I love sharing about my knitting team and all they inspire
in me. It’s amazing for me to experience how women who are incarcerated with
their children, can put forward their best face and truly give meaning to the
phrase “making the best out of any situation”.
One of my favorite knitters Alejandra is a young woman,
mother of 2 who is studying accounting while incarcerated. Her children don’t
know where she is, they have been told she is working abroad because Alejandra
does not want them to feel sad or scared.
When Alejandra first started work with us, I was amazed at
her perseverance. She clearly knew only basic knitting, but really wanted to be
a part of our team. The first piece she knit was a charcoal grey alpaca wrap, which she must have
re-done at least 5 times, because each time she felt it wasn’t quite perfect
enough. I loved her enthusiasm and the fact that she took it upon herself to
always to her best.
Two years later, she is not only one of my best knitters, but
also my go to person whom I count on to train the other girls, and keep the
quality of their work up to par. During this time, she has saved enough money to
buy herself a little private space within the jail, where she spends her day in
privacy, knitting, reading and making the best out of her situation. Her little
space is very clean, the walls are adorned with pretty wrapping paper, and all
of her possessions are neatly folded and stacked on a shelf. She has pictures
of loved ones on the wall beside her little bed, and a nice size TV and DVD
player where she has watched The Secret, Eat, Pray, Love and anything else I give her.
Her supposed release date was December 20th of
last year, but Bolivia is very bureaucratic and many signatures have to be signed,
papers get shuffled, put away and many times lost in translation. Therefore she
is still waiting for her release date, however lucky for us she will only be
moving a short drive away from the jail, and we have decided that she will
continue to work for Knitting Peace from the outside as well.
I am excited to experience her continued transformation, and
look forward to helping her along the journey.
~Namaste
