A Well Oiled Machine!

Hello All,
Can't believe we have passed the shortest day of the year already!  Here, the shortest day and the longest day are not different by more then 16 minutes! The sun rise is about 6:33 am right now and will set at 6:33 pm.  In Dec, it will rise at about 6:22 and set at about 6:37.  June 21 and Dec 21 are still the longest and shortest days of the year, but as I just found out on another site, they are not the days that corrispond to the earliest and latest sunrise and sunset! It is sometime in late Jan and early Feb that the sun sets here at about 6:54 ish. It was nice when we first got here to have it light till almost 7pm. But now, by 7, it is pitch dark.  And when I say dark I really mean it!  There are no street lights nor many house lights, so we westerners need to have a flashlight when going out at night.  It is amazing to me how the Kenyans do not need a light when walking in the blackness.  But I guess growing up with it makes you more used to it!   I sure do miss my long summer days in Michigan at this time of the year.  But I guess it is OK.  Since there is so much work to do here, Jim and I are so tired and are usually in bed close to the "Missionary Midnight" (9pm)!  At home, it would be hard to do that right now with the sun still being up.

We watched an amazing "well oiled machine" this past week!  There was a company from Nairobi that came and poured the slap for the new Paliative Care (Hospice) building.  It was a 5100 sq. ft slab and they did it in one day all by hand!  There were no big trucks with cement pumps nor booms to extend to all the areas.  Each person had a job, and they performed the work in unison.  I will insert a video here for you to see.

 

We started on a new venture this past week.  We went to an orphanage in South Kinangop where they want to build a new kitchen.  It is a beautiful facility.  They have 30 children and many staff.  Their web site address is http://www.intoabbasarms.org/

We are going to provide an inspection type role for their new kitchen building.  It is only 40 minutes from here with no traffic and the roads are pretty good (at least they are better than our road into Kijabe).  We are excited about starting on it.  The drawings/design were provided by a group from Syracuse University chapter of Engineers with out borders.  We received them yesterday and will hopefully be meeting with the contractor on Monday.  Please pray that this project will get started and we will be able to help it complete so that the kids will have a nice place to eat their meals.

Thanks so much,

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

Need and the water pipeline

This week was illuminating when considering why GOD has brought our family here to Africa. We have mentioned several times in the past how the need is so great here. People will do whatever they can to make a few cents here or there. There are two water supplies serving Kijabe Station as its main sources (out of 5). Both of these sources come from a long distance away. One uses a water driven pump which requires about 100 gallons per minute to pump 25Gallons per minute to Kijabe over 7 KM away. The other is a gravity fed system which collects water from a spring and channels it into a pipeline that is about 6KM away in the other direction from Kijabe. A few of us from the hospital walked to the latter spring to investigate the problems associated with this pipeline. It happened that two weeks ago, someone decided they needed some money so they cut a few pieces of the iron pipe and took them away. We are talking about a 4-5ft section of 3” iron pipe. What you will see in the following pictures are the challenges to get to this pipe to be able to cut it. The terrain is very dangerous and the people who cut the pipe do it at night! This is also the same terrain that freedom fighters, during the MauMau uprising, used to hide from the British in the 1950s.

This is Collins, the hospital Engineer at the beginning of the hike.  The mountains ahead to the left are where we are going.

If you look directly in the middle you will see a few people, Andy and John

who are climbin up.  You can get an idea of the steepness of the terrain.

This is John Kimani and John Karuga at the base of the cliff.  This is the mountain that the

spring issues from.  This cave used to be a hideout for the Mau Mau Freedom Fighters.  Again, you can see that you want to be very careful at the edge.

John Karuiki, the main Kijabe Station Plumber (Known by all as "John the plumber") cuts a Mahindu plant to give us access to the spring catch.  This project was actually developed 12 years ago and it took 500 men 60 days to chip away at the rock cliff, build the spring catch, and dig/lay the water pipeline.  Everything was done by hand!

Another view as John and John (there are a lot of Johns here) come down the pipeline.

Beautiful and Treacherous country.  The pipeline is next to Andy and John in the picture.

Here is an exposed section of pipe.  There are many sections like this that were unable

to be covered (during the initial installation) due to the terrain.  It is sections like these that we need

to somehow cover with soil or concrete to prevent vandalism.

Obviously, walking through the jungle gives us an opportunity to view some of Kenya's natural wildlife.

Here some Colobus Monkees chill out in a tree.

So, need drives people to traverse dangerous land, at night, to steal pipe, which cuts off a major water source, just to make a few cents.  We are working on the problems and coming up with ideas to prevent them in the future.  These will all take time and, GOD willing, these changes will help the whole community, not only with receiving water, but also with jobs so that they can care for their families and not resort to extremes.

It is in HIS Hands.

Jim

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hello All,

Happy Birthday Mom!! We sure love you!  Hopefully you were surprised by the "visitors" you had last night.  Wish we could have been there, but skyping in was definitely a cheaper option!

We have had a very busy week.  We got to go on a "field trip" last week to see some things in Nairobi.  We saw an interlocking brick making machine.  It uses local soil and a bit of cement and you compact it to make bricks.  Not sure if we will use that option for one of our new buildings or not.  But it was interesting.  We also went to a place where their septic system was a wet lands design.  Here are some pictures to the right.  It uses plants and a terraced system to treat the effluent.  Again, not sure if we can incorporate something like that here, but it is worth looking at.

We had a very interesting discussion at our last bible study.  One of the care givers at the hospital brought up an issue that they deal with everyday.  It concerns babies born with spinabifida and other crippling issues.  When this happens sometimes the families will disown the woman.  This is because of the bills and what it will do to the community.  Africans will help each other in paying big bills like this.  So, they will often have a Hambaree, which is like a fund raising gathering.  All of the surrounding neighbors and community will come and give money for the cause.  Sometimes because the need is ongoing, with the crippled children, this will bankrupt a whole community.  All for a child that will have a limited existence.  This is not an easy issue.  When you look at the ramifications, when it comes to resuscitating a child in this condition, these nurses and care givers face huge moral dilemmas.  Not sure if there is an answer here.  Just please pray for those who are in that position and for the mothers that are involved.

Here are some pictures of the kids that I was saving till after Mom got her's for her birthday:

In His Hands,

Jullie T.

Day of the Beans!

Hello All,
This past week has not been too busy and even a little relaxing. 
Jim and I have been learning Kiswahili.  We take lessons 4 days a week for an hour each day.  It is a lot to keep up with!  But, Edward, our teacher, does not give homework, thankfully!  Our experiances in Italy and Germany were such that Jim did not get a chance to learn the languages properly and was even a bit discouraged at times, so here he has a goal of really getting it.  He is doing great!  He puts in a lot of time, and it is coming.  We had a visitor last Tuesday.  Wednesday was a Kenyan holiday.  As this visitor left, Jim told her, "Utakuwa siku kuu vizuri ya Maharagwe,"  Which is very close to, "Utakuwa siku kuu vizuri ya Madaraka."  The first one means, "Have a good day of beans!"  The second means, "Have a good Madaraka Holiday."  (Madaraka day is June 1 and Independence day).  So, this lady was very confused and thought Jim was telling her to have a good day to eat beans!  It was very funny and we have gotten a great laugh from it for many days now.  And she was gracious to tell Jim that it is OK to make mistakes, that is how we learn.  So, he is plodding on and continues to study and is determined to get it this time, even though we may wish people a good day to eat beans!

We continue to struggle here with how to "help" people.  Many ladies come to the door (the same every week) to sell us things.  But the items that they make and sell are the same!  As I mentioned before, the Kenyans seem to "do what your neighbor is doing."  We buy English muffins, samosas (triangular shaped meat pocket), spring rolls (egg rolls) and tortillas.  These are 4 items, which is great, but if someone came with something unique, like a nice brown bread or a pie or something, it would be refreshing.  This is also the case at the market.  The little vegetable market that is set up in town is great to be able to run to and get fresh fruits and veggies.  But, you enter and all the tables are set up exactly the same and there are at least 8 of them with ladies looking at you and trying to get you to buy from them.  We try and buy a little from each one, but it is difficult.  This past week, we have supported and given till we have almost run out of the "food fund" that we have set up.  Please pray that we will be able to support the ladies that are trying to make a living selling their muffins and spring rolls and that we would feel joy in doing it!

It is now June and we have been here for a little over 4 months!  It is amazing how time flies!  This time last year, Jim and I were here with the EMI team doing the design work.  When we came, we knew we were looking at how to serve, but never thought that we would be living in the building that was partially built, the kids would be going to RVA and we would be working on so many projects!  Wow, that was only one year ago.  Life sure has changed!  It has a rhythm that is good though.  We are grateful and thankful to you all for supporting us!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.