Arriving close to a weekend makes for a slow start, which is quite perfect as this is a huge adjustment for the body, and we all wanted plenty of time for meditation, yoga, and quiet.
What follows are the highlights of our first days, taking us through the weekend. After lunch on Friday Muyunda picked us up for our first visit to Kantolomba. We were very pleasantly surprised by what we saw.
Our fabulous team greets us.
All the cooperative members at work when we arrived were in a class with Rose, the new nurse, learning about breastfeeding.
In May, the cooperative decided to form teams to accomplish various tasks, among them a group with a broad designation of “cleaning.”
The logical first stop on our tour of the property improvements.
The newly painted arches add a great deal of charm to the building.
Theresa walking us through all the new additions.
Some of our favorites are the many potted plants Rose, our new nurse, has brought. She has a nursery business and felt moved to donate plants for the compound.
Cheri and Ashwini, a wonderful guest with us who is an economics wiz, especially in microfinance!, take a seat in Ethel’s freshly painted classroom. Ethel teaches the older students who have never been in formal education.
In the sewing room. Everything is kept very clean in here—taking excellent care of the recent investment in the industrial sewing machines.
Cheri demos an exciting new addition—garbage cans! Imagine, a proper place to put trash! We did not see a single out-of-place piece of garbage.
Alas, little has been done on the hammermill building. This will be one of the things we look into while here. Getting 3-phase (industrial) electricity to the property is the biggest hurdle. More on that another day.
Touring the amazing gardens. Every inch of unused space on the property is now planted.
Picking a fabulous-smelling herb that is used to rub on the chest when one has a cold (think Vicks vapo-rub).
Talking with Rose, the nurse. She is the one with the red cap.
Theresa and Cheri towards the end of our tour. Note the rock in the background!
Jen greeting Baby Deborah. We had found her under-weight in May, but she seems to be doing better now.
Hanging out after school.
Watching the women put bucket after bucket of water on their heads and head up the hill to water the garden, Cheri wanted to try it out. Everyone got a kick out of that.
An amazing woman!
Ashwini cooked a great dinner for us in our “kitchen.”
Preparing dinner
Enjoying the dinner.
Saturday we did many errands. Eunice was our gracious escort.
Jen at the office supply store.
Eunice
There was a Congolese wedding at the Lodge on Saturday night, which translates into VERY loud music into the wee hours of the morning. We decided on the acceptance route and planned to stay up until the wedding was over. Eunice and her daughter Verocia joined us for movie night. Very fun.
Eunice and Verocia
Sunday was a day of amazing brainstorming. It is a treat for us to run our ideas past someone (Ashwini) with a depth of knowledge and experience in economics. We are gearing up for meeting with the cooperative leadership team next week to discuss the next steps of the project. All very exciting.
Jen with all the notes for our meeting.
The meeting moves outside for a change of scenery.
This sweet photo of Elizabeth, Muyunda’s daughter, was on the camera when we borrowed it from him to download the photos he has taken since we’ve been here. He is doing an excellent job as reporter—gets right out of the car everywhere we go and starts snapping.