EATING ON THE FLOOR

Going to describe what it was like to eat in a home in the "back of beyond"of Asia. Our the NGO friends ate in similar fashion, though their foods were somewhat less regional & often were recipes from their own ethnic backgrounds. That's me having lunch on the floor at our friend's home. I know. It looks like a picnic.

Shoes always removed just inside the door.

Wooden floors always painted a rusty red.

Most meals were eaten on the floor.

Cloth/blanket spread on floor of largest room .

Corbagges (long rectangular pads) & pillows around perimeter.

Same cultural delights served at each gathering.

Tea brewed with loose tea leaves.

Usually first cup poured & then poured back into teapot.

Then tea is poured for everyone.

Dishes of nuts, dried fruit, raisons & candies.

Meat & onion filled pastries, little cakes, cookies.

Piled up fruit - persimmons, pommagranets, apples, tangerines.

Flat round bread called 'non', torn and handed around to the guests.

Sometimes the national dish is also served, osh:

Rice, meat and vegetables cooked in a very, very large pot.

(Photo blurred for privacy & yes they are holding the Muhalleh quilt)

A grapevine in our friend's yard. It seemed everyone had a grapevine. Dried raisons are in abundance - stems always left on.

ROADSIDE COLOR

A little sidebar for 2 days to tell you about the food. But before I take you to one of the many 'sit down on the floor' meals we had...let me take you to a colorful fresh fruit & vegetable bazaar along side the main road. Many of these fruits and breads were served at every meal.

(Any photo can be clicked on to enlarge.)

When our NGO friend stopped to shop, I also hopped out in hopes of getting some local color shots. The people were very happy to have their pictures taken. They just wanted to see what I captured on my digital camera screen. Easy enough.

The traditional flat bread in this region of the world is called non. Piles of non were sold everywhere. I wondered who was going to buy it all! How much bread could people eat?!!

As far as the fruit goes, there was an amazing abundance of persimmons (different varieties even) and pomegranets for sale. We had some fresh pomegranet juice. Tasted as fresh as eating the seeds right out of the fruit. The pears being white were very unusual looking.

Tomorrow - let's sit down & eat!

"I WANT TO LIVE THERE."

So everytime we showed the Mahalla quilt, there were wordless expressions of surprise, delight, embracing, ahhhs and great big smiles!

With her hand at her chest, one woman said, "It feels close."

Another said, "This (one) is ours."

A young woman looked in wonder at the quilt and turning to me said, "I'm speechless!"

After hearing about the 3 golden houses being an encouraging, healthy mahalleh to live in, one woman put her hand by that area and said in earnest, "I want to live there."

I love to standing to the side to let others tell the story of my quilts in the local language. I've done this in Asia, Africa & the Pacific Rim. Here it was happening again. In 2 of the photos I am off to the side, watching and listening, just where I like to be, letting the quilt 'speak' through others.

In one group creative ideas were thrown around for other, simpler ways to picture the story. Inspired by a book of collages I had shown earlier, one of our new friends quickly drew the mahalleh scene, folded it acordion style into a little book & handed it to me. Wow! And I love the fox! (pictured)

Why did this quilt work so well? An expat, though having never visited their country, created their style of houses, on their street, their mahalleh, & their culture. Even their traditional ethnic fabric, Atlas, was designed into the quilt. They were amazed, delighted, encouraged and honored by this quilt. Photographs, fabric scraps, thoughtful content and a little creatively made it happen. It brought me great joy to see the joy it brought to all who saw it.

HOPE IN THE MAHALLA part 2

Going to take you on a little trip across the quilt in this post. Took some close-ups today.

The first 3 mahalla homes are about the process toward hope. With so much domestic violence in the home, it is a pretty dark place. The entire family is affected. We heard the stories. Pretty hopeless. A dead tree and blackness in the home.

The red and white windows are about the possibility of change. Someone does care. A home full of peace & love is possible. The tree sprouts new growth. We met people who had experienced this, filled with hope and a radiance about them.

The turquoise door is still the power & protector color but the power is from a different source. The dead snake is an important part of that story.

The grape arbor is about 'fruit' that grows with change - love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, self control.

We added a little velcroed fox, making the quilt interactive. They loved it! The fox could come steal the fruit so one must be vigilant.

The final three homes are about community. The golden lines suggest neighbor visiting neighbor - a sense of healthy community. It is an encouraging place to live. People in this neighborhood share the fruit with the people struggling in the dark house.

Of the three, this was the favorite

quilt in each group. Their comments tomorrow.

Hope in the Mahalla

art quilt by m.malwitz

hand dye fabrics; atlas fabric from the region; buttons, beads; metallic effect thread; sequins; rubber stamps.

HOPE IN THE MAHALLEH

I'm thinking this part of the story will take a couple of posts! Lot's to tell. Mahalleh is 'neighborhood' in this part of the world. First picture is the mahalleh we lived in for a couple of days. Note the low, mostly white buildings, unpaved street & trees. There is probably a grapevine arbor in the front of someone's house

further down the street. You see them everywhere.

Next is the quilt,

Hope In The Mahalleh,

which I made a bunch of years ago for my first trip to this region of Asia. At that time my friend, who I team taught with on this trip, was living in another country of this region. We collaborated on this quilt using elements she saw in other art quilts in my studio. Photos of her mahalleh (similar to the 1st photo) inspired the street scene. Turquoise is the color of power and protection in their world view, so adding that was important.

Now what about the cats!?! (Click on the quilt to see them.) When I was finishing up this quilt, my friend said it would be OK to add some whimsey, like the stray cats in her mahalleh. In my enthusiasm I added 12! But for this trip back to the region we decided the cats were distracting & I removed 9. The 3 on the roof stayed as that is where they like to hangout anyway.

One of my greatest pleasures as an artist is seeing people engaged with my artwork. The scene in the 3rd photo was repeated many times, over 2 weeks. They loved seeing the quilts up close and personal. Tomorrow...more of the mahalleh story.

EXCHANGING THE LABEL OF SHAME

1 out of every 3 women in this remote Asian country experience domestic violence. Not only is it condoned but the husband's friends encourage him to beat his wife to show her who is boss. Should the abused wife escape back to her family, they would just send her back.

In this shame based culture, women who experience violence never talk about it. That would bring shame on her. But these poor women are already filled with shame & guilt. They have no selfworth or hope. Does anyone love them? Does anyone care?

We were invited to come alongside our NGO friends & bring them some new 'tools' to use in helping these women. My friend taught the Woman at the Well story about another woman also filled with shame. Connecting this woman and her experience to women in their culture would hopefully bring value & hope into their lives.

The art project was about 3 'labels' the Woman at the Well might have worn. A label about how others viewed her. A label about how she viewed herself. A label about how God viewed her. Sharing the meaning of the finished labels is an important part of processing the teaching and their response.

Photos: Creative activity at the table. A few labels created by our friends. I left gluesticks, painted papers & blank labels so they could carry on the teaching themselves.

STORY TELLING THE CREATION

The Creation quilt has been around the world: New Zealand, China, Australia, Nigeria, South Korea & even to this region of Asia a few years ago. But this was my first time to share it in this country. It was the first of three quilts I brought to show.

People love looking at this quilt - there's so much to discover. It pictures the Creation narrative from Genesis 1 in seven horizontal bands. Here I'm story telling through a translator.

Photos I took of the region's barren landscape & fruit at the bazaar remind me of the words describing day 3 in the Creation account:

And God said, "...let the dry land appear."And it was so.

Then God said, "Let the dry land produce vegetation ... trees on the land that bear fruit..." And it was so.

To see the Creation quilt click here.

ATLAS FOR STORY ROPES

In this part of the world it's not the market but the bazaar. So off to the bazaar we headed on the second day of the trip. We were in search of atlas, the ethnic fabric of this region of Asia, which we would use in the story ropes.

Winding our way through the maze we finally came upon a woman who sold me 5 different patterns of atlas. With the addition of local fabric, my list of art materials was complete!

Working with NGO's (non-government organizations), we would be meeting with multiple groups of women in 3 cities - all affected in some way by abuse & domestic violence.

My friend's role would be that of teacher, storyteller and counselor. Mine would be to share artwork and do creative hands-on with the women. We came with a lot of teaching material & art work - the content and sequence, flexing with each group's needs.

Together we were there to bring encouragment, hope & light into this very dark place. The teaching and art possiblities would be carried on by the NGO's in each city after we left for home.

In the next couple of days, I'll be posting how the quilts & collages were recieved, storytelling on the tags/labels, and creating & sharing the story ropes. Also how the children of the NGO workers were inspired.

CONCRETE & COLOR (1st trip post)

I feel like I've just emerged from the old Soviet Union. Although this part of Asia became independent in the early '90's, the concrete apartment buildings stand as a reminder of the Soviet era.

Snapped this one from our taxi. Maybe some collage possibilities - color against concrete.

Then again - maybe not.

I'll be sharing photos & experiences in upcoming posts.

But today I'll keep it short. Still recovering from the 24+ hours of travel time door to door yesterday. 15 of those hours on Turkish Air.