This is from Pretoria, South Africa.
After a day of shopping for summer pants and tops in a country where it is winter, even though the temperatures can be higher than 20 in the day time, I finally bought some bling-bum jeans. They have lots of shiny beads on the back pockets. I hadn't planned on buying jeans as they are so bulky to pack and take long to dry. Anyway, I decided that they should be hemmed and didn't feel like doing it. So, there is a fellow who sits under a tree and does sewing near the "Aroma" coffee shop where we often have coffee.. and Sheryl and Neil suggested that we take them there. He has a partner who fixes shoes. So, we took the jeans there. Only one of the team was there, I showed him the pants. He smiled and grunted and nodded that he could do the job but it wouldn't be done until the next morning. He took the pants and my bag. And that was that. I didn't get a tag or any indication of a claim ticket. So when we returned this morning, he was there and also his partner who was sewing. My pants were is a pile of sewing on the table. The shoe-fixing guy seemed to know which pants were mine and pointed them out to the sewing guy. The sewing machine was a Singer about the vintage of my Mom's when I was a child. He operated it using a crank thing on the side. He said he would do my jeans next, it would take about 20 minutes. We went to have coffee and the went back. He was just pressing the seams with his hands and indeed they were sewn quite nicely. George wanted to take a photo and the sewing guy said sure. He smiled and posed with delight. Then the shoe fixing guy said he was part of the team and wanted to be in the photo as well. So I said I would also be in the photo. There were many smiles and good will. Picture this a strip mall with lots of folks having lattes and cappuccinos and these two fellows sitting and sewing and fixing all day. Such are the contradictions of Pretoria and South Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment