Mondo's volunteers in Uganda: Õmblemise ärist. / Tailoring business.

Õmblejatega koos ringi liikumine on toonud mitmeid põnevaid tegevusi ja avastusi siinse tekstiilitööstuse ja sellega seonduva kohta. Esiteks on selgeks saanud paljud uued kohad, kus kangaid müüakse ning parimaid neist on üles kirjutatud ja meelde jäetud. Huvitav, et siin on peamiselt ikkagi nii, et samat tüüpi kaupa müüvad poed koonduvad kokku ja moodustavad teatud keskused, nt on kesklinnas kõikvõimalikke elektritarvikuid tulvil Energy Center, Majestic Plaza on õige koht pärlite ja käsitöötarvikute ostmiseks ning mitmed tekstiilikeskused on tihedalt pakitud kahe tänava ümber. Väljastpoolt tundub, et tegu on vaid paari poega, kuid iga maja on tegelikult omaette labürint, kus kõik müüjad sind tooteid vaatama kutsuvad (hello sister, come and have a look, welcome, do you want some kitenge etc). Kui paar korda oled ostlemas käinud, siis tekivad mingid kindlad poed, kus on hea valik ja toredad müüjad, kes pakuvad kaupa mõistliku hinnaga. Eriti rahulik ja mõnus oli materjale osta koos õmblejate projekti Winniega, kes karkudel ees kõndis ja mina ning Liina aitasime asju kanda ja materjale valida. Teda saates oli meie suunas palju vähem hõikeid ja mõttetut tähelepanu. Üksi ostma minnes juhtub ikka, et tavahinnast 25 000 - 35 000 saab järsku 60 000 ning sel juhul olen nii mõnigi kord lihtsalt head aega öelnud, sest kes ikka pikalt kauplema ja seletama hakata viitsib. Mingis mõttes on topelthinna küsimine ka kuidagi lugupidamatu. Eriti kui ma luganda keelt kasutades kauplen ning teatan, et ma õiget hinda nagunii tean. Kangamüüjad on omakorda spetsialiseerunud – on eraldi poed kitenge, gomezi-materjalide, ülikonnariide ja tööriietuse jaoks. Kõikide kangapoodide läheduses on pidevalt kuulda õmblusmasinate surinat ja õmblejatega on kohati täidetud ka kõige pisemad nurgatagused.

Lisaks õmblusmaterjalidele pidin end kurssi viima õmblusmasinate äri ja hindadega. Selgus, et peamiselt ostetakse siin Aasiast teisele ringile saabunud õmblusmasinaid, hind vahemikus 350-500 tuhat šillingit (1 euro = 3400 kohalikku raha). Hinda mõjutab peamiselt see, kas masin teeb ka siksakki ja veelgi keerulisemaid õmblusi ning kas õmblusmasinaga on kaasas laud ja mootor. Uuena müüakse Singeri inimjõul töötavaid masinaid, mis on ilmselt toodetud Hiinas. Õmblejate jaoks masinaid otsides leidsime lõpuks odava ja hea lahenduse Bluesky koolis oleva nelja õmblusmasina töökorda seadmise näol. Kuna Bluesky saab elektrit vaid paari päikesepaneeli kaudu, siis polnud koolil naguni võimalik elektrilisi masinaid kasutada. Parandamine läks kokku maksma vist umbes 300 000 ja nüüd on meil poes neli töötavat õmblusmasinat.

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Moving around together with the tailors has brought along many interesting activities and discoveries regarding the textile and tailoring industry in Uganda. Firstly, I have learned about many new places for finding good fabrics and the important shops have been written down and memorized. Interestingly the shops are mostly organized so that similar businesses are all located in one place, e g there is the Energy Center for all kinds of eletrical materials, Majestic Plaza is the place for buying beads and pearls and other handicraft things (+ men who do your nails located on the ground floor) and many textile centers are packed tightly around two streets in downtown. From the outside it looks as if there were only a few shops but after entering the building one discoveries that every house is a labyrinth where all salespersons try to convince you to buy their products (hello sister, come and have a look, welcome, do you want some kitenge etc). After shopping there a few times you locate some shops that have good variety, reasonable prices, and friendly salespersons. One of the best experiences was to go fabric shopping together with teacher Winnie from the women's project. She walked in front on crutches and me and Liina followed her along the lines of shops helping to choose materials and carry the shopping bags. While accompanying her we felt a lot less shouting and unnecessary attention around us. While moving around on your own, it still happens that the usual price of 25 000 – 35 000 for 6 yards of fabric turns suddenly into 60 000 and in that case I have often just left the shop because the bargaining and explaining would take too long. In some ways this kind of asking for a double price is also a bit disrespectful. Especially when I am bargaining in Luganda and state clearly that I know the real price anyway. The fabric shops have also specialized further – there are separate places for buying kitenge, materials for gomezis, for suits and so on. The surroundings of fabric shops are always filled with humming of the sewing machines and tailors with sewing machines have been squeezed into tiniest corners possible.

Besides textiles I also had to learn a lot about the sales and prices of sewing machines. Apparently the sewing machines sold in downtown Kampala are all brought in second hand from Asia. The prices vary between 350 000 and 500 000. The main factors affecting the price being the different stitches (they call it 'designs' here) the machine can make and whether it has a table and/or motor included. Only new machines I saw were manual Singer machines that are most probably also manufactured in China. While still searching for sewing machines for the tailors, we came across an easier and cheaper solution – getting four sewing machines from Bluesky. Due to having only solar energy, Bluesky was not using these machines anyway and we could repair four instead of buying one.