On Tuesday morning we got up early. Some of us began the day with a group meditation, while others joined the friars for morning mass. If you’ve never been to church in Africa, it’s an experience not to be missed.
After a breakfast that consisted entirely of white toast and jam (and soynut butter toted all the way from the U.S. for just this sort of protein crisis), we met with Father Timothy, the Provincial leader of the Franciscan order in Zambia mentioned earlier. This was a important meeting because of Timothy’s large influence not only in the friary, but also in Ndola. To our delight Father Timothy was touched by our vision of a sewing cooperative. Currently a large percentage of the graduates of the friary’s tailoring school fail to find employment. Jobs are scarce, and those without jobs cannot afford to purchase their own sewing machines. We agreed that over the next two weeks we would continue to explore all of the possibilities that we saw.
Having reached agreement with Timothy, we headed down to the tailoring school to meet with the director, a gracious woman named Dorothy Mwanza, and her saintly colleagues Andrew and Joseph. We had hoped to have the good fortune of seeing them again, as we remembered them fondly from last year. The conversation that followed was unforgettable. As we outlined our vision they understood immediately the benefit this would have for their community, and we found ourselves with a new, larger perspective on our own ideas. We saw how much it has the potential to be a situation in which everyone wins: the Zambians receive the opportunity to make a living in a way that empowers them, and we receive the opportunity to serve something larger than ourselves.
The immediate benefit of our new partnership was an agreement that they would produce the first 250 pairs of meditation pants (technically “trousers” we quickly learned, as the word pants in Zambia means underwear) for us to carry home. Before long we found ourselves on the way to the local market with Dorothy for fabric. Two hours and five memorable fabric stores later (see picture), we returned with a box and two large sacks of gorgeous, colourful material, and left them with Dorothy and her staff to make the prototypes.
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For our next trick we jumped in the van with Brother John to spend some more time with the kids at the house. We had a fabulous time, but you will have to wait to hear about that until tomorrow because it is late and we’re off to bed.