will get a trainer, similar to the hair dressing program. But, I can get the women started while I am here. There are a lot of opportunities for the women, but I think school uniforms would be a great start. They make their own patterns here compared to buying them. So I am going to need to dig back in my memory from when I learned pattern making in college.



In the afternoon we went and met with a new group of women. Compared to my other group these women are older and more established. Many of them have small businesses: raising chickens, pigs, goats. Or they have a small shop outside their home, making goods to sell etc. They wanted to also have the financial literacy course so they could grow their business wisely or manage their finances better. Our first session was just a meet and greet so I could get to know them. Class went long by an hour because they had so much to say. It was great to see that they have so much they can learn from each other. I think I will adjust my lesson plans for them since they are more advanced than my other group. My assistant, Maria was at the afternoon class. She walked straight to the front of the room and joined me. I appreciate her confidence!



After work we stopped at the Wednesday market to pick up some groceries. We made dinner: minced meat, beans, peas with chapati. And this time I played some American music for them: mostly country since they are more familiar with our top hits. I am starting to get the feeling of actually living here vs just visiting with small things like going to pick up lunch from the same place near the office or having people at the grocery store recognize me.

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