Last Week

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I did want to post one last time before boarding a plane and returning to Vancouver. This is going to be a small update even though there has been lots going on.

This past weekend I began saying my goodbyes. I spent a lovely weekend in Musanze. It was great to catch up with my Rwandan family. The kids have grown so much in the past few months I barely recognized them. Saturday I finally went to check out the caves/tunnel which turned in to a bit of an adventure as it has rained earlier that day.

Sunday I attended my last home group church meeting. This group has been incredibly supportive and inspiring and I will miss their words of wisdom when I go.

My next few days will be filled with last minute sewing projects and a few more goodbyes. Currently it is pouring rain which is going to make moving about Kigali challenging. Motos tend to hid out in gas station when it rains. Let’s hope it clears up every once in a while so I can go out.

While it has been challenging to say goodbyes to my community here as I have very much enjoyed my time in Rwanda and the relationships that have developed; I am looking forward to catching up with family and friends in the Vancouver area over the next few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who supported me over the past few months, it has meant the world to me to know I have an encouraging community back home.

Co-op News

The past two weeks have been busy as the co-op was in full production mode.  The co-op have now finished sewing their collection of skirts and completed extensive quality control on them.  I must say I am very proud of the group as many first were reached in the process of creating the skirts.  In partners the women and Claver designed their own skirts, all of which include pockets, then manipulated basic skirt blocks to create paper patterns.  After sewing the skirts it was all about quality control.  Monday the co-op checked each others patterns and compared the finished skirts to the patterns to ensure seams and cutting were well done.  The final step - creating spec sheets for each of the skirts.  For many this was the first full garment they have created let alone all the qc they did.  As Florence - my translator and the manager - remarked, they can think learning to sew was just to sit behind the machine and sew but now they are seeing there is so much more involved. 

Currently I am on my way to Mozambique for a small vacation.  When I return we will be making dresses.  The co-op will continue working and designing while I am away and I am very excited to see what ideas they come up with for their premiere dress collection.

Monkey Business

The animals continue to be a source of entertainment around the Ordway home.  Two mornings ago while dressing for work our house girl Caterina called me to come and see the chicken.  I thought the chicken had entered the kitchen and I did not see why I needed to be involved in chasing it out.  In addition I was running slightly late and am not personally very interested in the chicken, therefore, I attempted to get out of the event.  Due to language barriers it was apparent there was no way around this.  So I followed Caterina to our laundry room where our guard JP was with the chicken.  “Dead” was JP’s response to our arrival.  And indeed it was quite dead.  We are unsure of the causes but as none of the Ordways were at home at the time of death we have pronounced it as unsuspicious. 

The intruder

Yesterday while getting ready for work I looked out my window over the backyard and saw one of our umbasambis attempting to scare off a monkey.  We have an avocado tree in our backyard so I think the monkey was coming by for some brunch.  He did not look particularly worried about the umbasambi as he processed to move from the fence to our avocado tree.  Unfortunately I was a little slow with my camera and was not able to capture the full scare tactics of the umbasambi but if you look close you should be able to see a monkey in the tree.  Enjoy.

Our perturbed umbasambi

Chicken News

Just over a week ago there was an addition to the Ordway house hold, a chicken who by a facebook vote has been named Beyonce.  The chicken’s stay with us was turbulent from the start.  Our two umbasambis were not fans of sharing their backyard with Beyonce and did not let her out of the corner of the yard for the first day.   Beyonce must have thought she found the upper hand when she decided to relocate to the front yard.  Much to her dismay Nala, our bunny, turned out to not be a fan of hers either.  For Beyonce’s first two days here she lived displaced and bullied.  The emotional turmoil of this seemed to be too much for her as we continued to wait for her egg contribution to the family.  While not having the energy to lay eggs she did have the gusto to further explore the property and we have had to chase her out of the kitchen on more than one occasion.  Beyonce made her distain of these occasions clear by her insistent bocking afterwards.  Between her not making friends with the other animals, constant clucking and home invasions it became clear if she planned to stay around and not on the dinner table something needed to change.  We even inquired if our guard – JP – could teach the girls how to butcher.  This morning Lucy – the Ordway’s youngest daughter – was the first to taste Beyonce’s egg.  True to form she has decided to lay her eggs in an inconvenient location.   I cannot say with any certainty Beyonce’s future with us will be a long one, her egg laying has definitely expended it but by how long is hard to say. 

Sewing projects

Designer Aprons

Presenting the designs to the class

Our sewing cooperative has now completed its second design challenge.  This may not sound like much of a feat for many but I feel they have grown leaps and bounds.  Previously they were not given the opportunity to develop their own design and patterns – at least not in the classroom.  Friday is homework day for Ibyishimbo; Thursday I left them with the challenge of designing and sewing their own apron.  Considering they did not know the purpose of aprons and had only seen one style in their life I was a little unsure what I would walk in to Monday morning.  I came in Monday a little leery of what I would find and much to my delighted they excelled at the assignment.  Previously we all designed our own unique patch pocket so each apron was decorated with a fantastic pocket as well as some individual detailing.  You can look forward to sampling the aprons in our upcoming spring catalogue. 

Reviewing their classmates' apron designs

Design critic

Friends and Pockets

We have had a very exciting couple of weeks at the Ordway hotel.  The bed hopping began when Dave and Peter from Hope’s American head office were in town to visit a variety of their saving circles.  Next in line was very talented Nikole Lim.  She was doing videography work for Hope in Rwanda before moving on to Kenya where her NGO is based out of.  It was fun and inspiring to swap Africa stories as she is well traveled around these parts.  She started her NGO Freely in Hope, which helps young girls who have been victims of sexual violence, soon after finishing university.   Freely In Hope provides the girls with scholarships for secondary school and university and when possible matches them with a mentor as well.  To read Nikole’s incredible story and see some of her work check out www.freelyinhope.org.  Lastly we hosted four friends of the Ordway’s from their neighbourhood back home.  Much to Maddie’s surprise the visit included her best friend.  Along with them they brought a couple decks of cards which became a main source of entertainment between events. This week we are back to a quiet house, but not for long as three more friends will be visiting beginning next weekend.

In between the visitors I have continued with teaching Ibyishimbo - the sewing co-operative.  We have now finished our pockets unit.  They have learnt western, ¼ top, and welt pocket; as well as designed their own unique patch pocket.  The cooperative continues to be incredibly disciplined and invested in their learning.  We have been working hard on increasing the quality of their sewing while learning new pockets.  This has often meant redoing stitching which the coop always does.  Teaching has brought back many memories of first year sewing classes at Kwantlen.  Comparing almost every line of sewing and such relief when the teacher said it was good enough.  Next up - plackets.

Sewing Pictures

Ephrase checking her work

Clementine helping her classmates

Comparing samples

Our classroom

Sewing Kids

Our wonderful translator Florence

Ibyishimbo

I have officially completed my first week of teaching Ibyishimbo (Joy) sewing cooperative.  The cooperative came out of Vine Yard Rwanda (www.vineyardrwanda.org) church six months ago.  Until now the eleven women and one man have been taught by a Rwandan seamstress how to make a variety of bags.  I was brought in to help widen their skill set to include clothing.  For our first week they learnt French and welt seams, blind hemming - on plain weave cotton – western pockets and ¼ pockets.  I was very pleased with how they did especially considering many of them had never touched a sewing machine until six months ago and we are using treadle machines which are a lot more challenging to control.  As the members of the cooperative do not speak English Florence, who is involved with Vine Yard Church, is translating.  We are currently working out of the church with the goal of the cooperative finding their own space in a few months.  Pictures soon to come...

Safari Tales

As previously promised a short tale from the family safari:
During our safari drive one morning we had along with our family our driver, Aaron, and a park ranger.  We had already seen the lions and were searching for elephants.  The park ranger instructed our driver around the park through many of the elephants favourite spots, until we came upon an entire herd of them.  Only problem was they were waiting on the road for us.  After watching them munch on the trees and play we wanted to continue on our way.  Much to our driver's dismay the guide figured with the right negotiating they would let us pass.  This was after the guide's common regarding how elephants should be the true king of the jungle as they can step on a car while most animals run from the cars.  As our guide didn't bring his gun with him, we waited for our moment of opportunity and with a little car hitting and bow bowing we made it though, un-stomped.  Watching the elephants in their natural habitat was incredible and I think the entire car let out a breath when we made it through. 

There have been a few requests for pictures from the family safari.  There is a photo album available on my facebook page, please check them out if you would like.