Presidents, Dave and Bushmen :)

Looking through some old pictures I found this beauty. Speaking on the left and beholder of the fabulous "Shooting at the stars" quilt (by KQ of course:)) is former (but at the time) President of Botswana Festus Mogae. The FUNNY story about that will come after my personal story. On the right is great friend the late David Williams. This amazing man has so many facets. For me my favorite was his friendship, after my husband and my kids father passed away in 09 David would turn up at my gate with a bunch of roses and the inevitable bottle of wine on Daniels birthday, my birthday, our anniversary valentines day and all the important dates he know I would not just be lonely but heartbroken. He passed away about a year and a half after Daniel. Both such special people. Enough sad, here is the funny part. Dave was our friend but also our lawyer, thats how he knew all the dates. After a few months were he told me to just settle and get things together we started working on Daniels estate. Yes we had a will, but we didn't have it signed by two witnesses. This was all before Dave became our lawyer. We thought there was time of course, Daniel was only 39 when he passed. You just don't think of these things. Anyhow Dave went on a holiday shortly after we started the work, for more info Google The Williams family and Vanuatu. So funny and interesting. The short of it is.....Dave's Great grandfather was a missionary, landed in Vanuatu and was eaten, YES EATEN. Well the island wanted to pay retribution so the Williams family so gave them a child. That should wet your pallet to find out more hahaha. Anyways he came back we started the whole estate of Daniel again but then he sadly passed away. Five years later and I have signed the final copies to send to the court last week and hope next week for it to be finalized. WHEW.

Now onto the funny part about the quilt and the incidents surrounding the time frame. Keep in mind "Bushman" and "Survival International" As we were commissioned to make the quilt, the theme was shoot for the stars. Consumer watchdog Botswana (Two of our best friends Richard and Kate Harriman run this as a community service to Botswana) was celebrating customer service stars hence the theme.... Hence the stars and background. What is manly for a quilt? A bushman RIGHT? Well the quilt was finished and approved. A few weeks before the event the Survival international thing blew up. OPPS. It was decided it was ok to give him the lovely quilt as it was so Botswana anyways. What you must understand is being an expatriate who has lived in Botswana all her life I have a firm view on this escapade. Yes the Bushman have the right to live their 'ancestral lives' which is what they were fighting for. But what they do now is not live the ancestral lives. I have seen it firsthand. The hunt animals yes.....but with guns. They live isolated lives yes.....but fight for power and water lines so they can have an easier life. No problem....then pay the taxes and share your hunting grounds with others. They drink yes....but not water from roots, they drink local beer. There is so much more. Anyways don't get me started on this. The funny thing was the quilt was made before all this erupted.

Ahhhhhhhhh the fun we have living in this amazing country, the people we meet and the things we get to participate in. Couldn't ask for more.

MY 'DUDE'

I am BACK

 

I am BACK (kind of :)

I wont go into the whole longgggg story but give the short version. I broke my nerves. Strange but true. Apparently I had been dealing with too much since my husband passed away. Making sure the kids were fine, the store was fine as well as numerous employees who are like family. It was my turn to break down. 5 months I couldn't even leave the house. I never understood how people could suffer from (whats that called when you cant leave the house???) well I do now. It took me another 4 months to get back into the store a few hours a day and have worked up from there. I still suffer from panic attacks but I fight through them better now. Thank god for my 'MOMMY'. I love you and thank you for being the rock in my life as well as my best friend.

Anyhow, I feel like I have caught up enough with the store and getting things underway that I can do things like my blog again. What fun we have had in this last year, panic aside.

May 2014

I got a call from a lovely energetic yet calm stranger who happened to be the producer of the opening/closing ceremonies. The conversation changed my life. With 3 weeks to go till the African Youth Games held here in Gaborone Botswana they wanted to know if I could make the 'BIG FIVE' for the opening ceremony.......WHAT! No way was that possible. Ian, the lovely energetic yet calm stranger asked what we might be able to do. We came up with a herd of Zebra (the national animal) One prototype done 10 times was the best I could offer. You must remember I am a quilting store,. Ian, however, knows that if you see someone creative and push them in a new direction that anything is possible. So we worked 15 hr days or more the entire time and came in a day before schedule, YAY. So much fun. These Zebra were huge, and true to Kalahari Quilts they were fantastical. Only my main 'dude' was black and white.....OK so he had gold and silver with studs (yes, silver studs) running down his nose and back. The others who I referred to as his harem were multicolored with black stripes. A true Kalahari Quilts herd of Zebra hahaha.

We also volunteered behind the scenes for the costume fittings. My daughter of 10 worked as hard and furiously as any member of the adult teem bless her. She tied almost 200 school kids ties for them. The thing I will remember most out of everything though it the people we met. WOW what a group of fantastic, hard working, fun loving souls. Topping the list is Ian who kept everyone going with his can do attitude. A friend I am glad to have found in this crazy wonderful world. I will never put limits on what I can do again, this lesson has changed my life.

Enough writing for now, I have fun stuff to do today. I will however post some pictures.

Love to all and to all a happy day.