Butterfly Birthday

I actually turned 49 not long ago... wow, I still can't believe I lived to this ripe old age - my mind still thinks like 18.  I found some beautiful, African, Batik, wax, print, fabric and collected flour sacks to make aprons for all my girls.  I was going to have them sewn by a local seamstress, but decided to ask Marian if she would like to become one, so she could be at home when the kids weren't in school instead of working at the stationery shop all day.  Since she already knows how to sew (her mother and sister were seamstresses) she was very, very interested.  So we did a Family Home Evening Lesson on creating a business plan and then went shopping for a brand new, made-in-The-Peoples-Republic-of-China, Butterfly sewing machine, for my birthday!  I will sew the aprons myself and then give the Butterfly to Marian when we leave.    

This thing is sooooo cool!  It weighs about 40 pounds and is 100% iron and steel - I didn't think they made things like that anymore!  And you can store all your thread and stuff under it, in the wood box.  Look ma...no power needed, you just crank the hand treadle.

We met Comfort at Alices.  She came to have Alice fix her Butterfly.  The "black poly" is full of "patching" (mending).  Alice told me that a seamstress who patches makes a lot more money than those making new clothes.  They carry their machine around on their head through the village calling out "patching" and people come "rushing" to her.  She does the work right there, and gets paid right then...no overhead!  I've been surprised how inexpensive notions are here.  

Of course Alice is an excellent seamstress - and mechanic!  Alice says that I have "surpassed the master" in my bread baking skills, so she surprised me with my official bakers dress for my birthday.  It is made from flour sacks and is awesome in a sentimental kind of way.  She never took a single measurement, but it fits me like a glove.  Now if the town council comes around while we're baking bread, they won't punish me for not wearing one while baking - it's the law!

Alice's Bread Recipe:

6 eggs

10 nutmegs

1/2 bag flour (5 kilos?)

1/2 bottle pineapple essence

1/3 kilo salt

2 gal. water

2 T. yeast

1 c. dry milk

1 c. margarine

1 T. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

4 c. sugar

Mix like other bread dough, form loaves and rise overnight - bake.

Alice made a few adjustments and Comfort was mending again, right there, in the wind!

I have just finished my "tedious work" of snipping the designs into the bread dough with small scissors, and we are shooting the breeze while we wait for the oven to cool slightly before baking.  Every Saturday when we come to help Alice, we spend a good deal of time in "conversation" usually she sits where I am in this picture.  While she sits, she scrapes  the melted wax from the corner of her table.  She has no electricity, only candles.  I took a picture of the wax on the table and will frame it when we get home.  It is my reality check to get a broader perspective about what is important in life.  I'm really going to miss Alice. 

Alice's Poems:

He that is low, need fear no foe

He that is humble, no pride

But ever shall have God, to be his guide

God bless this house, from thatch to floor

The 12 apostles guard my door

Four good angels watch my bed

Two at my head, two at my foot.  Amen