Fare Thee Well

Yesterday being Paula's last day in Kenya (for now), we decided to do something special. Nairobi has a charming little theatre built in colonial times just a five-minute drive from the Flora Hostel. It accommodates about 100 people and every viewer is within 15 feet of the stage. We attended the delightful matinee presentation of "Cemetery Club", a comedy by Ivan Menchell. It was very funny as well as poignant, reminding us of "Steel Magnolia".

Our final fun event before she flies out tonight takes place two blocks from the Flora Hostel. Paula's treating us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant (and this is the Chinese New Year). Brother Vincent will be joining us---there was no opportunity to get down to see him these past three months of Paula's visit, so this grand finale will be their hello and goodbye, until next time. Safari Njema Paula! Don't delay in planning a speedy return!

Eternal snows

This is our beautiful mountain which I couldn't get on the other time. Here it is seen with snow, but our eternal snows for which it is known are not so eternal due to global warming. A sight unheard of in the past, there are days when it is totally brown and snowless. It's glaciers feed our rivers which at the present moment are very low. It's a beautiful sight to work under and January/February are the months when it's clearest and most visible. Other times you can go weeks at a time without seeing it.

St Elizabeth and porridge time

When Fran was here in 2007, she was amazed to see how the little kids loved their little 2-inch plastic statue of St. Elizabeth, our school patron. She decided to look for a larger one. When I arrived home this past fall, there waiting for me was a 2 1/2 foot high St. Elizabeth Fran found on e-bay. Luckily British Airways allows an extra bag for missionaries and she made it safely back with me. (St. Elizabeth that is, not Fran.) We waited to put her up until after we painted the dining room, which we've just finished. Here the children are taking their morning porridge, as St. Elizabeth overlooks them. Yes, Fran, she's now varnished. I know the idea was to have the natural outdoor woody look, but I was outnumbered by those who thought she must be varnished.

Through the windscreen......

As we go around on our home visits and field work, we can't fail to appreciate how lucky we are to have wheels. This is a common sight all along the track. We are going home to maybe have some soup and a sandwich for lunch. They are going home to do their other tasks, and often are not going to eat until evening as it would take too much of their precious fuel to make a fire twice.

Our Welding/Fabrication Workshop

One area of our St. Clare Technical Training School involves Metalwork and Welding classes. The students are encouraged to make things that are useful and needed or which are ordered by customers. Here a customer is collecting some window and door frames for his new house.

One Year Onwards

Last January a frantic grandmother came running into my office one evening begging me to come and get her daughter-in-law to a hospital as she was having difficulty giving birth. We jumped in the car and rushed to her house only to find that there were twin babies on the bed, and the mama was kneeling on the floor in great pain trying to expel the afterbirth. Grandma wrapped up the twins and got in the front seat, and we got mama into the back seat and headed over to our local clinic on the hill. As luck would have it, the nurse on duty was out, but we waited. Finally the nurse came and under the light of a kerosene lamp, the nurse did all that is prescribed, the silver nitrate drops in the eyes etc. By now the husband had been informed and was present. We felt the mama should remain for the night, but she wanted to go home, so I took them all home. I was very happy for their visit the other day to show me the growth of the babies. I told Bernard I couldn't forget their names because they're the names of my grandmothers: Catherine and Rose, although I couldn't of course know which was which. Here they are a bit frightened of my Christmas lights.

Our Beautiful Mountain