(We’ve included more photos than we needed; the students love having their pictures online.)

Thanks to donations from friends and relatives, and particularly from members of the Mid-Willamette Valley chapter of Friendship Force, she was able to buy five manual machines (the school has no electricity) at $75 each  plus material. The women who came to the class ranged in age from 15 to mid-twenties.

Caye’s sewing class proved enormously popular.  Caye started them out on the simplest project: potholders. This gave them a chance to become familiar with the machines, which needed constant tweaking and adjustment, and provided them with something they’d never used before.  Mostly at home they used pieces of cardboard for holding pots, or the edges of their skirt, which sometimes caught fire.

The girls learned to make pads, for which they were very grateful, and went on to learn to make bags and skirts, and repair their family’s clothes.  The sewing machines were left at the school and, we understand, are still in constant use.

Caye also brought in 250 pair of donated new underwear, which raised some puzzled eyebrows at customs.

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