Sewing

Sewing Circle

As many of you know I am not a great seamstress.  I can stitch a bit, mend, or put a hem in but that is about the extent of my skills.  However in Kenya I am being stretched!  My friend Suzie who is an excellent sewer and I have started an afternoon stitching group on the maternity ward.  Many of the mothers of premies remain in the hospital for months.  Although they need lots of sleep between feedings, they also get mighty bored in the afternoon and evening.  Our stitchery idea is one I have talked about on the blog in years past.  We are stitching pads for women to use and reuse for their menstrual cycle.  Often young girls leave school once their period begins or they skip a week of school out of every month because they cannot afford the pads.  If we can teach them to use these pads it could solve the problem.  The cloth pads are inserted into a waterproof pocket and snapped onto the underpants.  Our other objective is to begin a sewing business for a young mother.  She hopes to make the kit and market them to women in the community.  The idea seems to have caught on! The other result is that I am getting to know these mothers better outside of the nursery.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and so I passed out heart shaped “lollies” or suckers as we call them to the Moms in the nursery.  What fun! They loved them. You would have thought that I had given them a box of Godiva chocolates!  It added a bit of fun to the morning.  Sadly a really tiny baby had passed away this morning and so there was a cloud over the nursery.  Unfortunately this happens all too frequently.   If that little one had been born in the US he probably would have survived with the use of new drugs.  At this time those drugs are too expensive for this hospital to purchase.

We send our love to all of you this Valentine’s Day!  Happy Anniversary Bill and Penny!  Give all my grandchildren a big hug and kiss from Nana and Poppy! (and give them their cards!:)

Mom