Today, I only had one class so a quieter day. Each day starts with a hot!!!!! shower, clean clothes, and breakfast. That generally consists of yogurt, with muesli, orange juice, and coffee. A word on the coffee. My dear girl sent over lots of good old Starbucks coffee. Most of it was given away, but I kept some for myself. I heat water on the stove, grind my beans in this nifty little hand grinder I bought, pour into the French press, add water and wait a bit. All that makes a great cup of coffee! Such a nice way to start the day. Then a little scripture and prayer for the day and the people I will be with that day. And that I don’t get lost!
And today I didn’t! I knew where I went wrong yesterday and now feel much more confident about the route.
The girls were having snack break when I arrived, queuing for their baguettes. One of my English girls offered a piece of hers so of course I took it and ate it. And it was really quite good. Best not to ask what is inside! So sweet of her.
I headed up to Feluine’s office and chatted with her and Laura, another long term American missionary here. They were both very encouraging about the getting around piece so that really helped.
Then sewing class started. These girls are first year students so much of what they work on is hand sewing. Today, I had actually prepared some samples for them. The previous day, I had asked Feluine where I might buy some sewing supplies, especially scissors. All the shears the girls use are pretty to quite dull. It makes cutting fabric rather problematic! But Feluine, in her bag of tricks, had some brand new shears! It felt like Christmas! And I grabbed some extra fabric, thread, and needles. So much better. For today, I did a curved seam for them to copy. Then I showed them how to clip it along the curve, turn and iron. I also did a piece of gathered fabric to do with running stitches, gather, and sew onto another piece of fabric. It went pretty well. As in any class, some are quicker than others. Neatness is a problem – for me too! Hand sewing seams has not been in my normal repertoire!

When I was so excited about the shears, Feluine observed that here, they just learn to make do, using what they have or are given. It gave me pause as I am so used to having well working tools – taking it for granted. If I don’t, I get frustrated. There is much to be said for doing the best with what one has. So many lessons to learn here. I feel as if I’m the one in school. It has been both heartening and discouraging to see that I can still cram all this info into my aging brain, but that brain is getting quite full and it seems to take a bit longer to get it all in there! Thankfully, I get there in the end!

Now I sit back at my house, typing, and listening to all the sounds from outside. Children playing, a goat bleating, a chicken crowing, a horse drawn cart clopping by, Then there is all the tapping and clanging of all the metal doors along the street. Sometimes, on a low concrete wall across the street, a group of young men gather and hammer out the world’s problems, or more likely talk about girls and sports – universal interests!

Tomorrow is Talibe day!