The morning of our workshop brought only a few ladies and I was happy to teach whoever arrived. Soon there were twenty ladies and the turaga ni koro (he was ever present and well loved). As each group arrived I repeated my brief introduction and asked them about their sewing skills and what they wanted to work on. I was surprised to hear how little most of them knew about sewing. We began with the basics of hand sewing and moved on to machine sewing and maintenance, working with paper patterns and pattern making from their old clothes. The hardest part of the work shop, for me, was the constant up and down. Of course, this being Fiji, the ladies all sat on the floor. Knowing that it is rude to stand over them and even to walk around the room ‘towering’, I got down on the floor with each of them. Conversely, the most enjoyable aspect was, this one-on-one working with the ladies. They were delightful to teach. They were attentive, appreciative, gracious, eager to learn, very helpful and encouraging to each other. We worked on the one treadle sewing machine that was in the hall. I had them take turns threading the machine and oh- how they laughed and applauded as each one successfully completed the task! I repeated that method for each new task. There was such a since of community as they all worked together in cutting and sewing. They completed a baby’s dress and five sulu chambas. Early on in the workshop Ana, the turagna ni koro's wife, told me that the ladies were embarrassed to bring me their old rusted sewing machines. I assured her that I loved working on old machines. By the end of this two day workshop I had worked on and fixed about fifteen sewing machines! A few of them were 150 year old Singers, and with God’s help- I was able to fix even those! The very difficult machines required more prayer…which the ladies were happy to help me with. Humility is one of the big lessons I am learning here with these wonderfully humble Fijians! On the final afternoon, Ana asked me to look around, as a room full of ladies were sewing away on their ‘new’ sewing machines. She was recounting, with tears in her eyes, how most of these American machines were put away for twenty years because they were broken…and now this American came and fixed them so the women can once again sew. I told her that I was honored to be that American, and that only with God’s help, was I able to be there to help the ladies and fix their machines.
We have several more workshops in the planning…including a children’s sewing class and school uniform sewing. Lauren is setting up a research library and we spoke about the use of books and the value of reading. I also learned that there is a plan to have tourists visit the village and craft making classes were needed. I will work with the Ministry of Women to bring some teachers of bamboo art and other local crafts. I was thrilled to see Lauren learning and teaching sewing and two ladies in particular who were very helpful to the others. I spoke to them about continuing being sewing teachers when I leave and as humble as they were...they acknowledged that request.
