Do we Really get a Vacation?

Hello All,
Well, we are off for a short (but needed) holiday tomorrow.  We are heading to the coast near Mombassa.  So, make sure you check next week as I bet I will have a few pictures to put on the blog!  We have been here just over 2 months, but Jim and I both feel like we need a break!  Collins, the hospital engineer, is now back from his 1 month holiday, and so will be here to cover things.  We feel like we have had so many issues and have been driving them all.  We need a few days to not think about it.  We are leaving early to bypass Nairobi traffic.  We are going to Shima lodge for 2 nights and Voyager lodge for 2 nights then home.  Hopefully, we will see some Elephants at the park in Shima!

I had a great experience last Sunday.  As we have told you, we feed some kids that come here on Sunday afternoons.  Last week, I gave them some food to take home with them.  They came back about 1 hour after they left and said there were lots of baboons in the forest that they take to get home.  The bigger baboons will go after you if you have food and if you are small enough!  So, they were scared.  I ended up giving them a ride home.  I got to see where they live.  It was an area with an outhouse and several little mud huts.  They had a space for a cow and some chickens.  Their mother died a while back and the father sells charcoal for a little money.  He also has to attend their shamba, or garden, that is located about a 2 hour walk away.  He goes there to take care of it and will stay there sometimes.  I did not get to meet him.  But I did get to meet their grandmother.  What a neat lady.  She was very old and had just a few teeth.  She was so happy to see me.  She spoke Kukuyu and the kids interpreted for me.  She has been in this area her whole life.  Her house was a few mud huts.  She had one for cooking and another where she ate and slept.  She had a large rain barrel but no gutters to collect the rain from the roof.  I can see a new project for us!  The kids get water from some distance away for her.  She wanted to make Ugali for me but did not know I was coming.  The sunday we get back, we may take her down to the shamba to see it and eat Ugali with her.  Ugali is a grits kind of thing that they mix with greens.  A lot of Kenyans will eat this every day because it is very inexpensive.  The view from their place was spectacular, but the poverty was just as amazing.  I am looking forward to going back and visiting her and the kids!

Thanks all for what you do for us.  Being behind us in thoughts and prayers is such a huge thing, you don't even know!
In His Hands,
Jullie