feeling the love...

Jon and I have so enjoyed your comments on our blog posts, messages on Facebook, Skype dates and emails. We are definitely feeling the love!

Our church in the States has really been lifting us up with sweet messages and prayer. We really appreciate it...and it makes us SO excited to be joining them in a couple of months!

Our prayer card taped on the door of Jon's soon-to-be office at Wickes Church of the Nazarene

I also get very excited when someone I know has made a purchase with Azizi Life...many orders come to us in Rwanda through email, and I LOVE to see names that I recognize. I am thrilled that my friends and family find our products just as wonderful as I do...if you all could only meet the artisans that make everything, you would love them even more.

If there are any questions you have or something that you would like to know more about, we would love to share whatever information you would like to know! Feel free to email us or leave a comment.

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

In Case You've Missed Them...

In case you've missed any of our video updates since our time in Rwanda, here is a list of all of the links.  My personal favorites are Rwanda Week 1 and Random Rwanda.  Simply click the title to watch the video:


TRAVELING TO RWANDA

RWANDA WEEK 1

OUR HOUSE IN RWANDA

MAKING OF A BANANA TWINE BAG  

RANDOM RWANDA

packing for the USA

Today we continued packing up products to be sent to Azizi Life's warehouse in Spokane, Washington in a few days...just know that when you buy something from Azizi Life, it is handled with much love and care.

Venantie (Azizi Life's newest employee) and Auda, a gracious volunteer, put a little surprise in our coin purses for customers in the USA.

 Jeannine reaches in...

...and pulls out the Wise Men out for a little chat about their quality.

Nativity Sets that need some help...as you can see, one "needs a cow" and in another, "MARY'S HANDS ARE BROKEN"...it's the little things that make something as tiresome as packing fun.

I cannot believe this is the last week of September. Time is flying by! And you know what will be here before you know it? CHRISTMAS! And you know what would be an awesome Christmas gift? An unique Rwandan treasure from Azizi Life...just sayin :)

If you have a club or church that you believe would be interested in hosting an Azizi Life Bazaar, check out our options here.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

Random Rwanda Video

Some Clips from our time in Rwanda

lake retreat

We didn't get to do a lot of "lakey" things due to storms, but we did soak up the beauty of Lake Kivu this weekend. Jon swam and even caught a crab (I was not aware that freshwater crabs existed...)

This is my favorite picture of Jon...ever

It was not hard to sit here and read The Help in just 2 days

I got to do some non-school related reading and enjoyed talking to a couple of guests...we ended up meeting someone that has land in Siloam Springs, Arkansas...whose son went to school at John Brown University...and now is the principal at an international school in Kigali...small, small world!

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

behind every woven bowl is an Azizi Life

Today we went visited the Zamuka Cooperative to begin the development of what we hope will be a series of "the story behind the product" videos. I don't think I will get over how beautiful it is everywhere in Rwanda. 

Sheila, my coworker, was on camera duty and got some great shots of the day:

The women of Zamuka weave away

When you can weave with a broken hand...that is skill

Twins! One of the cooperative members + her children

Giving Sheila something to photograph :)

Jeannine interviewing our featured artisan...

Alyse...who is such a beautiful person, inside and out

National Geographic...bahahahaha

Can you get more context than that?

Alyse's beautiful nieces

I am so excited about this video because it is really the biggest obstacle between Azizi Life and a completed Advocacy Home Party structure...so, so exciting!

Btw...you can win woven bowls made by Zamuka with Azizi Life's 3 year celebration! Click here get the details.

Jon and I are heading to Lake Kivu tomorrow for a long, relaxing weekend. Check back on Sunday or Monday for more pics.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

have Facebook?

then you have no excuse not to "like" Azizi Life and enter into our 3 year celebration giveaway!

click here to "like" us!

an "office" with a view

Would you be more than excited to weave an order of cup trays if this were your view while completing the task? :)

I (Emily) have been very busy working on Azizi Life's new Advocacy Home Party structure, that will allow for people who want to be more involved with Azizi Life's mission and vision to become Advocates, which present Azizi Life to their friends and family (and their friends and family) through a home party event. I have really been enjoying it and look forward to becoming an Advocate myself when I get back to the States in December! I will make sure to post a link when we have a place on the Azizi Life website for how you can get involved.

Jon has been working on videos and writing...and he lots more work coming his way when we visit the Zamuka artisan group later this week. We will be highlighting two woven bowls made by Zamuka in the Advocacy Home Party presentations.

We plan on taking a long weekend to Lake Kivu on Friday and enjoy relaxing and soaking in the beauty of the scenery.

Our health is good, although I am having some sort of break out on my face that I have self-diagnosed as Perioral Dermatitis. It is really itchy, bumpy and red. Not fun...so if you wouldn't mind praying that it will go away soon, that would be great.

Thanks for checking up on us...we appreciate your interest and support.

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth

how to video

Jon has been working very hard the last two weeks on this video for Azizi Life. We have a potential buyer for these banana leaf twine bags that we needed to show the process to. Thanks to Jon, Azizi Life now has a wonderful "how to" video, and also their first YouTube video EVER!

Now on to making the Azizi Life organizational video and video for home parties...I'm sure the hubbs will still have time to work on his own tasks :)

Much love,

Emily Elizabeth

FANtastic Finds

Yesterday, I (Emily) went out on my own (without Jon) and met up with some girlfriends at the market...Jon usually goes to the market for us (and will continue to do so due to my lack of "carrying groceries back to the house" ability)...but my adventure made for some terrific finds! 

The fact that they all happen to be green is just one of those "Emily, these were meant for you" moments...or...maybe their green color is what drew my eye to them!?! 

Never the less...here are a few things that made my Saturday awesome:

Fan fabric...I was on a mission to find fabric for a skirt and a dress...and saw this...and could not pass it up...not only are fans like this not seen too regularly here...it also reminded me of my mother's fan love/necessity...so I bought it to share with her (no, I will not have a fan skirt/dress)

Apple soda! There is a plethora of citrus and black currant Fanta in Rwanda...but this is the first apple soda I have found! It also brought me back to my Chicago days, where I fell in love with the Mexican apple sodas, Manzanita Sol and Sidral Mundet

AND last but not least...Sour Cream + Onion Pringles! We have found plain and paprika...but not SOUR CREAM AND ONION!!!!! (The store I found these at also had pizza flavor...which I am not a fan of)

So you see, it's the little things...I think finding these things were most enjoyable because my girlfriends and Jon also shared in the excitement...it's always better to have others to be overly happy about the little things with you :)

Much love,
Emily Elizabeth