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
Monday, August 30, 2010
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
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)