Dumevi and I have been really going to town on his new business. His wife has put the word out on Facebook, Twitter, and other media places. They have been getting calls from hospitals and clinics asking for the baby weigh trousers. He is having success!
When I complained just a little on the fact that he keeps choosing material (children's sheets and covers) that have patterns all one way making it necessary to cut two pieces, he told me his strategy. Dumevi said he got materials that were printed in America so that when people saw the trousers they wouldn't think they could just easily get them in Ghana. The Disney Princesses, Thomas the Train, Toy Story, Hello Kitty, and many others. Whoa! There is a purpose. Smart man. He has me cut out the material with a pattern and another woman sews them up and another delivers the finished product so no one person can steal his pattern, business, or customers.
I took his material for lining the trousers and said I'd put it in the washer because all materials used for babies needed to be clean. He was curious and watched me put it in the front loader. He asked where the water came in and went out. He squatted down to watch the washer agitate. I could see the wonder on his face. It hit me that the water barrels outside his house were where his family and neighbors hand wash their clothes. My heart clenched and I made sure my tone was matter-of-fact while I explained how the machine would work while I would go back to sewing up the trousers.
The discernable differences in our lives is the sharp contrast of prosperity and poverty. He can use devices with a flair I don't have and he is in wonder at a machine I learned to use at six years old. He has ideas, strategy, enthusiasm, while the time each step he takes is hours and hours longer than my use of machines that do so much of the work for me.
My plan is to leave the sewing machines with him when I go home, but the washing machine....he'll have to find a new friend for that.
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