Foul Weather and Foul Play

We are experiencing a lot of rain... but compared to those of you in the heart of or 

on the edges of "Sandy", the hurricane, we are just getting a mist.  

But it does create some interesting weather.

 From the dining room

 Parking area filling up.

Rain ends and the mountains start to reappear. See the low lying clouds off in the hills?

Here they are a little closer!

Bruce is INSIDE with his fleece on.  Again.. it isn't HOT here
like other places in Africa.. (well. there have been a few hot days,
but that is not the norm) but this morning was COOL!

 This was a first for us.. of course, most of you know fog when you see it.. but
we had not ever seen this here... The entire neighborhood was " engulfed" by fog. 

We could barely see across the street.  Since these few fouls days
we've had some pretty weather albeit wet for some portion of the day,
but the birds love it!!! 

I took this sitting at our backdoor table.. shortly after the fog was starting to lift.  
There must have been 15 of these in the yard. The are called Speckled Mousebirds.

Still love my little sun birds.

They have the longest beaks!

Here's a little weaver, too!  But one day.....

I looked up and across at the neighbor's house because this
cry was coming from under their eaves. I saw this...

and this.... not very clear pictures.

little view

BIG VIEW!

 From this picture it looks like a falcon..

The black lines on the side of his face make him look like an Eleonora Falcon... and if it is
they may have just been passing through on their migration.  

Only saw these 2 for a couple of days and never again.

Except for the black line on its face... the above bird.. the falcon (i think) looks like the Kite... below..  But the face markings are very different and his head is more gray and he was a lot smaller. 

This bird flew into the yard at a house where 
I was for lunch.  He looks
like an eagle from some angles but he is called a KITE.
It had been pouring down rain.... so his feathers are a little ruffled!! 

He definitely wanted to swoop in for lunch.
This bird was about 2 feet long from the top to the bottom 
of his tail.  Very regal.  Almost Eagle.

Getting cleaned up for lunch.

 Looking for lunch....

On this side now...

"OH---- that looks good.."

 "NO, that seriously-- looks good!! I'm going in..." and before I had time
to let the camera recover from this shot.. he was off.... a huge wing
span... to take him wherever he wanted to go.
Pretty safe to say he "grabbed lunch" on the way down!


This is one of our new birds.....It is a brown-headed Apalis...
or a warbler.  Every time he "sings" his tail whips up and down
very quickly!

This guy is my most favorite and he is the loudest.... I've seen 2 different

names for him... so I'm not sure anymore if he is a warbler

or a robin-chat (thrush).  Anyone out there know?

Just a little grey-headed sparrow but he was so
cute, looking for bread I'd thrown out.

And just as I was getting ready to send this off to you... 

THIS happened about 3 feet from the table I was 

working on.  I don't know what this plant is with

these unusual flowers... but they look great in the house. 

The centers fill up with water so the birds come to 

have a drink.  

 This is a weaver checking out the watering hole.

 Oh no, he saw me move.

 Uh-oh... I've been spotted.  Don't you love this little masked bandit?  

 Now he's hiding.... playing peek-a-boo with me.

Peek -a-boo... I see you! 

And that he did!  So.. from foul weather to our little foul playmates... 
life continues to amaze me here.   This weekend was packed with great 
stuff and that will be coming up. But as you in the States and the Bahamas are preparing for or have had too much foul weather... I want you to know 
I will be praying for you and trusting that things won't get any worse 
and that this storm will subside soon.

Trust you are having a great last weekend of October!  

love,
margie

                                                         

The Essential Oil Fields of IKIREZI and the Village of Hope

Last Tuesday was an AIC outing to the fields where they grow and distill

essential oils.  They've been doing it a long time here so we drove about 45 min.

out into the country and hills until we arrived. 

This was the beginning of the incline.

We all started the hike up.  Not as bad as the gorilla hike
but it was certainly more than we all anticipated.

This was the first leg before we turned the corner
and went on up!

Still climbing!

 This guy was really bawling and running in circles... (not penned)
with one leg tied to a stake... thus the circles! 

Still going up... Some of the women were popping open their
umbrellas to shield the heat.

Just turning the first corner...still climbing steadily!

Along the way were several little houses and lots of kids...

This is Naho... She works here with the NGO
and she is the one who told us about it. 

We reached our destination but still not quite to the top of the hill.
You are looking at a field of geraniums here.   
The workers were busy cultivating.  

 Checking out things while everyone else got up the hill.... 

Many of us greeted some of the workers that were taking a break.
They seemed very glad we had come to see what they do.  

Still only about 1/2 the group has arrived....
In total there were about 40 of us.  Some came a bit late. 

Better shot of the fields.  They spread out for acres and acres. 

Still waiting for some of the stragglers.  And the kids are coming up too,
to find out what we are doing.

This is Nicholas... the director of the place.
He was so informative.  I will never remember all that he told us.
But I do remember him saying that about 400 workers are employed
on these fields and others in the area as well as the distillery and
the Village of Hope.

And these must be the workers children.  They loved being photographed.
This is a typical picture of children caring for and carrying younger siblings.

As you can tell all the kids have their hair cut the same way..
but i do believe that this little
smiling child is a girl and the others are boys. 

They seemed to be welcoming us and saying hi, 

while these guys were putting on their tough faces....
at least for a couple minitues.

These eyes... aren't they soul searching?

This is the tough guy from above...  melting!  I love this picture.

These little loves were very hot and little britches had very wet britches..
Most of the babies out in the country here don't where diapers so they just
change their outer clothing... if they have another pair.

He loved it when i tickled his chin!

Ok.. we are all here.  Amity... in brown has recently returned to
Kigali for a visit.  She and her husband ran a tea plantation
here for 20 some years but they just retired and moved back to Sri Lanka.
Everyone here misses her!

Nicholas is teaching us all about the fields. All
the leaves are gathered from the plants and dried and then taken
to be processed.   

This is the geranium they grow here.  It doesn't smell like ours at all.  It has a very soft lemony smell and is apparently a great mosquito deterrent. In some ways it looked and smelled a bit like citronella.

 Nicholas said this particular plot of ground is extremely productive.
The light and drainage must be just perfect for great growth.

 The plants right above the geraniums are "cow grass", a plant grown for the cows to eat that really does just look like grass! 

Coming up higher into the fields

and looking down into the valley.  

The boys:  checking things out!   Love this picture.

As we continued up into the fields we found the lemon grass. 

Acres of this, too!  You can distingush this from the cow grass because it is
a smaller plant and it actually looks yellowish.

 Just the fields. 

Some stayed in the shade...

Others took off to see all the plants.

Looking over the fields.

Chillin' on the level ground.

Just talking!

This little beauty was along the wayside on the way down the hill.

Finally Freedom and cow grass for the cow!

Almost back down to the cars before we go to the distilling place.

We drove about 2 miles down the rode and started up another hill.
  Check out the size of the bananas growing on these trees.
Can you find the big bunches?

Jan leads the charge.

Here we go up again.

 A long ways from the cars again.
Good thing Naho had told us to wear walking shoes.

And THIS is how the oils go from dry plants to oils.

Just a small pile of dried geranium. Only one oil is made at a time.

All of us listening to Nicholas explain how the process works.

1. The heat source or furnace, which is used to boil the water. Direct fire, a fire built under the retort is the oldest method for heating the still. Today, we can also use gas, such as propane or butane, and electricity. Fuel costs are a major factor when considering a heat source for you distiller;
2. The holding tank or retort, which holds both the water and, just above the water on a grate or false bottom - picture a vegetable steamer - the plant material to be distilled;
3. The condenser, which collects the steam and cools it, usually by piping it through a tube immersed in cold water, and...
4. The separator, which separates the essential oil from the water vapor. The separator, or Essencier, is one of the most important pieces of apparatus a distiller can have. This enables the distiller to separate the essential oils from the distillate in a passive manner and after this they are bottled.

A pile of eucalyptus leaves.

 A worker had just thrown in a huge pile of leaves and more tree limbs 
to make the water boil.

Now off to find the finished product! 

The barn behind the house that was being built as we
made it back to the road... Now we carry on to the Village of Hope.

These little homes have been built for adult
Genocide Survivors and their children.

This whole little village is so tranquil and serene. It was designed to
not only help the women but to give them dignity and pride again.

Built in a beautiful location these homes all have water and electricity.

Nicholas again, telling us all about what happens here in the village.
And just behind him, was Michelle.... selling the essential oils. 
Eucalyptus, Lemon Grass and Geranium.

Nalini snatched Naho's little baby and
I took pictures... 

 A little Japanese doll baby!  

This is the inside of one of the village houses.  They are really very nice.

Maria gave the ladies a little tour of her house.

One of the outside kitchens!   

And then Nicholas took us down to where the women were
making baskets!  This one is almost completed.

 The lady on the right is just starting to make a basket. 

This is the thread being sewn around the grass.

 The black thread made of something called **sisal is wrapped around
every piece of grass.  These things should cost 20 times more than they do.
**Sisal  is an agave that yields a stiff fibre traditionally used in making twine and rope.
This holds the entire basket together.  

 This woman is just beginning her basket with a little tiny circle of thread.

Sitting on concrete... legs out straight and working all day.

I guess they dye the thread somehow to make all the different
colored thread.  All the grass is the same color.

"How beautiful are the feet..."
To me, this picture is simply pure.

Can you see the little "eye" for the center of the basket?

The ladies had a great selection of baskets available for purchasing, too!  

They sell them for about $8.00.  Each basket takes more than 12 hours to make.  

The colors in the baskets are rich.. The color of all the African Fabrics that the women wear are so bright and full of patterns.  

I think I've mentioned it before... but nothing goes to waste here.  Every fibre is used. 

This day reminded me that God gave us plants that oils can be made from, 

grass and sisal that baskets can be made from and then there are all the uses of the

essential oils themselves. 

They can be used for bug bites, bug deterrents, cleaning products, 

breathing aids, etc...  It is pretty great that God made all this stuff for us

to take care of ourselves and each other.  

And now many of these women provide for their entire families by producing

and making all of these products to sell.  

All the women loved this outing and now all of our houses smell 

like geranium!  I have one drop in a little burner tonight and 

the mosquitoes aren't buzzing and the house has a very sweet smell! 

all for tonight, 

love,

margie