 | I joined Maryna Heese of the Fancy Stitch Project for tea at her centre “tea garden”. What a breath of fresh air! Maryna is one of life’s amazing and special people. She is a dreamer and visionary with a strong faith that enables her to carry it off despite MANY battles.
Fancy Stitch is an income generation project for poor and generally HIV infected women who earn some money doing the most amazing embroidery under Maryna’s tutelage. She is clearly a very talented artist and gifted teacher and currently has over 400 women in the project.
About two years ago Maryna managed to acquire a derelict and dilapidated trading store that was regarded as a local den of iniquity for what went on there. She saw it as a possible base for the project and, after a service to exorcise the evil spirits, systematically set out in faith to achieve her dreams for the project. She spelled these out to me a couple of years ago as we wondered through the dirty, broken building and thoroughly overgrown and unkempt fields outside. She envisioned attractive and comfortable work rooms for the women, a tea garden and accompanying art gallery for displaying their work to tourists (why they would come I didn’t know as Ingwavuma sits on top of a mountain range at the end of a potholed road that goes nowhere …), accommodation for visitors, a room for worship, etc, etc. ….
Well, she is well on her way. I joined her for tea and a “game mince pancake and chutney” under a beautiful bougainvillea arbor and then took a stroll through the really impressive gallery that has been created. There she showed me some of the many really beautifully embroidered works of art on display, as well as pieces that they will be taking to England next month for an exhibition at the Brunei gallery at University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. This is quality stuff and it will be on exhibition for three months.
What makes this whole thing even more amazing is that the women who create these works, do so in the most isolated and impoverished of circumstances, literally outside their hut in the middle of nowhere. The artwork that they produce is clearly authentic and theirs, with Maryna only acting as their mentor and inspiration. It is amazing and inspirational stuff!
Written by Brian Gray who is an Education Consultant and an occasional visitor to the Ingwavuma area.
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