First Days Here

We arrived in Kijabe the afternoon of the 27th.  On the drive up from Nairobi (about 1.5 hrs) we stopped at the Nakumat (grocery store) and got some things to get us through the week end.  It was fun for the kids to see some different things and buy them!  Their favorite so far is the yogo ice.  It is frozen yogurt in a tube.

We found our apartment without too much trouble.  Below is a picture of it:

Ours is the second floor on the right hand side all the way to the middle.  Looks good huh!?
Below is how it looks today:

The first picture was taken when we were here in May.  We are so grateful that it is finished!  Looks a bit better now!

There are so many things going on right now, not to mention the terrible jet lag.  I think I have it the worst.  Jim and the kids are pretty much better today (Sat) and should be even better tomorrow.  I am still wide awake at 2:30 am and wanting to sleep at 7am.  We are ahead of the east coast by 8 hours.

Yesterday was a busy day.  First thing in the morning, there was a contingent of about 20 men that decended on the apartment building for the final inspection (the building is just completed).  Jim took part in it to see what kinds of construction problems arise and to meet these people.  He learned something and was glad we were here for that.  During that time, I was able to talk to Rose.  She will be our house help.  It will be good to have her since I will be busy with the project and the kids and laundry here can take a bit of time!  
Then we took the kids up to the school to get schedules set for monday start.  We met some teachers and found out where everybody needs to be and when.  Trevor met his class and they were very welcoming - Thanks kids!  They are all anxious to get started on Monday morning. 
In the evening we were invited to a Pot Luck dinner.  We got to meet some of the Bethany Kids people (administrators and Doctors).  It was good to start to get a feel for who does what around here.  Trevor had a class get together after the pot luck.  Luckly, there were several kids there that were in his class that walked him up to the event.  Trevor and I walked home about 10pm in the pitch dark, but we found our way after only one clumsy fall by me!  The stars are so different here.  It will be fun to learn what the constellations are and where they are. 

Saturday started on the run also.  Timothy and Sallie's age groups had a water field day.  They had fun and got to meet some of their classmates.  The sun was brutal though!  We all cooked having forgotton the sunscreen.  It's hard to remember stuff like that when it was 10 below zero in Michigan just a few days ago!  Jim hitched a ride back down to Nairobi to get a few more supplies (coffee machine)!

Here are a few more pictures:

This is us getting ready to load the van at Mayfield Guesthouse.

This is Timothy and Sallie at Titchie Swot (Titchie is English for little kids and swot is school)

Here is Timothy on the water slide at the field day event.

Thanks for all of your prayers.  I have changed the prayer request list page (at the top of this page) as we are now seeing what we have to deal with.

We miss you!

In His Hands,

Jullie T.



We have Arrived!

We arrived in Kenya after an excellent flight on KLM.  They just do it right! They even had European Fanta which is so much better then the american version.   There were hardly any people on the flight so we each had 2-3 seats to be able to sleep.  I think we each got 2-3 hours of much needed sleep.  All of our bags arrived without a hitch too - Amazing!

We are at the Mayfield Guesthouse and got a great night's sleep, but we were all up at about 4:30 -5:00 (except Trevor of course who is a teenager and can sleep through anything)!  We will head up to Kijabe today and find out what our new apartment looks like.  We are going to get a grocery shopping adventure today too, as we will stop on they way up there and get some supplies for the week end.

I was hoping that the kids would start school on Monday, but they are having a flu outbreak up there and not sure if we all want to be sick!  We will wait and talk to the principle today or tomorrow to see what would be best.

Thanks for all the prayers.
In His Hands,
Jullie T.

We are in Amsterdam - 1/2 way there!

Well, we made it to Amsterdam.  It was a pretty uneventfull flight except for all the carry ons we have to manage!  It is 2:30 in the morning our time, and we are all pretty tired.  But, there was an added bonus.  We found the good Belgium cookies that we love!  Jim is in heaven with a cookie and a strong cup of coffee.  

Here is a picture of us with all of our 23 bags in Detroit!

Hopefully, we will sleep on the next leg.  We leave in another 2 hours.
Please pray for sleep and that all our bags will arrive!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

The 50 lb Shuffle is Done!

Well we did it!  The 50 lb shuffle is done!  We spent the day unloading all the bags and reloading them to get 50.0 lbs in each.  We now have 13 check in bags from 49.8 to 50.6 lbs.  Hopefully the .6 will make it, if not we will have to give away a soccer ball at the airport!  In addition, we have 2 carry ons each plus a small snack bag, so total is 23 and a half bags!  When we get internet in Kijabe, we will post a picture of the massive baggage load.

We hope to have an internet card soon after we get to Kijabe.  I will try and post something as soon as we can to let you all know that we arrived safely.

We leave tomorrow from Detroit in the evening.  We will arrive in Nairobi Wed night.  We have a driver from Mayfield that will pick us up.

We so appreciate all of your prayers and support in may ways.  We are going to miss everyone.  But, we are so excited to be finally on our way.  Please pray that we stay healthy and have good connections on the way!

LOL, Jullie T.

Great News - We have Beds!

We have had great news; we have some beds in our place in Kijabe!  We got an email from Dita in Kijabe, and our place is getting ready.  We are so thankful, as this was a big question in our minds - "Where were we going to sleep that first night?"  But, seems that Dita is watching out for us - Thank you!
We are enjoying the training in Colorado Springs.  Just went on a hike with all the interns (young 20 somethings) and were able to keep up.  But, as true to Colorado, just as we were getting back from the beautiful 2 hour hike, it started to snow and was coming in sideways! 
Our training will finish on Friday and we will head back to Michigan on Sat.
Nancy and Tim (people we are staying with) have been wonderful and very patient!  The kids have been doing great.
Please pray that we will stay healthy and our travels will go as planned.
Timothy's birthday celebration will be on Sunday with his cousins.  He is looking forward to that.
I will write again when we get back to Michigan.
LOL,
In His Hands,
Jullie T.

Colorado - We are here!

Hey All!
We made it to Colorado on Wed and the kids loved the plane ride.

Here is a picture of Eeyore and Sallie getting ready to board and on the plane.
The Eeyore hat was a perfect match fot Sallie Girl!

We went skiing at Copper Mountain yesterday with almost perfect weather.  We started out with minimal whinning and ended the day great (except for the rather large bump on Trevor's head)!
Here are a few pictures.

We start our training tomorrow (Sat) after a nice lunch date with some friends in Denver!
We love you guys.

Jullie T.

We Are Officially Homeless!

Well we did it!  We have left the house and are on our way!
It took us from 6:30 this morning till 12:00 but we think we have everthing - "Jim, where are the passports!"

We leave for Colorado on Wed for a week of training.  We get to see some old friends and ski at Copper (probably).   It will be great.

The kids are all well and excited (almost too much).  Sallie got some gum for the flight and that made it all better!

We will keep you posted as to the goings on.

Our phone number has changed. You can reach us at 231-872-9671 (cell) till about the 24th of this month.  I will put that in the contacts list on the top of this page.  But after that, we can be reached at our email address:  jimjulliet@AHC123.com

Thank you all for your support is so many ways.  We have been in awe as God has made all the details of this mission come together.  Keep in touch - we love you!

Jullie T.

The Luggage Monster!

Here is a picture of the kids with all the luggage!  Be scared, very, very scared!

We have been weighing and moving items from bag to bag all day and each of the 13 bags weighs 49.8 lbs to 50.2!  We just loaded 1/2 of it into the car and moved it down to the Jim's sister's house.  Lucky them!

We leave here on Monday the 10th.  It is almost here and very surreal!

There still is a lot of cleaning and packing to do.  Please pray for us and come out to help at the moving day (Sat the 8th at 10am)!

Jullie T.