African Aprons

The 2^nd group of Kenya Keys interns to arrive in Tanzania made a stop at a gift shop in Moshe.  One of them found a very cute apron made of bright African material.  The only problem was that there was only 1 in the gift shop and everyone wanted it; actually everyone wanted 6 or 8 (or even more) of the aprons to give as gifts.  The lone apron was purchased and brought to the little village of Taru where we would be staying.  Thus began the sage of the aprons.

There are several tailors in Taru who have small shops where they make clothes on their treadle machines.  When you have a group of 8 interns who want multiple aprons made but only have 1 apron to use as a pattern, the logistics become quite complex.  We needed to buy conga material, find a tailor to start making aprons so that we could have patterns for the others to use, always have a Kiswahili speaking person with us to explain all this, and make it clear that there was a deadline as we were leaving on a set date. Deadlines are not a normal part of the relaxed Kenyan culture! Soon our Kenya Keys directors were referring to the aprons with some trepidation.  Every time someone would bring up the ‘A word’ we would all giggle nervously! Would the aprons be finished on time?  Would they be anything like what we wanted? Were we completely overwhelming the tailors of Taru? Were the aprons distracting the interns from what they were supposed to be doing?

I’m happy to report that the aprons all got made on time.  Every intern was happy with the results. 

A tailor named Manyeso made my aprons.  

 He has only an 8^th grade education and is the father to four young children.  Normally he makes school uniforms for the children of the village.  I am sure that his payment for making 20 aprons was a huge boost to his annual income.   At least that is what his smile seemed to indicate.  When we explained what we wanted, he did his calculations to figure out the price by writing on his hand. Wasting paper is not a part of their culture!  His little children gazed at the white strangers cautiously and never quite got the courage to approach us.

Hope all the people who received an apron as a gift will think of Manyese working away in his shop smiling as he worked!