Problems in the tie-dye

The women in our group basically know two different dying techniques.  The scrunchy technique is called "soupu kaanja" which literally translated means ocra soup.  All of the women are capable of doing this one.  The quality of the dying depends on the tightness of the scrunch and the way in which the dye is poured on.  Neither Candy or myself have ever learned this technique and so we don't know how to help the women do it better.  We hope to have a local "dye expert" come and give us some tips.

The second technique is called "bant balai" which literally translated means stick broom.  This one is a little more complicated in that the fabric gets folded like a fan before the dye is poured on.  There is one woman in our group who knows how to do this very well.  One day we decided to give the other women in the group a chance to learn how to do this.  One woman asked the woman who knew how to do it well to come and teach them how.  She refused.  There was a HUGE fight of words after which she sat in a chair and refused to work.  She even requested to get her day's pay deducted as she was NOT working that day.  When asked why she wouldn't show the other women how to do this she replied, "I am NOT going to teach my equal!"

There is some huge cultural stuff going on there.  It's now been a month since that incident and two of the women are still not talking as a result of it.  I talked to the one woman who refused to teach and asked her why things happened the way they had.  She said that she was only joking but that the other woman took it seriously and that upset her.

The other women in the group say that it has to do with jealously and not wanting to teach someone else to be good at something.  I've done a few stories talking about the problem of jealously and forgiveness and I'm just praying that God will do something in these women's hearts.

I'm doing a fair amount of reflection about jealously and it's place in my own life.  I feel like it is so silly for this woman to not want to share her knowledge with the others.  It is a group project.  Why wouldn't she want to do her part to make it good for everyone?  And I wonder about myself and the things that I get jealous of.  Wouldn't it be better if I could just be excited about other's successes in order to make things better for everyone?  

Learning lots....please pray for these two women to start talking...and for wisdom to know how to deal with it.  Right now they are both making an effort to never be working in the same place at the same time.  

How to save tie-dying money

I've been working with these six women for over a year now.    Since the beginning the project has been owned by the group so at the end of each month the benefits are typically divided amongst the six of them.   I subtract about $2 per day of work that they have missed.

Last May I started selling enough fabric to pay each woman around $20/month.  This might not seem like a significant amount of money but to them it is.  One woman told me that she was using her money to pay her husband's hospital bill.   Another woman told me that she was using hers to buy rice for their family.

When I got back from Canada last summer the ladies told me that they wanted to do a tontine.  This is a method used to save money.  Each month the women pool their salaries and then rip up small pieces of paper with their names on it.  One woman gets all the salaries!  I was helping to manage this but it got too confusing for me as some would say "I'm in two hands...I'm in one hand" which means that they would be contributing either half or all of their money to the pool.

Right now I just give the women their money and they organize themselves with the pool.  They have invited several other women to be part of this tontine so that they can get more money.  They would rather get no money one month and then get one month with a larger amount.  If the women are not present for all their work days and do not have the amount of money that they promised to put into the pool then they are responsible for finding the means to do this-even if it means borrowing from others.

One of the things that I don't like about the tontine is that it makes me feel responsible for providing the women with their monthly salaries until the end of the tontine...ie...if there are eight women then they need eight months of work in order to fulfill their obligations.  Right now I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to do this...please pray for me to find someone who can help me manage this project.  Right now the present tontine will be completed at the end of July.  I am selling fabric and trying to make sure that I will have enough money to keep going until the end of July.