We will admit that we prefer clothing from our passport country to clothing here.  First of all, we are people who like comfort and 100% knit cotton is soft, breathable and comfortable.  The material here is cotton, but often stiff – more like dress shirt collar texture.

We have options to buy clothing from other places, those items come in a bale (like a hay bale or a bale of newspapers) bound together and are normally second hand items from different organizations from western countries.  A vendor here will purchase a bale of clothing for a certain price then sort the bale and sale the items.  Most of the time there are different pieces of random clothing in a wide range of sizes.  We have purchased some articles of clothing this way, but prefer to try and bring enough clothing with us to last the term of service.  It’s hard to do that since our clothes wear out more quickly here, probably because they are washed in dirty water, hung out to dry on a line in the scorching sun which not only fades the color, but also wreaks havoc on elastic.  Plus, the boys keep growing at rapid rates.

There are times when we need to have clothes made for an event (we live in an inclusive culture so for weddings or events, a specific fabric will be selected for that event and everyone needs to have something made with it so they can wear it to the event and be included).  We went to a wedding on November 30.  So, we needed to have our outfits made.  I (DeAnna) drew on a piece of paper what I would like to have made.  No patterns, just a drawing.  I took that piece of paper along with the fabric to a seamstress (there are many little shops that dot the road).  I took mine to Glory and a week later, she called to let me know the clothes were done.