The Beads

Yesterday when we got back to our house I saw that a little package had arrived for me. Remember a year ago when we got back from Ethiopia and I mentioned the string of ancient hand-hewn beads that we bought in a little shop in Aksum? The shop was full of very old and interesting artifacts. And in fact, the beads we bought had been found in farmers' fields in the area and they were beautiful, mysterious, and very, very old. Anyway, the shopkeeper carefully wrapped them up in a piece of newspaper and they've been sitting in that fold of paper ever since.

That is, until my sister-in-law visited in June. She's interested in jewelery and has a friend who is a jeweler and who owns A Small Extravagance, a jewelry shop in Kentucky. So, my sister-in-law took the beads back to Kentucky and with her jeweler friend designed my beads into a lovely necklace. And that was what was in the little package!

The Ethiopian beads are separated by tiny earthy colored sapphires. I love the whole look. So pretty, so unusual, a little exotic, and so full of special memories. The store we found them in was like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dusty and falling apart and bursting full of beautiful artifacts. We had spent that day walking through ancient tombs, sharing the dirt roads with camels, young boys with their goat herds, and women wrapped up in gauzy white Netela with jugs of water on their heads. In fact when we first walked into the shop I asked if it was a museum. So, finally, it's done and I'm wearing it and remembering our stories from Africa. And someday when she's all grown up I'll pass it on to Ember.