Dear Family and Friends:
Next week at this time, I’ll be real close to HOME. I tell people all the time when they tell me they wish they could live in the US that they need to appreciate Kenya because it is a good place to live. But I certainly prefer the US over Kenya. Kenya is beautiful and has a lot going for it but it is behind the US in so many ways. I will always be grateful for the US and the blessing we all enjoy there. It truly is the promised land.
Need to give an update from last week’s letter on Kilimanjaro. When Shena got back to civilization, she went to the Doctor and he told her she had two cracked ribs. So I guess she wasn’t faking her pain and misery. She really was hurting. Tough kid!!!!
So for what happened this week. Rainy season is back and with it came the bugs. It makes me wonder where all the bugs go during the dry season. I never see any of them with their luggage packed and headed out of town for vacations when rainy season is over. This week it was little round black bugs and big grasshoppers. The hoppers were green and brown and about 3 inches long. Look kind of cool but there were just too many of them. Have to now beat my shoes on the floor before I put them on to make sure I don’t have any unwanted visitors.
The rain has done wonders for the area as far as greenery. The goats take everything living and eat it. So trees don’t have leaves that goats can reach and all levels areas are brown because the goats have eaten everything green. Now that the rains have started, it looks like astro turf in a lot of areas. There are little green blades of grass and weeds showing up through the brown dirt and rocks. Magadi looks pretty green instead of brown.
Was sitting in church yesterday and the opening song was a Christmas carol. As I was looking outside during the song I saw a banana tree in the church yard. Don’t think I would ever be singing Christmas songs and be looking at a banana tree. Just doesn’t seem like Christmas without cold and snow. Good thing everyone is not coming here for Christmas, I could really get the Scrooge spirit going for Christmas here.
Work will be exciting again this week. There is a Board meeting. So I will need to be on my best behavior. It should go pretty good because production has improved. November was a record production month and December isn’t too bad so far. Of course, I expected to get fired during the past Board meetings because things were going so bad, now things are going better I may get fired and not see it coming. So the week should go quickly with all that is going on.
There has been a slight change of plans. I’ll stop in SLC on my way home but then go on to Vegas. The forecast was for bad weather Saturday and Sunday so I’ll just keep going. Debi and Cherry will pick me up in Vegas. My flight arrives at 8:40 Vegas time.
Don’t look for any letters for a while (next addition 9-1-11); I’m on vacation!!!! Have a merry Christmas all!!!!!!
Love
Dad/paul
Monday, December 13, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sun 12/5/2010 1:21 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Well after one weeks of no letter, I’m not sure I can complete this letter in one sitting. But I’ll try!!!!
On November 22 we attended Stake Conference which was a video broadcast from SLC to this area of Africa. It was interesting to see how they tailored their message to the people here. They talked about the great family traditions of Africans but noted the tradition of giving a dowry to the bride’s family made it difficult for some young people to marry and caused some young people to not get married. Also as part of Stake Conference they sustained about 20 to 25 names to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. I’ve never seen so many names presented in all the stake conferences I’ve attended (except maybe last March in this Stake). So anyway the day started out good.
Then about 9:30 in the evening the real excitement started happening. Shena and the gang started arriving. By about 11:00 all had arrived at the motel and were ready for bed because the real excitement started the next day.
Day one: we went from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania which was about a 8 hour drive; had to cross the border into Tanzania. All tourist pay $50 except those from the US who pay $100. What a deal!!!! The area is pretty dry but there were some green trees and a few goats and cows along the way. As we got closer to Arusha the, the country side took a real turn for the green side. The city is very lush and green. We stayed at a place that was tucked between some real dumps but the place was clean and well kept. So it wasn’t too bad of a place to stay.
Day two: got up and headed to the high country. While loading up there was a fellow with the climbing company that showed up with a Staker Parsons (sp) hat on. Couldn’t believe my eyes; I have seen Paul G. wear a hat just like it. It’s the one with the fishing fly on it. Please pass this on to Paul, his company is known all over the world. Once we were at the train head, we signed in, had lunch and started up the train. Began hiking about 1:00 pm and reached camp at about 5:30 pm. Not a bad little hike. It was like walking in a rain forest. Could not believe all the greenery; a lush forest. Absolutely beautiful. Huge trees and tiny flowers; the variety was endless. Once we reached camp, we had to register and then we had dinner. Can’t relay call this climbing when you have someone carry your bags and then have dinner ready when you reach your destination (the Tanzanian government requires guides and porters be used by all climbers to provide employment for local folks).
Day three: today’s hike started with the same green vegetation then turned to a little shorter trees and shrubs. You would tell we were gaining elevation because everything was changing. The trees kind of looked like cedar trees. By the time we reached camp, there was very little vegetation except for grass and very small bushes. We hiked for about four hours again this day. It rained on us this day, so it was kind of miserable for a while. But you can get warmed up quickly when the cook has hot soup and hot chocolate ready for you when you arrive. The tents are also set up in the event you want to crawl into a sleeping bag and rest or just get warm.
Day four: this is where it gets exciting, put on your seatbelt!!!! Started out in the normal fashion; left camp at about 9:00 again (it takes a long time for five women to get their make up on for climbing). We had been hiking for about an hour when we came to a rock ledge that was muddy and wet. When Shena stepped on the wet rock she slipped and fell. The ledge had about a four foot drop so when I saw her she was on her back and in a lot of pain. It took a few minutes to make sure nothing was broken but she was bruised on her hand, leg, hip, and ribs. Debi had some industrial strength drugs to help with the pain, but it got to the point that the pain pills were causing her to have an upset stomach and become dizzy. As the day went on you could hear Shena shutter each time she took a breath because it hurt so bad. The hike for the day was suppose to take about 4 hours but it took about 9 or 10 to reach the next camp. Shena was in a lot of pain for the entire time. She figured that if she could get a good night’s rest she might feel better. So we all ate some dinner and went to bed.
Day five: Shena was in a little better condition today, still hurting but only needed half the medication she had taken on day four. Today’s hike included some rock climbing. It was a fun day. We gained about 400 feet of elevation in a short time as we climbed the canyon wall just past the camp. The day started out like just about all days. It was sunny until about 10:00 and then the clouds would roll in and sprinkles would begin to fall. Prior to the clouds rolling in, you would look down onto the valley floor and just see clouds. You might think it was a blanket of snow but we were too close to the equator. It was a beautiful sight. The hike took about four hours, a little longer than what was expected because Shena was still hurting. When we arrived we had lunch and then tried to get some sleep because the summit bid was to begin at midnight. It is difficult to rest/sleep when you know something exciting is just a few hours away. At about 7:00 dinner was served then everyone went back to their tents to see if they could get any more sleep.
Day six: started out at midnight by getting dressed with all the warm clothes we owned. It was clear and crisp but not too bad for 15,000+ feet. No one was able to sleep much because of the excitement of what was going on but we all tried. As we were getting ready to start climbing Shena came down with the stomach flu. As if the banged up body wasn’t enough. We all took off and began hiking for the summit. The term they use is “pole-pole” which means slow-slow in Swahili. It would take us about 7 hours to reach the summit. Along the way Debi began feeling like she was getting pneumonia; couldn’t breathe too well. I checked O2 on both Shena and Debi and they both had good oxygen and pulse for being as high as we were. So once we knew there were no serious problems we all continued on up the mountain. After hiking for about six hours the sun finally came up and you could begin to see the summit. The toll of the fall and the banged up body and stomach flu for Shena left her in pretty tough shape. She was within about 200 feet of the crater rim and she collapsed. She was shivering and couldn’t get warm so we put a down jacket around her and three of us huddled around her to block the wind. We encouraged her to relax and breathe easily. We checked her O2 again and determined she was still in the safe zone. After she warmed up and caught her breathe, she wanted to finish her climb to the crater rim. (Catching your breath at 18,750 feet isn’t too easy). So about 20 minutes later, Shena, Debi and I reached the crater rim. We could see all of East Africa. The official summit of Kilimanjaro is a high point on the crater rim about another hour hike from where we reached the rim. Given the condition of Shena and Debi, we determined we needed to go down the mountain. A lot of health problems are solved by just descending. One of the guides took Shena and almost ran down the mountain with her. Debi and I got to camp about a half hour later. The plan now was to get a little rest, have lunch and the start the decent to the next lower camp. Getting rest didn’t happen at this time either. We just waited in the tent until lunch, ate, packed our bags and headed down the mountain. This is when Debi found out how bad here knees were. We had just descended bout 4,000 feet and were looking at about 4 hours of more downhill. The train was rough and in places slick from rain (and a little snow). So all the descending began taking its toll on Debi’s knees. She was in pain before we got back to camp from the summit and then the added burden of going down even further was causing a lot of discomfort. She knew the only option was to tough it out and keep moving. The decent was suppose to take about three hours but after five hours we were still a long way from camp. It was pretty discouraging to be moving so slow and not gaining much ground. Finally, we heard some porters coming up the trail. They began talking to us and then one of them asked if mama simba (one of Debi’s many new names) wanted a ride down the mountain. So guess how Debi finished the day, yep she got a ride. We were probably still an hour away from the camp when the porters started carrying Debi. There were three porters and they took turns carrying her. We all had a very good rest that night, it is such a relief to be down in the thick air and have the mountain behind you.
Day seven: needed an early start to the day to be able to catch the bus back to Nairobi. So we were on the train by about 7:00 am. Unfortunately, Debi’s knees had not been healed by the good night’s sleep. So the day began like the previous day had ended. Debi and I got a little jump on the rest of the group to see if we could get down quickly, but the group passed us shortly after we started down the mountain. We struggled down the mountain for about three hours. It was suppose to be a smooth road. But it turned out to be a trail with rocks, mud, ruts, etc, nothing too easy to walk down. But once again there was music coming up from the bottom of the hill; porters coming Debi’s way. So they loaded her up again and carried her or supported her as they ran her over the rocks and mud. She beat me down of the mountain again.
When I was telling Shena what to expect on the mountain, I told her she was in good physical condition (she had climbed Timp many times and run half marathons) and could make the summit but she would need to prepare herself mentally. There are times you have to be just mentally tough to push through problems. Physical conditioning is only about 70% of mountaineering preparations.
I learned on this trip that I live with one tough woman and have another tough woman as a daughter. Both Debi and Shena braved fatigue and pain I have never had to deal with. I learned from both of them what it means to be strong, determined and tough.
It was a good experience climbing with Debi. Whenever I have climbed before, I have always missed family. Once on Aconcagua, I was dirty, hungry, cold, and was thinking; I could be in the hot tub in Green River and I’m here on this stupid mountain. It was great this time to share the experience with my family. Maybe Krista, Mya and Cherry will want to climb something with the old man (spouses also invited). It is so much more enjoyable with those you love around you.
So much for the climb – The safari next (this will be really short)
It started and ended with three hours of bad roads. The road to the ranch from Bone would be considered interstate quality compared to the roads into Maasai Mara. It is hard to believe the Kenyan government has such bad roads into a national park.
Anyway, we saw: wildebeest, zebras, lions, elephants (even little tiny baby elephants), cheetahs (eating a wildebeest), all kinds of gazelles (a number of different species), rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffes, monkeys, jackals, warthogs, elands, crocodiles, tortoise, baboons, hyenas, mongoose, cape buffalo, dik dik (miniature deer like critter), and birds too numerous to list.
All in all it was a pretty exciting two weeks. Now I need to go back to work so I can get caught up on my rest. Mom, I was thinking about you on the climb and the safari. I remember you saying how much you wanted to visit Africa. So I hope I gave a good enough description of what it looked like. As an engineer, I’m not too good at writing, so I’ll send some good pictures of what we saw.
I’ll be home on the 18th of December. Spend time in ST George over Christmas and then go to LA to visit Krista and fam, then to Seattle to visit Mya and fam, then back to the grind in Kenya on the 3rd of January.
Its late and I have to go to work in the morning.
Love
Paul/dad
Well after one weeks of no letter, I’m not sure I can complete this letter in one sitting. But I’ll try!!!!
On November 22 we attended Stake Conference which was a video broadcast from SLC to this area of Africa. It was interesting to see how they tailored their message to the people here. They talked about the great family traditions of Africans but noted the tradition of giving a dowry to the bride’s family made it difficult for some young people to marry and caused some young people to not get married. Also as part of Stake Conference they sustained about 20 to 25 names to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. I’ve never seen so many names presented in all the stake conferences I’ve attended (except maybe last March in this Stake). So anyway the day started out good.
Then about 9:30 in the evening the real excitement started happening. Shena and the gang started arriving. By about 11:00 all had arrived at the motel and were ready for bed because the real excitement started the next day.
Day one: we went from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania which was about a 8 hour drive; had to cross the border into Tanzania. All tourist pay $50 except those from the US who pay $100. What a deal!!!! The area is pretty dry but there were some green trees and a few goats and cows along the way. As we got closer to Arusha the, the country side took a real turn for the green side. The city is very lush and green. We stayed at a place that was tucked between some real dumps but the place was clean and well kept. So it wasn’t too bad of a place to stay.
Day two: got up and headed to the high country. While loading up there was a fellow with the climbing company that showed up with a Staker Parsons (sp) hat on. Couldn’t believe my eyes; I have seen Paul G. wear a hat just like it. It’s the one with the fishing fly on it. Please pass this on to Paul, his company is known all over the world. Once we were at the train head, we signed in, had lunch and started up the train. Began hiking about 1:00 pm and reached camp at about 5:30 pm. Not a bad little hike. It was like walking in a rain forest. Could not believe all the greenery; a lush forest. Absolutely beautiful. Huge trees and tiny flowers; the variety was endless. Once we reached camp, we had to register and then we had dinner. Can’t relay call this climbing when you have someone carry your bags and then have dinner ready when you reach your destination (the Tanzanian government requires guides and porters be used by all climbers to provide employment for local folks).
Day three: today’s hike started with the same green vegetation then turned to a little shorter trees and shrubs. You would tell we were gaining elevation because everything was changing. The trees kind of looked like cedar trees. By the time we reached camp, there was very little vegetation except for grass and very small bushes. We hiked for about four hours again this day. It rained on us this day, so it was kind of miserable for a while. But you can get warmed up quickly when the cook has hot soup and hot chocolate ready for you when you arrive. The tents are also set up in the event you want to crawl into a sleeping bag and rest or just get warm.
Day four: this is where it gets exciting, put on your seatbelt!!!! Started out in the normal fashion; left camp at about 9:00 again (it takes a long time for five women to get their make up on for climbing). We had been hiking for about an hour when we came to a rock ledge that was muddy and wet. When Shena stepped on the wet rock she slipped and fell. The ledge had about a four foot drop so when I saw her she was on her back and in a lot of pain. It took a few minutes to make sure nothing was broken but she was bruised on her hand, leg, hip, and ribs. Debi had some industrial strength drugs to help with the pain, but it got to the point that the pain pills were causing her to have an upset stomach and become dizzy. As the day went on you could hear Shena shutter each time she took a breath because it hurt so bad. The hike for the day was suppose to take about 4 hours but it took about 9 or 10 to reach the next camp. Shena was in a lot of pain for the entire time. She figured that if she could get a good night’s rest she might feel better. So we all ate some dinner and went to bed.
Day five: Shena was in a little better condition today, still hurting but only needed half the medication she had taken on day four. Today’s hike included some rock climbing. It was a fun day. We gained about 400 feet of elevation in a short time as we climbed the canyon wall just past the camp. The day started out like just about all days. It was sunny until about 10:00 and then the clouds would roll in and sprinkles would begin to fall. Prior to the clouds rolling in, you would look down onto the valley floor and just see clouds. You might think it was a blanket of snow but we were too close to the equator. It was a beautiful sight. The hike took about four hours, a little longer than what was expected because Shena was still hurting. When we arrived we had lunch and then tried to get some sleep because the summit bid was to begin at midnight. It is difficult to rest/sleep when you know something exciting is just a few hours away. At about 7:00 dinner was served then everyone went back to their tents to see if they could get any more sleep.
Day six: started out at midnight by getting dressed with all the warm clothes we owned. It was clear and crisp but not too bad for 15,000+ feet. No one was able to sleep much because of the excitement of what was going on but we all tried. As we were getting ready to start climbing Shena came down with the stomach flu. As if the banged up body wasn’t enough. We all took off and began hiking for the summit. The term they use is “pole-pole” which means slow-slow in Swahili. It would take us about 7 hours to reach the summit. Along the way Debi began feeling like she was getting pneumonia; couldn’t breathe too well. I checked O2 on both Shena and Debi and they both had good oxygen and pulse for being as high as we were. So once we knew there were no serious problems we all continued on up the mountain. After hiking for about six hours the sun finally came up and you could begin to see the summit. The toll of the fall and the banged up body and stomach flu for Shena left her in pretty tough shape. She was within about 200 feet of the crater rim and she collapsed. She was shivering and couldn’t get warm so we put a down jacket around her and three of us huddled around her to block the wind. We encouraged her to relax and breathe easily. We checked her O2 again and determined she was still in the safe zone. After she warmed up and caught her breathe, she wanted to finish her climb to the crater rim. (Catching your breath at 18,750 feet isn’t too easy). So about 20 minutes later, Shena, Debi and I reached the crater rim. We could see all of East Africa. The official summit of Kilimanjaro is a high point on the crater rim about another hour hike from where we reached the rim. Given the condition of Shena and Debi, we determined we needed to go down the mountain. A lot of health problems are solved by just descending. One of the guides took Shena and almost ran down the mountain with her. Debi and I got to camp about a half hour later. The plan now was to get a little rest, have lunch and the start the decent to the next lower camp. Getting rest didn’t happen at this time either. We just waited in the tent until lunch, ate, packed our bags and headed down the mountain. This is when Debi found out how bad here knees were. We had just descended bout 4,000 feet and were looking at about 4 hours of more downhill. The train was rough and in places slick from rain (and a little snow). So all the descending began taking its toll on Debi’s knees. She was in pain before we got back to camp from the summit and then the added burden of going down even further was causing a lot of discomfort. She knew the only option was to tough it out and keep moving. The decent was suppose to take about three hours but after five hours we were still a long way from camp. It was pretty discouraging to be moving so slow and not gaining much ground. Finally, we heard some porters coming up the trail. They began talking to us and then one of them asked if mama simba (one of Debi’s many new names) wanted a ride down the mountain. So guess how Debi finished the day, yep she got a ride. We were probably still an hour away from the camp when the porters started carrying Debi. There were three porters and they took turns carrying her. We all had a very good rest that night, it is such a relief to be down in the thick air and have the mountain behind you.
Day seven: needed an early start to the day to be able to catch the bus back to Nairobi. So we were on the train by about 7:00 am. Unfortunately, Debi’s knees had not been healed by the good night’s sleep. So the day began like the previous day had ended. Debi and I got a little jump on the rest of the group to see if we could get down quickly, but the group passed us shortly after we started down the mountain. We struggled down the mountain for about three hours. It was suppose to be a smooth road. But it turned out to be a trail with rocks, mud, ruts, etc, nothing too easy to walk down. But once again there was music coming up from the bottom of the hill; porters coming Debi’s way. So they loaded her up again and carried her or supported her as they ran her over the rocks and mud. She beat me down of the mountain again.
When I was telling Shena what to expect on the mountain, I told her she was in good physical condition (she had climbed Timp many times and run half marathons) and could make the summit but she would need to prepare herself mentally. There are times you have to be just mentally tough to push through problems. Physical conditioning is only about 70% of mountaineering preparations.
I learned on this trip that I live with one tough woman and have another tough woman as a daughter. Both Debi and Shena braved fatigue and pain I have never had to deal with. I learned from both of them what it means to be strong, determined and tough.
It was a good experience climbing with Debi. Whenever I have climbed before, I have always missed family. Once on Aconcagua, I was dirty, hungry, cold, and was thinking; I could be in the hot tub in Green River and I’m here on this stupid mountain. It was great this time to share the experience with my family. Maybe Krista, Mya and Cherry will want to climb something with the old man (spouses also invited). It is so much more enjoyable with those you love around you.
So much for the climb – The safari next (this will be really short)
It started and ended with three hours of bad roads. The road to the ranch from Bone would be considered interstate quality compared to the roads into Maasai Mara. It is hard to believe the Kenyan government has such bad roads into a national park.
Anyway, we saw: wildebeest, zebras, lions, elephants (even little tiny baby elephants), cheetahs (eating a wildebeest), all kinds of gazelles (a number of different species), rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffes, monkeys, jackals, warthogs, elands, crocodiles, tortoise, baboons, hyenas, mongoose, cape buffalo, dik dik (miniature deer like critter), and birds too numerous to list.
All in all it was a pretty exciting two weeks. Now I need to go back to work so I can get caught up on my rest. Mom, I was thinking about you on the climb and the safari. I remember you saying how much you wanted to visit Africa. So I hope I gave a good enough description of what it looked like. As an engineer, I’m not too good at writing, so I’ll send some good pictures of what we saw.
I’ll be home on the 18th of December. Spend time in ST George over Christmas and then go to LA to visit Krista and fam, then to Seattle to visit Mya and fam, then back to the grind in Kenya on the 3rd of January.
Its late and I have to go to work in the morning.
Love
Paul/dad
Sat 11/20/2010 8:08 AM
Dear Family and Friends:
Well, we’re off almost. The kids are probably on an airplane about now and on the way but won’t arrive until tomorrow night. It should be an exciting time. So the schedule will be as follows:
Leave for Nairobi tomorrow. Will go to Stake conference and do some last minute errands to get the last few items we need. Went to the duca kubwa (big store) today and all they had was toothpaste. Not much of a selection here in Magadi.
On Monday we travel to Arusha, Tanzania and spend the night there. Arusha is a tourist town near Kilimanjaro. When I first arrived in January, people wondered if I should attend church here. As the crow flies, it’s not far from here but it’s a long way by car. Nairobi is a lot closer than Arusha.
On Tuesday we start climbing. Each day we hike for between five and seven hours and move up the mountain slowly. It is possible to climb faster but the intent is to allow everyone to get acclimatized slowly. Problems develop in the lungs and the brain (some people don’t think people that do this have brains; maybe just very small ones) when you gain altitude too fast. So the trick is to go slow. Continue to climb until next Sunday which should be summit day. Come part way down on Sunday and spend the last night on the hill.
Monday we come down the mountain and spend the night back in Nairobi.
On Tuesday the safari guides pick us up at the hotel and we head out for Massai Mara. The safari is arranged so you go out early in the morning and late in the evenings to see animals when they are most active. So, Tuesday night we will drive through the reserve. They have open top mini vans. Or at least the tops extend up so you can stand up and look out without leaving the vehicle. It’s not good to mingle with the local wildlife. When we have gone into the bush here, the wildlife won’t get too concerned if no one gets out of the vehicle but as soon as a door opens they scatter. On Wednesday we will go for morning and evening tours and then on Thursday we will have a morning tour and head back to Nairobi. The guide service provides a tent to stay in. The tents are like canvas wall tent used for hunting in the US. Hope the tents are lion proofed. Food will also be provided so it shouldn’t be too tough of a week.
When we get back to Nairobi on Thursday, a van is will meet us and drive us to Magadi. The trip wouldn’t be complete if the kids didn’t see where the mother-load and dad live. We will go visit one of the villages nearby so they can appreciate what they have. After visiting the bush, they will never be able to complain about what they have – never-.
Then on Saturday, December 4th the group heads back to the US this includes Debi. Hopefully it will be a fun experience for all. I can guarantee they will all be tired. Hope they are not expected to perform well when they return to work on Monday.
Debi needs to get back to the US to get my Christmas present. I’ll do the normal shopping (ask the girls what Debi wants, have Shena buy it, and I’m done). For those interested, I return on December 18; Shena will have my shopping done by then, I hope.
Hope these next two weeks go well. If they don’t know one else will want to come and visit (too late for you Margaret, your tickets bought).
Love
Paul/dad
Well, we’re off almost. The kids are probably on an airplane about now and on the way but won’t arrive until tomorrow night. It should be an exciting time. So the schedule will be as follows:
Leave for Nairobi tomorrow. Will go to Stake conference and do some last minute errands to get the last few items we need. Went to the duca kubwa (big store) today and all they had was toothpaste. Not much of a selection here in Magadi.
On Monday we travel to Arusha, Tanzania and spend the night there. Arusha is a tourist town near Kilimanjaro. When I first arrived in January, people wondered if I should attend church here. As the crow flies, it’s not far from here but it’s a long way by car. Nairobi is a lot closer than Arusha.
On Tuesday we start climbing. Each day we hike for between five and seven hours and move up the mountain slowly. It is possible to climb faster but the intent is to allow everyone to get acclimatized slowly. Problems develop in the lungs and the brain (some people don’t think people that do this have brains; maybe just very small ones) when you gain altitude too fast. So the trick is to go slow. Continue to climb until next Sunday which should be summit day. Come part way down on Sunday and spend the last night on the hill.
Monday we come down the mountain and spend the night back in Nairobi.
On Tuesday the safari guides pick us up at the hotel and we head out for Massai Mara. The safari is arranged so you go out early in the morning and late in the evenings to see animals when they are most active. So, Tuesday night we will drive through the reserve. They have open top mini vans. Or at least the tops extend up so you can stand up and look out without leaving the vehicle. It’s not good to mingle with the local wildlife. When we have gone into the bush here, the wildlife won’t get too concerned if no one gets out of the vehicle but as soon as a door opens they scatter. On Wednesday we will go for morning and evening tours and then on Thursday we will have a morning tour and head back to Nairobi. The guide service provides a tent to stay in. The tents are like canvas wall tent used for hunting in the US. Hope the tents are lion proofed. Food will also be provided so it shouldn’t be too tough of a week.
When we get back to Nairobi on Thursday, a van is will meet us and drive us to Magadi. The trip wouldn’t be complete if the kids didn’t see where the mother-load and dad live. We will go visit one of the villages nearby so they can appreciate what they have. After visiting the bush, they will never be able to complain about what they have – never-.
Then on Saturday, December 4th the group heads back to the US this includes Debi. Hopefully it will be a fun experience for all. I can guarantee they will all be tired. Hope they are not expected to perform well when they return to work on Monday.
Debi needs to get back to the US to get my Christmas present. I’ll do the normal shopping (ask the girls what Debi wants, have Shena buy it, and I’m done). For those interested, I return on December 18; Shena will have my shopping done by then, I hope.
Hope these next two weeks go well. If they don’t know one else will want to come and visit (too late for you Margaret, your tickets bought).
Love
Paul/dad
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Sun 11/7/2010 9:53 AM
Hello Family and Friends:
Another week gone!!!! I say it every week so you are probably tired of hearing it but they are going fast. There are different events everyday of the week so I judge time by which event is up next. So Church comes pretty fast every week.
Just to keep everyone in the loop, there will be no weekly letter on November 28th. That day, yours Truly, Mrs. Truly and #1 Truly daughter should be on the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It may be difficult to have a weekly letter on the 21st of November and the 5th of December also. That is when Shena and the crown come and go. There will be eight of climbing; Debi, Shena and five of Shena’s friends. I bet Shena’s friends’ parents are mad at her for taking their kids half way around the world at Thanksgiving time to climb some stinking mountain. After climbing, we are going to go on a safari to Maasai Mara for three days and two nights. Then there should be time to come to Magadi for a couple of days to unwind.
Debi may out of the “life of leisure” mode when she comes back in January. There was a dental technician that came to the medical clinic on Saturday and set up shop. He will be here on Saturdays in November and December then have normal hours Monday through Friday starting in January. Not sure how it will all work but I’m sure the local folks will be glad to have someone to work on their teeth without having to go to Nairobi.
Debi was the guest of honor at the Diwali festival. She got to light the candles and everything. Ok, go ahead and Google the word, it’s not a misspelling. There are a number of Indian people here helping with the implementation of SAP (a business computer program). So they celebrate all the Indian holidays. We were invited to home of a fellow who was celebrating. He shared his candy with us and showed us the sand art he and his family had done to celebrate. Some of the candy wasn’t too good but one kind was great. Just goes to show, candy is the international language.
Today in church it was fast and testimony meeting. One fellow bore his testimony that wasn’t even a member. A little boy sat by Debi and I whose parents have been coming for about two months that aren’t members. It is interesting here. After growing up in a country where blacks are the minority it is interesting to associate with them as the majority. At work, and at church, I don’t see them as black. I just see them as fellow saints or co workers. Most of the branch is made up of young members; under 35 years old. They are a handsome lot, young men and young women are either in college or working. The old folks like me; some of them look like they were in bar fight and came in second but for the most part I view people in Kenya in a whole different light. They are a beautiful race.
Ok Robert, the bracelets should be to you by the end of the week. Let me know what Russ has to say. These bracelets can have anything on them. I’m having a bunch made to bring home at Christmas. Maybe we can develop a market in the US for some of these Maasai women. Cherry, I’ll get you some WYO bracelets by the end of November (send me your address, again).
On a brighter note, work is going pretty good. Production rates have been improving steadily over the past few weeks. This past week, production has been very good. My worst nightmares may come true, they might want me to stay for a while in Kenya. There was an effort to get money to increase production but the rates are above where they were supposed to be after investing all the money, so there may a reluctance to spend any money here at all. Money still needs to be spent to ensure strong production rates over the long haul.
One last comment and I’ll give it up for the week. I’ve got to stop buying brownies here. They are so good I can’t stop eating them. Debi bought some scales after she arrived but I haven’t dared get on them since she brought them home. It’s called no will power. The cook makes a new batch before the old batch is gone, it’s terrible!!!!
Until next week----love you all
Dad/paul
Another week gone!!!! I say it every week so you are probably tired of hearing it but they are going fast. There are different events everyday of the week so I judge time by which event is up next. So Church comes pretty fast every week.
Just to keep everyone in the loop, there will be no weekly letter on November 28th. That day, yours Truly, Mrs. Truly and #1 Truly daughter should be on the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It may be difficult to have a weekly letter on the 21st of November and the 5th of December also. That is when Shena and the crown come and go. There will be eight of climbing; Debi, Shena and five of Shena’s friends. I bet Shena’s friends’ parents are mad at her for taking their kids half way around the world at Thanksgiving time to climb some stinking mountain. After climbing, we are going to go on a safari to Maasai Mara for three days and two nights. Then there should be time to come to Magadi for a couple of days to unwind.
Debi may out of the “life of leisure” mode when she comes back in January. There was a dental technician that came to the medical clinic on Saturday and set up shop. He will be here on Saturdays in November and December then have normal hours Monday through Friday starting in January. Not sure how it will all work but I’m sure the local folks will be glad to have someone to work on their teeth without having to go to Nairobi.
Debi was the guest of honor at the Diwali festival. She got to light the candles and everything. Ok, go ahead and Google the word, it’s not a misspelling. There are a number of Indian people here helping with the implementation of SAP (a business computer program). So they celebrate all the Indian holidays. We were invited to home of a fellow who was celebrating. He shared his candy with us and showed us the sand art he and his family had done to celebrate. Some of the candy wasn’t too good but one kind was great. Just goes to show, candy is the international language.
Today in church it was fast and testimony meeting. One fellow bore his testimony that wasn’t even a member. A little boy sat by Debi and I whose parents have been coming for about two months that aren’t members. It is interesting here. After growing up in a country where blacks are the minority it is interesting to associate with them as the majority. At work, and at church, I don’t see them as black. I just see them as fellow saints or co workers. Most of the branch is made up of young members; under 35 years old. They are a handsome lot, young men and young women are either in college or working. The old folks like me; some of them look like they were in bar fight and came in second but for the most part I view people in Kenya in a whole different light. They are a beautiful race.
Ok Robert, the bracelets should be to you by the end of the week. Let me know what Russ has to say. These bracelets can have anything on them. I’m having a bunch made to bring home at Christmas. Maybe we can develop a market in the US for some of these Maasai women. Cherry, I’ll get you some WYO bracelets by the end of November (send me your address, again).
On a brighter note, work is going pretty good. Production rates have been improving steadily over the past few weeks. This past week, production has been very good. My worst nightmares may come true, they might want me to stay for a while in Kenya. There was an effort to get money to increase production but the rates are above where they were supposed to be after investing all the money, so there may a reluctance to spend any money here at all. Money still needs to be spent to ensure strong production rates over the long haul.
One last comment and I’ll give it up for the week. I’ve got to stop buying brownies here. They are so good I can’t stop eating them. Debi bought some scales after she arrived but I haven’t dared get on them since she brought them home. It’s called no will power. The cook makes a new batch before the old batch is gone, it’s terrible!!!!
Until next week----love you all
Dad/paul
Monday, November 1, 2010
Sun 10/31/2010 11:17 AM
Hello Family and Friends:
Well another month shot in the butt. Fooled ya, you thought I was going to say week didn’t ya.
Well this might be short. Not much happens these days. But I’ll start with today. Regular start for Sunday get up at 6:30 am and try to be out the door by 7:15 for my 9:00 meeting. But as usual, I checked my emails from over the night to see what happened at the plant and see a text. It read “Hi kindly passby my hse in Rongai. Sick my joints r weak can’t walk 2 our student university hospital 4free trtment. No public trnspot gets there & av no cash 4a cab”. So this was from a guy in the branch that Debi and I have helped with schooling. So when we got to Rongai, we stopped at his house. He didn’t know if he had malaria or food poisoning. He said he had been sick for a couple of days. We started off to take him to the university hospital but along the way we ran into a traffic jam. So he directed us in another direction. Along the way we had to take many alternate routes because of something going on in town. We finally made it to the hospital where we dropped Benjamin off at the door. I gave him some cash so he could get a ride home and we headed back to church. NOT. The Nairobi marathon was being run today and the city was a mess. Imagine I15 and I80 being shut down in SLC and you can get an idea of what it was like. I tried back tracking to get out of the mess but some of the roads we had traveled were one way and that didn’t work. And the roads in Nairobi make no sense like the roads in SLC. None are straight and it’s a mystery where they go unless you live at the end of the road. So after fighting traffic for about an hour and having already missed Sacrament meeting, we finally recognized a street (at least Debi did), and we were found. Started making a B-line to the church and ran into more traffic. Turned around and tried making it a different way and ran into more traffic. So I finally said I’d had enough traffic for a Sunday and went to the shopping where we buy our groceries for the week. Traffic in Nairobi is a nightmare. I’ve said it before and it gets reinforced every week we are there – anything goes on the road here. It doesn’t matter which side of the road you drive on, which way you drive, whether it is on the sidewalk or shoulder. There is little road rage here, it’s amazing. If this happened in the US there would be mass murder on the highways.
Anyway, all said and done, it was a good day. We took care of a brother in need. Had we gone to church that’s what we would probably have been taught. So maybe we passed the test. On the way home got a text that read “Hi bruv I was diagnosed as food poison. Maybe I consumed some unsterile food. They gave me some medicines hoping I’ll get better. I appreciate ur hand. We’re family”.
Work is continuing to improve little by little. Found out during the week that we will probably have to make the improvements recommended out of profits and not a loan. The Board doesn’t want the plant to take on more debt. So all the improvements discussed may take a little longer than planned to put in place. On the personnel front, I continue to get hard working people into the right jobs; which is very good. There are a number of slackers that just got new bosses. Some of the most worthless people thought they should be the boss just because they had better educations or thought they were smarter. They had a rude awaking this week. One guy put in more hours this week than he ever has. He was the type of guy that came in at 8:00 to 9:00, left for breaks and lunch and was never at the plant when there were problems. This week there was a serious problem and his new boss was there from the start to the finish. So the marginal employee was there to show he added value to the repair process. Anyway, the plant will do better with people who care and work hard.
One other item of note, a young man we have climbed with came in and told me he and his family had no food and he wanted some money. I gave him some and then the next day his friend came in and told me he had no money and needed money. Word spreads fast, I don’t know who to trust. I could give away every dime I make here to people that ask for money. I’ve decided to take a different approach. They make bead work here. So I’m having them make bracelets that have UTAH, WYO, BOISE STATE, IDAHO, and (clear my throat), BYU. I’ll send some of them home with Shena and Debi. I think they would sell at tail gate parties, etc. So give some thought on how to distribute them. They are nice bracelets and could be sold cheap.
Remember to vote this week.
Love you all
Dad/paul
Well another month shot in the butt. Fooled ya, you thought I was going to say week didn’t ya.
Well this might be short. Not much happens these days. But I’ll start with today. Regular start for Sunday get up at 6:30 am and try to be out the door by 7:15 for my 9:00 meeting. But as usual, I checked my emails from over the night to see what happened at the plant and see a text. It read “Hi kindly passby my hse in Rongai. Sick my joints r weak can’t walk 2 our student university hospital 4free trtment. No public trnspot gets there & av no cash 4a cab”. So this was from a guy in the branch that Debi and I have helped with schooling. So when we got to Rongai, we stopped at his house. He didn’t know if he had malaria or food poisoning. He said he had been sick for a couple of days. We started off to take him to the university hospital but along the way we ran into a traffic jam. So he directed us in another direction. Along the way we had to take many alternate routes because of something going on in town. We finally made it to the hospital where we dropped Benjamin off at the door. I gave him some cash so he could get a ride home and we headed back to church. NOT. The Nairobi marathon was being run today and the city was a mess. Imagine I15 and I80 being shut down in SLC and you can get an idea of what it was like. I tried back tracking to get out of the mess but some of the roads we had traveled were one way and that didn’t work. And the roads in Nairobi make no sense like the roads in SLC. None are straight and it’s a mystery where they go unless you live at the end of the road. So after fighting traffic for about an hour and having already missed Sacrament meeting, we finally recognized a street (at least Debi did), and we were found. Started making a B-line to the church and ran into more traffic. Turned around and tried making it a different way and ran into more traffic. So I finally said I’d had enough traffic for a Sunday and went to the shopping where we buy our groceries for the week. Traffic in Nairobi is a nightmare. I’ve said it before and it gets reinforced every week we are there – anything goes on the road here. It doesn’t matter which side of the road you drive on, which way you drive, whether it is on the sidewalk or shoulder. There is little road rage here, it’s amazing. If this happened in the US there would be mass murder on the highways.
Anyway, all said and done, it was a good day. We took care of a brother in need. Had we gone to church that’s what we would probably have been taught. So maybe we passed the test. On the way home got a text that read “Hi bruv I was diagnosed as food poison. Maybe I consumed some unsterile food. They gave me some medicines hoping I’ll get better. I appreciate ur hand. We’re family”.
Work is continuing to improve little by little. Found out during the week that we will probably have to make the improvements recommended out of profits and not a loan. The Board doesn’t want the plant to take on more debt. So all the improvements discussed may take a little longer than planned to put in place. On the personnel front, I continue to get hard working people into the right jobs; which is very good. There are a number of slackers that just got new bosses. Some of the most worthless people thought they should be the boss just because they had better educations or thought they were smarter. They had a rude awaking this week. One guy put in more hours this week than he ever has. He was the type of guy that came in at 8:00 to 9:00, left for breaks and lunch and was never at the plant when there were problems. This week there was a serious problem and his new boss was there from the start to the finish. So the marginal employee was there to show he added value to the repair process. Anyway, the plant will do better with people who care and work hard.
One other item of note, a young man we have climbed with came in and told me he and his family had no food and he wanted some money. I gave him some and then the next day his friend came in and told me he had no money and needed money. Word spreads fast, I don’t know who to trust. I could give away every dime I make here to people that ask for money. I’ve decided to take a different approach. They make bead work here. So I’m having them make bracelets that have UTAH, WYO, BOISE STATE, IDAHO, and (clear my throat), BYU. I’ll send some of them home with Shena and Debi. I think they would sell at tail gate parties, etc. So give some thought on how to distribute them. They are nice bracelets and could be sold cheap.
Remember to vote this week.
Love you all
Dad/paul
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Sun 10/24/2010 9:49 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Another week gone; they go so fast.
The most exciting thing that happened this week happened today on the way to church. We were about five minutes from church and the truck broke down at a busy intersection. There we were three mzungus (white people) (Debi, me, and another guy I have over here working) and one driver from Kenya. Good thing we had a driver with us. The truck (a Toyota 7 passenger vehicle), overheated and stalled. We pushed it off to the side of the road and then walked to a gas station and got some water. We drew quite a crowd. All kinds of guys were trying to help us. By the time we were done I’d given out 700 ($10) shillings for all the help. One guy jumped down into the ditch and filled our bucket to put in the engine about 4 times. We got a bucket at the service station and just filled it out of the ditch by where we stalled. We finally got going and arrived at church just in time for sacrament meeting. So much for my meeting that started one hour earlier.
One other item of note; Debi may be the new Branch food specialist. The Relief Society President wanted to talk to her before we left today to help plan for a Branch open house in November. After last week’s primary “feed” everyone will be looking for suggestions from Debi. The brownies were a big hit and everyone lived what she planned and prepared. She suggested cheese and crackers as one of the treats. No one here has ever heard of cheese and crackers. Anyone have any other suggestions for easy snacks for an open house?
Work continues to get a little bit better (pole, pole). That is Swahili for little by little. Both vowels are pronounced with the long sound, and said fast. I’ll teach you all some Swahili in future letters. I sill don’t have English down yet so I’m not sure I should venture out into another language. One of the problems here is that each tribe has their own language so even in Magadi many people speak Maasai, Swahili and English. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out which language they are speaking. Whenever I try to speak one of their languages they give me a big smile, they like it when foreigners try and learn their language. They get a kick out of trying to teach me because I can’t hear so good and most of the time they wind up writing the word down so I can figure out what they are trying to say.
Ok family, (our kids, you know who you are). We have our plans for Christmas. Debi returns to the US on December 5th (SLC). I return to SLC on December 18th. We will be in St George over Christmas. The days between my return and Christmas aren’t firmed up yet. We will leave St George after Christmas and head to Krista’s. Then we will fly from LA to Seattle on December 30th to visit Mya and her family. We will leave Seattle on January 3rd headed back to Kenya. Margaret will be returning with us. That will be a good time. We will try to make sure she has a memorable trip. Debi and Margaret will return to the US at the end of February just before Krista is due (oh, does everyone know Krista is due in March, my bad). I will return the end of April for the baby blessing and then to go to Cody’s graduation on May 7th. That’s as far out as we have planned. But I guess that is quite a ways.
Should be a busy week; many of the projects we are working on to improve profitability are moving ahead. Now all that needs to happen is to get the purchasing people to order the equipment and the finance people to make arrangements for the financing. If I say it fast it sounds easy. I just have to get all the other groups off their butts and moving. Sometimes that’s hard.
This letter is late because the internet is down. In fact the phone system is out. That’s what happens when you are in the middle of Africa.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Another week gone; they go so fast.
The most exciting thing that happened this week happened today on the way to church. We were about five minutes from church and the truck broke down at a busy intersection. There we were three mzungus (white people) (Debi, me, and another guy I have over here working) and one driver from Kenya. Good thing we had a driver with us. The truck (a Toyota 7 passenger vehicle), overheated and stalled. We pushed it off to the side of the road and then walked to a gas station and got some water. We drew quite a crowd. All kinds of guys were trying to help us. By the time we were done I’d given out 700 ($10) shillings for all the help. One guy jumped down into the ditch and filled our bucket to put in the engine about 4 times. We got a bucket at the service station and just filled it out of the ditch by where we stalled. We finally got going and arrived at church just in time for sacrament meeting. So much for my meeting that started one hour earlier.
One other item of note; Debi may be the new Branch food specialist. The Relief Society President wanted to talk to her before we left today to help plan for a Branch open house in November. After last week’s primary “feed” everyone will be looking for suggestions from Debi. The brownies were a big hit and everyone lived what she planned and prepared. She suggested cheese and crackers as one of the treats. No one here has ever heard of cheese and crackers. Anyone have any other suggestions for easy snacks for an open house?
Work continues to get a little bit better (pole, pole). That is Swahili for little by little. Both vowels are pronounced with the long sound, and said fast. I’ll teach you all some Swahili in future letters. I sill don’t have English down yet so I’m not sure I should venture out into another language. One of the problems here is that each tribe has their own language so even in Magadi many people speak Maasai, Swahili and English. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out which language they are speaking. Whenever I try to speak one of their languages they give me a big smile, they like it when foreigners try and learn their language. They get a kick out of trying to teach me because I can’t hear so good and most of the time they wind up writing the word down so I can figure out what they are trying to say.
Ok family, (our kids, you know who you are). We have our plans for Christmas. Debi returns to the US on December 5th (SLC). I return to SLC on December 18th. We will be in St George over Christmas. The days between my return and Christmas aren’t firmed up yet. We will leave St George after Christmas and head to Krista’s. Then we will fly from LA to Seattle on December 30th to visit Mya and her family. We will leave Seattle on January 3rd headed back to Kenya. Margaret will be returning with us. That will be a good time. We will try to make sure she has a memorable trip. Debi and Margaret will return to the US at the end of February just before Krista is due (oh, does everyone know Krista is due in March, my bad). I will return the end of April for the baby blessing and then to go to Cody’s graduation on May 7th. That’s as far out as we have planned. But I guess that is quite a ways.
Should be a busy week; many of the projects we are working on to improve profitability are moving ahead. Now all that needs to happen is to get the purchasing people to order the equipment and the finance people to make arrangements for the financing. If I say it fast it sounds easy. I just have to get all the other groups off their butts and moving. Sometimes that’s hard.
This letter is late because the internet is down. In fact the phone system is out. That’s what happens when you are in the middle of Africa.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sun 10/17/2010 12:54 PM
Hello Family and Friends
So this week started out pretty good (and it didn’t end too badly either). Finance put out a report stating that Magadi Soda made money in September. We made enough money to cover for all the losses from earlier in the year. So maybe things are turning around. Last month was a pretty good production month.
I had requested a number of different tools be ordered to help maintenance people do their jobs better. Found out the tools had finally been ordered and will be delivered this week. Also ordered a camera that takes pictures of equipment and shows color based on temperature. It is used extensively at Green River to do electrical and mechanical inspections. You take a picture of a pump, motor, or electrical switch gear and trouble spots show up a different color than the other “normal” parts. This allows you to fix equipment before it fails. There is so much equipment here that runs to failure it will be good to have some troubleshooting equipment.
Also had the fellow I wanted to be the Maintenance Manager agree to take the job; that will make my life much easier. It is going to be a tough transition for those who are not accustom to working. There are two Electrical Managers here. One has one direct report and the other has two men reporting to him. Neither one do much other than complain. Now they will have a lot to complain about because they are now front line foremen and will be responsible for maintaining a plant. It will be an interesting few months as we work toward making everyone here contributing citizens. Too often, the feeling is that if you show up that about all that is expected.
Today was the primary presentation. Kids are the same all over the world. The little ones that could just barely see over the stand looked so cute. I was on the front row so I was winking at two little boys. There was a little girl that must have been eight or nine that led the music and did a great job. They all had their parts memorized. There were a few kids in the program whose parents are not members yet. And like most primary presentation Sunday’s the church was full. Today was the first time the overflow had to be opened. So its primary presentation, Easter and Christmas that packs the chapel. Anyway the branch president talked again about splitting the branch, guess it will happen pretty soon. Especially if the attendance continues like it has past couple of months. I forgot to mention that Debi was the one that put most of the program together. The kids love her, especially today. After the program the kids got to have hot dogs, chips and brownies. Oh to be a kid again in Langata branch. I didn’t get anything. The ladies were asking for the recipe for the brownies. Betty Crocker Hershey’s, they are great and the kids loved them
Oh, and one last note. I’m ready to drive professionally in Nairobi. Yesterday, I was following a slow truck and wasn’t able to pass him on the right (which is the legal side to pass on in Kenya)so I passed him on the left shoulder. Not sure I’ll do that very often but the traffic here is horrible. Most vehicles fall into two categories; just off the showroom floor or ready for the scrap yard. And most fall into the latter category. Trucks are so under-powered, they barely make it up gentle hills. Oh well, now you have one more thing to appreciate in the USA, good traffic.
Love you all.
Paul/dad
So this week started out pretty good (and it didn’t end too badly either). Finance put out a report stating that Magadi Soda made money in September. We made enough money to cover for all the losses from earlier in the year. So maybe things are turning around. Last month was a pretty good production month.
I had requested a number of different tools be ordered to help maintenance people do their jobs better. Found out the tools had finally been ordered and will be delivered this week. Also ordered a camera that takes pictures of equipment and shows color based on temperature. It is used extensively at Green River to do electrical and mechanical inspections. You take a picture of a pump, motor, or electrical switch gear and trouble spots show up a different color than the other “normal” parts. This allows you to fix equipment before it fails. There is so much equipment here that runs to failure it will be good to have some troubleshooting equipment.
Also had the fellow I wanted to be the Maintenance Manager agree to take the job; that will make my life much easier. It is going to be a tough transition for those who are not accustom to working. There are two Electrical Managers here. One has one direct report and the other has two men reporting to him. Neither one do much other than complain. Now they will have a lot to complain about because they are now front line foremen and will be responsible for maintaining a plant. It will be an interesting few months as we work toward making everyone here contributing citizens. Too often, the feeling is that if you show up that about all that is expected.
Today was the primary presentation. Kids are the same all over the world. The little ones that could just barely see over the stand looked so cute. I was on the front row so I was winking at two little boys. There was a little girl that must have been eight or nine that led the music and did a great job. They all had their parts memorized. There were a few kids in the program whose parents are not members yet. And like most primary presentation Sunday’s the church was full. Today was the first time the overflow had to be opened. So its primary presentation, Easter and Christmas that packs the chapel. Anyway the branch president talked again about splitting the branch, guess it will happen pretty soon. Especially if the attendance continues like it has past couple of months. I forgot to mention that Debi was the one that put most of the program together. The kids love her, especially today. After the program the kids got to have hot dogs, chips and brownies. Oh to be a kid again in Langata branch. I didn’t get anything. The ladies were asking for the recipe for the brownies. Betty Crocker Hershey’s, they are great and the kids loved them
Oh, and one last note. I’m ready to drive professionally in Nairobi. Yesterday, I was following a slow truck and wasn’t able to pass him on the right (which is the legal side to pass on in Kenya)so I passed him on the left shoulder. Not sure I’ll do that very often but the traffic here is horrible. Most vehicles fall into two categories; just off the showroom floor or ready for the scrap yard. And most fall into the latter category. Trucks are so under-powered, they barely make it up gentle hills. Oh well, now you have one more thing to appreciate in the USA, good traffic.
Love you all.
Paul/dad
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sun 10/10/2010 10:20 PM
Hello Family and Friends: (Hey, check out the date 10-10-10.)
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we went Branch Presidents house for lunch on a Saturday. While there, I asked him to explain the philosophy about the Kenyan’s asking for money from everyone they see (didn’t quite phrase it like that but that the intent of the question). He explained that Kenyans have the other person’s interest at heart and they love to make other people happy. If someone needs money or anything else for that matter, they love to provide it. It gives them a sense of satisfaction to help others. He gave his family as an example. He had eight siblings; they all have college educations and are all very successful. His father spent all his money on his kids for education etc so now he has nothing to live on. His kids now all send money each month to support their father. They are in the process of building him a house because he never had one while he was raising his kids. On a side note, the Branch President’s mother died when he was young and his father never remarried which is unusual. Most of the time a man here will remarry. So anyway, I’ve decided to apply those principals in my life, I’m going to give all my money away and depend on my kids in my declining years.
I am always amazed at what can make the folks here happy. After Debi got here, she wanted to get some things to make the house look a little more like home. So we got pillows for the bed, bath mats for the bathrooms, toilet brushes with holders and an ironing board cover. The ironing board cover made Christa’s (our house keeper/cook) day. Talk about the simple things in life that can make you happy. I remember giving Debi a camping saw for her birthday and I still hear about it 36 years later. I should have given her an ironing board cover. Christa likes having nice furnishings even if it isn’t in her house. She gets to take care of the house like it is hers.
Speaking of simple things that make people happy; there are many times I see people walking around with one tool. A pipe wrench, a hammer, a shovel, a hack saw, a wheel borrow, you pick the tool people will carry it. It’s like a rite of passage. They have a tool and now they are someone because they have a means of supporting themselves. The men line up when they are hired to get uniforms, steel toed boots and hardhats. They wear them with pride because they now have a job that provides income. The wage here is 80.5 Kenya shillings per hour (which equals $1.00/hour). Everything is provided however (housing and utilities), so not much is need other than food, which is cheap (goat and maze).
We are so blessed and most of the time we don’t appreciate what we have. I’ve said it before; you don’t have to be here for long to understand just how well we have it in the good old USofA. We can complain all we want but it would be a real shock to our systems to give it up what we take for granted. Running water and electricity would be two of the first things to go by coming to the bush. When I walk through the community here and compare it to what I have in the US it makes me very grateful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.
So just got back from church. I’d say the meeting was exciting but I was the concluding speaker and I spoke on home teaching so I’ll let the Langata branch be the judge of if it was a good meeting. But anyway, before the meeting started I asked the Brach President if we could use priesthood meeting next week to do some home teaching. We will call those people that are not in church and tell them we miss them and would like them to come next week. Home teaching here is so difficult. Few people have cars and those that do seldom drive them; too risky with all the crazy drivers. So I ask if we could count home teaching if we called and talked to the members. It will get things moving and hopefully let people know they are missed. The chapel was full today and extra chairs had to be brought in so activity is certainly increasing and will provide more strength for the branch to be divided.
Oh, and by the way, we saw a leopard along the road on the way home from church!!!! Debi almost got a picture of it (she will post what she got on FB). It shows a big cat in some bushes. It was kind of exciting to see one in the wild. After Debi missed the shot, I told her I would wait in the car if she wanted to run after it to get a close up. When we got back to Magadi, we talked to some local folks and they said that leopards are bad animals. The Maasai don’t like them because they kill their animals. So that was our excitement for the week.
Love you all, send us a note when anything exciting happens back in the US.
Paul/dad
I mentioned a few weeks ago that we went Branch Presidents house for lunch on a Saturday. While there, I asked him to explain the philosophy about the Kenyan’s asking for money from everyone they see (didn’t quite phrase it like that but that the intent of the question). He explained that Kenyans have the other person’s interest at heart and they love to make other people happy. If someone needs money or anything else for that matter, they love to provide it. It gives them a sense of satisfaction to help others. He gave his family as an example. He had eight siblings; they all have college educations and are all very successful. His father spent all his money on his kids for education etc so now he has nothing to live on. His kids now all send money each month to support their father. They are in the process of building him a house because he never had one while he was raising his kids. On a side note, the Branch President’s mother died when he was young and his father never remarried which is unusual. Most of the time a man here will remarry. So anyway, I’ve decided to apply those principals in my life, I’m going to give all my money away and depend on my kids in my declining years.
I am always amazed at what can make the folks here happy. After Debi got here, she wanted to get some things to make the house look a little more like home. So we got pillows for the bed, bath mats for the bathrooms, toilet brushes with holders and an ironing board cover. The ironing board cover made Christa’s (our house keeper/cook) day. Talk about the simple things in life that can make you happy. I remember giving Debi a camping saw for her birthday and I still hear about it 36 years later. I should have given her an ironing board cover. Christa likes having nice furnishings even if it isn’t in her house. She gets to take care of the house like it is hers.
Speaking of simple things that make people happy; there are many times I see people walking around with one tool. A pipe wrench, a hammer, a shovel, a hack saw, a wheel borrow, you pick the tool people will carry it. It’s like a rite of passage. They have a tool and now they are someone because they have a means of supporting themselves. The men line up when they are hired to get uniforms, steel toed boots and hardhats. They wear them with pride because they now have a job that provides income. The wage here is 80.5 Kenya shillings per hour (which equals $1.00/hour). Everything is provided however (housing and utilities), so not much is need other than food, which is cheap (goat and maze).
We are so blessed and most of the time we don’t appreciate what we have. I’ve said it before; you don’t have to be here for long to understand just how well we have it in the good old USofA. We can complain all we want but it would be a real shock to our systems to give it up what we take for granted. Running water and electricity would be two of the first things to go by coming to the bush. When I walk through the community here and compare it to what I have in the US it makes me very grateful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.
So just got back from church. I’d say the meeting was exciting but I was the concluding speaker and I spoke on home teaching so I’ll let the Langata branch be the judge of if it was a good meeting. But anyway, before the meeting started I asked the Brach President if we could use priesthood meeting next week to do some home teaching. We will call those people that are not in church and tell them we miss them and would like them to come next week. Home teaching here is so difficult. Few people have cars and those that do seldom drive them; too risky with all the crazy drivers. So I ask if we could count home teaching if we called and talked to the members. It will get things moving and hopefully let people know they are missed. The chapel was full today and extra chairs had to be brought in so activity is certainly increasing and will provide more strength for the branch to be divided.
Oh, and by the way, we saw a leopard along the road on the way home from church!!!! Debi almost got a picture of it (she will post what she got on FB). It shows a big cat in some bushes. It was kind of exciting to see one in the wild. After Debi missed the shot, I told her I would wait in the car if she wanted to run after it to get a close up. When we got back to Magadi, we talked to some local folks and they said that leopards are bad animals. The Maasai don’t like them because they kill their animals. So that was our excitement for the week.
Love you all, send us a note when anything exciting happens back in the US.
Paul/dad
Monday, October 4, 2010
Hello Family:
This is late because Sunday’s are very busy these days. Went to church, then to lunch and then to a tourist trap. At the tourist trap they have huts from all the tribes in Kenya. There are 42 different tribes so there is a wide variety of hut construction. We made sure we visited the huts from Obama's fathers' tribe. Margaret, we will have to go there while you are here. They also have a show where they present tribal dances from the country.
In church, there were three testimonies that were very interesting. The first was from a woman, who with her husband had just returned from the US. While there, they had an adult son sealed to then and the fellow from here baptized his grandson. It doesn’t come across that well in a letter but to hear her talk about it was quite inspiring. The fellow that was involved is the first counselor in the branch presidency and works in the public affairs department of the Kenyan government. They have been members for a while but apparently their son did not join the church at the same time they did. The next lady talked about translating the conference talks from English into Swahili. What an experience. She works in the Education department for the Kenyan government. She said it is difficult doing the work but very rewarding. She had a jump on what was going to be said in conference. The other fellow spoke about how his parents had disowned him when he joined the church. His parents are Muslim. His parents own/operate a fuel station and his dad saw missionaries come into the stations so he asked them for copies of the scriptures. After looking at all the scriptures, he called his son and said your church does not worship the devil so you should do what you feel is right.
The church is so new in Kenya, this is what it must have been like 150 years ago when our families were joining the church and moving away from their homelands. Anyway, an interesting day. We did not have conference because our Sunday started before conference did. We will watch conference in a few weeks when the CD’s arrive. We get to watch it without the advertisements.
Work continues to be crazy. A lot going on. The Board told us to move forward with the planned changes in the operations. So we are out looking for some money (anyone want to loan us some, 10 million should cover it)? Still making changes in the organization, interviewed half a dozen candidates for Maintenance Manager and will interview two more tomorrow. My favorite is a fellow that is Masai (farm/ranch boy), went to public school, worked his way through school, and isn’t afraid of work. I may be biased; there were other guys that had better degrees but wouldn’t know what hard work looked like. Of the two that had the best education both are lazy, one is not motivated at all and the other fellow can’t manage anything. So the decision may be easy for me. Just hope the others on the interview committee have the same opinion as me.
We went up to the Masai village on the hill again on Saturday to take the pictures we took last week. They were glad to see us (and the pictures). The children grabbed the pictures whether they were in them or not. They just liked seeing pictures of their village and friends. The woman that I helped carry the log up the hill did a dance to welcome us when she saw us. I’ve said it before, but 99.9% of us citizens live in better conditions than the people in these villages. But the kids run around and are happy and playful. Just an example of money not buying happiness. We took some cookies to give to the kids so we were a hit for that also.
I may have spoken too soon on how well behaved the children are here. Debi said the kids have no control in Primary. They run in and out of class and no one cares. She is trying to get the Primary Presentation ready and it is a challenge. So, girls, I may owe you an apology. You may not be the most irreverent kids in the world (but you might be).
Not much else to say other than have a good week.
Love
Paul/dad
This is late because Sunday’s are very busy these days. Went to church, then to lunch and then to a tourist trap. At the tourist trap they have huts from all the tribes in Kenya. There are 42 different tribes so there is a wide variety of hut construction. We made sure we visited the huts from Obama's fathers' tribe. Margaret, we will have to go there while you are here. They also have a show where they present tribal dances from the country.
In church, there were three testimonies that were very interesting. The first was from a woman, who with her husband had just returned from the US. While there, they had an adult son sealed to then and the fellow from here baptized his grandson. It doesn’t come across that well in a letter but to hear her talk about it was quite inspiring. The fellow that was involved is the first counselor in the branch presidency and works in the public affairs department of the Kenyan government. They have been members for a while but apparently their son did not join the church at the same time they did. The next lady talked about translating the conference talks from English into Swahili. What an experience. She works in the Education department for the Kenyan government. She said it is difficult doing the work but very rewarding. She had a jump on what was going to be said in conference. The other fellow spoke about how his parents had disowned him when he joined the church. His parents are Muslim. His parents own/operate a fuel station and his dad saw missionaries come into the stations so he asked them for copies of the scriptures. After looking at all the scriptures, he called his son and said your church does not worship the devil so you should do what you feel is right.
The church is so new in Kenya, this is what it must have been like 150 years ago when our families were joining the church and moving away from their homelands. Anyway, an interesting day. We did not have conference because our Sunday started before conference did. We will watch conference in a few weeks when the CD’s arrive. We get to watch it without the advertisements.
Work continues to be crazy. A lot going on. The Board told us to move forward with the planned changes in the operations. So we are out looking for some money (anyone want to loan us some, 10 million should cover it)? Still making changes in the organization, interviewed half a dozen candidates for Maintenance Manager and will interview two more tomorrow. My favorite is a fellow that is Masai (farm/ranch boy), went to public school, worked his way through school, and isn’t afraid of work. I may be biased; there were other guys that had better degrees but wouldn’t know what hard work looked like. Of the two that had the best education both are lazy, one is not motivated at all and the other fellow can’t manage anything. So the decision may be easy for me. Just hope the others on the interview committee have the same opinion as me.
We went up to the Masai village on the hill again on Saturday to take the pictures we took last week. They were glad to see us (and the pictures). The children grabbed the pictures whether they were in them or not. They just liked seeing pictures of their village and friends. The woman that I helped carry the log up the hill did a dance to welcome us when she saw us. I’ve said it before, but 99.9% of us citizens live in better conditions than the people in these villages. But the kids run around and are happy and playful. Just an example of money not buying happiness. We took some cookies to give to the kids so we were a hit for that also.
I may have spoken too soon on how well behaved the children are here. Debi said the kids have no control in Primary. They run in and out of class and no one cares. She is trying to get the Primary Presentation ready and it is a challenge. So, girls, I may owe you an apology. You may not be the most irreverent kids in the world (but you might be).
Not much else to say other than have a good week.
Love
Paul/dad
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sun 9/26/2010 2:03 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
A very busy week at work. Sometimes 12 hour days just aren’t long enough. On Tuesday a meeting was scheduled from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm to go over the SAP project. That’s not too long but at 8:00 it was still going when dinner is usually served. The decision was made not to break for dinner but just finish the meeting and get it over with. So the meeting that was scheduled to be over at 5:00 pm, ended at 11:15 pm. Give me a break. If it’s going to be an all nighter at least let me know so I can plan, I wouldn’t mind it so bad. But going over 6 hours is ridiculous.
There were a number of meetings to review the capital requests that will be presented to the board of directors. The first meeting will be held this week with the final one, the official one, next week. It should go well. When the plant was built, it cost at least 100 million dollars; then there was a “remediation project” where additional money was spent. The remediation project was completed in 2009. That project was in the 10 million dollar range. The remediation project improved many of the design problems with the plant but quality and productivity still don’t meet design expectations. The amount of money being requested this time in the 5 million dollar range. So after all the other money that’s been spent, if the plant can be turned around and made profitable with an additional 5 million, the board will approve. Kind of like a last ditch effort, production costs exceed selling price, so the situation has to change or the plant will be shut down.
I still don’t know if the employees understand how tenuous the situation is. They ask for a 25% wage increase and received a 9% increase and continue to request more employees be added to census. It’s almost like a nanny state where they expect the company to provide everything regardless of the business situation. Speaking of adding employees, there will be census reduction in the manufacturing area of about 80 employees over the next few months. Even after that reduction, there will be more over the next year or so.
The drive to Nairobi is always exciting. The drivers there are nuts. They drive on the shoulders, median, sidewalks and it doesn’t matter which direction they travel. They go either way in either lane. There are no traffic police so it’s anything goes. Speed bumps are all that slow people down. I get a sick sense of satisfaction when I see a crazy van in the ditch, serves them right. Today there was one on its side in a ditch and another ran into a rock wall. I just hope the passengers are ok.
Today in church, there was a young woman that spoke that had only been a member for about three months. Most of the people have a good understanding of the bible so when they join it isn’t too difficult for them to add the Book of Mormon to their scriptural data base. I’m amazed at the understanding of some of the members here. When one young man speaks, I listen intently. I have difficulty putting into words many concepts and thoughts, but he is a master at explaining gospel principals. It is obvious he has spent a great deal of time searching the scriptures. He spoke in church today so it was an interesting meeting.
Yesterday for excitement we climbed up a hill just outside the plant area to where there are a number of native huts. We were climbing to prepare for Kilimanjaro. There was a couple from India that went with us. They have a 5 year old son and another lady was with us from India (Suman). Suman works for the consulting firm working on developing the plan to be presented to the board. When we arrived at the village the whole community came out to see who was visiting. Little children came out to wee the strange looking people and to shake our hands or to look at us and run crying to their mothers. I couldn’t figure out what toddlers in Africa did for diapers in the back country. I figured it out yesterday – they don’t wear them. Most toddlers wear a shirt and that’s it. Maybe they get potty trained quicker than the kids in the US. Krista, Cherry, you might want to try that; the no diaper approach.
Debi took a lot of pictures so if you want to see them check out her Facebook page. I can’t put all of them in a letter but she is good at putting our Africa pictures on her FB page. So those of you who aren’t on FB now is the time to get on. Most of your kids are, maybe they won’t laugh at you if you don’t tell them you are signing up. When we were taking the pictures many of them wanted to have copies so we will climb back up there next week and give them the copies. It only takes about 1 minute to gain an appreciation for the blessings of growing up in the US. These people don’t have electricity or running water. Just think of all the things you would throw out of the house if you didn’t have electricity or running water
.
So much rambling, count your blessings and be grateful for what you have. I would say 99% of those in the US that claim they live in poverty have it better than those people we visited yesterday. But guess what, they’re happy. It isn’t what you have that brings happiness.
Love you all
Paul/dad
A very busy week at work. Sometimes 12 hour days just aren’t long enough. On Tuesday a meeting was scheduled from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm to go over the SAP project. That’s not too long but at 8:00 it was still going when dinner is usually served. The decision was made not to break for dinner but just finish the meeting and get it over with. So the meeting that was scheduled to be over at 5:00 pm, ended at 11:15 pm. Give me a break. If it’s going to be an all nighter at least let me know so I can plan, I wouldn’t mind it so bad. But going over 6 hours is ridiculous.
There were a number of meetings to review the capital requests that will be presented to the board of directors. The first meeting will be held this week with the final one, the official one, next week. It should go well. When the plant was built, it cost at least 100 million dollars; then there was a “remediation project” where additional money was spent. The remediation project was completed in 2009. That project was in the 10 million dollar range. The remediation project improved many of the design problems with the plant but quality and productivity still don’t meet design expectations. The amount of money being requested this time in the 5 million dollar range. So after all the other money that’s been spent, if the plant can be turned around and made profitable with an additional 5 million, the board will approve. Kind of like a last ditch effort, production costs exceed selling price, so the situation has to change or the plant will be shut down.
I still don’t know if the employees understand how tenuous the situation is. They ask for a 25% wage increase and received a 9% increase and continue to request more employees be added to census. It’s almost like a nanny state where they expect the company to provide everything regardless of the business situation. Speaking of adding employees, there will be census reduction in the manufacturing area of about 80 employees over the next few months. Even after that reduction, there will be more over the next year or so.
The drive to Nairobi is always exciting. The drivers there are nuts. They drive on the shoulders, median, sidewalks and it doesn’t matter which direction they travel. They go either way in either lane. There are no traffic police so it’s anything goes. Speed bumps are all that slow people down. I get a sick sense of satisfaction when I see a crazy van in the ditch, serves them right. Today there was one on its side in a ditch and another ran into a rock wall. I just hope the passengers are ok.
Today in church, there was a young woman that spoke that had only been a member for about three months. Most of the people have a good understanding of the bible so when they join it isn’t too difficult for them to add the Book of Mormon to their scriptural data base. I’m amazed at the understanding of some of the members here. When one young man speaks, I listen intently. I have difficulty putting into words many concepts and thoughts, but he is a master at explaining gospel principals. It is obvious he has spent a great deal of time searching the scriptures. He spoke in church today so it was an interesting meeting.
Yesterday for excitement we climbed up a hill just outside the plant area to where there are a number of native huts. We were climbing to prepare for Kilimanjaro. There was a couple from India that went with us. They have a 5 year old son and another lady was with us from India (Suman). Suman works for the consulting firm working on developing the plan to be presented to the board. When we arrived at the village the whole community came out to see who was visiting. Little children came out to wee the strange looking people and to shake our hands or to look at us and run crying to their mothers. I couldn’t figure out what toddlers in Africa did for diapers in the back country. I figured it out yesterday – they don’t wear them. Most toddlers wear a shirt and that’s it. Maybe they get potty trained quicker than the kids in the US. Krista, Cherry, you might want to try that; the no diaper approach.
Debi took a lot of pictures so if you want to see them check out her Facebook page. I can’t put all of them in a letter but she is good at putting our Africa pictures on her FB page. So those of you who aren’t on FB now is the time to get on. Most of your kids are, maybe they won’t laugh at you if you don’t tell them you are signing up. When we were taking the pictures many of them wanted to have copies so we will climb back up there next week and give them the copies. It only takes about 1 minute to gain an appreciation for the blessings of growing up in the US. These people don’t have electricity or running water. Just think of all the things you would throw out of the house if you didn’t have electricity or running water
.
So much rambling, count your blessings and be grateful for what you have. I would say 99% of those in the US that claim they live in poverty have it better than those people we visited yesterday. But guess what, they’re happy. It isn’t what you have that brings happiness.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sun 9/19/2010 2:00 PM
Dear Family and Friends:
Well another week gone. They go by pretty fast, starts with Monday, then Tuesday, you know the order by the time Friday rolls around we are ready for another weekend. On Saturday we went to Nairobi and had dinner with the branch president and his wife. It was really good to have food different than what we have been eating here for the past month. Mom, I know what you mean now about getting tired of the same stuff day after day. There is a variety, but it feels like there is little change.
While we were in Nairobi I bought a bike so I can ride it to work and Debi can have the car to do whatever she wants to do. Debi also bought a bathroom scale; bad move. Since she has been here we have been walking each evening, but I’ve been eating more regularly and not exercising as much. Plus to top it all off, sometimes Debi puts more on her plate that I can eat. She tries the food put out for the Indian guests to see what it tastes like, and if she doesn’t like it guess where it ends up. That’s right, on my plate. So, a few things are going to have to change. Will let you know how that goes.
While in Nairobi we also met with the lady who is making arrangements for our climb of Kilimanjaro. So things are coming together for that adventure. We will also try to fit in a safari to Masai Mara following the climb. Speaking about the climb, I saw a tee shirt that had a saying on it, I’ll paraphrase it: It said “I was thinking maybe I play too much, so I’ve decided to quit thinking”. I thought it had a deep meaning.
Because we had completed our shopping yesterday, we toured Nairobi National Park today after church. There were two people at the plant that wanted to do the tour so we joined up. We can add to the list of animals we’ve seen; lion, cape buffalo, rhino, crocodile. We had hoped to see a hippo but they were not where they were supposed to be. The animals are not caged so it is recommended you stay in your car. The lion ran by the car and was within 5 feet of us. Pretty fun adventure. The park is huge, don’t know exactly how big but we were driving for four hours and saw maybe half of the park. There is a sign where you enter that says “Nairobi National Park, Wolrds Largest Wildlife Park”. They had misspelled the word “World”.
The plant is making slow improvement but it still has a long way to go. The consultants will be back this week to help map out the time table and spending schedule for the planned projects. Once that is complete, it will be presented to the Board of Directors to get their buy in. It will be an interesting process. Fortunately the leader of the project is a woman (Suman) and Debi has become friends with her. They have been communicating on Face Book while Suman has been away. Debi may become an honorary member of the turn-around team. Suman got here masters in Michigan so was Americanized while there. Suman and her husband just moved to India and she hates it. So it will be interesting how long she stays in India. She is a very bright woman.
Looks like the paper work for the new branch was turned in. We should have a church closer to Magadi by the first of the year. Won’t miss driving to Nairobi every Sunday. The drivers are absolutely crazy. The roads are two land (one each way) and tonight coming home there were four cars across with pedestrians on both sides of the road. I don’t see how thousands of people don’t get killed each weekend.
After I’ve written each letter I think of things I should have said but can’t remember what I forgot from last week so I’ll say good bye.
Miss all of you. It was good talking to Jesse and wishing him happy birthday. Sorry you didn’t rate a call Robert, maybe next year. But at least I remembered to email; which is more that I do for most family members.
Love you
Paul/dad
Well another week gone. They go by pretty fast, starts with Monday, then Tuesday, you know the order by the time Friday rolls around we are ready for another weekend. On Saturday we went to Nairobi and had dinner with the branch president and his wife. It was really good to have food different than what we have been eating here for the past month. Mom, I know what you mean now about getting tired of the same stuff day after day. There is a variety, but it feels like there is little change.
While we were in Nairobi I bought a bike so I can ride it to work and Debi can have the car to do whatever she wants to do. Debi also bought a bathroom scale; bad move. Since she has been here we have been walking each evening, but I’ve been eating more regularly and not exercising as much. Plus to top it all off, sometimes Debi puts more on her plate that I can eat. She tries the food put out for the Indian guests to see what it tastes like, and if she doesn’t like it guess where it ends up. That’s right, on my plate. So, a few things are going to have to change. Will let you know how that goes.
While in Nairobi we also met with the lady who is making arrangements for our climb of Kilimanjaro. So things are coming together for that adventure. We will also try to fit in a safari to Masai Mara following the climb. Speaking about the climb, I saw a tee shirt that had a saying on it, I’ll paraphrase it: It said “I was thinking maybe I play too much, so I’ve decided to quit thinking”. I thought it had a deep meaning.
Because we had completed our shopping yesterday, we toured Nairobi National Park today after church. There were two people at the plant that wanted to do the tour so we joined up. We can add to the list of animals we’ve seen; lion, cape buffalo, rhino, crocodile. We had hoped to see a hippo but they were not where they were supposed to be. The animals are not caged so it is recommended you stay in your car. The lion ran by the car and was within 5 feet of us. Pretty fun adventure. The park is huge, don’t know exactly how big but we were driving for four hours and saw maybe half of the park. There is a sign where you enter that says “Nairobi National Park, Wolrds Largest Wildlife Park”. They had misspelled the word “World”.
The plant is making slow improvement but it still has a long way to go. The consultants will be back this week to help map out the time table and spending schedule for the planned projects. Once that is complete, it will be presented to the Board of Directors to get their buy in. It will be an interesting process. Fortunately the leader of the project is a woman (Suman) and Debi has become friends with her. They have been communicating on Face Book while Suman has been away. Debi may become an honorary member of the turn-around team. Suman got here masters in Michigan so was Americanized while there. Suman and her husband just moved to India and she hates it. So it will be interesting how long she stays in India. She is a very bright woman.
Looks like the paper work for the new branch was turned in. We should have a church closer to Magadi by the first of the year. Won’t miss driving to Nairobi every Sunday. The drivers are absolutely crazy. The roads are two land (one each way) and tonight coming home there were four cars across with pedestrians on both sides of the road. I don’t see how thousands of people don’t get killed each weekend.
After I’ve written each letter I think of things I should have said but can’t remember what I forgot from last week so I’ll say good bye.
Miss all of you. It was good talking to Jesse and wishing him happy birthday. Sorry you didn’t rate a call Robert, maybe next year. But at least I remembered to email; which is more that I do for most family members.
Love you
Paul/dad
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sun 9/12/2010 12:58 PM
“Greetings to you friends and piece”:
For those of you that remember your Three Dog Night music, that was an introduction to one of their songs. So I thought I’d say it. I’ll try singing it when we all get together.
An interesting week all around. Started with meetings with a fellow that is helping implement a program called Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). The program is patterned after the Malcolm Baldridge award. It is being brought in an attempt to make Tata a world class operation by making sure management is the best it can be. Over all it is a good program and will make the company better. The process was challenging however. The first meeting was suppose to last two hours and it lasted four. The fellow is from India (Harshdeep is his name) and was very hard to understand. After four hours I had a splitting headache. Harshdeep is a member of the Sikhism religion from India. They are the ones that wear the turbines and don’t shave. Do a Google on the religion, there are similarities with the LDS faith. Anyway after about 10 hours of listening to him this week I need a break.
After the TBEM to start off the week, we transitioned into the board meeting. It started out as an audit of the operations because the board audit committee meet first to find out all the things that are screwed up in all the systems; finance, purchasing, sales, HR, etc, etc. Anyway there are a number of things not being done correctly in manufacturing so when it got to be my turn one of the board members said “isn’t this what we are going to talk about this afternoon”. He was correct so my part was skipped. I could have given the guy a hug. The things that are screwed up are well know and we have been working on them for months. So it’s not like they had to send an auditor to tell us what is wrong. We told the auditor most of the things he found. My favorite one was when he pointed out that the belt scales that weigh in-process material don’t work. He hadn’t planned on saying that there have been numerous attempts to fix the scales but no one in Magadi has the ability to fix them. The technology is above the ability of the Kenyan electrical department to fix. Oh well, I got a pass on my part of the audit. The next day was the entire Board meeting, it also went well. The consultants that have been here had already convinced the Board to spend some mote money and let us fix some of the problems. So my presentation to the Board has few comments. Just get the plant fixed (simple if you day it fast). Looks like we will get some money to make modifications to the plant and try to get production up. It will be a real challenge and the Board will monitor the process very closely. So it better work. It will take about two years to get all the changes implemented so I may be here for the duration of the project. May need to do a little negotiating on the terms and conditions in my agreement along the way.
In addition to all the above, the chemicals that were ordered from the US finally arrived. It took a week to get them through Kenyan customs and to the plant. The folks that came from the US to help with the start-up almost wasted their week. They arrived last Sunday and the chemicals didn’t arrive until Friday and they left today. So they didn’t get to do much. Their being here showed support for the plant and went a long way to winning support for them as a supplier. So that was two more guys to deal with during the week. Then on Friday, the SAP boys came in and wanted me to approve their basic plan for their Enterprise Resource Planning outline (ERP). I was sure happy to see them. I hadn’t done anything all week and was wondering if I would be able to do anything.
And to top off the week, I got an invitation to visit the local Masque and celebrate the end of Ramadan. How many of you have done that? Debi and I went to the celebration. It was an interesting experience. The men are on one side of the Masque and the women on the other side. They bring in a platter of food; rice, potatoes, meat, vegetables, etc and everyone sits on the floor and eats off the same tray with their fingers. (Oops, Robert/Nancy, I was going to have you skip the part of eating with my fingers when you read this to mom. She isn’t too fond of people eating with their fingers. I remember getting in trouble for doing that. My bad). They were excited that we came. I guess they invited many people from Magadi Soda to help celebrate, but Debi and I were the only two that came. So chalk up another experience to the African Adventure.
Found out in church today that the request to form another branch was submitted. The church was packed today. I’ve never seen so many people there. Some say it depends on when pay day is. If people can afford the bus ride they come. Hence the efforts to move the branch closer to where they live. Hope it happens soon.
The children love Debi. She said that one of the little girls continued to run her fingers through her hair during primary. There are beautiful people here. The kids are so sweet and well behaved. Maybe we will get our wish for well behaved children; we missed out on with our own.
Well, I’m out of gas for writing more. Hope all is well with all of you. Sure enjoy hearing from you, so keep the emails coming.
Live ya
Paul/dad
PS: Margaret, we are getting close to having our schedule arranged for after the first of the year, will forward it to you when we are a little closer.
PSS: Uncle Ken and Aunt Sally, let me know if you get this. Hope I got your email correct.
For those of you that remember your Three Dog Night music, that was an introduction to one of their songs. So I thought I’d say it. I’ll try singing it when we all get together.
An interesting week all around. Started with meetings with a fellow that is helping implement a program called Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). The program is patterned after the Malcolm Baldridge award. It is being brought in an attempt to make Tata a world class operation by making sure management is the best it can be. Over all it is a good program and will make the company better. The process was challenging however. The first meeting was suppose to last two hours and it lasted four. The fellow is from India (Harshdeep is his name) and was very hard to understand. After four hours I had a splitting headache. Harshdeep is a member of the Sikhism religion from India. They are the ones that wear the turbines and don’t shave. Do a Google on the religion, there are similarities with the LDS faith. Anyway after about 10 hours of listening to him this week I need a break.
After the TBEM to start off the week, we transitioned into the board meeting. It started out as an audit of the operations because the board audit committee meet first to find out all the things that are screwed up in all the systems; finance, purchasing, sales, HR, etc, etc. Anyway there are a number of things not being done correctly in manufacturing so when it got to be my turn one of the board members said “isn’t this what we are going to talk about this afternoon”. He was correct so my part was skipped. I could have given the guy a hug. The things that are screwed up are well know and we have been working on them for months. So it’s not like they had to send an auditor to tell us what is wrong. We told the auditor most of the things he found. My favorite one was when he pointed out that the belt scales that weigh in-process material don’t work. He hadn’t planned on saying that there have been numerous attempts to fix the scales but no one in Magadi has the ability to fix them. The technology is above the ability of the Kenyan electrical department to fix. Oh well, I got a pass on my part of the audit. The next day was the entire Board meeting, it also went well. The consultants that have been here had already convinced the Board to spend some mote money and let us fix some of the problems. So my presentation to the Board has few comments. Just get the plant fixed (simple if you day it fast). Looks like we will get some money to make modifications to the plant and try to get production up. It will be a real challenge and the Board will monitor the process very closely. So it better work. It will take about two years to get all the changes implemented so I may be here for the duration of the project. May need to do a little negotiating on the terms and conditions in my agreement along the way.
In addition to all the above, the chemicals that were ordered from the US finally arrived. It took a week to get them through Kenyan customs and to the plant. The folks that came from the US to help with the start-up almost wasted their week. They arrived last Sunday and the chemicals didn’t arrive until Friday and they left today. So they didn’t get to do much. Their being here showed support for the plant and went a long way to winning support for them as a supplier. So that was two more guys to deal with during the week. Then on Friday, the SAP boys came in and wanted me to approve their basic plan for their Enterprise Resource Planning outline (ERP). I was sure happy to see them. I hadn’t done anything all week and was wondering if I would be able to do anything.
And to top off the week, I got an invitation to visit the local Masque and celebrate the end of Ramadan. How many of you have done that? Debi and I went to the celebration. It was an interesting experience. The men are on one side of the Masque and the women on the other side. They bring in a platter of food; rice, potatoes, meat, vegetables, etc and everyone sits on the floor and eats off the same tray with their fingers. (Oops, Robert/Nancy, I was going to have you skip the part of eating with my fingers when you read this to mom. She isn’t too fond of people eating with their fingers. I remember getting in trouble for doing that. My bad). They were excited that we came. I guess they invited many people from Magadi Soda to help celebrate, but Debi and I were the only two that came. So chalk up another experience to the African Adventure.
Found out in church today that the request to form another branch was submitted. The church was packed today. I’ve never seen so many people there. Some say it depends on when pay day is. If people can afford the bus ride they come. Hence the efforts to move the branch closer to where they live. Hope it happens soon.
The children love Debi. She said that one of the little girls continued to run her fingers through her hair during primary. There are beautiful people here. The kids are so sweet and well behaved. Maybe we will get our wish for well behaved children; we missed out on with our own.
Well, I’m out of gas for writing more. Hope all is well with all of you. Sure enjoy hearing from you, so keep the emails coming.
Live ya
Paul/dad
PS: Margaret, we are getting close to having our schedule arranged for after the first of the year, will forward it to you when we are a little closer.
PSS: Uncle Ken and Aunt Sally, let me know if you get this. Hope I got your email correct.
Sun 9/5/2010 1:16 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Here we go again, another week shot. Very busy week for work. Sometimes 55 to 60 hour weeks are just not enough time to get everything done. There were all sorts of guests at the plant this week, so that along with all the other changes going on made for a long week.
I made the suggestions for layoffs this week. So it looks like about 50 people will be going. Most of them will not be laid off immediately but will work to the end of their contract and then their contract will not be renewed. They know it is coming but most are in a state of denial. Even the salaried people don’t understand how bad the company is doing and are lackadaisical about making the necessary changes to stem the bleeding. It is like a nanny state. Everyone expects cradle to grave services and they don’t understand the money has to come from somewhere. If the company doesn’t make money, all benefits go away for everyone.
So anyway, next week is the Board of Directors meeting. So that will be exciting. There was a group of high powered consultants here last week looking at what would be necessary to turn the operation around. We went through a number of areas that need to be improved that would help production and improve the bottom line. We were able to convince them we knew what we were talking about and they presented the recommendations to the board in advance of the meeting. So it looks like we will be getting some more capital to improve the plant and help get us back on track. There is so little cash, we can’t buy parts to fix equipment when it breaks down. Not a good way to run an operation.
So anyway, so much for work. You are probably more interested in what Debi is doing. She is living the life of leisure. Cook, maid, housekeeper, gardener, husband at her beck and call. What more could a woman want? Today we went on a cheap safari. It started off good, we saw: zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, impala and Thompson gazelles, ostrich, guinea hens, élans, Masai on motorcycles, a lot of native villages, and an area that has all kinds of fruit growing. Africa is quite the place. You should all come for a visit. We saw elephant poop too, but no elephant. But at least now we know they are here!!!!! We were in a game reserve called Shampole. It is a high priced place that Bill Gates has been to. A lot of granola crunchers/tree hugger types. Anyway, I’ve driven there two times. I haven’t ever been asked to pay a fee to get in or out. This time they would not let us out until we came up with some money. They wanted 800 schillings for the three of us (driver, Debi and me) and 200 Ksh for the car. I didn’t have that much. When we said we didn’t have that much they were going to call the police and have us put in jail. One of the biggest problems I have in Kenya is the dishonesty of some of the people. The sheet they showed us trying to justify the charge didn’t have 800 shillings per person anywhere on it. It said 200 per person. The longer we stayed there the madder I was getting. I finally tool all the money I had out of my money clip and handed it to the driver and told them that was all they were getting. It may have been about 1,400 shillings. They finally asked the driver for 100 shillings. What a bunch. What a joke. The 1,500 shillings is about $18. Any way, it will be recorded as an experience.
So still an exciting drive to Nairobi for church. I never thought it could happen, but Debi can sleep on that road. It has pot holes and you have to stop frequently for goats and cows. But doesn’t bother Debi, she is out as soon as we are out of town. It looks like Debi and another teacher will be in charge to the primary program this year. The Primary president was not here again today so Debi and the other teacher started preparing the program. It will be presented next month.
They talked about splitting the branch again today. Looks like they will submit the paper work in the next week or two. It is so difficult for people to get to church here because of transportation cost that every attempt is make to get the meetings close to the members. We will be about a half hour closer to the church when the change is made. If they let us go to the closest branch. A comment was made a few weeks ago that they may ask us to continue going to the current branch. I continue to be impressed with the members here. Those that are faithful and come regularly have testimonies as strong as anywhere we have lived, and their understanding of the gospel matches their testimonies.
Time to go to bed and get this email to press. For those of you who want more Africa stuff, Debi has a blog, I think it is intoafricaadventure@wordpress.com If you can’t get there talk to someone who is friends with her on face book and they can give you the link.
Hope this makes sense. I started it yesterday and finished it today. If it doesn’t make sense, read it fast.
Love you
Paul/dad
Here we go again, another week shot. Very busy week for work. Sometimes 55 to 60 hour weeks are just not enough time to get everything done. There were all sorts of guests at the plant this week, so that along with all the other changes going on made for a long week.
I made the suggestions for layoffs this week. So it looks like about 50 people will be going. Most of them will not be laid off immediately but will work to the end of their contract and then their contract will not be renewed. They know it is coming but most are in a state of denial. Even the salaried people don’t understand how bad the company is doing and are lackadaisical about making the necessary changes to stem the bleeding. It is like a nanny state. Everyone expects cradle to grave services and they don’t understand the money has to come from somewhere. If the company doesn’t make money, all benefits go away for everyone.
So anyway, next week is the Board of Directors meeting. So that will be exciting. There was a group of high powered consultants here last week looking at what would be necessary to turn the operation around. We went through a number of areas that need to be improved that would help production and improve the bottom line. We were able to convince them we knew what we were talking about and they presented the recommendations to the board in advance of the meeting. So it looks like we will be getting some more capital to improve the plant and help get us back on track. There is so little cash, we can’t buy parts to fix equipment when it breaks down. Not a good way to run an operation.
So anyway, so much for work. You are probably more interested in what Debi is doing. She is living the life of leisure. Cook, maid, housekeeper, gardener, husband at her beck and call. What more could a woman want? Today we went on a cheap safari. It started off good, we saw: zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, impala and Thompson gazelles, ostrich, guinea hens, élans, Masai on motorcycles, a lot of native villages, and an area that has all kinds of fruit growing. Africa is quite the place. You should all come for a visit. We saw elephant poop too, but no elephant. But at least now we know they are here!!!!! We were in a game reserve called Shampole. It is a high priced place that Bill Gates has been to. A lot of granola crunchers/tree hugger types. Anyway, I’ve driven there two times. I haven’t ever been asked to pay a fee to get in or out. This time they would not let us out until we came up with some money. They wanted 800 schillings for the three of us (driver, Debi and me) and 200 Ksh for the car. I didn’t have that much. When we said we didn’t have that much they were going to call the police and have us put in jail. One of the biggest problems I have in Kenya is the dishonesty of some of the people. The sheet they showed us trying to justify the charge didn’t have 800 shillings per person anywhere on it. It said 200 per person. The longer we stayed there the madder I was getting. I finally tool all the money I had out of my money clip and handed it to the driver and told them that was all they were getting. It may have been about 1,400 shillings. They finally asked the driver for 100 shillings. What a bunch. What a joke. The 1,500 shillings is about $18. Any way, it will be recorded as an experience.
So still an exciting drive to Nairobi for church. I never thought it could happen, but Debi can sleep on that road. It has pot holes and you have to stop frequently for goats and cows. But doesn’t bother Debi, she is out as soon as we are out of town. It looks like Debi and another teacher will be in charge to the primary program this year. The Primary president was not here again today so Debi and the other teacher started preparing the program. It will be presented next month.
They talked about splitting the branch again today. Looks like they will submit the paper work in the next week or two. It is so difficult for people to get to church here because of transportation cost that every attempt is make to get the meetings close to the members. We will be about a half hour closer to the church when the change is made. If they let us go to the closest branch. A comment was made a few weeks ago that they may ask us to continue going to the current branch. I continue to be impressed with the members here. Those that are faithful and come regularly have testimonies as strong as anywhere we have lived, and their understanding of the gospel matches their testimonies.
Time to go to bed and get this email to press. For those of you who want more Africa stuff, Debi has a blog, I think it is intoafricaadventure@wordpress.com If you can’t get there talk to someone who is friends with her on face book and they can give you the link.
Hope this makes sense. I started it yesterday and finished it today. If it doesn’t make sense, read it fast.
Love you
Paul/dad
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sun 8/29/2010 1:47 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Another week shot!!!! The weeks are better with Debi here than by myself. She may be kinda board but there will be more for her to do in the near future. The Doctor here contacted one of his dentist friends so Debi will begin working with her to get the dental equipment needed here to do some “tooth work”. School also starts next week, so if she wants to read to brats and help them learn English she could do that too.
Work is still a challenge. Production is in the toilet so still a lot of pressure to get operations turned around. The Board of Directors will be here in two weeks so that may be interesting. I keep telling myself “what can they do, fire me”. I sometimes think that would be a blessing. So I just do the best I can and try to improve my performance and that of the group here each week.
Next week begins the changes in census. Once people begin losing their jobs, it may wake up those that think nothing can ever go wrong in their lives. It is incredible to see how nonchalant people are with their work ethic. I’ve been told that part of the problem has been that the union got a 9% pay increase and that same amount was given to the salaried workers. The thinking is that if a 9% increase was given, things can’t be too bad. That kind of increase would never have been given in the US. There was one year things were bad at General that no increase was given to salaried employees. They got the message, things are bad. Well maybe the message will begin getting out now. Will keep you posted.
Went climbing on rock Saturday with Debi and another guy here from Florida; it was a good day. The African villagers came out and were singing while I was putting up the rope. By the time I got that done, they were all up talking to Debi. They were taken by her long blond hair. One little girl kept running her hands through it. They loved having their pictures taken and so Debi posted a number of them on her blog (will give you her blog address in another email, don’t have it now). They were cute and as usual, it looked like they and not had their Saturday bath in about a month. When water is so difficult to come by it is understandable why they are dirty. The little boys had tattered robes. It looked like they got the hand-me –downs from everyone in the family and by the time it got to them there wasn’t much left.
After rock climbing, we went down to the hot springs. I was shocked when the water was too hot for Debi. I have been in it and it was not too hot for me so I thought Debi would love it- not; too hot for her. That was disappointing, but the good part of the trip was that we saw, zebras, giraffes, wilder beasts, baboon, flamingos, and a bunch of other birds. So now she feels like she is in Africa. We are the ones in the cages, not the animals. On the trip to Nairobi today we saw pea hens that were pretty and then on the way back we saw an Eland. It is the biggest member of the antelope family. I thought it was a cow until I saw the horns. It didn’t look like a cow so I turned around and went back and got a better look at it. You can ask my kids, I don’t turn around very often so it had to be funny looking for me to take a second look. Not sure what we will do next weekend for excitement, but we’ll think of something. We may go on a cheap safari to the mountains west of the plant.
Kind of a quiet day in church. It’s winter here and today it was overcast and kind of rainy so not many people were in church. I have a hard time relating to winter when it’s still in the 60 – 70 degree range. The primary president didn’t make it to church so Debi and a teacher had to handle the primary. Good thing not too many kids were there today. The branch president indicated today that the paperwork for splitting the branch will be submitted in September so we may be attending church a little closer to Magadi in a few months.
Well not much more to talk about. Sorry if there are boring letters. If you have any questions about Africa or Kenya, let me know and I’ll try to answer them.
Love you all
Dad/Paul
Another week shot!!!! The weeks are better with Debi here than by myself. She may be kinda board but there will be more for her to do in the near future. The Doctor here contacted one of his dentist friends so Debi will begin working with her to get the dental equipment needed here to do some “tooth work”. School also starts next week, so if she wants to read to brats and help them learn English she could do that too.
Work is still a challenge. Production is in the toilet so still a lot of pressure to get operations turned around. The Board of Directors will be here in two weeks so that may be interesting. I keep telling myself “what can they do, fire me”. I sometimes think that would be a blessing. So I just do the best I can and try to improve my performance and that of the group here each week.
Next week begins the changes in census. Once people begin losing their jobs, it may wake up those that think nothing can ever go wrong in their lives. It is incredible to see how nonchalant people are with their work ethic. I’ve been told that part of the problem has been that the union got a 9% pay increase and that same amount was given to the salaried workers. The thinking is that if a 9% increase was given, things can’t be too bad. That kind of increase would never have been given in the US. There was one year things were bad at General that no increase was given to salaried employees. They got the message, things are bad. Well maybe the message will begin getting out now. Will keep you posted.
Went climbing on rock Saturday with Debi and another guy here from Florida; it was a good day. The African villagers came out and were singing while I was putting up the rope. By the time I got that done, they were all up talking to Debi. They were taken by her long blond hair. One little girl kept running her hands through it. They loved having their pictures taken and so Debi posted a number of them on her blog (will give you her blog address in another email, don’t have it now). They were cute and as usual, it looked like they and not had their Saturday bath in about a month. When water is so difficult to come by it is understandable why they are dirty. The little boys had tattered robes. It looked like they got the hand-me –downs from everyone in the family and by the time it got to them there wasn’t much left.
After rock climbing, we went down to the hot springs. I was shocked when the water was too hot for Debi. I have been in it and it was not too hot for me so I thought Debi would love it- not; too hot for her. That was disappointing, but the good part of the trip was that we saw, zebras, giraffes, wilder beasts, baboon, flamingos, and a bunch of other birds. So now she feels like she is in Africa. We are the ones in the cages, not the animals. On the trip to Nairobi today we saw pea hens that were pretty and then on the way back we saw an Eland. It is the biggest member of the antelope family. I thought it was a cow until I saw the horns. It didn’t look like a cow so I turned around and went back and got a better look at it. You can ask my kids, I don’t turn around very often so it had to be funny looking for me to take a second look. Not sure what we will do next weekend for excitement, but we’ll think of something. We may go on a cheap safari to the mountains west of the plant.
Kind of a quiet day in church. It’s winter here and today it was overcast and kind of rainy so not many people were in church. I have a hard time relating to winter when it’s still in the 60 – 70 degree range. The primary president didn’t make it to church so Debi and a teacher had to handle the primary. Good thing not too many kids were there today. The branch president indicated today that the paperwork for splitting the branch will be submitted in September so we may be attending church a little closer to Magadi in a few months.
Well not much more to talk about. Sorry if there are boring letters. If you have any questions about Africa or Kenya, let me know and I’ll try to answer them.
Love you all
Dad/Paul
Monday, August 23, 2010
Mon 8/23/2010 1:55 AM
Dear Family and Friends:
It is always good to be back and visit home. Sometimes the pace of trying to see everyone and driving for two weeks make the vacation a little long and tiring. So it was good to get back to a somewhat normal pace. With Debbie here, I’m will not get back to the “Old Pace” because that involved a little too much time in the office.
So just a few highlights from the week. The flight back started out bad. We were delayed in SLC for 7 hours because our plane was a no-show. So we flew from SLC to Paris to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. A forty hour ordeal. Debbie was able to sleep some but I couldn’t so I was exhausted by the time I got to the house here.
Debbie is getting acquainted with Magadi. It doesn’t take very long. We go to a little club to eat lunch and dinner each day. Nothing too fancy by US standards by pretty nice by Kenya standards. They have a swimming pool there so I’m sure Debbie will begin swimming before too long.
The lady that takes care of the grounds told Debbie her son came in and told her that a beautiful “Mzumgu” was sitting on the banda, which made Debbie’s day. Debbie is easy to pick out in a group. She is the short blond with the light complexion (sp).
On Saturday we drove to Nairobi and went to the Giraffe center where Debbie got to kiss a giraffe. After the first time I told her if she did it again I wasn’t going to kiss her good night. After the sixth giraffe kiss, I realized the threat hadn’t worked. I passed on kissing the giraffes but wanted to kiss a wart hog running around but they weren’t as friendly as the giraffes.
Driving in Nairobi is a little tricky and scary. Debbie said she wasn’t going to get a Kenyan drivers license, and can’t figure out why I wanted one. The drivers are nuts. According to Debbie, Nairobi traffic is far worse than LA traffic.
On Sunday we went to church and Debbie was asked to give a short talk in Sacrament meeting. Following Sacrament meeting we were asked to meet with the Branch President where Debbie was called to be the first counselor in the primary presidency. So much for a breaking in period in the Branch.
I’m writing this on Monday morning before I go out to start my day. Speaking of changing the normal routine, I used to write this letter on Sunday evening following my day. Last night, Debbie and played card games. I had to let her win most of the games so she would feel like she was at home.
So some other quick comments; Cherry; thanks for getting the rooms reserved. Do we need to send you some money now? Margaret; haven’t had a chance to get prices on Safaris’ yet but I haven’t forgotten, should be able to get them think week. Robert and Nancy; thanks for bringing Mom down to Ogden to visit, I appreciate your efforts. Krista; I didn’t forget the weekly update.
Until next week, love you all
Paul/Dad
PS, You’ll note I copied Debi on this email so there may be some rebuttal on her blog. But for the straight scoop, come here first.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sun 7/25/2010 11:11 AM
Hello, I’m a comin home:
When I arrived here for this term, I checked my tickets to see if my seat assignments were what I wanted for my return flight and the website said I had 99 days till departure. That’s a long time, especially looking forward 99 days. Looking back it was a long time but I survived. At times I didn’t know if I would, you can ask Debi.
Not much happened this week that was good and exciting. There are continuing problems at work. This is an interesting mix of people. They have many interesting traits that you could write volumes about. Some of the men have NO industrial experience at all. They can watch the plant go into failure mode and not have a clue what to do. Just watch and wonder “should that be happening”. I’ve been working with the HR people to replace the temporary workers with permanent employees so at least once they are trained they will stay. The temporary employees work for nine months and then leave and someone else comes in and works for nine months. A rotating training routine where no one ever gets good at what they do. This week there were two days in a row where I arrived to find one plant down. The crew leaving had messed things up so bad it was ridiculous. When I talked to the supervisor, he said he didn’t know how well trained his crew was. That was when I told him that was his job to train his crew or watch them close enough to make sure they didn’t screw up. So we will see what the new week brings. In the plant that I thought was going to be the challenge, things have been going well. It is getting close to meeting production targets (the targets are low and need to be raised) but it is doing fairly well.
There was a guy that came in to see me this week. He said he had a problem and needed my help, which is what everyone tells me that walks in my door. I told him I couldn’t give him a job, that he would have to go to HR and then I asked him if he wanted money. To that he said no. So I asked him what he wanted then. He showed me papers going back to 1976 that he has carried all his life. They were papers from when he had worked for an NGO (non-governmental organization). He had some safety training paper-work and a bunch of other papers coming forward to the 1990’s. He then began telling me how he was an orphan. With that, I asked him how old he was and he told me he was 52. My patience was about shot with that and I told him he can’t use being an orphan as an excuse for his entire life. He needs to get over it and move on. He was able bodied and in good health. He needs to show a little ambition and take responsibility for his life. So I don’t think he wanted to hear that and I doubt it will make a difference.
One last comment before I go. To all the women reading this you can feel yourself blessed for where you were born and for the opportunities you’ve been given. No matter how bad you think you have it, it would have been worse had you been born in the bush in Africa! Girls from the time they are born are viewed as little more than property. Most of them are sold as wives when they are in their early teens, mothers not long after that and have a very hard existence for the rest of their lives. Fathers will sell their daughters for cattle, goats or anything else they need or want to prospective husbands. Some of the prospective husbands are old men that just want a young bride. Women are always seen carrying water and food from the market to their homes. Their homes are nothing more than what you have seen in the pictures I’ve sent home. They have no rights, their husbands own everything. The longer I’m here the more I understand what the history has been. Some traditions are changing in the cities, but in the bush traditions change slowly.
So to end on a little more positive note, I’m sure looking forward to seeing you all.
Love
Paul/dad
When I arrived here for this term, I checked my tickets to see if my seat assignments were what I wanted for my return flight and the website said I had 99 days till departure. That’s a long time, especially looking forward 99 days. Looking back it was a long time but I survived. At times I didn’t know if I would, you can ask Debi.
Not much happened this week that was good and exciting. There are continuing problems at work. This is an interesting mix of people. They have many interesting traits that you could write volumes about. Some of the men have NO industrial experience at all. They can watch the plant go into failure mode and not have a clue what to do. Just watch and wonder “should that be happening”. I’ve been working with the HR people to replace the temporary workers with permanent employees so at least once they are trained they will stay. The temporary employees work for nine months and then leave and someone else comes in and works for nine months. A rotating training routine where no one ever gets good at what they do. This week there were two days in a row where I arrived to find one plant down. The crew leaving had messed things up so bad it was ridiculous. When I talked to the supervisor, he said he didn’t know how well trained his crew was. That was when I told him that was his job to train his crew or watch them close enough to make sure they didn’t screw up. So we will see what the new week brings. In the plant that I thought was going to be the challenge, things have been going well. It is getting close to meeting production targets (the targets are low and need to be raised) but it is doing fairly well.
There was a guy that came in to see me this week. He said he had a problem and needed my help, which is what everyone tells me that walks in my door. I told him I couldn’t give him a job, that he would have to go to HR and then I asked him if he wanted money. To that he said no. So I asked him what he wanted then. He showed me papers going back to 1976 that he has carried all his life. They were papers from when he had worked for an NGO (non-governmental organization). He had some safety training paper-work and a bunch of other papers coming forward to the 1990’s. He then began telling me how he was an orphan. With that, I asked him how old he was and he told me he was 52. My patience was about shot with that and I told him he can’t use being an orphan as an excuse for his entire life. He needs to get over it and move on. He was able bodied and in good health. He needs to show a little ambition and take responsibility for his life. So I don’t think he wanted to hear that and I doubt it will make a difference.
One last comment before I go. To all the women reading this you can feel yourself blessed for where you were born and for the opportunities you’ve been given. No matter how bad you think you have it, it would have been worse had you been born in the bush in Africa! Girls from the time they are born are viewed as little more than property. Most of them are sold as wives when they are in their early teens, mothers not long after that and have a very hard existence for the rest of their lives. Fathers will sell their daughters for cattle, goats or anything else they need or want to prospective husbands. Some of the prospective husbands are old men that just want a young bride. Women are always seen carrying water and food from the market to their homes. Their homes are nothing more than what you have seen in the pictures I’ve sent home. They have no rights, their husbands own everything. The longer I’m here the more I understand what the history has been. Some traditions are changing in the cities, but in the bush traditions change slowly.
So to end on a little more positive note, I’m sure looking forward to seeing you all.
Love
Paul/dad
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sun 7/18/2010 1:54 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Another week gone; it seems like just seven days ago I was writing a letter telling what happened. This might be short. It’s late and I’m tired. Sundays are long days with four hours of driving just to get to church and back. Then throw in four hours of meetings, some shopping to get treats for the week, it makes for a long day. We went to the fancy mall again today just to make sure it was still there so when Debi arrives she can have a nice place to go for a retreat. They have a clothing store where they sell “I dream of Jeannie” clothes (whatever country those come from).
So anyway, two things to tell you for the week. It has been a long tough week for production. The plant is still in a funk and it doesn’t look like it will be coming out of it anytime soon. So I’ve been spending a lot of time in the plant. On Friday, I was watching the operation and noticed a conveyor belt was not working right. It was running to one side and was beginning to fold over on itself. The operator was a man from the bush and didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He was just standing there watching it destroy itself. I finally yelled across the plant and told him to shut the belt off. I was so angry by the time I got to where he was I told his supervisor I wanted him off the plant site. If he didn’t know what a disaster looked like we didn’t need him. With that I walked to check on another area where a pump was being rebuilt. I was at the pump for a few minutes and started to realize I had been a little harsh on the Maasai and went back to talk to him. As I walked up on the scene, the old man dropped to his knees and started pleading in Maasai with me to let him stay. I pulled him up off his knees and told his supervisor I had acted harshly and to tell him he could continue to work but he had to pay attentions to his work. So after that message was communicated, he dropped to his knees again to thank me. So I pulled him up again and put my arm around his shoulder and gave him a hug. Told him through his translator he had to be more careful in watching the operation. Many of these people don’t have a clue what goes on in a plant and have no business even working there but they are here and I guess I have to deal with it. I just need to find jobs where there is no risk to the operation or themselves.
The second interesting thing was the Stake President dropped in on church today unannounced. In PEC he was asking about the activity in the two areas of the branch – Rongai and Langata. That is where they want to have two branches instead of one. He will submit paperwork to have the branch split in August. He told of an example of a branch in western Kenya (Eldoret) where there was a group of about 80 members that attended. They came from many different communities to a central location. They divided the branch into three units and placed a branch in each of the communities and after three months each branch was up to the 80 members that the original branch had had prior to the split. So it looks like there may be some excitement coming. Like I’ve said there are some very strong and faithful people in this area. There are a number of young men that are very impressive, they may be a little young now but in a few years they will be the leaders in the Nairobi Stake. When they were talking about where the current priesthood leadership lived and discussing how they would be divided they told me I may not be in the branch that I lived closest to. Because I was an ex-patriot they would assign me to the branch they needed me in.
I think I’ve said it before, transportation here is a major problem. Very few people have their own car so they come to church in vehicles driven by suicidal youth. Some people can’t afford to come to church every week so having a Branch closer to their home would help many members. It is just like a lot of wards and branches we have lived in; by the end of sacrament meeting the congregation is pretty good sized. But at the beginning there aren’t many people. But here they have an excuse. They have to walk to a Matatu pick up point then ride to a spot close to the church and then walk to the church from the drop off point. Just getting to church is big deal in Nairobi. The cost for a ride is about $.35 one way but that is a lot to some of the members.
So, so much for the week in review. Just a closing note, Churry, I got a necklace for your sis in-law so that is covered. Debi, there are some good chocolate candy bars here and the same brand has a dark chocolate one so I got some for you to bring home. And come to find out the Massai have very good teeth because they chew on a stick called miswak (Google it) that helps prevent tooth decay and anything else. I got some miswak toothpaste; you can introduce it to the US and we can “BOTH” retire after you make a fortune in the import business.
Only one more letter then I’ll be in the US. Looking forward to seeing you all.
Love Paul/dad
Another week gone; it seems like just seven days ago I was writing a letter telling what happened. This might be short. It’s late and I’m tired. Sundays are long days with four hours of driving just to get to church and back. Then throw in four hours of meetings, some shopping to get treats for the week, it makes for a long day. We went to the fancy mall again today just to make sure it was still there so when Debi arrives she can have a nice place to go for a retreat. They have a clothing store where they sell “I dream of Jeannie” clothes (whatever country those come from).
So anyway, two things to tell you for the week. It has been a long tough week for production. The plant is still in a funk and it doesn’t look like it will be coming out of it anytime soon. So I’ve been spending a lot of time in the plant. On Friday, I was watching the operation and noticed a conveyor belt was not working right. It was running to one side and was beginning to fold over on itself. The operator was a man from the bush and didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He was just standing there watching it destroy itself. I finally yelled across the plant and told him to shut the belt off. I was so angry by the time I got to where he was I told his supervisor I wanted him off the plant site. If he didn’t know what a disaster looked like we didn’t need him. With that I walked to check on another area where a pump was being rebuilt. I was at the pump for a few minutes and started to realize I had been a little harsh on the Maasai and went back to talk to him. As I walked up on the scene, the old man dropped to his knees and started pleading in Maasai with me to let him stay. I pulled him up off his knees and told his supervisor I had acted harshly and to tell him he could continue to work but he had to pay attentions to his work. So after that message was communicated, he dropped to his knees again to thank me. So I pulled him up again and put my arm around his shoulder and gave him a hug. Told him through his translator he had to be more careful in watching the operation. Many of these people don’t have a clue what goes on in a plant and have no business even working there but they are here and I guess I have to deal with it. I just need to find jobs where there is no risk to the operation or themselves.
The second interesting thing was the Stake President dropped in on church today unannounced. In PEC he was asking about the activity in the two areas of the branch – Rongai and Langata. That is where they want to have two branches instead of one. He will submit paperwork to have the branch split in August. He told of an example of a branch in western Kenya (Eldoret) where there was a group of about 80 members that attended. They came from many different communities to a central location. They divided the branch into three units and placed a branch in each of the communities and after three months each branch was up to the 80 members that the original branch had had prior to the split. So it looks like there may be some excitement coming. Like I’ve said there are some very strong and faithful people in this area. There are a number of young men that are very impressive, they may be a little young now but in a few years they will be the leaders in the Nairobi Stake. When they were talking about where the current priesthood leadership lived and discussing how they would be divided they told me I may not be in the branch that I lived closest to. Because I was an ex-patriot they would assign me to the branch they needed me in.
I think I’ve said it before, transportation here is a major problem. Very few people have their own car so they come to church in vehicles driven by suicidal youth. Some people can’t afford to come to church every week so having a Branch closer to their home would help many members. It is just like a lot of wards and branches we have lived in; by the end of sacrament meeting the congregation is pretty good sized. But at the beginning there aren’t many people. But here they have an excuse. They have to walk to a Matatu pick up point then ride to a spot close to the church and then walk to the church from the drop off point. Just getting to church is big deal in Nairobi. The cost for a ride is about $.35 one way but that is a lot to some of the members.
So, so much for the week in review. Just a closing note, Churry, I got a necklace for your sis in-law so that is covered. Debi, there are some good chocolate candy bars here and the same brand has a dark chocolate one so I got some for you to bring home. And come to find out the Massai have very good teeth because they chew on a stick called miswak (Google it) that helps prevent tooth decay and anything else. I got some miswak toothpaste; you can introduce it to the US and we can “BOTH” retire after you make a fortune in the import business.
Only one more letter then I’ll be in the US. Looking forward to seeing you all.
Love Paul/dad
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sun 7/11/2010 1:05 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
As I’ve said before, the weeks go fast but sometimes when you look forward to how long it is before I come home it is sure a long time. So I’m down to less than 20 days but whose counting (I started with 99 days). I left the day the well blew up in the gulf so when they talk about how long the well has been spewing oil, that’s how long I’ve been here on this trip.
Today in church there were two speakers. One young man from Sandy who had been out on his mission about 6 months and the other a young man from the branch here that just returned for a mission. Now maybe I should give the new Elder a break but there was no comparison in the talks given. The young man from here will be a church leader before too long. His father is the first counselor in the branch presidency. I am very impressed with the level of understanding in the young brethren here. I handed him a home teaching assignment and he was so excited to have home teaching responsibilities. He said he had never been asked to home teach before. What a difference between here and some in the US. But on the other side of the equation; most of the people in the Nairobi area are not from the city. So attendance is sometimes sporadic. The go home to visit the “Village” frequently. I haven’t seen one of my counselors in a month and the other is only about 50%. Those that are most faithful are those from the area that don’t have to leave. Today the RS president asked when Debi was coming. She said she was excited to see her. I guess they are tired of seeing me without a wife.
After church we went and looked for some world cup shirts for Andy’s grandkids. We hit two very nice malls. Debi has said her spending will go down once she gets here but if she finds these malls the plastic will melt. They have some unusual stuff. I found a store that sells the expensive rugs and some beautiful jewelry. Since Andy has been here there has been a drive on Sunday so that’s why I haven’t been to these malls, they are deep in Nairobi. They are in an area populated mostly by Indian people and many of the international embassies.
Yesterday we went climbing and with my African friends so I have attached some pictures of that and a pic of the hot springs. I wanted to show what the hot springs look like so no one gets the wrong idea. They are a hole in the ground with hot water and native women (fully clothed) selling homemade jewelry to the visitors. On the way to the hot springs we saw zebra, flamingos, and a lot of other water birds, wildebeest; this is like living in a zoo. In fact Andy went to a National Park today while I was in church and he said driving around the plant was better than the Zoo. I attached a picture of a Maasai village we pass on the way to church. It sits at the bottom of a hill so a view from the top is gives a good perspective. You can see the goats in the pens in the middle of the village. I also attached a picture of a tree. For a long time I thought that type of tree was dead. But then I noticed it has yellow flowers on the branches - strange tree. Only yellow flowers.
Work has had its normal ups and downs. Sometimes I think great strides are being made and then problems come up that should have been taken care of long ago. A man that works in one area told me this week that his area has improved dramatically in the last few months. It was the worst area to work in and now it is one of the bests. So we are making some progress.
Well not much else to report. I’ll be arriving in Vegas on July31st. Debbie and I will go to St George on the 2nd of August, a Drs. appt. on the 5th in SLC and the picnic in Green River on the 6th of August. We plan to be in St George the week of August 8th (let me think, what important historical event happened on that date). We leave to come back to Kenya on August 15th.
So see ya in a few weeks, looking forward to it.
Love
Paul/dad
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Sun 7/4/2010 1:19 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
“Another one bites the dust”. I think I’ll write a song and use that line. Maybe I’ll even sing it. Not!!! A few things happened this week. Went to Nairobi on Tuesday to pick up another fellow from the US. He is here to help with maintenance. I am pretty good at breaking stuff and having extra parts when I take something apart but I’ve never excelled at the re-assembly part of the job. So I asked a fellow I worked with at General to come to Kenya. He worked at the Wyoming plant for 32 years and retired a couple of years ago. He should be able to fill in some of the gaps I have.
So on Tuesday we picked him up at the hotel and then went to the US embassy to get my new passport. You have to pass three security check point to get into the US embassy. Once inside, all us residents are directed into a waiting room where it usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes before you see a US representative. If you are a non-US citizen, it takes hours to see a US representative. So, one of the many advantages of being a citizen. After picking up my new passport, I had to go to the Kenyan immigration office to get my new passport stamped with my work visa and pick up my alien card indicating I’m in the country legally. It is always a good break to go out of Magadi during the week, makes the week seem to go faster. I didn’t have a difficult time at the Kenyan immigration office, the guy I was with has a high school class mate that is an official in the office, so he just calls and everything is taken care of. So when Debbie comes over, it should go very smoothly to get her paperwork completed.
Had more meetings with the management people here to prepare them for the changes in census. Most of them understand that the changes are necessary and are willing to accept them.
On Saturday we (Andy, Mike and me) went on another cheap safari. We went to the same place I went in March during the rainy season. Yesterday instead of having water lapping at the bumper, there was dust. I couldn’t believe the change. It was so dry and the dust was so deep on the road. But we still saw a bunch of zebra, giraffe, ostrich, gazelles, kudos, wilder beast, baboons, dig digs (I think i've told you before, this animal looks like a miniature deer), and again some of the most colorful birds I’ve ever seen. The city by this area also has bananas, mangos, papayas, maze and all sorts of other vegetables. It's quite the place. Also attached a pic of a Maasai warrior. This is a stage of a young man's life where he transitions from a child into a man. They have quite the dress and they color their hair.
We also stopped and looked at one of the abandoned Maasai villages. The huts are interesting. I attached some picture of one. They are all built the same. They have a bed for the wife, the children and a storage area. They are made out of sticks and coated with a mud that is a mixture of cow manure and dirt from termite hills. The women are responsible for making the houses while the men tend to the flocks. The reason there is only a bed for the wife is because Maasai men often have more than one wife!!!!! I attached a pic of a termite hill. See if you can figure out which one it is.
Well like I said I’ll attach some pic. I hope you enjoy them. I have certainly enjoyed seeing the pictures of the grand kids that Debi has been sending as she has visited Krista and cherry. Feel free to send pictures I like seeing all of them.
Church was good as usual. I’m always impressed by the caliber of people in the branch. They have a good understanding of the gospel and strong testimonies.
Love you all.
Paul/dad
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sun 6/27/2010 1:25 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Not much happened this week, again. I’m sure most of you can imagine what it would be like if you had to report on what you did each week. Pretty boring!
Still working on a number of things at works, like census reduction. That will be a big effort going forward. I have meeting scheduled this coming week to get things moving. I will meet with all the department managers and front line foremen and make sure they have bought in and will support the actions. I believe most people are expecting something to happen, they just hope they will be survivors. Fortunately for me, it is viewed as a corporate initiative and not the guy from the US driving it, which is a correct assessment. All top management at Magadi knows something has to happen or this place will never make money. So stand by for future developments.
There was a guy that arrived this week from Florida. So another mzungu is in Magadi. He is here to help implement “Lean Six Sigma”. Which is a method of maximizing company profits by using statistical tools to evaluate and solve problems. It is a tool that is being implemented all across Tata Chemical. He will be here off and on for the next six months.
So I had some company. I had dinner with him one evening and spent the day with him on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I took him rock climbing with my African friends. He enjoys the outdoors so he tried rock climbing and enjoyed it very much. He will probably go again in August when Debi and I are back. As usual there was a crowd of Maasai watching. It was so cute there were tiny children that wanted to shake my hand. I bet it had been months since they had had a bath. They were soooooo dirty and cute. Some new kids came to watch, but they thought we were crazy for climbing the rock and didn’t want to try.
After rock climbing, we went to the hot springs and sat in the pools. It was wondering as I watched the women selling necklaces if they were wanting to put in some carrots and potatoes in the hot pools while Mike and I were soaking. On the way to the pools we saw wilder beast, ostrich, and giraffes. We got close to all of them and Mike got some good pictures (I forgot my camera). The giraffes were amazing. There were some that were the normal reddish/brown color but there were some that almost looked black and white.
Then today while I was in church, Mike and a driver went to the Kenya National Park, and the giraffe park. I guess they had a good time at both places. But the thing Mike liked best was the giraffe park. You could feed the giraffes. They had buckets of food and you just filled your hands and the animals would eat it out of your hand. So they had a good time doing that while I was in church. After church we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch. That was great, best lunch I’ve had in Kenya. There is a large Indian population in Kenya so it was authentic food cooked by Indians. Mike wanted to look for souvenirs to take back to his family so the driver took us to an outdoor shopping place. What a place. I will go back to buy stuff for family but only because it is a cheap place. There were people trying to sell you stuff that reminded me of used car salesmen on meth. They were absolutely nuts. I finally told the guy that I would not buy anything if he didn’t back off. They were so pushy!!!! So this is your opportunity girls to tell me what you want from Africa. They had bowls/dishes, jewelry, carvings (masks, animals, people), paintings, African clothes, so if you want something special, let me know. I will go back either next weekend or the following one. So let me know what you want. I’m not going to go to that place very often….. They think that because you are a mzungu, you have to have money and it is their goal to separate it from you.
One comment about church. We have asked a couple of young men who have been asked to teach in priesthood meeting. Both are returned missionaries and both are incredible teachers. They have a good understanding of the gospel and their ability to teach is as good as if not better than what I have seen in the US wards I’ve attended. These young men know the gospel and how to teach.
So that's it for another week. Next week another fellow (Andy Voytko) from the US will come to help me with maintenance. So there will be three of us here. The population of mzungus’ is exploding. Andy will stay until the end of July. In fact we are on the same flight out of Nairobi.
So love you all
Paul/dad
Not much happened this week, again. I’m sure most of you can imagine what it would be like if you had to report on what you did each week. Pretty boring!
Still working on a number of things at works, like census reduction. That will be a big effort going forward. I have meeting scheduled this coming week to get things moving. I will meet with all the department managers and front line foremen and make sure they have bought in and will support the actions. I believe most people are expecting something to happen, they just hope they will be survivors. Fortunately for me, it is viewed as a corporate initiative and not the guy from the US driving it, which is a correct assessment. All top management at Magadi knows something has to happen or this place will never make money. So stand by for future developments.
There was a guy that arrived this week from Florida. So another mzungu is in Magadi. He is here to help implement “Lean Six Sigma”. Which is a method of maximizing company profits by using statistical tools to evaluate and solve problems. It is a tool that is being implemented all across Tata Chemical. He will be here off and on for the next six months.
So I had some company. I had dinner with him one evening and spent the day with him on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I took him rock climbing with my African friends. He enjoys the outdoors so he tried rock climbing and enjoyed it very much. He will probably go again in August when Debi and I are back. As usual there was a crowd of Maasai watching. It was so cute there were tiny children that wanted to shake my hand. I bet it had been months since they had had a bath. They were soooooo dirty and cute. Some new kids came to watch, but they thought we were crazy for climbing the rock and didn’t want to try.
After rock climbing, we went to the hot springs and sat in the pools. It was wondering as I watched the women selling necklaces if they were wanting to put in some carrots and potatoes in the hot pools while Mike and I were soaking. On the way to the pools we saw wilder beast, ostrich, and giraffes. We got close to all of them and Mike got some good pictures (I forgot my camera). The giraffes were amazing. There were some that were the normal reddish/brown color but there were some that almost looked black and white.
Then today while I was in church, Mike and a driver went to the Kenya National Park, and the giraffe park. I guess they had a good time at both places. But the thing Mike liked best was the giraffe park. You could feed the giraffes. They had buckets of food and you just filled your hands and the animals would eat it out of your hand. So they had a good time doing that while I was in church. After church we went to an Indian restaurant for lunch. That was great, best lunch I’ve had in Kenya. There is a large Indian population in Kenya so it was authentic food cooked by Indians. Mike wanted to look for souvenirs to take back to his family so the driver took us to an outdoor shopping place. What a place. I will go back to buy stuff for family but only because it is a cheap place. There were people trying to sell you stuff that reminded me of used car salesmen on meth. They were absolutely nuts. I finally told the guy that I would not buy anything if he didn’t back off. They were so pushy!!!! So this is your opportunity girls to tell me what you want from Africa. They had bowls/dishes, jewelry, carvings (masks, animals, people), paintings, African clothes, so if you want something special, let me know. I will go back either next weekend or the following one. So let me know what you want. I’m not going to go to that place very often….. They think that because you are a mzungu, you have to have money and it is their goal to separate it from you.
One comment about church. We have asked a couple of young men who have been asked to teach in priesthood meeting. Both are returned missionaries and both are incredible teachers. They have a good understanding of the gospel and their ability to teach is as good as if not better than what I have seen in the US wards I’ve attended. These young men know the gospel and how to teach.
So that's it for another week. Next week another fellow (Andy Voytko) from the US will come to help me with maintenance. So there will be three of us here. The population of mzungus’ is exploding. Andy will stay until the end of July. In fact we are on the same flight out of Nairobi.
So love you all
Paul/dad
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