Out of Africa!

This piece of cotton cloth is a batik, processed by hand in West Africa; and my nephew brought it to me from his mission trip right after Christmas!
The black is sort of shiny, and I can see little images, like the original fabric has been over-dyed with black first. I would love to see the women over there making it! The blue design is the same back and front.

When I was looking through nephew Clint's 200-odd photographs that he took on his trip to Africa last year, I kept seeing the native women wearing some gorgeous head wraps and sarong-style dresses. I told nephew next time he went, to buy me a piece of their brightly-colored fabric, and this trip he did! These are the Sankaran people, who live way inland from the coast in little mud huts with thatched roofs. The women carry washtubs of water (balanced on their heads!) from the river for bathing and washing clothing. The men and women and children also make handmade bricks of their local clay for building some of their huts, and for sale at market. This group of people do not even have a written language! Some have never seen a white person their entire lives! I'm sure my great-niece caused a stir on this last trip........she accompanied her dad, and she's blonde with ice-blue eyes! The children were fascinated.........I am astounded that human beings live like this today. We have no idea here in the USA how very lucky and blessed we are.........please remember these Sankaran tribes in your prayers as these missionaries try to introduce Christianity to them.

And Easter is fast approaching! These little rascals are hard to find every year in the stores! You can find oodles of solid chocolate bunnies, but the chocolate-covered marshmallow bunnies are very hard to find! And they're the cheapest; you'd think they sell first and fast. But way up high on the shelf at Walmart is where they're hiding this year!