If you're thinking that I look rather sweaty, you are so right! It was very hot this day. Every room at the church and inn was full with other activities, so we went into one of the smaller rooms, opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fan. I was suddenly aware of being really hot when I realized that the power had gone out and the fan had stopped. So, we sweated our way through the lesson.
Since the church was so busy, we didn't have afternoon tutoring sessions. Leidy came down to visit while Jessie and Maria worked. Karla came with her.
Leidy took this photo of me with Jessie and Karla. Leidy really doesn't like to have her photo taken and will seldom smile for one, but she liked being the photographer. The kids love to borrow my camera and run around taking photos of anything and everything.
It was still pretty hot at the beginning of this week, and the church was also quite busy, so I brought Jessie and Maria back to our house for their second lesson. It was immediately apparent that they didn't need any help from me with the body of the purse. I sent them both home with the materials to work on their own. They will let me know when they are ready to finish the purse bottom and strap. They loved coming to our house to work. Maria commented on how quiet it was up on our hill. She has five children in her house and close neighbors; quiet is a novelty to her.
Here are my "regulars" who come every Thursday. They were enjoying chocolate chip cookies and cokes while working. Leidy has the laryngitis that is going around and had very little to say. Karla made up for it! Karla and Leidy are working at about the same pace and are about halfway finished. Concepción is very slow but doing a nice job. Julissa, in the background above, is completing the last row on her purse. Karla reported that Jessie was also finished with the body of her purse after only two days!! I asked Leidy, Concepción and Karla if they wanted to take their purses home to work on them in their spare time. They all said yes, except for Karla. She would rather come here to work.
Julissa was very proud of her workmanship, and rightly so! She's done a good job. I showed her how to finish the bottom of the purse in our remaining time. We will make the strap next week. Maybe Leidy will be ready to finish hers.
Maria was very excited when I told her she and Jessie were doing such good work and that we would find a market for her to sell these purses if she was interested - boy, was she!! I think Julissa could also sell them and earn some money for her family. Concepción will have to get faster if she hopes to sell them.
I bought more yarn in Coxen Hole earlier in the week. All they had was acrylic baby yarn, but it was varigated pastels and looks nice in Jessie's purse. The shop did not have any crochet hooks. I looked at some other tab top crocheted purses at a shop in French Harbor. They are made by a group of single moms on the mainland and were very nicely done with nylon yarn. They were even lined and had zipper closures. Reasonably priced, too.
I have decided that I will need to bring back better quality yarn, probably nylon, to make the purses to sell. My purse is made from acrylic yarn and is already beginning to get fuzzy and balled up. I don't want to sell anything that deteriorates so quickly.
I mentioned in an earlier blog that Karla is not a fan of Don's old rock 'n roll music. I tried country, but they didn't care for that either. I asked what they liked and they said "Christian", so I pulled up my Christian playlist and they loved it! They knew many of the songs and were soon singing along.
Don brought Nick up to the house this week for his algebra lesson (still noisy at church) and Nick loved Don's rock 'n roll!! Of course, he's an American teen who plays guitar, so that probably accounts for the difference in taste. Don said that Nick actually concentrated better on his math with the music playing! Our house has been hopping this week.
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