Qilasaaz gives them regular work

Qilasaaz gives them regular work, and some sense of independence. She makes notes on a new sleeve style for some beach tunics I want sewn from brightly striped cottons. Q: How do you stay healthy traveling to far-flung places like Kenya and India?What are your secrets? A: Usually, a week or two before departure, I step up a daily dose of sheep or goat yogurt to build up "friendly" bacteria in my digestive tract. Lemerketo, Mason, and I sit on folding camp chairs as his warriors grill a freshly slaughtered goat over wood. Great Value: India Taj Residency Lucknow A modern 110-room hotel near the Chowk street market for chikan embroidery. We drive out of the city across the broad Gangetic Plain, passing fields planted with wheat and lentils, drying dung heaps shaped like stupas, and faded brick temples. Two of the women, Peneten and Narika, nurse babies bundled close to their breasts. Climbing out of the cockpit, my friend Anna Mason, a safari guide and equine therapist, looks around at the vacant hills and decides we should probably be elsewhere. At mid morning, it is already 90 degrees. Seated on a raised platform, the women unpack steel tiffin boxes of curry, chapati, and rice. Getting Around East Africa safari experts Journeys by Design (212/568-7639; journeysbydesign. They begin a call-and-response journey song that wavers whenever we hit ruts in the unpaved road." She employs 45 women who earn between $200 and $400 a month on beaded piecework.C. We arrive at the weathered fort’s main gate, big enough for elephants to enter. Despite its Bollywood image, India remains a deeply conservative country when it comes to deportment and dress. The others duck their heads, trying to hide broad grins at my lack of dexterity. I begin to worry when no vehicle appears to be waiting for us. Ironically, the only time I’ve had health issues in remote places has occurred not from eating local dishes at street stalls but from eating in actual restaurants where I can’t see the food being prepared. Custom orders for Qilasaaz clothing, pillows, and napkins can be placed at qilasaaz. They teach me the Urdu words for each type of stitch: phanda (raised knots), jaali (pierced), and hath-kati (drawn-thread work). Inside the Haveli, by Rama Mehta, explores life in the women’s quarters of an aristocratic Hindu household. Plopping down against a bolster, I take a closer look at their threadwork.co. Now I like to seek out and collect other new talent. Trzebinski allays my concern about Priscilla’s change of heart. Unfinished tasks are folded away, and three women draw veils across their faces while others cover their heads. Unless her two sons find wives interested in adopting the custom, she may be the last rani in the family to practice the "protocol of the unseen. Where to Stay Kenya Lemarti’s Camp At this five-tent camp, hosts Anna Trzebinski and her Samburu husband, Loyapan Lemarti, arrange visits with beadworkers. Shop for woven accessories and home furnishings online or at The Textile Museum of Washington, D.org. Pointing to my upper arms, hands, and feet, the group nods yes each time.com. NUSPA Women farmers in northern Uganda process organic shea butter (nuspafairtrade. The only drawback when a family’s breadwinner happens to be a woman, rather than a husband, brother, or son, is surmounting—or circumventing—hidebound conceptions about who holds the purse strings. Gesturing to the quarters, Khan tells me, "This space is bigger than their houses. That’s when the negotiating kicks into high gear and we find a stack of jewelry and bags in our laps. 212/462-1167; como.com), FAO Schwarz (fao.com). And, it seems, the men are just as vain about their appearance as the women. His ancestral holdings include a massive 600-year-old fortress, where the family continues to observe purdah. Samana, who has a solemn face and graying hair, supervises Qilasaaz when Khan is away. Getting there British Airways has daily connecting flights to Nairobi and New Delhi from New York."   As we observe stragglers hurrying toward the workshop with red plaid shukas flying, Francombe tells me their jewelry is "like a diary. Afterwards, as I lie on the ground, covered in a thin wool shuka, the moonlight shines on my face. Retailers include Asia Society (asiasociety. Continental has a daily nonstop flight to New Delhi from Newark. These self-improvement initiatives have also started to afford some members certain freedoms that women in the West largely take for granted (such as choosing their own husbands). We talk about husbands, milking cows, schooling for the children. Capturing precisely 10 of these on a needle takes a ridiculous amount of time. Only Veronica, who wears intricate braids, has been as far as Nairobi; most have barely ventured to Sereolipi.bz. The novel emphasizes community and respect for elders rather than what Westerners would perceive as oppression. The sun drops down over the mountains, softening the harsh foliage to a tangled silhouette against the pale silver and rose sky." Bead colors and shapes have significance: green for grass or infants, red for blood or young women, white for purity. Sampiripiri The gift shop at Ol Malo in Laikipia carries bead and leather crafts made by Julia Francombe’s Sampiripiri collective.) To compensate, I collect. A petite woman with amber eyes and expressive hands that emphasize her points, Khan self-consciously crosses out the title of rani on her calling card. I can tell how many suitors she has had, how long she has been married, the sex of her children. Just acquired a patchwork quilt of old tribal dresses during a swing through Udaipur in Rajasthan.org.co.May 04, 2009 Landing at the wrong airstrip is excusable in the chartless desert of Kenya’s Northern Frontier.com), and Sue Fisher King (suefisherking. I am transfixed by the sayen enkwe (headdresses), stitched with leather and plastic buttons, on their shaved heads. Niki Beattie of Cox & Kings is an invaluable resource if you’re planning a trip to India (800/999-1758; coxandkingsusa. Samana and Bibi unfurl an intricately embroidered sari.) While we eat chickpea pakoras, Khan expresses nostalgia for an era when the Mahmudabad qila swarmed with aunts, grandmothers, in-laws, and cousins. Both in India and Kenya, these collectives are keeping alive two fragile cultures that are thousands of years old. This has nothing to do with financial or sexual freedom, and more to do with their increased ability to sustain an endangered way of life. (In Swahili, Mason politely asks them to point the gun outside the truck.   In a shaded chamber with heavy green doors left open to catch any slight breeze, the Qilasaaz ladies are seated on a white canvas–covered floor, bent over their stitching. As Kenyan-born Julia Francombe and I walk toward a beading workshop called Sampiripiri (Samburu for "butterfly"), at Ol Malo, her family’s farm on the edge of the Laikipia Plateau, she remarks, "Endangered animals get more funding than people here." Pointing to a woman wearing a harlequin collar, she continues, "There is a language to the beads. In the Samburu world, if you make more money, it means you can help a wider circle of relations, not put your earnings away for a rainy day. His friend Dominic has an equally flashy bead necklace with a bow-tie motif. Thea (Thread of Hope for Economic Advancement) Founded by clinical social worker Marie de la Soudiere, this sewing cooperative in Manila’s Penafrancia barrio makes cotton nightgowns, children’s clothing, and a collection of resort wear sold at COMO Hotels and Resorts." Khan emphasizes that all proceeds go directly to the younger members. Part of Khan’s mission is to preserve a Lucknowi embroidery technique called chikan. We talk about her motivation for founding Qilasaaz. Mason and I are careful to pick something from everyone in the group, even though the skill levels vary, as there is no singling out of talent in Samburu culture.   Q: Can any traveler visit these collectives?What is your best advice for meeting the women who make these beautiful crafts?   A: Others can certainly visit some of these collectives (Sampirirpiri and Thorntree), although not the Qilasaaz ladies in Mahmudabad, who observe purdah, which is designed to protect their modesty and privacy. Facing her, I ask if it would help to pay the original amount for her necklace and she brightens. Mason admires a pair of tanned goatskin bags and asks the price. Q: Is there a handicraft you’ve always wanted to learn?If so, what? A: I learned to sew and knit and crochet (all badly) as a child. She also convinces me to visit neighboring Ndonyo Wasin, near the Matthews Range, where the locals living in mud-hut manyattas (villages) produce colorful bracelets made of glass beads and recycled tire rubber. Ol Malo Four guest cottages and a six-bedroom villa sit on a 3,000-acre ranch. The local government administrator, he invites us to ride in the truck, which belongs to Jane Newman, a retired ad executive from Britain who worked in New York. The pilot radios for directions. Jacob, who purchases their trade beads, translates our conversation." An Oxford grad, Francombe started a charitable trust during a severe drought in 2000 as a way of supporting her neighbors, who were starving as their livestock died of thirst. Shu Uemura Depsea facial spray for perking up dry skin during long-haul flights.