The Joy of Leftovers!

Hello All,

Hurray for leftovers!!  Remember I wrote a few weeks ago about the Sophomore restaurant that we put on?  Well, we had one of the sponsors of the class that was in the states till early June bring back banana peppers for the salad bar and one pizza.  But, in the end, there were some left over!  The day after cleanup revealed a box with 6 jars in it!  We were overjoyed when they were offered for sale at their $1.60 Wal-Mart price.  We have actually been searching for these for a while here and you just can't find them.  I have some sun-dried tomatoes and the combination of the 2 on a pizza is to die for!  So, for the last 2 Fridays, we have had a sun-dried tomato and pepperoncino (banana pepper) pizza.  Try it sometime and you will be pleased.  Oh, the joy of leftovers! 

We also were down to our last 1/2 bag of chocolate chips yesterday when the man coming for dinner brought a small gift of a bag!  God's timing even in chocolate chip delivery is amazing!  We should have enough to last the 1 more month before we head home.

Last night, we had 2 extra kids, our Masi friend and a Dr. friend over for pizza.  The Dr. friend is a neurosurgeon that had just finished performing a surgery that has never been done in Kenya before.  These men and women that come here to serve this mission hospital are amazing, not only in their willingness to serve but also in their skills.  Jim and I feel like round blocks trying to fit into a square hole when we are with them all at gatherings.  But, there is a place for all of us and hopefully, we are making things better for them to be able to do their jobs.

Jim took a hike up to the eMI spring this week.  It is one of our sources of water.  This is the one that was gone for a while because of the landslides taking out portions of the piping.  They repaired the sections that were broken, but you can see in the pictures how challenging it is.  And, due to the deforestation that continues, the ground is terribly unstable.  The team is considering options to protect the piping from vandalism and landslides, but it is a challenge. 

People will go up there at night and cut out sections of the piping in order to sell it.  It is hard to judge these people because they are not stealing to become rich, they are stealing to feed their family for the day.  We had a conversation about this earlier this week thinking about how much theft there is here. But, on that note, we think we are safer here than our family back in Michigan.  Jim read a news story this week about Flint being the number one city in the country for crime rate!  And Detroit was a close number 2.  So, we are worried about you all being there.  Please come to Kenya and be safe!

We had a meeting this past week to open the bids from the seven contractors for the Pediatric wing.  It was very exciting to actually see the numbers.  We had 6 in hand, and all were higher than the estimate we got from the Quantity Surveyor.  Then, one came in late, and was the lowest and slightly under the estimate!  This is a problem as the process for opening bids is very formal and above the table for all involved.  Corruption here is a common thing, so the process is very rigid to keep it above board as it should be.  But, the QS is going to go through all the information in the next 2 weeks and digest it all so that we can actually negotiate with people.  By the middle of July we should have a contractor selected.  That will be a huge step in the process for us!

Timothy has talent night tonight.  He is going to sing "There's a hole in my Bucket.." with a friend.  It should be very amusing.

Please continue to pray for our sanitation project.  It is at the top of the list right now and we are working hard to get things lined up.  I have been studying and using Microsoft Project to map out the process.  Jim actually brought a book about the program with him, so I at least have a resource to go to. It has actually been fun!  Next year, Trevor's class has a big event that they have to put on in February and we will be planning it from September on.  I think I will be able to use this program to get us organized!

I was talking with a Kenyan friend this week and he wants to get a soccer league started with the local kids.  He was having trouble figuring out what to do to get started.  I think he talked to the right person!  Looks like I might get my hands involved in starting something for the local children.  I haven't told Jim yet, so after he reads this I am sure he will want to talk about how little time I have to do things like that - O well!

Take Care and Thank you again for all you do for us!  We are privileged to have you all as supporters!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.