Blankets and quilting

I know that no amount of money can move Africa out of poverty. Elder Holland said the solution for poverty in Africa is paying your tithing and living the gospel. And I can clearly see that when people live honest, hardworking lives with a goal of self-sufficiency, and when they are kind and loving towards those around them and interact with others in a good moral way, blessings will come. So I am trying hard to focus on gospel living and teaching and maybe throw in a few good ideas. At least they seem like good ideas to me. This is actually Sis. Anderson's good idea. She taught the people in Chulu to make quilts. So I am offering that idea here. These are the scraps from the dress Busia Relief Society is making for me. I chose some very simple quilt patters-- pinwheel, bow-tie, 4 square-- and cut them out from the scraps. They weren't all sized the same because the scraps were different sized. But it worked out.

This was done with a ruler, kitchen scissors, iron, needle and thread... and a sore finger. (I do LOVE thimbles.)

The sisters are excited about it. They say, "I can do that." and "Yes, it can sell." We talked of making purses, carry bags, blankets and vests. Any other suggestions? I don't know if we will find batting here. I asked two people to find me thread. One came back with white thread, the other with thin yarn. That will be fine for tying the quilts.

The Udalls brought a double blessing. Someone had made some quilts and wanted them to be donated. They are small, infant quilts. But they were GREAT examples of how simple quilting can be beautiful and effective. They were strip quilts and patch quilts with a few blocks thrown in and were the wonderful symbols of love that quilts can be.

This young mama had her baby in a tuktuk on the way to the hospital. She took a chill. The baby is fine and 4 days old. Geoffrey and Christimina are presenting her with one of the blankets.

Christimina had other sick moms and children at Geoffrey's medical clinic that she handed out blankets to.

And we took a picture of them and the waiting line of patients. They had looked pretty sickly until Tom told them to smile for the photo. There were more waiting inside. Still they took time to visit with Elder and Sister Udall. He is a physician and immediately they went into their own language as they discussed diseases and treatments-- TB, cancer, typhoid, and the medications used to help. There is so much sickness here, but the people of Africa are very strong.

We so enjoyed our visit with the Udalls. It's fun to have another missionary couple to talk to. The Udalls went back to Nairobi and we spent the afternoon at Cottage meetings. At George and Elizabeth's house we had nearly a dozen. It began raining so we had to crowd into their little house. Tom and elder Lipengah stood in the door so only their back halves got soaked in the rain. It was a great meeting as we talked about service and showed "The Restoration" video on our laptop. Alas, by the time we got to the next house, our battery died and we could not show it again.

The missionaries assured us we could drive most of the way to the second Elizabeth's in Nyalenda. Well, they were mostly right. This was the better part of the road.

Elizabeth has a great family. Her husband came home as we were leaving. A good man. She had another new convert and a neighbor there to listen. I love it when we teach. The spirit is so strong. Rebecca had asked about how they tie the babies on their back. Her daughter is 13 months old and Elizabeth said they put them on their backs at about 6 months. Her daughter holds tightly to the mom as she just wraps the cloth over one of her shoulders, across the baby's back and under the baby's bottom and then around her side. The baby just snuggled right in and rested her head against the mom's back.