We were expecting the worst!  After her marriage in 2009 to an abusive drug addict and on our visit in 2011, when she had the additional burden of her grandmother and a blind aunt staying at her house, we had hardly recognized her.

 We had loaded the car with groceries and were on the way to her house when we met the old Chammi on her motorbike!!  Her husband was working in Kuwait (and hopefully stays there for a long, long time) and there was a brand new store in her front yard. 

Both her Father and she had gotten houses in the tsunami housing scheme.  For the last three years, she had been living at her Father’s house while she rented hers out.  She had been able to sell it in the meantime and with that money they had built the store with an adjoining room for her Father plus had gotten a working visa for the husband.  She had set an ultimatum to her seven uncles and aunts to take over the care of their Mother and blind sister.  One Uncle had picked both of them up recently.  She was about to paint their room pink for her daughter’s nursery. 

Since January, 2012, she had been paying back her loan again, and told us, that she had so much work again that she had to hire help.  Sometimes she would get up at 3 a.m. to start with her work and her Father would take care of her daughter and the shop.  Chammi was beaming with pride and full of plans.  She wants to add a working room to the side of her house to have more space for the sewing machines and the material.

We had not expected such a change for the better.  Rather the opposite, as we were prepared to find her with the motorbike and the sewing machines pawned … or even sold!

We could not have been happier to be mistaken so much and we look forward to seeing Chammi`s progress in the future.