Our Visit to the Tea Factory

by Emily (Age 8)

On the 12th of April, we went to a tea factory.  There they make a lot of tea.  They have 3000 hectares of tea.  So first, the people bring the tea from their farm, put the tea in bags and put them on little hooks.  The tea is then taken to the grinding section.

There are 3 parts.  Every time getting smaller and smaller.  On the third time, it turns brown.  Have you ever tried putting leaves in your pocket, and then it turns brown?  That’s how these machines work.

After they cut it into little pieces, they dry it and shred it into even smaller pieces.  It comes out in different strengths in a little machine.  You then take it to the packaging process.

It is so cool.  Like they make the tea bags here, and make the strings there.  And when they come out on a little line, they come out so fast.  2 per second.

That’s it for the tea, but I can still tell you about how they make bags for the tea when they put it on little hooks.  There’s this large machine that sews the bag and it comes out perfectly.  They make all kinds of different bags.

It was a fun trip and after that we went to the zoo.  I am sure Jessica will tell you all about that.

Yuck!

Ok, so we really like being Missionaries and we like to write about all our great adventures.  But it isn’t all horseback riding, eating delicious fruits and walking on exotic beaches.  Some things are just plain yucky.

We had heard about the dreaded mango fly—it lands on your unsuspecting laundry as it dries in the afternoon sun.  It lays its eggs without asking permission and then flies away with an evil smile on her face. It seems the egg then hatches and nestles in for a comfy stay until an innocent Missionary puts on the garment.  Then the worm slips off the clothing and cuddles into the warm and vulnerable skin of the victim.  Upon hatching will burrow into your skin using your body for incubation of the growing larvae. After 21 days, the adult morph will then dig its way out of your skin, hatching into the world.  It digs its way out of your skin like a dentist drilling your tooth without Novocain.

God bless Nestor though.  To protect us from these villainous creatures, he irons EVERYTHING.  Yes everything. Clothes, towels, sheets, underwear.   And for 20 months we were mango fly free. Until now.

Two such eggs invaded the Newburn home.  One, in my dear Emily, and the other to yours truly. Both ended up in places we could not photograph. 

 

Pete pulled one out of me this morning with tweezers. I was quite brave.  The screaming could only be heard for a few blocks and I refrained from using any of the inappropriate words that were running through my head. Pete showed me the lovely critter before flushing it down the toilet.  Who would have thought something not much bigger than grain of rice, could cause such pain.

Hoping this is our first and last experience with the mango fly.

-Joy

Homeschooling

We have been supplementing a bit with the schooling.  Our recent trip to Ndop with the other Missionaries gave us an excellent opportunity for some field trips and writing up reports on the experience.

-Joy

Below is Joshua's report:

Bamisang Pres-Pot by Joshua

The Bamisang Pres-pot is a place where production of pottery is done.  The amazing thing is that they not only do the pottery, they also do clay extraction and purification.  Now, here is detailed information about Pres-pot.

When we got there, expectations were high.  We were taken down a path infested with fire ants which led to a river.  Muscular men were pounding a muddy mixture with traditional utensils.  It didn’t look very professional.  But then the tour guide explained that these were people not associated with Pres-pot at all.  They were just there for the extraction of the clay, which was inside the river.  The tour guide also told us that Pres-pot digs very deep into the river and filters the clay while non-Pres-pot workers just take the clay from the top and don’t filter theirs.  There were 2 different types of clay, black and grey, and Pres-pot uses 75% grey clay to give it a sandy texture, 25% to give it a very fine texture.  From all of this precautions and special doings we were all very impressed.

The guide took us to the workshop, where the purification and production was taking place.  They take the clay, mix it with a bit of water, and put it through a sifter.  One blind man was working there and his job was to move his hand around in the mixture to help in go through the sifter.  The tour guide said that because of his disability, he was “quite perfect” for the job.  The purified clay is left to sit for a couple of weeks, and the clay sinks to the bottom while the water rises to the top.  The water is removed and the clay is left to dry.  It is then packaged and put in a cold place for as many as  3 years to get ready for another process; the molding process.

The molding was done on a potter’s wheel.  We were immediately impressed by the potter’s wheels and the skill of the people using them.  The potter’s wheel was a simple non electronic machine which was powered by the person’s foot.  The person turned a wheel underneath which turned a wheel above.  The molding of the clay was done on the wheel above, taking from 2 to 10 minutes, depending on the difficulty.  When the clay was molded, it was set to dry for 1-3 weeks until completely hardened.

After it was hardened, the shaped clay was painted with a waterproof glaze.  Then in went in a very hot oven, temperatures getting up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit!  The glaze hardens, and the item is complete and ready for selling and exporting.

From this trip to Pres-pot, much was learned and a new respect for simple pottery was given to us.

Getaway

Pete and I had the treat of an overnight get a way.  It was easy to farm out the kids and they were thrilled to have overnights with friends.

Pete and I chose a Guest House in Bambisang.  A town you could blink and miss as you drive by, but the countryside is gorgeous and it also home to a Presbyterian Pottery Making workshop. We were able to have a guided tour of how the pottery is made starting at the mud by the river to watch them fire it up, spin it, and glaze it.  

Our German Guest House was charming  and  had a huge fireplace and so we had a roaring fire that night and then breakfast on the Veranda the next morning.  Oh so lovely. So nice to just sit outside, read, talk, and listen to the birds.

We have been so blessed to have these get always while on Mission.  It keeps us refreshed and helps our marriage stay strong.

-Joy