There’s a store where we grocery shop that on a clear day with no traffic and all green lights, it takes ten minutes to get there.
On other days, it takes about 15 minutes. I made that number up, because while it hasn’t taken ten minutes since the one time it did, I refuse to do any real research about how long it actually does take — anything more than ten minutes will be a disappointment.
Since it’s centrally located in an area with a number of other places we go to sort of regularly, I always have that ten minute drive in my head whenever I’m headed that way, as a sort of measuring stick for planning when I’ll need to leave to get to a counseling appointment, how long to give myself for a trip to the craft store, or figuring out a trip to that place that has a bull’s eye on my wallet.
A safari truck came to pick us up on a Sunday morning from our lodgings – I don’t want to call it a hotel, but it also kind of was. Called Ndaza Escape, it’s located in Kinigi, Rwanda. It had three rooms and was really nice.
The safari truck driver took us to the welcome center at the foot of Mount Bisoke where we’d meet our guide and the rest of our group.
This was an act of trust. The Chaplain and I knew the hike would take all day, but we had no idea about the elevation or the level of effort it required, and we hadn’t packed proper mountain climbing clothes. We knew we’d be hiking, but didn’t realize we’d be climbing a volcano.
We left on a Friday, and drove for hours from Kigali, Rwanda, to an ecolodge overlooking tea plantations about an hour from the canopy walk we’d be doing at Nyungwe National Forest. A GPS search says it takes about 5 hours. There was much to see, and the long drive wasn’t a hardship.
What should we pack? What will we do? I asked many times in the weeks leading up to our trip. Along with an unexpected slam from Delta, we were going to a new place I knew nothing about.
I didn’t want to fill my head with other people’s ideas, so I wasn’t doing a lot of internet research, and limited my reading to a couple of authors from the region. Our friends and hosts told us they were taking care of the itinerary, so we just needed to show up.
So we did. We showed up.
The Sew House 7 Wildwood Wrap Dress has a LOT of pattern pieces. It took weeks of procrastination just to get my size traced onto pattern paper, and weeks again before I got around to marking and cutting the fabric. When I finally traced everything and got out my fabric, it took an entire day to cut out all the pieces interspersed with my other responsibilities.
Nearly everything is asymmetrical, meaning opposite sides have separate pieces. I marked everything with chalk to keep the pieces straight while I worked.
