My life changed when I went to east Africa for 38 days in 2004-2005. My friend Altu, who grew up in Ethiopia, took me to meet her family. During that time we spent 1 week in Kenya and 1 week in Egypt.

I have written several posts on my African trip and put up many photos here, over a few years. Click if you want to see the series of Africa posts. There are 45 posts in all, some have text which is not about Africa but they show photos. Many, but not all, of the photos are from Ethiopia. Few are from Kenya.

Today a friend posted a note on Twitter, with sad news about Rhinos. I decided to go peek at the photos in my previous posts and see if I had put up animal photos. I had not.

The week before Christmas, 2004, Altu and I went on a morning half-day adventure in the amazing Nairobi National Park. It’s right outside the city limits.

Nairobi is the capital city of Kenya, a true city with crazy street traffic and big buildings. In one photo you can see a herd of hartebeests in front of what looks like a string of condo homes.

But most of the park was wild and without a view of human occupation. We did not see zebras or baboons  but we saw pretty much everything else the Wikipedia article about the park says it holds.

I just put up 23 photos of that half-day adventure on my Flickr account. They are set up so they can be viewed as a slideshow. I have wanted to do this since January of 2005.

Understand that some of the close-up photos are low digital quality. This was 2005, and I used my digital zoom on that now-uncool camera to get some of the photos. It still shows that I really did see these animals.

You can click on them here (or in Flickr) to see more detail, at least on the better images. To get back to this post, click “back” at top left of your screen (or hold Alt and tap your  left-arrow key lightly, in Windows; open-apple key plus left-arrow on a Mac).

I hope some of you enjoy my Kenyan wildlife photo collection/slideshow. If you want more information about the park itself, you can read more on Wikipedia.

Happy Warm Season

Nobody can be as happy as me today! It was really warm yesterday and it’s repeating today. Right now it’s 82F. Love it!

I think I’m a child inside. No, I know it. I remember living next door to 3-year-old twins back in the late 60’s, and those girls changed clothes a minimum of 3 times a day. My big excitement of the day is “what will I wear today?” And sometimes I end my day with “What will I wear tomorrow?”

One Non-Standard Artform

I maintain that costuming is an artform. I love clothing… colors, fabrics, shapes. I love putting pieces together. Since I am partial to four main colors (turquoise, fuschia, purple and hot green), mostly everything in my closet goes together as far as colors go.

When I decide what I will wear, I get to think about what the day holds (classes, errands) I also think of what weather we are expecting, and put together silhouettes that please my eye and feel comfortable to wear.

For me, choosing clothing for the day is usually a joy. I know that many other folks just want to be comfortable and not think much about what to wear. For me, the process of choosing makes my life more full.

Sometimes I don’t look like I planned much, I tend to put things together that others would not. There are also days when I have less time to plan ahead.

However, when it hits 82F, I wear clothes from Africa and India, for the most part. There is nothing more beautiful than flowing fabric on a warm day, if you ask me. (Flowing caftans are much more comfy in heat than too-tight shorts clinging to the body, anyway.)

Yesterday I wore a dress from Egypt during the day and a dress from Democratic Republic of Congo for dinner/concert. Today it’s a two-piece outfit from India. It is so exciting to find that the weather is warm enough again, for these favorites.

Lovely African Clothing, Fair Trade

Yesterday night, I wore my new dress/caftan from Shona. This is a group of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who make clothing one piece at a time for export. It is a unique organization because the woman who does the web work volunteers 100% of her time, and the women spend their time on sewing.

It is also unique in that all the craftspeople at Shona are handicapped in some way. Their legs do not work properly and they need crutches or braces to get around. And yet I tell you, the dress I wore yesterday was top notch and the woman who made it can be proud.

The stories of the women are online, you can read what they have gone through to become self-supporting businesswomen. They often support another family member, or more than one. In much of Africa, often a person with legs that do not work, is expected to scoot around using their hands, and they are expected to beg.

When I was in Ethiopia, these people would wear “flip flops” on their hands to make scooting around more comfortable. I wished I had brought several dozen pairs of flip flops on my trip.

I suggest you take a look at this amazing group’s website. When there was war in their area, they had to go to another place briefly, to keep working. They had to rent space in that second location until it was safe to return home. I admire these women for “keeping on keeping on,” as they say.

Please check out their site. The prices are good and the quality is also very good. I just love my caftan.

Shona Crafts from Congo -Fair Trade, Excellent Products, Good Prices

The photos above are some garments I purchased in Africa in 2004-2005. The first I found in Mombasa, Kenya and it is cotton with embroidery (probably rayon thread). The second I found in Nairobi, Kenya, and it is hand-dyed rayon with embroidery. The clothing from Shona is different, but every bit as lovely.

You know I love clothing. I love embellishment. I love handmade things of all sorts.

I love history. I love things from all over the world, and I wear clothing from many corners in my every day life.

I spent 38 days in eastern Africa four years ago. My friend Altu, who was raised in Ethiopia, took me home.

We spent over 3 weeks in Ethiopia, and one week each in Kenya and Egypt. It changed my life, and we have been even closer friends since that trip.

The last two days I was in Ethiopia, I determined to buy as much handmade work as possible with the Ethiopian funds I had left in my wallet. Africa needed my money more than I did, and the lovely things I could get with it were amazing in value at the time (prices for this sort of thing have more than tripled in 4 years, even with only a 10% loss in exchange rate).

The final stop we made in Ethiopia for shopping, was a small, jam-packed shop full of handmade textile items. (See photo with kids, to see the front of the shop with purple awning.)

Ethiopia is justifiably proud of their cotton fabrics, and I bought as many as I could. They have dense, fluffy blankets made with four layers of handspun, handwoven cotton, and I bought a few of those.

I also got clothing, a few shirts with hand embroidery as decoration and a dress for me which was hand woven and hand embroidered. Lovely pieces. I have worn them here since I returned.

But there were a handful of dresses hanging from the ceiling, which were the most amazing quality — I knew I could not afford them. The outer fabric was hand-spun, hand-woven soft cotton gauze, so thin that the dress needed to be lined for modesty. The bottom hems were woven with synthetic colored bands, which weighted and decorated the skirt (they use synthetic so that the dyes will not run in the wash).

And then, there was embroidery all the way up the front of the dress, from hem to neckline, in the colors of the woven hem band. I was sure these dresses would cost the equivalent of many weeks’ wages. I did not even ask about them when I was buying things.

At the end of our transaction, they put my purchases in two large grocery-bag sized bags for me, and they brought us tea. This is not uncommon, we were brought tea in a shop in Egypt as well, after a large purchase was finalized. Loved it. But clearly the tea signaled the end of the transaction.

And then I had the guts to ask how much the dresses cost. And they were so affordable, it was insulting to the handworkers who made them.

I could have planned ahead and purchased a couple of them. But by the time I knew that, I had spent every last paper bill I had exchanged. I could not buy anything more.

For four years I pined over “the dress that got away.” And then a few weeks ago, when Altu returned from Ethiopia, she brought me this one.

Handspun cotton. Hand woven. Bottom hem is a deep woven colored band. there is a similar band on the wrap (called a netele). The front and cuffs are 100% hand-embroidered. The turquoise threads are metallic, the others are shiny but not glittery.

Altu knew this was the dress for me. She checked out several dresses to make sure the length was right. Her mother liked a different one. She knows that I am just plain a sucker for anything turquoise.

This one, for the record, is nicer than the ones I remember seeing four years ago. This dress is just plain amazing. It makes me want to embroider again.

Yes, I gave Altu some money (in case she could find one for me) when she left. I would have loved anything handmade. But a shiny turquoise embroidered dress? Oh, my! This is a dream come true.

I will be wearing this dress to sing for Valentine’s Day at Altu’s restaurant, tomorrow night. I will feel like the most beautiful woman in Lansing.

Some dreams come true.

(Photos not Lansing… see note at end of post.)
It finally feels like summer in Lansing. It’s been crazy weather here as with most of the midwest states, with 50mph winds and trees tossed into the air like salad. I took a lot of photos but am too crazy-busy catching up after 5 days on the road to process them for you right now. Trees just broke in two.

They closed Mount Hope Cemetery to visitors (and several parks as well). There are unstable trees and broken branches blocking paths. I hope there is not a lot of damage to permanent structures, I can not see any from the street but it’s a very large place.
Several grocery stores lost all perishables. Even if they have insurance, they are all hitting their suppliers hard at the same time so we will no doubt have limited frozen food supplies for a while. In fact, one of my favorite stores has a supplier which was flooded and thus their buried computer lines were rendered useless so they had a delay getting their order filled. It is going to take time to get back in order here.

I remember when I was in Africa; how people there had a sense that things can just take time. They enjoyed one another’s company while they waited for things to happen. I practiced the mantra “I’m not in charge” the whole time I was there (I did not speak any main language in any country where I visited, so I had to trust my friends to take me places and keep me happy, fed and safe… which worked just fine).

I learned from my African friends that focusing on people and relationship is something I *do* have some control over. Weather and red tape are things I must wait out. Though I have been back from that trip for over three years, I am still very much changed by that experience.

And right now, it is hotter in Lansing, Michigan than it was most of the days I was in Africa. I am really loving it. I seem to have a defective personal thermostat… my feet can be cold at 78F degrees. I love 80-86F or so. Once we get higher than that, I still am more happy than in winter but it is definitely important to slow down and dress differently.

I’ll be wearing African or Indian clothing today when I wander forth into society. I love those clothes, I wait all winter to wear them. I never liked summer clothing before… woven cotton shorts and T-shirts leave me cold, but flowy long garments which allow me to sort of “float” down the street? I can not get enough of them.

OK, since I am not developing broken-tree photos today I will show you summery photos of my African trip. I was in Ethiopia for 3 weeks, Kenya 1 week, Egypt 1 week… between late November 2004 and early January 2005. I went with my friend Altu who was born and raised and educated in Ethiopia, but is now a US citizen and who owns my favorite restaurant, in East Lansing, Michigan.

First photo is a fruit stand in Alexandria, Egypt. Second photo is the garden of Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, in the Karen district of Nairobi, Kenya. Third is a beautiful street scene in Bahar Dar, northern Ethiopia, which Altu wants me to tell you is not a typical scene but definitely gorgeous.

My friend Temesgen is a musician who specializes in one specific style of ancient Ethiopian music. He is the house musician for Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine (see photo at right). He plays there the first Saturday of most months (sometimes messed up by holidays, for example he will not play in July).

Temesgen has a website, Temesgen.com, and he has several CDs available there as well as a new video he just released. There is also a Youtube version of it, for those who like to subscribe to Youtube contributors. I just watched it and enjoyed it very much. It is not like any sort of music I grew up with, but it’s soothing and rhythmic in a way that is more like the earth and less like a march or a polka.

I knew Temesgen’s wife Carol back when I was still teaching computer classes. I taught her how to code HTML web pages (when there were no truly functional programs that created web pages for you). But I digress. Just suffice it to say that in Lansing it seems that everyone knows everyone these days!

Do consider taking a look at a video by a man who is keeping alive a musical tradition that is dying out. And if you find this interesting, consider reading some related detail on Wikipedia (much of which was contributed to the wiki by Temesgen himself):

• Temesgen
• Begena (instrument shown in photo above)
• Krar (smaller instrument)
• Music of Ethiopia (A bigger picture)

My friend Altu’s restaurant is celebrating the 10+1 year Anniversary of the restaurant Saturday Nov. 24. I am very excited because we have a full day of events, including music from seven acts including The Fabulous Heftones (me and hubby Brian).

She also will be repeating an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony from 11:30-4pm. In addition, there will be special snack foods available at no cost. If you are more hungry than that, the regular menu will be available all day long.

There will be a short lull from 4pm to dinnertime. Then at 6:30-8:30 we will have none other but the incredible Jen Sygit as our musical headliner.

Jen just got back from a tour out to Boston, she’s a big name even though she’s a Lansing resident. Do not take this talent for granted!

I am very excited to have Jen at Altu’s this weekend!

Here is the musical lineup:

• 11:30 Doug Berch
• 12:15 The Fabulous Heftones
• 1:00 Mike Ross
• 1:45 Phil Wintermute
• 2:30 Measured Dose
• 3:15 Hall and Morgan

And from 6:30-8:30,

Jen Sygit!

If you are out and about at all in the Lansing, Michigan area on Saturday, November 24, please take the time to stop by and say hello. I will be there the entire time we have musicians in the house.

If you have not been to Altu’s before, it is on Michigan Avenue (click for map), the last building in East Lansing. Facing it from the street, it is on the right side of The Dollar, tucked back behind a small parking lot.

At Altu’s, the food is great, the welcome warm, the music lively. Please join us in this celebration.

Disclaimer: Altu is my dear, dear friend. She took me to Africa three years ago this week. I took the photo of the coffee ceremony in December of 2004, in Gondar, northern Ethiopia. It’s the real thing, folks.

I line up the music at Altu’s restaurant and I do her website/publicity and her menus. Not on payroll, for hugs and food and occasional chances to perform there myself. The only real economic gain I might have from this announcement is possible tips if you came while I was singing.

So do humor me, come on by, and have a great time while I know I spent my time well… see you then!

This is actually a photo from a few weeks back, but it is worth sharing. To be honest, the knitting is from a few years back and I just got the photo taken this fall.

Three years ago next month, I went to East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Egypt… yes, Egypt is in Africa) at the invitation of my friend, Altu. She wanted to take me home (she was raised in Ethiopia though she is a US citizen now) and show me where she was from. Actually, since the government changed many years ago her parents are in a different part of the country from where she was raised, but she wanted me to see Africa.

I had a bit of a miracle, got a financial windfall just in time to say yes, and went to Africa for 38 days. That’s more than 5 weeks of no work, no obligations, nothing from my normal life. I was with people who normally do not speak English though most of them knew it quite well (to interact with me when I was the focus). However, much of the time they were chatting in their primary language about many things that did not directly concern welcoming me to their world.

I spent a lot of time watching my African friends chat and laugh, tell stories and laugh some more, and truly enjoy one another. I had a lot of time to sit, observe, and often knit.

I knit 10 pairs of socks in Africa. Most were fingering weight, many were a standard 7″ or so in leg height. Two pair were extremely fancy, at least three colors of yarn in stranded patterning, sometimes three colors in one row. One of those pairs was inspired by Ethiopian Baskets (follow link). One pair was inspired by Kenyan Gardens. (I can not seem to find a photo of these, though Terese and Altu both express love for the design with regularity.)

By the time I got to the last week of the trip, I was running out of balls of yarn which were large enough to do a solid-color pair. I determined to make a pair of footies for Altu out of most of a ball of red, and smaller balls of yellow and white. In order to maximize use of my remaining yarn, I made a striping pattern which pleased me and determined that I would use an afterthought heel.

This pair was my 107th pair that I finished knitting. To be honest, I didn’t finish working in the ends at the time, but I did finish the knitting part. The very last bit of the knitting was completed back in the USA, in January of 2005.

When I got home I decided I might like to write the pattern for these footies. I kept the socks until the time when the pattern was written. I even started writing the pattern, and then got distracted.

And the footies sat for nearly three years. Last month was Altu’s birthday and finally I worked in the twenty-plus yarn ends and presented them to her for her birthday gift.

Altu’s foot is larger than mine… I’m an extra-small and she’s closer to a large. The photo here is shown on a sock blocker that works on my foot, so it’s not properly stretched for your viewing enjoyment. I didn’t have time to fully block the socks before I met Altu for lunch that day, so this is the best view of the socks I will ever have, unless I knit another pair.

She loved them. And since she knew they were for her three years ago, I think she was relieved to know she actually got them after all this time! More finishing, you know? It feels good.

Photos: Altu’s sock; Dancers at a wedding in Mombasa, Kenya; bread delivery man on bicycle (bread balanced on head) in Cairo, Egypt; Market scene in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Africans are not afraid of color!).

LT suggests I snap myself out of the funk I can let myself get into, with the cold weather. It’s a very good point.

I must admit that I am clear that in Lansing, we get snow every April. If we are lucky, we will get it early in the month and be done with it. So that’s my outlook today. This is the last snow of April, I hope. And next Thursday I fly to Dallas to teach there (Woohoo) and it will definitely be warmer than this week in Lansing. I will be indoors for three days, teaching. However, I don’t fly home until 6pm on Monday so if I’m lucky I can see a little bit of Dallas before I go home.

Another suggestion from LT is to post a photo or two of Africa from my trip two years ago. This is an excellent suggestion. We were there for 38 days and we actually saw rain twice, and got wet from rain merely one day on that whole trip. They do have a rainy season but we missed it.

For the record, we spent most of the trip in higher elevations and it was chilly much of the time, especially when the sun went down. Our three-day weekend at Mombasa beach in Kenya was the only time it felt hot… and it surely was over 100F those few days, at sea level on the equator.

The top photo today is in Bahar Dar, northern Ethiopia, where we went to see the waterfall of the Blue Nile. The second photo was a motel/ resort/ restaurant at a crater lake in the ridge valley of Ethiopia.

Thanks, LT!

It’s chilly again. the wind is wild and mean. Although I had a great Watercolor Bag class at Threadbear, now that I’m quiet and at home, I’m grumpy and cold.

Off goes the cheerful cotton Egyptian dress I got on my Africa trip. On goes the gray alpaca/mohair/wool cabled sweater that is far too big for me, but really warm and cozy. Off go the thin cotton socks my friend Julie hand-dyed for me, on go aran-weight Louisa Harding Kashmir (cashmere/ merino/ microfiber blend) handknit socks, and a pair of over-the-knee legwarmers.

On go alpaca-blend handwarmers and the stole/wrap I bought in Egypt, which even though it’s machine-knit acrylic is really really warm because it’s longer than 5 feet and I can wrap it around me fully. Of course I am still wearing my angora-blend beret here inside.

Brian made dinner (that man, he’s so good). He does a great job at steamed fish and greens (tonight it was perch and collards). I put an olive paste/sauce on my fish and though I’m not a huge fan of fish for dinner, the olives make me like it just fine. He also made “baked” (microwaved) sweet potatoes. Comfort food! And hey… when I eat, my body warms up, it understands what fuel is for.

So now the dishwasher is making its typical working noise while both of us are at our computers. I am wrapped up in all those clothes plus my gahbi (hand-spun/hand-woven four-layered cotton blanket from Ethiopia). I have a cup of tea near me (black ceylon tea with arabic writing on the package, it reminds me of Egypt). I think I’ll survive the chill!

The two things I can’t live without, are wool (and alpaca, etc.) and tea. It looks like I can make it a good night, now. I hope you are cozy, too.

Photos: Tea at Altu’s mother’s home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; tea at the Marriott hotel on the nile in Cairo, Egypt. In Egypt the tea was typically served in glass as you see it here. In Ethiopia it was usually in a cup, with spices (cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and cloves). At a restaurant they would often serve me a cup full of amber spiced water, and a black teabag on the side.

Since I slept through my blog-writing time on February 6, I have decided to retroactively post a sunny photograph. It has been a while since I have shown you photos of my trip in Africa (two years ago). This one was taken near Bahar Dar, in Northern Ethiopia near where the Blue Nile starts and also where there once was a great waterfall (before they diverted the Nile for electrical power).

To someone from Lansing, Michigan, this can almost look surreal. It is normal terrain in that area of the world, and strikingly beautiful, I think.

I was looking for information on washing a Nigerian batik dress I own. I ended up with links to African textiles… and then I found a gallery of sixteen photos taken in Guinea in the early 1900’s. What a worthy distraction!

The fabrics and costuming are fascinating and varied. Some of the men wear european-styled hats, though the women wear one to three pieces of woven fabrics (sometimes one just draped on the lap, sometimes one on a shoulder). Some of the blouses/tops on the women look like something you might find in a US store today, and one woman wears no blouse at all.

There are many photos where folks are holding their walking sticks, enough that I surmise the sticks had meaning beyond helping someone walk. I wonder what the importance was.

The photos were taken in a studio which looks of European influence although the owner of the site assumes it was an early African photographer. At the time these were taken, the country was called French Guinea. According to Wikipedia, the country became independent in 1958.

The site also has another page talking about old African photo/postcards, and more images. The essay about the images is enlightening. Check out Images of African Leadership if you crave more. The second series includes some embroidered capes from Dakar.

Most of the images in this series are West African, and I only was in 3 countries of East Africa… but in Ethiopia we saw some old capes from old kings, that looked similar in style (though as I recall, more embellished) to these capes.

The site where these two exhibits were found is a commercial website called Adire African Textiles. I’m grateful. What a great way to spend time!

And if you have the leisure to learn more, visit the online exhibit “In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa 1885-1960.” This is housed on the site for the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Two years ago I was in Cairo for Christmas, with my friend Altu. I even blogged a little that day, but I was paying by the minute at the business center at the Marriott, and I could not download photographs.

We decided to stay in the hotel room that day, to just laze around and celebrate by relaxing in our jammies. We were in Africa a total of 38 days and very few were relaxation days, we packed in as much as we could. This was near the end of our trip and we were ready for a “down” day. We had been in Alexandria the day or two before, and got some wonderful mideastern “fingers” which are honey/cashew and puff pastry… and we also had tangerines and guavas from a stand in Alexandria.

We slept in for Christmas. We figured out when to call home (I think it was about 8 hours’ difference between time zones, maybe more) and we ate breakfast of fruit, tea and pastry, on the 19th floor balcony of the Cairo Marriott on the nile. This is the view we had during breakfast. It is the world’s second-largest city, next to Mexico City (which I have also visited). From this vantage point, when there is not a lot of smog, it really looked as though we could see the tops of the pyramids in Giza. It makes sense… we were looking the right direction, and mountains can be seen for long distances as well.

That day we watched a lot of TV. In Ethiopia, the government controls the media, but in Egypt we had satellite and saw shows in at least four different languages. That was the week of the Tsunami (and Altu and I had been on the Indian Ocean at Mombasa, Kenya only 11 days previous), so there was lots of that coverage, as well as holiday stuff. Even though Egypt is only about 12% Christian, there were Christmas decorations at the hotel for folks like us, and the TV shows reflected the season.

Egypt is a fascinating place for many reasons. It is in Africa but also is middle-eastern/Arabic in culture/language. The radio station would say (in English) the “music of Africa and the Middle East!” Alexandria (less than 2 hours by car from Cairo) is on the Mediteranean and has that influence as well. When we visited the Christian churches on Dec. 26, we had to walk through a very old burial ground where the tombstones were written in Greek. We visited a castle on the Mediteranean (in Alexandria), and it looked very European.

The funniest thing that happened on Christmas two years ago, though, was a personal thing that could have happened anywhere in the world. We ordered room service for our midday meal, ate (it was disappointing, as hotel food can be, though the tea was just fine), and then decided to push the table back out into the hall to make more room.

We had to fuss with putting down the leaves on the table to get it to fit through the door. Before we knew it, we were out in the hall with the table, in our jammies, and the door locked behind us. Dang!

I got elected to go down to the front desk and get help. I was certainly covered up but not at all dressed for the elegant Marriott (part of which once was a bit of a palace built for Napoleon’s Josephine III if I remember right, an incredible building). We were in a second building, and it required walking outdoors under a covered area to get to the main building, then down some halls and past some stores and restaurants, before getting to the front desk.

So here I was, this obvious foreigner not dressed for prime time on Christmas day. I kept laughing out loud because it was so funny. I tried not to look at anyone while laughing because they can take funny looks very seriously in Arabic cultures and I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.

I made my way to the desk and had no trouble convincing them of my situation, one look and it was really clear. So I got a key and walked, walked, walked and took my elevator back to the 19th floor, to rescue Altu who was still stuck in the hallway. What a way to spend part of a lazy holiday!!!

Photos (for the record, I went through the trouble to make all these smaller photos clickable to large images this time if you want close-ups): 1) Skyline from our balcony, Christmas Morning, 2004; 2) Pastries called fingers; 3) Castle in Alexandria, posing with Altu 4) Fruit Stand where Christmas breakfast was purchased; 5) Same Castle, looking out at the Mediteranean Sea; 6 &7) Rooms in the Marriott which were originally built in a French style to make Josephine III comfortable away from home; 8 ) Dancer in Marriott restaurant which is in the back garden of the hotel; 9) Garden of hotel from balcony, showing several restaurants.

I can’t resist. I have photos of dancers in all 3 countries I visited. Here is a dancer in a fancy Ethiopian restaurant in Addis Ababa:

Here are dancers doing traditional dances at a wedding on the beach in Mombasa, Kenya:

Dancers entertaining at the food court at a fancy mall in Nairobi, Kenya, the week before Christmas:

Dancer at the Marriott on the Nile in Cairo, a few days before Christmas, 2004:

I’ve shown all these photos here before in the last two years, but not together on the theme of dancing. I hope you enjoy them.

Old Friends

I spent about seven hours Sunday with my friend Susan. What a luxury! It was so heartwarming and comfortable to be with her, to finally see her home and meet her sons. When I got there, her mother was there. I met Susan and her mother (and sister Beth) I was in 3rd grade or earlier. Yes, really. That was a long time ago, since I’ll be all of 48 years old on Tuesday.

I also still stay in touch with one other friend from elementary school, Jo. Jo is the mom of my Godchildren, Michael and Sara (who I wrote about last Wednesday for her birthday). Jo and I met in either Kindergarten or 1st grade.

I realize that many people don’t stay connected with anyone as long as I’ve known these women. It is not as if they are in my every day life, but they remain a connection to my history. And these women knew me when my life was not this good. I’m glad they stuck it out with me. Having them in my life makes me richer.

Opposites Attract?

Susan and I are both creative souls, who can not ignore our creativity without losing ourselves in the process. However, Susan is as intense/focused as I am intense/distracted.

I get much accomplished by going in spirals, so to speak. I do part of task A, get distracted by B, get up to make tea and start C in the kitchen, go back to the desk and remember A again. Eventually A is completed and I might add a D or E to the rotation. As if it was really in order… It could be A, C, E, B, C, etc. It’s sort of chaos but because I stay focused on working and going forward, I keep on plugging and everything gets done.

Well, also I’ve learned to use my computer and palm device to keep me on track when I forget. I set a lot of alarm clock functions, to remind me to change gears at key times. I am determined to keep going forward, and the determination seems to be my best friend.

Teaching is Definitely “My Thing”Thank goodness that when I teach, I’m really focused and I know what to do, I have only one thing I’m there for and I am really very good at it. I am grateful every day I teach, that I finally found something that is so right for me.

I started working for pay in front of a classroom in 1994, teaching computer training classes. I’d been volunteering and also teaching informally at work (Hey, Lynn… how do you do X on the computer?) since 1978 when I did volunteer work for a young woman’s group at Central Michigan University. I didn’t realize for a long time that I could do this thing I loved after work, as my actual work. I’m really happy with how things have evolved that way for me.

Winding Down/Good Food

When I got home we had a wonderful meal by thawing something I’d made last week. Aaah, I’m starting to reap the bounty of cooking ahead of time! Make 2 meals, freeze one, and a meal next week becomes easier. I’m delighted. (It was cornish game hens, carrots and parsnips… very tasty, better than chicken. If I have to eat meat (right now my health depends on it, I can’t eat dairy, egg, nuts or soy without getting sick) I’m happy it can taste that good.

Back to the Shopping Cart

After dinner I got right down to business on the shopping cart. I loaded all six colorways I have in stock of the Cushy ColorSport DK-weight washable merino yarn I have offered since I first started dyeing yarn. This stuff is incredible! It makes good hats, scarves, baby blankets, socks, wristwarmers, and nice drapey sweaters and baby clothes.

I adore this particular DK yarn, it’s so springy that it can be knit from 7 stitches per inch for socks, to 4.5 stitches per inch in a baby blanket. All are good fabrics for that particular item (DK-weight yarn is typically knit at 5.5 stitches per inch for sweaters, I like it around 6.25 stitches per inch for socks).

Family can Also Be Friends

My brother Eric and his wife Diana have been incredible friends to me during this shopping cart development. Diana has tested the cart a zillion times (thank goodness Paypal has an easy feature for refunding purchase money), and Eric looked at it from a non-knitter perspective. He is the best one I know at asking questions without trying to skew the answer. I adore both of them.

Work Friends

Tomorrow I will be opening up Rae’s shop for her until she can get there a few hours later. There is another gratitude… the yarn shops where I teach are all run by incredible, wonderful people (Rob and Matt at Threadbear, Linda at Little Red Schoolhouse and Rae at Rae’s Yarn Boutique). I am lucky to count them as friends, and working for friends is the best.

Anyway, Monday I’ll be taking my computer with me to Rae’s so if we have any slow times I can edit the TipToe Sockyarn photographs. When I get home I’ll then be able to load my last yarn product and start the official opening day of my shopping cart this week.

Tuesday I have my helper coming to work with me mid-afternoon, but I think I won’t have her stay too long (I want a special dinner with Brian because it is my birthday that day)… I hope we can get a few more colorways of yarn skeined up for me to photograph and add to the photos.

My Partner is also My Friend

That’s another friend I’m grateful for. My husband, Brian. He has made this shopping cart experience so much easier for me. The product is a package deal and it came with some very ugly cartoon “icons” on many of the pages. He went in with his programming knowledge and one at a time removed them for me. No complaining, just work. He’s wonderful, and I know how lucky I am.

I’m getting excited about the shopping cart but it’s not quite ready yet. Patience… I’m going to learn it sooner or later.

Photos: More Africa, definitely more about friendship. Monday after Thanksgiving, two years ago, my beloved friend Altu took me home to Ethiopia.

We were 3 weeks total in Ethiopia (five different areas but mostly her parents’ home in Addis Ababa, the capitol city), one week in Kenya (two areas, a resort in Mombasa on the Indian Ocean and Nairobi, a very modern city with an incredible national park literally next door), and one week in Egypt (Cairo except one day in Alexandria).

If taking someone on a major trip like that is not proof of true friendship, I don’t know what is. We came away from that 38 days of togetherness with an even stronger friendship than we started out with. How lucky I am.

So the photos? One street scene from each country we visited. Homes in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (laundry day), Mombasa, Kenya (notice boy with balloon), man delivering pita bread on a bicycle in Cairo. The first two I took from moving vehicles with a point-and-shoot low-end Kodak digital camera, using the sports setting.

The Cairo picture is actually a tiny little bit of a shot I got from a distance. He was going so fast that by the time I got out the camera and it turned on, he was a speck on my photo. He was not the only delivery guy doing this, but he was the only one I was fast enough to catch. Whew!