Machine Lady

We just sent our second machine home with a woman yesterday.
In the middle of a very busy day
And a lot of stress due to the cutting guy not keeping his pattern info up to date so a few random things cropping up on work... indigo people running late.... Weaver going a bit rogue with two and a half thousand metres of cloth...leaving us scrambling to see if we can make it suit. Gggggrrrrrrr in other words

There was this gem

So I am taking a moment to re-live it.
Mrs L  spent 2 weeks in the workshop training on the machine a while ago.... then we were away.. she was sick... we were away... yesterday was the first day our stars aligned and we could hand the machine over and send her home with a big bag of sari yarn to assemble.
She is a little shy and always quiet when at the workshop, sweet though.
Yesterday she was bold and grabbed our hand to say thank you for the opportunity.
I almost cried. I am relieved to have another person on machine, elated it is a woman but really was just rushing through a busy day.
I didn't really ever think about how it might be at the other end.
Think if you become a widow with 3 kids... you have a supportive family and roof over your head but there is no government help for you, your in laws work like crazy to keep their kids in school etc.... how difficult to make ends meet.
3 small kids, needing to be at home to look after then and so few job opportunities especially home based.
I've been there but had the back up of a meagre govt pension ....
Anyway I think it brought a bright light to her day. It definitely did for Praveen and I. 
Happy days.
Makes me hope we may have participated in a butterfly effect moment.

Actually if you move past the stress factors and just use them as opportunities to improve the system ( might need to suggest this to myself a number more times yet!)

It was a pretty amazing day really.
--Our wonderful volunteer was creating more order and wonderfulness and then was like a kid in a chocolate factory raiding the black silk basics we used in our fashion parade.
--Friends visited from France and spent the day playing blockprint and raiding the sari stash....repaid with an impromptu exhibition of the beautiful work created from their last raid of the sari stash.
--Stitching Ladies came through
--Met a woman who has moved into the other end of our village onto her grandma's farm wanting to set up a community centre focusing on sustainable practices and training centre for locals. Float idea of organics, recycling, income generation. How cool is that?
Hmmm mm warm and fuzzies to you.