Ron and Sally Jo Blog

We enjoyed time with others who have spent time in Southern Africa with MCC. We met with about 50 MCC alumni from Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland in Abbotsford, British Columbia. There was time for discussions, updates from countries, visits to a nearby monastery, hikes in nearby forests, entertainment, and making rollkuchen.

August 2013 began with packing up Michelle’s apartment, storing her things, and saying good-by as she set off across country in her 1990 Honda Civic.   A few days later we set off in the opposite direction.  We stopped in East Hartford spending an afternoon at the playground with Lucy and setting up our tent.

The next day we went to Boston airport to pick up our good friends from Zwolle, Netherlands.  We first met Pieter and Gerdien exactly 40 years ago in Blantyre, Malawi, Africa.  We lived on the same compound for three years and spent much time together.  Twenty years ago they came to Goshen to see us.  Over the years we have been to their home (and boat) many times.

 We all returned to East Hartford.  We played with Lucy, went to a nearby park, and talked.  Lucy took very little time in warming up to Gerdien and Pieter.  All seven of us then travelled to J & C’s land in Vermont.  We all loved the woods, the water, and generally just “hanging out.”

 The Kamstras and us left Vermont, crossed, Lake Champlain by ferry, wandered through the Adirondacks, and spent the night with a Mennonite-Your-Way family on a farm.  Then on to Scottdale where we reconnected with Jack and Ruth who had also been in Malawi during the same time.  (We forgot to take photos!)  And then to Goshen.

 During the week in Goshen, Erv and Marian came to spend several nights.  We first learned to know them in Kenya; they were in Zambia at the time we all were in Malawi.  Maynard and Hilda even came one evening.  (Another couple from Malawi-Zambia days)  Fun times!  During the week we took a number of bike rides, including riding to Oxbow for a picnic and one time to Shipshewana.  Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos.  We did a lot of walking, including to the dam and along the Millrace (several times), part of the Pumpkinvine Trail, and in Chain of Lakes.  And of course, there was a lot of talking and laughing.

 All in all, August was filled with much fun and many memories.

We left for our most recent travels (about 2700 miles) to Winnipeg, Manitoba just as the leaves in our yard were beginning to turn.  On the way and in Winnipeg we visited many friends.  One friend was on retreat at Collegeville Institute at St John’s community in Minnesota.  What a beautiful setting for research, painting/writing, and retreat.  (We were able to see a page of the St John’s Bible.)  We also stopped in northern Minnesota and visited with friends we had not seen since our Haiti days in the late 1970’s.

Sally Jo had never been in North Dakota before and wasn’t sure she had missed much as we drove for miles through flat country.

In Winnipeg we spent an entire day in the MCC office, meeting many people we had only corresponded with while living in Uganda.  We also spent two fun evenings with a woman from Uganda (MCC helped sponsor her travel) who is now studying at the University of Manitoba.  And another evening was spent with former MCC Tanzania reps now living in Winnipeg.  We stayed with our very good friend whom we met in Indonesia and who is now also studying at the University of Manitoba.  We walked along a very cold and windy beach of Lake Winnipeg.

We drove home via the north side of Lake Superior.  The views were fantastic!  Saw 3 moose—1 dead on the hunter’s truck, 1 stuffed in front of a shop, and 1 live by the side of the road.

Even after the beautiful views up north, we enjoyed the autumn colors in our own front yard!

In August we travelled to East Hartford, CN to meet up with Lucy again!  We enjoyed taking many walks and playing in her new home. We returned home via Canada visiting relatives in Kitchener and St Thomas along the way.  Also on the way we stopped in Lewisburg, NY and Niagra-on-the-Lake.  Our final stop was in Sarnia, Ontario.

A week later in September we travelled to Archbold, OH for our Fall Biking Weekend.  We took two days to bike to Archbold, spent Saturday biking around Archbold with our friends, and then biked the entire way home (90 miles) in one day.  We ended September with two trips to Chicago—once to hear the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Choir in “Carmina Burana” (in the rain!) and once to see Chicago Shakespeare company in “Sunday in the Park with George.”  Both were terrific performances.

We realize that our last entry was five months ago!  Our environment has changed dramatically since then and we have continued to travel many miles.  This entry (and the next several) will just briefly update what we have done or where we have been since then.

Much of June and July were spent with friends, family, and working in our yard.  We helped celebrate Sally Jo’s sister’s 50^th anniversary and friends’ 55^th anniversary, visited with Peni (from Uganda) and her finance, and hosted friends from Indonesia.   We traveled to Akron, PA to meet the next MCC representatives to Uganda and then traveled on to Norristown, PA to be with granddaughter Lucy.  We made one trip to Chicago to attend a concert at Ravinia.  And we spent many hours on July 3-4 watching the railway pedestrian tunnel being built on the GC campus—including the midnight cutting of the tracks.

The last of July and beginning of August we travelled to Austin, TX to attend a wedding.  This was probably not the best time of year to be in Austin, but in reality, it was not much hotter there than Goshen!  We spent some time near the river in Austin before arriving at the church and wedding.

Tiya Sumihe from Papua, Indonesia joined our family the end of August.  She is here as an exchange volunteer (IVEP) with Mennonite Central Committee.  She will live with us for six months and work at Great Lakes MCC.  Soon after she arrived we celebrated her birthday.  We also took a hike at Chain of Lakes State Park.

Later we spent a weekend in Chicago, visiting Grant Park, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, Lincoln Zoo and spending some time with Michelle.