I am in Kisumu with a wifi connection, so can now do a blog post. But even with wifi, it is a long and tedious process. This post took over an hour to load. But I am not complaining–it is so much better than my first year here when I had to find a functional cyber cafe in Bondo (not at all easy) to send an email. Even in remote Matangwe now I have 3G and can connect to home every day. It makes such a difference.
We have finished our first week of rug hooking in Matangwe. There are about 16 women in the classes, some who have returned from last year and some new. We started with a small piece and then moved on to a trivet with a local bird. As I escplained last year, we hook without frames. We are hooking with a big bag of woollen strips which I brought–left over pieces from years of rug hooking. The pile has lasted us all week. Here is the group hard at work.
I brought several issues of Rug Hooking magazine and they are serving as a great source of inspiration. My hope this year is that each rug hooker will create a piece of her own design. Already some of the women have finished the first two pieces and begun an original design. 
So glad for WiFi. I’m glad to see those happy faces! Thanks for the update.
Beautiful! Hooking without frames or hoops is quite an accomplishment. The bird is lovely.
So glad to see your post today. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. Not easy at all to hook without a frame and yet they are doing a wonderful job with each of the pieces. I hope they’re having fun, too.
Ahhhhh, it looks like everyone is very much enjoying your lessons 😉
These are beautiful pictures, Christine. The “rugs” look great! Love the bird. Everyone looks very engaged. Thanks for sharing these moments. Cheers, Gail
Hi Christine! I just thought I would check in on you via the blog world and it’s so nice to see you’re back in Kenya. I hope you’re having a wonderful time, meeting lots of new friends and gathering up warm, sunny inspiration. Lots of warm wishes from Montreal.