The past couple of weeks I have been volunteering at the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, South Africa. Four talented women beaders from the centre’s Woza Moya income generation project were asked to re-create the Christmas décor for a shopping mall in Durban. Giant Christmas baubles were hand beaded by the women and put in display cases at the main mall entrance. Posters of the women with their masterpieces and a message to the public of what Christmas meant to each lady were plastered on the walls and put in the mall flyers. The women also crafted wire and beaded balls, trees, angels and stars to hang on the Christmas tree next to Father Christmas in centre court. Just before Christmas the four ladies were invited to the shopping centre to see their beaded work on display. I went along to film and take photos.
Dressed in their traditional Zulu outfits the four women, Gogo’s daughter, Paula and I piled into a five seater car! Three of the five women were a little large and to make matters worse their traditional skirts are lined with cardboard and stuffed, adding “desirable” inches to their backsides and severely limiting their mobility. After several attempts Gogo and her tall hat went into the passenger seat on an angle with her daughter stuffing her in as if she was packing a suitcase! Gloria and I went in the trunk and the other three women sardined themselves into the back seat! Every car that passed us on route to Durban honked their horn. `
We parked on the roof and our journey into the mall began with a long escalator ride down. Paula and I hopped on without thinking that these women had never been on an escalator before and there was a lot of squealing! Paula ran up to rescue Gogo and Tholakele did a run and jump off! We received much publicity and the women got so excited! A few people approached them and asked if it was them that were modeling in the huge hanging posters. The women received certificates of appreciation and posed for lots of photos, including with Father Christmas. The look on scrawny Santa’s face was priceless when these five women wanted to sit on his lap at once!! After being paraded around the mall as celebrities we took the women for lunch at Wimpy Burger (the equivalent to Burger King). The women made fun of Nokuthula because she had never used a knife and folk before and Gloria had to call all her friends and let them know that she was having lunch at a fancy restaurant in a hotel.
They were so happy and proud and we laughed until our bellies hurt. Spending the day at the mall with these beautiful and gifted women was best Christmas present I could have ever asked for. Above are the women’s Christmas messages and below are some pictures of our day.
Merry Christmas
All my love,
Erin
