Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Extracurricular Activities in Akron


One evening we went to an Amish farm for supper. There were 26 of us, plus ten other people in Sally's kitchen. We had meat loaf, potatoes, beans, bread, apple sauce, pickles, brownies and shew fly  pudding. There was a question time, introductions all around and a song by the women of the family, followed by a prayer for one of us. Sally does this kind of thing three times a week.


We went to Ten Thousand Villages to see what there is from Egypt. Here is a cutting board with an alabaster bowl in it. Very impressive. We will connect with the producers when we get back to Cairo.


We also met friends from our days in Laos. They took us around Lancaster and to Intercourse to Kettle Kitchens which is like an outdoor version of the Forks in Winnipeg.


We were even invited out one evening for supper with former reps to Egypt. We had a great time quizzing them about partners.


Another evening we met more people from our Asia days. Nicole was also a SALT participant to Indonesia this past year and had met Erik in orientation and reentry retreat. We met Nicole and her family in 2002. It was great to catch up with them (sorry, no picture).


Though it doesn't look like it here, we had a picnic one evening with our supervisor's family and another couple who are going to Palestine. We'll see them all again in Egypt in October.


Arthur's brother and wife drove down from Ottawa on this motorcycle to see us. Not exactly a touring bike. We appreciate the sacrifice to comfort that Grace made to come and see us. 


We met at the MCC quilt room to see the hanging we will be presenting to one of our partners. It looks great. The woman on the left will be bringing it later on this year.


There were also a few minutes to do a puzzle. In the end there were 8 pieces missing, so not exactly finished.
We had a very full two weeks.








Leadership seminar


Our days were full, starting with breakfast at 7:15 am and ending the sessions at 5:00 pm. We had a hymn sing on Sunday evening where all the men were tenors. A rare occasion.


There were input sessions from numerous people. This is our financial wizard, who helps us with all our accounting.


These are the PlanWin designers who make our stories accessible to the MCC world. It's complicated to get all the outputs and outcomes in all the right sub categories, but we should be able to do it now.


We had one field trip to the Material Resources Center in Ephrata. We had a quick tour and then back to learning more things.



Saturday, August 01, 2015

Rain!


Something we haven't seen in a long time, is rain. It was accompanied by thunder and lightening as an added bonus. It is hard to believe that just a week ago we were under the Egyptian sun and today we are soaking up the rain in Akron. It can be difficult to reconcile our different contexts.

We are learning a lot and are trying not to be inundated with information during our orientation time here. We have met some wonderful people and are enjoying getting to know others who are experiencing similar life changes and challenges. It's really encouraging and motivating.