Today, began with no electric Stephanie was quite bummed, she really needs her morning wake up coffee. I just peeled my orange and ate it with a piece of bread and peanut butter. She said she thought she’d hold out for a cup of hot coffee later and went to do her morning devotions. As she ended her devotions, she prayed that she might just have a cup of hot coffee. Within seconds of her amen…..the power was on, she heated the water, made her coffee and hot oatmeal, and before she could sit down to eat it…..the power was gone again! How she rejoiced at her answered prayer, that God would be so good to grant her hot coffee and oatmeal!
Soon after 8 hours Catherine arrived, and then shortly thereafter, the counselors started coming in, ready to work on more potholders. First, were Emely and Annette, next two counselors from Word of Faith, then Joyce from Mtendere PHC and Maxhilda. We have enough done to fill all the orders for the current sale, but it is an ongoing project and they need to continue to make more. I explained to them, that there is no rush this time, no push to get a certain amount done while I am here. Just for them to keep working away at them. Well, I’m not sure what part they didn’t understand, but they worked just as hard as if there was a deadline. Almost fighting over the piles of cut pieces, that will make 100 more potholders per pile. Maxhilda sat at the machine and sewed, she and Emely have a system. Maxhilda sews all the potholders on the machine, while Emely pins the potholders together for Maxhilda, then as she finishes them, Emely turns them all right side out. So today, Maxhilda sewed 300 potholders, 100 for Emely and 200 for her club. The women, other than Maxhilda at the machine, sit on the hard tile floor and work away, sometimes chatting in Nyanja and sometimes asking us questions about the US and Canada, about our families and our traditions. They sat on the floor from 8:30 -5:30 working away, they wouldn’t leave until Maxhilda got all 300 sewn! While they were working on their potholders, I was cutting, trying to stay ahead of them. My body isn’t at all like theirs, even though some of them aren’t much younger than I, I learned today. I had to take a cushion from one of the chairs, to put under my knees while I cut the fabric into 8” strips, and then I sat on the cushion while I cut them into 8” squares, I could not keep up, they were like amazing moving machines. At 5:30 when the ladies left, Stephanie and I were starved, we had as did they, work right through lunch. They take no breaks, have no drinks or treats they just work! We popped our supper in the oven, prayed that the power would stay on long enough to get it cooked.
Today was the first day since I arrived that it did not rain once. So we took our laundry which we had been trying to dry since Saturday, off from the lines I had strung throughout the back bedroom and put it back on the line outside in the sun. It had started to smell the very wet, dry, wet smell, after having been on the outdoor lines for days, getting repeatedly wet with each shower. Hanging in the bedroom overnight, some of it was almost dry, the thicker towels still had a ways to go, but hanging back out in the sunshine baked the nasty smell out of most everything, and tonight it is folded and put away. I know Kathy B is thinking, those were most of my clothes, they really are fine and smell quite fresh! But it wouldn’t hurt to throw a can of Febreeze in the suitcase next April
While Stephanie was taking the clothes off the line, she noticed that Alice our neighbor was selling a deep fried treat. After missing lunch and being totally whipped, she thought it would be a great pre-dinner treat. We made ourselves a cup of tea and sat and enjoyed our treat together. It is the small things here in Africa that bring us such joy.
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