Purchasing An Embroidery Machine

Today was a microenterprise day for Geri and me. She had gone to visit a couple of groups before deciding which one she wanted to work with. The first one turned out to be her choice. It is a trade school so the work embroidery machine will go farther in making a difference. The director of the school had prepared a good presentation for Geri and so she felt comfortable in her decision. The man, Mike was supposed to be at the house by 9AM, which we figured meant 10-10:30. However, he was there at 9:15. This was somewhat of a feat because he was coming from quite a distance and getting anywhere usually involves a lot of walking, or riding, or matatus, or a combination of all of the preceding.

We drove into town and went to the store to look at what they had. We ended up getting a Singer that does a most of the patterns, but not all. It does enough that the school will be competitive in the market and will be able to sell their work. The machine comes with a table and can operate on both electricity and by a treadle (sp?). Now it's up to me to figure out the basics before we present it to the group on the 9th. It should be interesting to see if I can make it work by foot power.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in town. We were price water pumps as a farewell present when we leave. We think we can get one for about $150. It would help the family out because it would eliminate the hauling of the buckets from the bottom of the well. Trust me, it is not easy to always be dropping the bucket down the well and then pulling it up the 25-30 feet.

We had planned to go over into Uganda for the weekend, but the place we wanted to stay was booked. They made some other suggestions, but they were full as well. I wasn't even thinking about it being a holiday weekend. We're hoping to go next weekend. Instead, we are heading up to Kitale and the Mt. Elgon National Park. Reuben told us to go ahead and take the Pajero (an old Mitsubishi 4 wheel drive). We kept it a bit of a secret from the college students so that we wouldn't have to take a whole bunch. A bit selfish, but it'll be a nice get away.