September Reflections

I cannot believe that it is the end of September already. It seems like I just got back from Rwanda the other day but I have been home for six whole weeks. I did three blog posts about my trip (one,  two, three ) and plan to do one more but not yet. I have had too many thoughts and feelings about Rwanda to process too quickly. I did a live facebook video to share at one church and am doing a fifteen minute highlight of our trip at a women's conference in a couple of weeks. 

In the meantime, a new school year is upon us and my little girl has gone back to school. She is doing her masters in an intense one year program at a university close to us. So, every Monday she packs up her two little boys and drives the 3 hours to the FARM and goes to school. Then on Thurs night, I pack up the boys in her van to meet her and she drives home, only to do it again the following week. We are one month in and only ten more to go. Today we sat down with our calendars and plotted out her schedule. It appears that I can take the time mid April to go to the Shipshewana Retreat. I am going there in November. 

It has been fun to have the two little boy grand children here so often for sleepovers. It has been wonderful to spend so much time with my daughter after her living on the east coast for fourteen years. I do not have to catch a plane to visit her these days. The boys are accepting and respecting that Mommy is at school or in the other office doing homework. 

I have not gotten much quilting done this month. My One Monthly Goal was to complete this block. As you can see, I got one little diamond sewn on but it is bigger than the others and I might re-do it. I guess it depends on how the fourth one will look when I get it stitched on. There is still the one inch saw toothed frame to make. 

Morrell Block # 36

So much for being so super organized. My planning  has not helped advance these blocks much. October's RSC colour is pink. I have nine foundation blocks ready to go. Wonder how many I will actually get done this month? We shall see.

Bright Jane Block # D-7

This Beyond the Cherry Trees block has traveled with me around the world and back a couple of times. My omg-one-monthly-goal for October will be to complete the hand applique on this block. There are only six green flower bases and a roundish wreath to go. That is doable. Isn't it? 

BTCT Block # 14

And I finally and completely finished this block. I put in the last of the embroidered stems. They will keep all those grapes from rolling away. I plan to hand quilt this thing one square at a time. Someday. 

BTCT  Block # 16

Blessings, 
Chris 

Linking with:
http://superscrappy.blogspot.ca/  omg-one-monthly-goal   midweek-makers BOMs Away  sewfreshquilts   needle-and-thread-thursday   can I get a whoop-whoop   Slow Sunday Stitching   esther's WOW    needleandthreadnetwork   quilter's monday  

Rwanda Part 3: A Day In The Life

(springs of water)
We were guests of Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) in Rwanda in August. One of the cultural experiences was visiting AEBR projects in Food Security. Some Rwandans are being taught more efficient methods of subsistence farming. We went in pairs with a translator as guests to several of these homes to experience "A Day in the Life".

Presenting gifts to our hosts of oil, beans and rice. 

 Because I am not physically able to walk an hour down the mountain to fill a yellow five gallon jerry can with water from a well then carry it for 2 hours back up to the home on my head or back or any other way, 

I stayed longer visiting my host. Her name is Odette. 
She is a widow with 2 young teenage daughters. 

I got to do really cool things like wash  some clothes and dishes in a bowl of cold water that someone had carried on their heads for 3 km up the hill. 

After this, I offered to peel the green bananas.
Green bananas are a staple in the Rwandan diet. 

They gave me an old bread and butter knife.
 Because green bananas are sticky, 
we rubbed oil on my hands first. 
It was hard on my arthritic hands but 
I managed to get a half dozen peeled and in the pot before 
my host Odette brought out her razor sharp machete 
to finish the rest pretty quickly. 
And yes, we had to wear skirts everywhere.

In the meantime, the rest of the groups headed down the hill with jerry cans in tow. 

My son-in-law turned over the manure pile 
before carting it away. 
He had the choice of a wheel barrow or a basket on his head. 

The other pastor used the basket.

This is the kitchen. 

It is in a separate building from the main house. 

My host had the cooker brought out 
before lighting the fire underneath. 

We used a couple of sticks and a few dry corn stalks for fuel. 

The temperature was maintained by pushing the sticks in.

Filling the jerry cans with water from the spring.

Water was added to the peeled green bananas then a couple of handfuls of beans. 

Time to water the 2 cows and calf. 
Again, water came out of the jerry cans.
 We added a bit of rock salt. 

Then carried over to the 2 cows

The others started back up the hill 

with their jerry cans full of water.

After the green bananas and beans had cooked for about an hour 
I chopped up a few small onions and tomatoes. 
These were sauteed in oil then added to the cook pot 
along with a couple of pinches of salt.

Potty break time. 
We were instructed to keep a small pack of tissues in our bra. 
What a novel idea. 
They call this a "long drop". 

It gets tricky when the hole in the dirt floor 
is only about 4 inches square.
 I kid thee not. 
I kept a small bottle of hand sanitizer hooked onto
 my cane so it was always within reach. 

They call it "Mazungu soap". 

Sisters 

Getting closer.

Waiting

Lunch is ready. It tasted so good.

Triumph!!!

There are no 20 minute hot showers here. 

No need to go to the gym for a sweaty workout either. 

Blessings, 

Chris

Linking with Quilter's Monday   mid week makers   BOMs Away

let's be social.  needle and thread thurs  can I get a whoop-whoop  myquiltinfatuation

slow sunday stitching.   estheraliu's WOW  needle and thread network.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

So I have never done this before. 

I am entering my completed Checkerboard Quilt 

that I made as a gift for a cousin in Poland earlier this year in the  

Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I used 32 black and 32 white ten inch pre-cut squares. 

It is backed with a wide white flannelette with a simple red binding all done by machine.  

Totally original. 

Totally simple. 

Totally completed.

The machine quilting uses a black and white variegated thread left over from some other project. 

I did simple wavy lines going through each intersection 

to keep it somewhat even. 

Blessings

Chris

Linking with Quilter's Monday   mid week makers   BOMs Away

let's be social.  needle and thread thurs  can I get a whoop-whoop

slow sunday stitching.   estheraliu's WOW  needle and thread network.

Rwanda Part 2

How can mere words describe my adventures in Rwanda this summer. How did I, an overweight, arthritic and bent over, retired Canadian farmer end up half way around the world in a tiny little country no bigger than our Vancouver Island or the state of Maryland? 

Sunrise over Akagera Wildlife Park 

It was the dry season and dust was everywhere, especially behind us as we drove up and down and around hills for hours each day. As the crow flies, it might have been a few miles from our Convent guest house to the church on top of the hill, but there are no straight roads in Rwanda. 

It truly is The Land of a Thousand Hills and it felt like we drove up and down or around each one. There were a few scary moments, but the magnificent views more than made up for that.

One night we even drove out after dark for an hour over the bumpiest dirt roads ever, to get a glimpse of the glow of lava refection off the smoke of an active volcano across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo. Don't tell anyone, but we might have accidentally made an illegal trip across the border into the DRC without our passports. We just wanted to look and drove into the parking lot before the border crossing checkpoints. We tried to turn around to drive the bus back out but were directed to drive around the new building that was not there a short time ago. Well, on the other side of the building, a man in uniform motioned for us to stop and asked for our passports. Oops. They were safely locked up in our hosts' safe back in the city. Our driver, host and a native Rwandan pastor stepped out to have a chat. Fortunately, the pastor had his passport on him. Who carries their passports in their own country? A few days later we were clear on the other side of the country within view of Tanzania and on the flight home, our plane touched down in Burundi for 20 minutes. We flew through Ethiopia and finally Paris on the way home. But I digress. The border line had moved  a few yards east since the last time our host was there.

The purpose of the trip was by invitation of the Legal Representative of the Rwanda Baptist Churches to come teach Sunday School teachers and pastors a method of doing Vacation Bible School. The Legal Representative was in South Africa two years ago at the World Baptist Youth Conference as was one of the pastors on our team. They both had a vision from God telling them to train the Sunday School teachers in Rwanda to teach the children. 

So there we were. Ten of us. Five have been on short term mission trips before and five were first timers. Each of our team had their own translator to help us understand what was going on. 

 We taught the Hook-Book-Look-Took method that most of us take for granted since we have used this format in our churches since the days of the Ark. But these guys taught by reading verses and making the children repeat them until they learned them.

So, each day for six days we drove for an hour up to the church on the hill. It was roughly 5000 feet elevation and cooler than below. We were at a mere two degrees below the equator and I regretted leaving my sweater at the guest house, especially when it rained so loudly when my son-in-law the pastor was preaching. He was glad he had to wear a suit and tie that day. It was a big church and there were at least a thousand people there on the Sunday. Children everywhere.

We were blessed to hear our own African Children's Choir sing and dance. And boy, can they dance - the Tamba - a traditional dance. The children sang incredible songs retelling countless Bible stories.

Monday we taught the 80 invited teachers and pastors the method and did some games and crafts to reinforce the Bible lesson. It was fun to see all the women stand in a tight circle then slowly sit on the lap of the person behind them. Team work.

But most surprising was for them to see our pastors right in the middle of the games running around and sitting on the floor.

Pastors do not do those sort of things. Pastors wear suits and jackets and ties and proper shoes no matter how hot it is. Protocol.

Tuesday we had about 100 children from the village come for the program. Each teacher had two or three little ones to escort and assist throughout the three days. Somehow, we ended up with 210 children by the third day. 

I was part of the teaching the Bible story group. I like to teach Bible stories. I have done this for nearly 40 years. We used finger puppets for one story. For another, we laid two benches on the floor sideways to create a boat then picked 12 disciples and a Jesus to tell the story. The rest of the children were the waves and wind. It was noisy and glorious. 

One of the mottoes we use on our missions trips is "All plans are subject to change no matter how often they have already been changed." We had to be flexible and ready to make new plans. So on the third day two of our youngest team members spent a whole 30 minutes over breakfast creating a dramatization of the four friends who carried their sick friend through the crowds then down through the roof for Jesus to heal.

She jumped up dancing! What fun to teach the teachers and pastors to teach the Bible stories in fun creative ways.

One of the teaching groups did outside activities to reinforce the Bible story. Running games

and cooperative games

Another group did crafts and songs. 

These children had never held paint brushes in their hands before and were eager to show off their accomplishments. 

It was the dry season but it rained each place we went. They say there that rain is a sign of God's blessings. So we were blessed and they were blessed and the dust settled a bit on the roads.

Sunset over Lake Kivu 

To be continued . . .

Blessing, 
Chris