Thanks for Many Blessings!

Hello All,
Thanksgiving is such a special day for us.  We really love the tradition of it.  Setting aside a day to be thankful to God for all of our blessings and doing that with friends and family is very special.  This kind of celebration does not happen here in Kenya.  We had Rose and her granddaughter Yvonne celebrate with us.  Yvonne will talk to her friends for weeks about how she had a "sherehe" (celebration) with the Wazungu (Whites)!  We made some traditional foods:  Turkey (very expensive but worth it!), cranberry sauce (found 6 months ago and saved for this day), broccoli casserole (traditional sister's recipe), Potato Gunk (yummy potato casserole that Jim makes), Stuffing (from a box that was donated to us by some short termers that were leaving!), home made rolls (Rose makes the best), gravy and Aunt Georgia's Apple Crumb Pie (with ice cream - not Bryers but sufficient).  There are things we do as a family that just ground us, and this is one of them.  Thank you God for the ability to have a wonderful day!

Last Saturday was a banner day for the Taubitz kids at the races!  Pinewood Derby that is.  We had a great time watching the kids race their cars.  Timothy made an Ark with animals on it and Sallie made a slick pink and purple car.  Sallie came home with a second place win in the men's division (because of her age group, she had to make it "with Dad" so they were in the men's division, but she really did most of the work).  She was out of first by one last race where her car slowed to 5th place.  If she had even placed 3rd in that heat, she would have taken the gold!  She even had the fastest run time in her division of 3.611 seconds!  She and Jim had a great time and it was so fun to watch.  Timothy came home with a "Special Award" for creativity and workmanship.  His car was great and very creative.

Lauren and Timothy with their cars

 

Sallie's getting ready (Lane E)

 

Fastest Adult Men Speed - Sallie and Jim!

 

Sallie and Jim waiting for the start

 

The Victors!

 

The awards given.

 

I talked last week about getting a part for the CT Scanner from the states.  Well, it came late on Friday night and the guys installed it on Saturday, ran calibrations and by Sunday they had taken scans on 2 patients!  One of the patients was a small baby with hydrocephalus.  Jim was amazed at the lack of brain inside the head cavity and how much fluid is there.  It is the reason that most of these kids have very little hope.  The choice for the parents is to have a shunt put in to drain the fluid and the child can live for 20 years but at the level of a 2 year old, or do nothing and the child will die within a few years.  Not a situation I would like to be in.  Please pray for the families that have to choose every day here.  Haivng the CT up and running makes it a banner day for this hospital.  It is so important to have this ability here.  We have been told that once we start being able to get scans, the whole thing will grow exponentially and we will need another!  We were also told that having a second will help with maintaining at least one running, because parts will have to come from the states.  Hence, another project - sourcing a scanner, shipping it and building a space for it!  Here we go again - Hey, I thought we were done with that one!  We had a little fair well dinner with Jim (the expert) on Sunday.  Here is a picture - but notice the Cheese-It crackers on the table!  The kids came toward the end and were thrilled!  It is the simple reminders of home that are fun!

With the Engineering team at Jim's farewell dinner.

Trevor had his end of the term band concerts this past week end.  Sunday night was the wind ensemble and the concert band.  He plays in the wind ensemble.  They were great!  They did a song called Fire Bird from the ballet.  It really makes me want to see the ballet!  Monday night was the Jazz band.  That is my favorite.  The kids all wore funny hats and other paraphernalia and played for over an hour.  They did some very traditional jazz songs (that even I played when I was in school!) and some up to date ones.  We noticed that the trumpet line, made up of 4 boys, are all the top players in the calculus class too!  Hummm, what is the connection there?

Blurry Picture but not blurry sound!

 

 

School closed on Friday (they even had 1/2 of a day on Turkey day!), and they are out till Jan 3.  They take long breaks between terms so that the dorm kids can get to where they live (sometimes very far) and spend time with their families.  We are taking 3 of these 6 weeks off of work too, so maybe we can keep our sanity.  My Mother is coming next week end with a bag (or 2?) full of EBay purchases and other important things like ranch dressing, hot chocolate mix (even though it is summer weather) and Christmas sprinkles!  We really are looking forward to seeing her too but sure hope the bags make it OK!

We did do work this week too.
BK Wing:  Jim was busy with the contractor rerunning a water supply line, and tracking them as they source a good supply of sand for concrete works.  That has been surprisingly difficult.
ENT building:  I have been working on the ENT building still.  We are almost in agreement on the design.  These things can take a lot of time especially when the players are in the states!
House for Tracy and Craig: Jim and I are taking on another project I might have mentioned before.  We are helping our neighbors design and build a house.  They are with Care of Creation http://kenya.careofcreation.net/  We went to a company in Nairobi called East Africa Canvas Company.  They make the big tent safari tourist camps.  They have a steel frame construction that is very interesting.  In the states, there is quite a bit of this going on, but here it is pretty new.  We are exploring doing this with their house. 

 

 

We are heading for Kampala, Uganda tomorrow for just a few days.  Please pray for safe travels for us.  We just had the car repaired (steering column, suspension, air condition) and will be in it for about 10-12 hours depending on the traffic and boarder situation.  Kampala is where the East Africa EMI office is located.  We are going to meet those folks and get to know some of the other things that EMI is working on here.

Take Care and be Thankful for all!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.