Bring Your Child to Work Day

Today was another good one.  Typical morning.  Work was same as usual, though we've never had quite so many people all together.  All the ladies were there since it's Tuesday, and then we finally had all of us there as well, talk about a crowded room.  In addition, a few of the ladies brought their kids so we could meet them which added to the count but also added some entertainment.

Today we started actually completing some of the products, which was awesome to see.  We finally have a completed purse, scarves, bangles, and wrap necklaces.  It's amazing and the women get so excited!
It's funny how we try to teach them to do something but then they do it their own way and it ends up much better.

The women from last year all actually continued making paper beads when they left and so they have been bringing us the products they make and selling us some which is pretty cool.  It's so great seeing how they kept it up and have continued making a profit.  They also have made different colors and patterns that they came up with on their own.  It's even giving us ideas.

After work Khadija invited us to her home.  She is one of the few ladies who is married still, and we got to meet her husband.  We had a bit of confusion regarding who are her kids, but we figured it out in the end.  I thought I got a family photo but it turns out half the kids are neighbors... I'll need to retry that.  It was great seeing her home and meeting her family.

When we left there Stephanie and Kelsey wanted to boda back and I felt like walking, so thankfully we saw Rebecca, Jessica, and Avery heading to Susan's house, so I went with them (the whole no going anywhere alone rule didn't let me just walk home alone, but I'm glad I didn't).  Turns out she lives pretty far, and we had to cross a river to get there.  Now generally that wouldn't matter, and the river was actually more like a stream, except that it was a pretty far drop into it, and there was a scary "bridge" to get over.  To give an idea of this bridge, Susan called it sticks.

Avery (who is scared of heights) crossing

Even as someone not scared of heights it was scary because it was definitely not sturdy.  We all made it across though (Jessica even carried Susan's baby across and the school girls who were following us also came along).  It was great again meeting more of Susan's family and seeing where she lives.  When we left, though, we realized that the kids were pretty far from home, so we put all 4 on a boda together and payed for them to get back to Namatala.

When we got home we heard that Nina was in a motorcycle accident, which is pretty scary.  She was here and ok, but her dad, Saleh, who owns this place, ended up in hospital from the shock of it.  I think everyone is fine now, but it was a bit of scary news to come home to, especially since we'd all expected to come home and celebrate Nina's birthday.

To end on a lighter note, Rebecca showed us photographers (me, Meredith, and Avery) the product shots that she wants us to work off of to figure out the style she wants.  That'll be fun to start shooting those.  Tomorrow morning we'll go scouting for cool backgrounds to shoot.