Jim Jullie's Blogspot: Esther gets a Roof!

Hello All,
We have had a pretty good week here. It has been raining quite a bit. We have never seen it rain in February before. Not sure if that means it will be a really long rainy season or it will rain now and be finished? The weather is a bit crazy everywhere so I am told.

I had a good trip to Nairobi this morning with 5 outstanding students! They have all applied to Princeton and had interviews.

We had an uneventful trip which was very nice. Last weekend, the embassy put out warnings for the malls, but this weekend it was quiet. The interviewer was gracious and I hope they all made a good impression. Time will tell.

The Bethany Kids wing is moving along. The "Interior design committee" is at work and we are starting to get to the fun part! Makes you nervous that it will all come together, but hopefully with some help of some great ladies, we will choose wisely!

I have been working on septic plans this past week. RVA needs a maintenance plan in place and that is where I have been spending my time. There is a pit out in the forest where the exhauster truck will take the "stuff." I went out there to measure it. I hadn't been there in 2 years, but was able to remember the way! Here is a picture:

Not very glamorous but someone has to do it!

Our Upendo Village project could use some prayer. The building is going well, and we are getting the construction committee back together, but there is some tension. The meeting was cancelled this week, and not sure when the next one will be. The sisters out there are wonderful and we just need to pray that this will resolve itself.

We found a fundi (expert) to put the roof, doors and windows on Esther's house. She is the lady we helped put through catering school. He will get started this coming week and should have it done in a few weeks! This will be great for them. The mud hut that they live in now is starting to crumble. The termites are eating the wooden parts, and it is leaking a bunch. What we can do will not complete the house - it still will need plaster and electricity and some plumbing, but they should be able to get in and be out of the weather.

Sallie has been watching short TV shows on her phone! Not having a TV, she has been amazed at what she can get on youtube. She has been into Master Chef Jr. It has young kids competing to make the best, most presentable food. She made and plated lava cakes with fresh raspberries last week. They were really good but we think we have to do it again because the "lava" part was a bit too done. We have been blessed 3 times in the last 2 weeks to be near a raspberry farm that has too many berries! They package and ship about 1 ton a day to the UK, but when the berries are too red, they don't qualify - so we and I am sure others - get them. One of the staff goes over there and gets big rubber made buckets full and we all run when he gets back with any kind of container. My construction partner even used his hard hat the other day! Wish I had a picture!

But this was very good. We have been making raspberry lime aid too. Life is pretty good!

We are making some plans about the summer. It is really hard to "see" past leaving day (July 22), but it has to be done. Jim was able to get tickets for us to go to Arizona to visit Mom right after we get home using our sky miles! We will go for a week and hopefully it will be some rest and we can go visit the canyon, although I think my Mom has quite a few things on her "honey do" list!

I will end here with a few random pictures. Hope you have a great week. Jim and I are heading to Nakuru (alone) next week end as a birthday celebration for me. It is a game park, but we may not even going game driving. We just want to get away and have some down time! I will post if I can hook up but we may not have internet. Pole sana (very sorry)!