Great Day with Trusses

Hello All,
Yesterday was a great day (even though it was spent in the city and traffic)!  We went with a group of visitors from Engineers without Borders that are working on our kitchen at Into Abbas Arms orphanage to the steel truss and Mabati Tin companies for a tour.  We are getting a bid from them for steel trusses for the roof of the kitchen.  But, Jim and I also would like to use the steel trusses for some of the projects that we have going here.  They gave us some class room time about the truss design, we had a wonderful Indian style lunch and then we were able to tour the plant where the trusses and tin for the roofs are made.  We left there about 2:30 and (with a short stop) made it home through traffic by about 6:00.  Not too bad I would say! 
 

This is where they make the tin trusses

I haven't worn a hard hat in years!

We had a pot luck dinner at a friends house at 6:30, so I had prearranged with Rose for her to make Sukumawiki and Ugali.  That is a very common Kenyan dinner.  It was wonderful!

This is a plate of Ugali.  Rose calls it a "cake."  It is a lot like grits.  It is made from corn and really takes on the flavor of whatever you put with it.
 
The kids are outside right now picking loquats.  Not really sure why, but they like to eat them.  They are too sour for me.  I think they need to ripen some more though.

I think Sallie likes the eating part!



That was a picture of Jonathan in the tree dropping, Timothy on the ground catching and Sallie on the ground eating!

Our peers here are mostly people of the medical persuasion.  So, at many get togethers we talk about medical issues.  Sometimes, we get them into conversations about building and problems, but they outnumber us!  These doctors deal with things here that are unheard of in the States.  Many things are because of the lack of proper nutrition for pregnant mothers and children. They had a case this week of a 2 day old baby with a genetic defect that they could not even identify.  This is a great hospital for Kenyan standards, but they also talk about how easy it would be at times for a case to have a chance at survival if they were in another place and had different resources.  We take many things for granted.  And, even with all the problems, our medical system is one of the best.  Think about it next time you hear someone complaining about how bad it is!

Have a great week!
In His Hands,
Jullie T.