planning for R&R

Today is the day we go on our first R&R......rest and relaxation.....  When we first moved here, 3 months ago, we thought that it was odd that there were these R&Rs in the plan for those of us who live here.  Now that we are at the time for our first one we realize how important it is to take a break and renew your heart and body with rest and we are looking forward to this time.

We will leave Soyo and go to Luanda, the capital of Angola, where we must stay overnight.  This is fine with me because I have only had a few hours in Luanda before this and am looking forward to seeing the city differently from when I first arrived here and passed through.  Then tomorrow we will fly to Johannesburg and stay overnight again to finally get the flight to Thailand.  On our way back we plan to spend several days in Johannesburg, South Africa, to see the animals that Africa is famous for.  Now when we arrive in Thailand I will go to my friend Karen Fitzstevens home and Bryan will catch a connecting flight to Jakarta, Indonesia and then on to where the plant is that is his final destination.  He will stay there 7-10 days to make sure all preparations are ready for the trainees to come the next week and then come back to Thailand and we will take time for him to renew and refresh.  My renewal and refreshment will be the thrill of shopping and being with friends and my quilt group that I haven't seen in 7 years.  I am also so looking forward to seeing our dear friend Nu who helped us while we lived there many years ago.  Finally about the 22nd I believe we will head back to Africa with the stopover to visit a game park....  So even tho we are going to rest, we will stay busy.....

In preparation for this trip I have spent several days looking for fabric from Africa to take to my quilting friends.  Remembering that until 2002 this country was at war for almost 30 years.....the art industry is still being established so most of the fabrics are from Indonesia or Holland.  I was able to find several pieces from Congo or Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).....so they are African.....  One of the women that has lived her for a year was able to go with me to find the fabric.  First we went to the open market, Tari Tari, but with the rainy season still with us it was so muddy we were unable to get into the inner part of the market where the fabric usually is.  The little shops around the outside of the market were closed I think because today is a holiday and so preparations for the holiday usually start several days before the actual date.....so we ended up going out near one the the schools we volunteer at and found two pieces.....it was funny as we were asking about the fabric and struggling with language and the woman finally said, oh, I speak English.....she said this in Portuguese.....we laughed and finished our questions in English and what she meant is "I understand English" because she would respond in Portuguese to the English questions and we were able to communicate.  We had a good laugh tho that she could speak English and we had been struggling.....  Then today one of the women who lives here and is a quilter gave me some fabric to take the the ladies in Thailand.  She and her husband are moving to Australia and she was generous to share from her fabric "stash".

Even though I will not be in Soyo I do want to keep writing while we are out of the country and so I will.  My son, Jeremy, tells me he likes reading the blog but also loves seeing the pictures of what it is like here so I wanted to send a picture that I love that is typical of the ladies.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  These ladies have the morning fish
catch as well as pots on their heads and are
getting into one of the taxis that are along the
road to go outside the center of town.
These women are strong and dress
beautifully in their skirts.  I am confident I
could never carry anything that heavy on my head.

So what have I been learning......things are not always as easy as we think they will be.  Challenges are good for us but also rest is vitally important to be effective in what we are doing.  The English students are pleased that two other ladies have decided to step up and teach the classes while I'm gone.  I'm thankful too because the drivers so enjoy this time together and even the ones having the most difficult time with the classes are feeling their language skills are improving.  It is also always important to remember that none of us is indispensable and things will go on when we are not around......