Gardening, Carpentry, Sewing, Soap-Making and Relationship-Building

I (Sarah) have been spending more time conversing with the ladies who work and live at the Elikya Center the past week or two. It is much easier to have conversations with people now that my Lingala is improving. It has really been a joy to sit with them while they are sewing or doing bead work. There are several widows who live in a house together and also some younger women and orphan girls who come here each day to learn how to sew. Our conversations remain pretty simple, but it is fun to learn new words and meet new people. I am looking forward to learning their stories when I can understand the language better. This week the widows have been making a big batch of soap. Michelle and I have been able to observe some of the steps in the soap-making process and it is a difficult job. I told the women that I would show photos of them making soap to people in the states and tell the Americans that the African women are strong, good workers. So here they are working hard.

I (Sam) have also been spending more time with some of the men and boys on the Elikya property. Some of the orphans living on the property here have been helping a carpenter build their bunk beds and Aaron and I have been talking with them and learning some of their names. We've also been spending a lot of time in our garden. Our Lingala teacher, Guylaien, knows a fair amount about gardening here and has been helping us cut the garden and will also be helping us burn and plant in our garden next week. We are really looking forward to coming back next year because after planting, we will come back to corn, bananas, plantains (makemba), manioc, and pineapple in our garden. Eventually we will also be planting tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, green beans, squash, peanuts, onions, and garlic. We will also have a small herb garden near our house. I can't wait! In the meantime, there's a lot of work to be done with cutting, burning, and planting. Here I am working hard cutting. I'll post some more of burning and planting after we finish.