SHWIA MICA BAG MAKING! My volunteer friends Jessica and Jong from the southern part of Morocco came to my neddy to help me and the women make their bags, as promised at the meeting two weeks ago. Here they are cutting out the material; I bought enough for 42 bags, which was the number of women who attended the meeting, not counting a dozen or so who came just in time for the tea party when the meeting was over.




In American it's Murphy's Law...here it's Maroc law...and it was in full force for this project! We decided we might need more material so made a trip to my bosta town and got enough for another dozen bags. We used all that up and still had girls and women looking for "their" sac...of course, many who did not come to the meeting were there ready to make their bags. I had mistakenly thought that they could make them by hand, but my friends believed they needed to be machine sewn if there were to hold heavy things from the souq. Mashi mushkeel (no problem!) says Connie. We have five electric embroidery machines and four old treadle machines. Guess what? Two electric machines and two treadles sort of worked. So we had few machines, many girls and women, most who did not know how to use a machine anyway. Then about 20 came Friday afternoon after Jessica left...after the workshops were concluded. The dynamics between the regular neddy/other settlement trainers was not at a positive high, one could say. So it was crazy, stressful, fun, frustrating, but in the end, rewarding. And as so often happens, it seems I likely learned more from the experience than anyone else! Same principles for workshops apply here: prepare, prepare, prepare. Do NOT assume...anything~ Oh yes, the writing in Arabic on the first completed bag does say, "shwia mica" (less/little plastic (bags)