Last day of training before Water Festival

So yesterday was the 7th day of training and the last before a week long break. Today is a holiday for the 5th year anniversary of the current King's coronation, tomorrow is a holiday for the former King's birthday and Monday-Wednesday are off for the Water Festival. Cambodia has the most national holidays of any country in the world except for Sri Lanka. Not for me though! The knitters have come in for a couple days of sewing together finger puppets are we are way behind!

The training has been going really well. One knitter has quit.... she just could not understand. She tried really hard the first week and I had really hoped she would keep fighting on, but she decided she wouldn't be able to do it. Of the rest of the knitters, about 4 or 5 are exceptionally good and pretty much ready to start making things for us! The rest are doing really well, but still have some problems like rowing out, twisting stitches or not doing the decreases correctly. When we go back next week, we'll focus on those that need to improve their technique and we'll bring some plastic eyes and tapestry needles so everyone can finish what they've made and have some finished products to be proud of. They can give these to their children or as presents or keep or whatever they want. There are also dozens of pairs of booties around and I'm going to contact the national hospital and see if we can't donate them to newborns from poor families.

The last of the sponsored knitter photos... I think. If you're a sponsor and you haven't seen a photo of your knitter, send me an email.

Mao Mun sponsored by Melanie Aswell.

Sok Mei sponsored by Vivian Nguyen.
Leong Ratana sponsored by Lynn Walma.

Ven Thy sponsored by Laurel Dougherty-Seto.