Follow That Yarn, Part 2
How an unexpected contact, a new relationship, and a day full of art and connection led to the opportunity to send 25+ skeins of yarn and a dozen crochet hooks from Boston to Uganda
Welcome friends, old and new! If you are new here, welcome to The Creative Convergence where essays, stories, and art come together to shift perspectives and transform our experience of ourselves, our communities and the world. Read more on my About page.
This post is a follow up to a post from May 2024 called “Follow That Yarn: How Saying Yes Opens Doors and Creates Opportunity and Meaning in Life.”
Some things in life are completely unpredictable, unimaginable, and incomprehensible. It’s only by looking backwards along the path that we have already tread that we can ever make out how we got to where we are today. As a trusted advisor has told me more than once, you can only know where you’ve been and how you got there by looking at the wake behind the boat.
Today I had a “Creative Convergence” moment. A moment that was the cumulative result of staying on a path guided by my heart and marked by many new relationships and new-found community. Today was a day I could have never have dreamed or imagined.
Before I jump in to the experience, I want to dig just a little deeper into using our crafting experiences with a ball of yarn as a metaphor for how we approach life.
To Frog, Forge, or Follow…
If you knit or crochet, you know that there is a time to “frog” a work in progress (unravel it, start over, fix it, or put it aside).
There’s also a time to just forgive and forget; let the mistake live within the work, and forge ahead.
Then there are other times when you can’t even get started because the skein of yarn you have in your hand is… well… “f’d”. Ahem, tangled. So you start working on it, pulling one strand, untangling another, slowly pulling on one, then, the other, twisting (sometimes shaking, although that never seems to work) until it is untangled. Only then, once you’ve sat with the tangled situation, can you unravel, untwist, and follow the yarn clearly to start creating again.
I’ve been in this exploratory, “follow-that-yarn” phase for some time. By working through the tangled knots of the skein of life, I am starting to find my way. I’m starting to build new relationships and create again after a long isolated and fallow period.
In my May 2024 essay called “Follow That Yarn: How Saying Yes Opens Doors and Creates Meaning in Life” I used the tangled skein of yarn as a metaphor for accepting what life offers. I talked about how pulling on a string or thread can lead us to places we never imagined. My mantra then was and now still is: Follow that yarn, say yes, doors will open.
Over the last few months, I’ve wound my way through a labyrinth of experiences, following my heart and saying yes when it feels right. As a result, I’ve:
Returned to my crochet practice…
…while raising thousands of dollars for a friend in Kenya to finish a house and install a rainwater tank; to raise funds I crocheted dozens of cross-body water bottle holders.
Shared my love for crochet…
…via Zoom crochet-a-longs with the Nakivale Women’s Crochet Collective in Uganda and
of GoGreen Social Initative, finding communion with women half way round the world over the simple act of yarning over and pulling through.Reignited my love for drawing…
…while organizing and co-hosting the June 1st online Young Artist Expo with Elijah and a new friend
of Nakivale Young Talent Community which led to launching the Refugee Artist Support Circle.
And, revisited my writing and portrait practice…
…by starting my second Substack called RainMakers & ChangeMakers where I interviewed, wrote stories about, and drew 61 portraits of people doing incredible work in the areas of permaculture, climate change mitigation, art, and education in Africa, including Nakivale Women’s Craft Collective Crochet Head Trainer, Neema Chiribuka as well as Matendo Nzika and Elsa Lilienfeld of the Dolls & Lions Project in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
All of this leads to today’s “Creative Convergence” Moment where Uganda, Boston, Yarn & Art Came Together
Today I drove south towards Boston, got off on an exit I never take, and picked up Emmanuel, the 29-year old founder of the 6-year old youth arts education organization in Kampala, Uganda called Faces Up Uganda. This meeting was only possible because I had said yes many times over the last several months to a wide variety of people and opportunities… and had made a conscientious efforts to connect with Emmanuel. The number of affirmative statements I made to reach this day were too numerous to count. To his credit, he also was open to communicating, meeting, and collaborating. We were both curious and followed the yarn.
I had initially reached out to Emmanuel in hopes we could collaborate on youth arts in Nakivale Refugee Settlement. It just so happened that for most of July and August he was in the United States on a Mandela Washington Fellowship (which only accepts 700 candidates out of 700,000 applicants). He would be in Boston for a short period of time.
That short period of time included today. So we set up an artist date!
I invited him on an art journey. He said yes.
Because both Emmanuel and I are artists, it seemed natural that we integrate art into our meeting. I offered to take us to a free workshop at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge led by Boston-based artist Ayana Mack, whose current body of work called “Ode to Relationships” is on exhibit.
We created mixed media pieces together, got to know one another, and learned about Ayana’s process and inspiration…
We had simple materials and tools: crayons, magazines, glue, and Crayola paints and markers. No matter! We worked on our art across from one another and beside other participants. Mine focused on communication and stoking the fire that comes from convergence (I wrote and pasted the letters of the word “convergence”). His was in direct response to one of Ayana’s works on relationships, taking apart and putting back together bodies with a focus on healing.
Returning to the Yarn…
While all of this art was going on, what sat in the trunk of my car were three large bags of (mostly cotton) yarn and nearly a dozen crochet hooks, ready for Emmanuel to stuff in his bag and bring back to the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. There, close to 30 refugee women - many of them single mothers - anxiously await those supplies to learn how to crochet!
When the opportunity had presented itself to meet with Emmanuel, who was traveling back in a few weeks to Uganda, I had asked if he could return with some supplies from me for my friends in Nakivale. He had graciously agreed. There was room in his bag. So I did it!
I grabbed as many skeins as he was willing to take from my closet and gave it to him to stuff in his bag for the plane ride home. I also sent back with him a set of colored pencils and brushes for the Nakivale Young Talent Community artists.
Currently there are nearly 30 women, many of them single teenage mothers, learning basket making skills while they await the crochet hooks and yarn coming from the USA. Here they are learning to make baskets. Next up crochet 101 and then jewelry and bag making.
Sending Yarn Versus Sending Money
Sending yarn back with Emmanuel was a unique opportunity that does not come along often! So, when I’m not able to send phyiscal supplies in someone’s luggage to Uganda, how do I usually help? I send money.
Even so, buying yarn in Uganda is challenging. Kampala, the major city (and capital), is a day-long bus trip from the Refugee Settlement and usually requires a two-night stay before returning, making the trip expensive. But, that is the best option we have.
Five Dollars: One Skein of Yarn = Monthly Income for a Refugee in Uganda
Yarn is ubiquitous for the most part and relatively inexpensive to buy in the United States. A decent size skein of yarn costs anywhere between USD $3-$10 depending upon size and material. A skein of yarn is roughly the same price in Uganda. The only difference is the availability of resources to purchase yarn. The women who live in he Nakivale Refugee Settlement (many refugees from the war-torn Democractic Republic of Congo) receive a monthly stipend of only $5 per month. On top of that, many of them are single, having lost their husbands to the conflict. Or, they have been shunned from their family after having a child out of wedlock (this is another story; COVID kept many young women at home, putting many young women at risk of unwanted pregnancy).
Five dollars is not only not enough to live on, much less afford the cost of yarn. It’s nearly impossible for these women - many of whom are single mothers with young children - to find any means of employment in the Settlement. Crafting is one way. And, subsidizing the cost of yarn, at least for training and to get them started crafting, is a grea option.
Some of the women are already advanced enough to train others; they have been working on ponchos, soap sacks and “hand socks” (wash cloths closed on one end) with the yarn that I have helped them purchased from Kampala. The question now becomes, who will buy their work?
The yarn I gave Emmanuel today will return with him to Kampala, Uganda later this month and be picked up by Elijah Astute who will take the day-long trip to pick up said yarn and take another day-long trip back to the Settlement. There, back in the Settlement, the yarn will land in the hands of nearly 30 women who have signed up for a crochet class.
After seeing Emmanuel hold and squeeze the yarn I gave him, especially the cotton yarn, I knew this was special. “We don’t have this kind of yarn in Uganda,” he said.
I can’t wait to see what the women make with the yarn I sent. And, I look forward to more crochet-a-long Zooms with new members of the Nakivale Women’s Crafter Collective in the near future.
How You Can Help
The cost for one individual to participate in the BasketMaking, Crochet, and Handcrafts training is $15. Should you be interested in “sponsoring” a woman’s participation, you can make a donation here to the GoFundMe site that I manage on behalf of the group for this training. These women will also be participating in a Permaculture Design Certificate course to be held in November 2024 which will help them learn how to garden and address their food security needs.
Creative Convergence Conversations
I want to leave you with a question or two everytime I write here. I’m thinking of these as “creative convergence” conversations and I hope you’ll join in!
Are you frogging, forging ahead or following that yarn?
Regardless of whatever you are doing - whether its frogging (fixing, backtracking, putting aside), forging ahead (letting go of imperfections and moving forward), or following that yarn (untangling the skein of life), I hope you won’t let go of that yarn (at least metaphorically)! You never know where it will take you and who might need it more than you!
What yarn or thread are you following in your life today that is making life more rich and meaningful for you?
All of my outward activity the last few months is not energy that I sustain throughout the year. This expansive, outward facing phase that I’m experiencing now was preceded by a very deep, prolonged, contraction over the fall and winter months; an inward focused phase of about six months where all of the threads I followed were into the center of the Labyrinth. I said yes to my need to retreat, read, write and conduct an internal exploration. I said yes to those callings and had equally deep, rich and meaningful experiences. No one type of energy - be it inward, outward or in between - is more valuable than any other.
What sort of energy are you currently experiencing? And, how are you responding in the affirmative to the things you need to make your life more rich and meaningful to you?
Thank you for reading!
I’m heading to New York City this week for the
International screening of the documentary of “The Spirit of Ubuntu.” I hope to be sharing that experience here next week! Another creative convergence to celebrate!
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Nice read. I’m glad there are people doing good in this world
This was such a lovely read, and it's wonderful to see the unexpected path led you to such a great place! Knitting and crochet have such power to bring us together and teach skills that'll carry us through a lifetime. I know my readers will love seeing your essay, so I've shared this with them in my Thursday post.