When I first met this group of women in May 2013, they were obviously not comfortable with me (and considering that I couldn't communicate with them in their language, no hard feelings), but hearing from my best friend, who worked with them, they were deeply divided by different community factions and skill levels. Here is a picture that I took of the their work in 2013:
So when I went back to see the samples of my clothes for our upcycling business, I was overcome by an excitement of how far they have come individually as embroiderers and as a group working together to learn new stitches, combine colors, and confront problems. Women who before were so shy to be proud of their work couldn't help but beam when I affirmed that they had truly done an amazing job! Here are pictures of the samples (yep, we already sold 2 of the pieces because they so are not samples!!):
