MCC Bangladesh mini-reunion

What lucky people we are! A whole group of Ramont's former colleagues from his MCC Bangladesh days came from Washington, Kansas, and the Cities to visit us over the weekend. The photo above shows the two people - Joel Ward and Nadene (Sawyer) Gurule - with whom Ramont spent all four years living and working there. Joel now is married to Tabby (with kids Helen and Baby Jack, as he is known around our house), while Nadene is married to Michael. We are also joined by Clifford Dyck, who was their boss for their last year in Bangladesh; he is married to Marlene Ewert and their son Nat came along too. Marlene's Ewert clan was meeting separately in this area for the weekend, so they were in and out.

We had a really, really good time.  Ramont should really write his own reflections on the reunion, but since he probably won't, I'll just say that my favorite part (besides the food and campfires) was hearing Ramont's one-part stories come to life by three more perspectives. What a life they had there!

We actually just sat around most of the time, but there was also some badminton competition (Nat, Marlene, Cliff, and Joel).

Ramont made some Bolivian-style giso over the fire (Ramont, Nadene, Michael, Joel).

It seems that Father's Day also took place over the weekend, but we kind of forgot about that. Ramont really is a #1 dad, though.

We also tried our hand(s) at rock-picking. Here we get loaded up at my folks' place with the John Deere "A" (Nadene, Joel, Jonathan, me, Ramont).

The workers arrive: two country mice and their city mouse friend (Jonathan, Anna, Helen).

 On the trailer, heading for the field.

Nadene was clearly the champion rock-picker, with speed, energy, and enthusiasm never really seen on this farm before (at least not for this job). Joel wasn't too bad either, though the rest of us just kind of hung out on the trailer, or tractor.

 Snack time.

Hanging out on the trailer.

Here Nadene makes some dhal to go with the curry made by Tabby and yummy extras brought by Cliff and Marlene. The last evening we had super delicious chimichangas made by Michael.

Seems like we were eating most of the time, and all of it (except breakfasts) outside. Not sure what Ramont is threatening Nadene with here...

On Sunday we attended the outdoor worship service at Mountain Lake's annual town festival called Pow Wow. It was a gorgeous day, and a cultural event in and of itself (Michael, me with Anna, Ramont with Jonathan).

More of our group (L to R: Cliff, Marlene, Tabby with Jack, Joel with Helen).

Getting a little tired of all the commotion? At least they're sticking together.

Jonathan, Anna, and Helen holding down the kids' table, while Jack cruises happily around.

And here they are: Ramont, Nadene, and Joel - 13 years after their first meeting. Next stop: NW Washington in three years.

Visitors!

In about 2004, at an MCC Europe retreat in Hungary, I met Jen and Nate Kauffman. Jen and I had some really good, late-night talks that summer - and then again the next year in Lyon, France. Since then we've (sadly) kept in touch only minimally, save for one brief visit two summers ago in Harrisonburg, VA.

Their family moved to Omaha, NE last May and so they're now only about four hours away from us. And this last weekend they came to visit us! Back in Europe none of us had kids (not even a spouse for me). Now it was a rather happy, crazy joining of forces.

We made giso in our new cast-iron pot (and other gear made by Ramont), the men/boys did some field work (still planting in between rains), rode a lot of little wheels around the yard, and ate mostly outside (with varying degrees of success).

No matter how you look at it, a mini-tableful of kiddies eating outside is pretty cute.

Sidenote: all the rain has turned our yard into somewhat of a park.

Nate and Ramont eat Sunday lunch.

And Anna, well, what can one say about this?

It really was a great weekend, and I think a great start to our North American friendship with the Kauffmans!

Transitional care

My mom is now in a nursing home! Not for real, but just to get a bit more help while recovering from hip replacement surgery last week. After a visitful weekend at our home (more about that in another post), we all finally got a chance to visit her at the Good Samaritan Home in Mountain Lake.

Opa and Anna with Jonathan bring up the rear on the way to our faspa site.

Today was the most beautiful day of the year, so it was pretty awesome to sit outside for terere and eats.

Here Ramont takes the kiddies in search of playground equipment that was hoped to be around the corner.

Mom is doing so much better than a few days ago, though of course recovery is not the easiest thing in the world. For those of you close enough to visit, she's in room 310!

Surgery chicks

[The title is not quite what it seems.]

My mom had hip replacement revision surgery on Tuesday. Her original hip was replaced 14.5 years ago, and this year it just got too bad to manage any longer (there were also some cysts involved). So they took the whole thing out and put in a brand new one.

We went to Mankato yesterday and today to provide some friendly faces for her, help along with physical therapy (and score some ice cream and lunch in the process), and serve up a little terere. She's doing ok, though still has quite a bit of pain. At this point it looks like she'll be going to a transitional care unit tomorrow, after they discharge her from the hospital, for the weekend.

And we now have 10 chicks! (or cheepy-cheepies, as the kids call them) Next up on the livestock front? Stay tuned...(maybe for a few months).

85 years young!

Happy birthday, (great) Grandma Harder! (Grandpa will be 90 in September.)

Random spring things

Thanks to all the rain recently, things have become brilliantly green, the field corn is coming up nicely, and...the garden is being planted waaay to late.

While it's still too wet to work in the dirt, we've been enjoying some good play time with our favorite "play date" (yikes, that's who we've become?) people: Tante Sara and her three girls.

Here the eldest, who (I think) would like to be a horse, pulls Jonathan all around our yard. And then did the same for her sisters.

Jonathan is 3-year old infatuated with this third cousin of his. She is very patient and kind in return.

We sprang for a brand-new cast iron cooking pot, and it arrived in the mail this week! Looking forward to lots of gisos made over the fire, especially with all our June visitors.

The apple trees and grape vines are looking good here. This yard is amazing, with it's raspberries, strawberries, plums, grapes, apples, and flowering shrubs and trees.

Fiiinally got most of the main stuff planted this week.

This isn't necessarily spring, but it is random. Here's one good sleeping position for Anna. It's been amazingly easy to put her down for bed the last few weeks - just dump her in at 7.15pm, add lots of books, a blanket, three nookies, and a water sippy cup, and she's good to go until 5.30am or so.

Reading with daddy on Sunday afternoon.



Life is definitely good.

Spring sprang again

Spring field work started (kind of) in earnest last week, while we were away. Ramont, with Jonathan's expert help for awhile, prepared the fields at the "Barge" land on Saturday. They are in the foreground, and dad (in the distant background) came behind with the planter.

To me this photo (above) could be an advertisement for "your dreams can come true!" And not just for the little guy ;)

Here is our super-official Mother's Day photo. Seems like I've spent more than usual time alone with them lately, and am astounded by how rapidly they're developing. Such funny, insightful, aggravating, precious little beings.

And here's the other generational direction on Mother's Day...

Jonathan was soo excited for the "Mother's Day cake" that we had to sing "Happy birthday" with the appropriate words. "And it even has a flower on it!" he kept exclaiming.

We discovered the first blooming flowers this morning (May 13)! Yellow tulips, on the south side of our house.

It's been a loong winter, and here's to hoping that this spring is the real deal.

Farewell

Ramont and I last visited with Oma Toews in January 2009. Loma Plata, Paraguay.

Last Sunday evening my grandmother, Helena (Schroeder) Toews of Loma Plata, Paraguay, passed away. She was 91 years old, and had suffered bad health for some time already. It was an answer to prayers that she was able to slip away home, as she did.

This woman was a pioneer. When she was five, she moved with her family from Canada to the "green hell" of the Chaco, Paraguay in the 1920s. She and my grandfather Cornelius raised 13 children (one daughter died at one year old), and she is survived by 30-some grandchildren and 50-some great-grandchildren. When we last visited her, in 2009, she knew all their names and most of their birthdates. I am grateful for the stories she told during our last visit (including that they very much hoped this American Gordon would forget about their daughter, Eva, once he went home from his MCC assignment!!), and will always wish that I had had more time close to her.

We couldn't, of course, attend the funeral. But we did get the next best thing: live internet-streaming of the funeral from Paraguay. My mom, Jonathan, Anna and I drove to Steinbach, Manitoba on Tuesday and were there to watch the funeral take place on Wednesday.

We watched it at the home of my aunt and uncle, David and Lena Funk, together with my aunt and uncle (Peter and Louella Toews) and two of my grandmother's siblings.

The trip to Canada was really a good one. We got in some good visiting with quite a few different folks. It was a bit stressful to manage two active toddlers, without Ramont, in the midst of lots of people for so long. But everyone was very gracious, and very very kind to our kids. Jonathan asked a bit worriedly during the drive there whether people would speak German, which they almost all did.

Here Anna makes a bit of mischief with her second cousin, Lily Funk...

We even went to some garage sales - and finally found a tool workbench for the kids. Here they are, workin' away...

The weather was gorgeous, if a bit cool. However, it was warm enough for some nice ice-cold terere on the ride home.

Our kids are quite stellar travelers. A wee bit of whining after about seven hours (9.5 hour total trip), but no major outbursts and lots of contentedness. Like I said, it was a good trip.