Workshop Move-In

This week has been a big week for us at James 127 Foundation and Judith&James. After looking long and hard, we finally found a place to move in. By the powerful working of God, the process has gone by very quickly. After housing our workshop in Balozi, a very nice development, our time to move out had come. We are now in large house in the Kasarani/Mwiki area, a location much closer for all of our women. It is a large house, big enough to house the workshops for Imani (the jewelry business hiring church choir members), Judith and James (clothing company), and in April we will start both the jewelry training and sewing training in this house.

Pictured below is the outside of the house we are now occupying.

Upon moving all of things inside the house, we prayed for the move and great work James 127 Foundation is doing with Judith's pastor, Pastor Oscar, who helped us move equipment and provided the moving truck. 

Each of the women are so excited to be in this new workshop. I asked Domaris, one of Judith&James' widow seamstresses why she enjoys the new place. She said it is because of the location and the large size of the house. 

Pictured below is the room for Judith&James workshop, the day after our initial move in. 

Ethiopia trip take two

Last week, I took a short trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the second time but this trip was by myself. I went to the same two workshops, with the goal of having our Judith&James designed leather bags produced and brought back.

Tewabe, my trusty driver faithfully drove me every day I was there. He is a happy, hard working man who works two taxi driving jobs in order to support his family and cute little two year old son. Tewabe also served as a tour guide, driving me to all the workshops I needed to go, eating Ethiopian food, and searching the city for souvenirs and ATMs. Here he is pictured with the completed signature leather bags we bought from Yami's workshop.

While in Ethiopia, I also decided to play tourist for a little while and went to visit the National Museum of Ethiopia. It is a three story building filled with all sort of various historical findings and collections. It was a mix of rich, cultural history; religious Christ symbols and representations; and Lucy, most famous evolutionary early 'human' ancestor.

And of course while there I had to eat lots of Ethiopian food! The injera (spongy sourdough flatbread made of teff flour) and various Ethiopian dishes are my favorite! One of my favorite parts of visiting Ethiopia is their authentic ethnic food. I've never had it any better in all the world than right in the heart of Addis.