Explanation for photographs.

Tonight I received the following email from Yaso, in reply to my query about her photos.  Before she left, she said she was going to try to photograph each baby with its mother and the quilt they received.  This explains why that did not happen, and I know all our quilt donors will understand!

Gina, it was not possible to photograph each person with the quilt. Sorry. So many people came and then the Elders called out to those who were going to receive the quilts.  And I had thought that  I could photograph each person, but it was raining.  And so many people around, more than 500 - and then everyone wanting to talk to me and so forth. It took me so much effort to get everyone back together to get the group photo. 

Another 30 quilts - still in another village and they took it up by walking. But I could not get there as the bridge was swept away by landslide and rain. It would have meant walking for 15 hours.  So will do so next visit. The quilts will wait there until I get there. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph each one.

First lot of quilts delivered safely.

Yaso arrived home in Melbourne last Monday, exhausted, sick, but happy that she had achieved her mission of distributing our quilts to the natives of the PNG Patea tribe.  She has emailed me these photos, and a brief explanation, but I don't know if there will be any more to come.
Some of you might be able to recognise your quilts if you enlarge the photos.

Hi Gina,

I am sending though some photos and hope they don't take up too much space. Will try sending in a couple of emails.

I gave out the quilts in three remote villages - Oiwa, Akwanje and Yakepa (Morobe Province) . We could not travel up to Yakepa as the road had fallen away or what were the remnants of a road ) and we could not take the risk.  But a few people walked down (took them 9 hours) and then they carried one box of the quilts back. It will remain the box until I get there next time as they want me to be there when we give it to the babies.

We picked up the quilts in Lae (small town) and then drove 4 hours to Wau and then from there nearly 16 hours to get into the two villages.

The quilts were well received and people were so happy. But need to chat with you after the challenges of getting them up. The boxes took up space in the truck and we had great difficulty with trying to carry them in plastics - as the drive is too rough. But will chat soon and talk through some ideas. 

Love,

Yaso

First lot of quilts on their way.

I received an email today from Yaso and am printing it here for the benefit of the quilt donors who wish to keep track of what is happening:

Gina,

the quilts are on-board the ship and on their way to PNG. Brilliant.

I will collect them on the 9th January 2014 - when I get there and take them up to the villagers.

regards
yaso



Dr. Yaso Nadarajah
Senior Research Fellow ( Globalism Research Center) & Lecturer
School of Global, Urban and Social Studies

Quilts on their way to PNG.

Seventy four quilts and bunny rugs are now on the first leg of the journey to the babies of Patea, Papua New Guinea. Yaso and her husband came to our place last night and collected them all. I'd packed them up into bags, and they just fitted into the back seat of their car. Yaso now has to organise for them all to be transported to Brisbane by next Wednesday, when they will be put into a container along with other goods, and shipped to PNG. She was very fortunate to have contact with a businessman who is willing to include the quilts in his container of commercial products, free of charge.

When she arrives there on January 9th, Yaso will collect the quilts from her agent and take them up into the hills to be distributed among the native tribes. The natives know about this and are looking forward to seeing our quilts, and Yaso will have one of her students with her to record the giving of each quilt to a mother and baby. She will pass these photos on to me, and I'll be able to publish them on this blog, so everyone can see who has received the quilt/s they have so kindly made.

I already have another four quilts still to be finished off, and more donations are in the pipeline. Yaso will be going to PNG again later next year, and will be able to take the next batch of quilts then.

December 13. Six quilts from Melody in Vic.

Melody of The House On The Hill made these gorgeous cheerful quilts and her hubby delivered them to my place on her behalf - thank you both!

December 3. One quilt from Missouri USA.

This was a surprise, as I don't recall having an email from this lady before, so maybe she got my details from a friend.  Bonnie Harris in Missouri, USA sent this beautiful cot quilt.

Something that makes a donation from the USA even more special is the cost of shipping - in this case it was $18.60, which is a lot of money to post one quilt across the world for donation to a third world country.  Thank you very much, Bonnie - your quilt will be greatly appreciated.

Another quilt from Gina.

I've had this sitting around for a month, waiting to be finished, and today was The Day. Now that I've got this one done, I'll start on some more. I've had so much fabric donated to me, I want to put it to good use now that I've got a new machine which is much faster than my old one. No excuse to dilly dally now!