Girls and Dresses

One day, while wandering through the market in town, a duka (little  shop) filled with young women beckoned for me to come over to them.  So I went.  They are all seamstresses, and sew in this little wooden shop for about 10 hours a day.  There are 4 girls who are there every day, and sometimes they're joined by a younger girl who is apprenticing to be a seamstress, and when I'm there, usually several others who work nearby come to visit.  

These girls are super nice.  For the last 2 weeks, I've been going to sit with them every day in their duka for 30 minutes or an hour, just chatting.  I get to practice my Swahili, learn about life in Geita as a young woman, and make friends.  On my first visit, I discovered they were all Muslim, and that they were surprised that I, a Christian, would want to be friends with and help the people here, regardless of their religious beliefs and practices.  It makes me wonder what the other Christians in town are like that they would think this.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to develop deeper relationships with these girls that are also intentional in sharing God's love.  

They're very excited that I'm going to have a baby.  So excited that one of them decided to make me a maternity dress as a gift.  I was hoping you'd be able to see the whole dress in the picture, because it is something, but alas, no one around knew how to use a camera, so I just stuck my arm out and took it myself.  I would like to point out that I am not nearly so pasty in real life as this picture would indicate--I actually have a fairly decent tan.  So this is me with my first friends in Geita.