Laura Stehle has shared her most recent experiences in Haiti with many of us. It is apparent that her passion towards the Haiti project has been enhanced greatly by her latest mission trip to Haiti.  She has some embroidered linen cloth that has a marvelous story attached to it. 

It deals with the women of Haiti who live a life that has many hardships. The sisters have been assisting the women in a needlepoint project.  This one young lady (picture attached) in this group wanted to participate, but could not quite get the knack of how to properly produce the embroidered  linen.  She was getting frustrated and almost gave up, until she heard that she some money could be made by selling these cloths in the U.S. Once she heard this, she kept bugging the other women for guidance, she finally spent enough time at it to finally help with their project. One would think that is a nice end to the story. 

However Laura then relates how the sisters wash and iron the linens.  It is not like you throw them in the washer , then into the drier with a softener sheet, plug in the iron and complete the job.  There is no electricity.  Washing
clothes is done the way our great great grandparents might have done it, when the pump went bad.  Line drying of the cloths is slow it the damp weather.  The iron must be filled with charcoal and it appears quite cumbersome. Each cloth ironed is a job of great effort.  The plan was to sell many of these cloths at the OMOS Arts and crafts fair.  Laura did not have the heart to tell them that the Arts and Crafts fair has been put on hold for at least a year.

If you would like to assist, Laura has several of these cloths that she brought back with her.  They are for sale (this is not a solicitation) if you would like for $10 each.  It seems that even a simple craft project in Haiti takes on a whole new life of its own