Hey All,
Last Sunday Jim and Trevor had an interesting and eye opening experience. Our friend Rose called on Sunday evening and said her neighbor's house was on fire. Jim and Trevor donned hats and boots and headed up there. It was dark when they arrived and the fire had pretty much consumed the house. They had some buckets and were trying to get water from a supply that was giving about 2 gallons a minute! There was no organized system and Jim tried to get a sort of bucket brigade started to put out the hot spots, but the locals would have nothing to do with it. He was very frustrated. They mainly wanted to stand around and watch (as well as not stopping the kids from being right there near the fire). At one point, they started digging through the burned remains. Jim thought were looking for the owner's tools. They were not looking for them to make sure the owner got them back, they were looting! Unfortunately Jim didn't realize that until the next day. Also, Rose told me the lady of the house had everything that was salvageable looted during the night. They got to the house on Monday morning and nothing was left. We were shocked. The neighbors and "friends" of these people did not reach out a hand to help, but rather saw an opportunity to steal. This has to do with the mentality here that if someone is better off then you, they will be shunned and picked on and even threatened. People don't lift each other up, but rather drag them down. It promotes a society that is held back by greed and a "what's in it for me" attitude. This kind of incident could discourage us and make us not want to serve in a place like this, but, we see people who are God loving and really trying hard to get out of that cycle of bitterness. They are faithful and believe God will provide and are trying to do it right. Those are the ones we really feel the need to help, as well as the children who will be the next generation here. The incident is a sad reminder of the true attitude of a lot of Africans, but it also serves to remind us that God is in control!
Brick Making trials and encouragement:
Last week I reported that we had a set of men working on making bricks with the machine (we make them of 90% soil and 10% cement) that were doing well and we hoped to have them making about 500 per day by Wed. That, sad to say, did not happen mainly based on the attitude as stated above about the fire. Even though we were clear on what we would pay, they (after learning how to do it) were not happy and wanted 3 times the amount. So, moving on: We hired an experienced crew from Ndabibi (on the other side of Lake Naivasha) who are rocking it! We sent a truck for them on Wed. and they started on Thurs. They got started later then they wanted (they wanted to start at 6am) and they still were able to make 500 by the end of the day! They are organized and have a team effort that is comforting to see. See the short video below.
We are heading out tomorrow (Sunday) to take a bit of time off. There is a house in Naivasha that we are renting with 2 other families. We are so looking forward to relaxing for a bit!
Please pray that:
1. People here will see that lifting each other up is the only way to have yourself lifted up also.
2. We will have a safe and relaxing break.
3. The projects at the hospital will keep moving forward and money will be raised to complete them.
Thank you so much!
In His Hands,
Jullie T.
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