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
Thursday, November 11, 2010
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
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