Tailor

So Friday afternoon, after Susans work was complete, we wandered around downtown Eldoret. We visited a new shop in town, the Rivatex Factory Store. I visited and toured the Rivatex factory a couple if years ago. They manufacture fabrics, from raw cotton all the way to bolts of dyed and printed fabrics.

We then visited a souvenir shop we know well. While there, I asked if he knew a tailor who might make a shirt for me and a dress for Susan. He was happy to recommend a nearby merchant and introduced us. We talked about what we wanted, when, how much fabric would be needed, and cost.

We agreed to try it and went back to Rivatex, bought 6 meters of fabric at 110 ksh per meter (about $8.25 total). Then back to the tailor with our fabric. The tailor shop is small and crowded with both workers and customers. All the workers were men, cutting and sewing away. Susan noted that a similar shop nearby was almost empty. We hope that's a good sign that our recommendation was good!

One photo here shows notes for Susan before taking her measurements. For my name, he wrote "Kyle" which is not a name used in Kenya. The name "Susan" is more common here for someone's given Christian name. So for her, he wrote "Susan (Mzungu)" which means "white person". We thought it funny that he wrote it but it may help distinguish her order from other customers.