Hello Family and Friends:
It’s been a struggle to write this week; seems like there is less and less happening each week. But I know Mom would like to hear from me even if nothing exciting happens just to know I’m still here.
So I’ll start with “a boring update”. There are two plants here. One is celebrating 100 years in operation this year. That plant has been struggling to make soda ash for about 6 months. It has not had a maintenance shut down since 2007; so it is about 4 years over-due. It got to the point last week that we had enough product in inventory to meet demand. And there were so many nagging problems, we just said enough and shut ½ the plant down. We will work on the equipment from end to end and fix it so we don’t have problems every day. In June, we will shut down the other half of the plant and work on it. In August we will shut down the new plant for maintenance. Earnings last year were so bad that a maintenance shut down wasn’t done because there wasn’t money to pay for it.
The company runs its year from April 1 to March 31. So this is the beginning of a new year. After all the problems last year, it appears as though the plant met its financial targets. The past 4 to 5 months were good enough to dig us out of the hole we were in early in the year and turn a profit. The plant also shipped more ash that any other year. This was the result of the new plant hitting a production record. That sounds grand, but the plant was designed to produce 350,000 tons and we produced 185,000 tons so it was a good year but far from what the plant was designed for. This year we are targeting 250,000 tons. As we ramp up production, the Marketing group has to find more customers. So it will be an interesting manufacturing/marketing process.
Church continues to be interesting. There were about 55 people in attendance yesterday which is about the same number of people of people attending prior to the split. In this branch are many young single people and the other branch has many families. We are closer to the city center so there are a number of students and young working people. Organizations continue to develop. Extended calls and set apart people who will work with youth in Sunday School, Young Women and Young Men. There are so many young people here that are great examples to the youth. It’s amazing to see the Branch progress in spite of weakness in the leadership. Just goes to show the Lords work will continue to move forward in spite of those called.
The company changed its name this past week. It went from “Magadi Soda Company Ltd” to “Tata Chemicals Magadi Limited”. So there was a big program to mark the change. The company/plant in Green River also changed its name. It is an interesting process to see all the ground work that goes into making a name change. All the way from changing signs at the entrance of the plant, to letter heads, to business cards; quite an undertaking.
Anyway, I said there wasn’t much happening so I just proved it.
Home work for my kids;
Krista, give Z and E a hug from me. Looking forward to seeing them and blessing little E
Mya, tell the boys hello from grandpa. I sure miss them. Wish I could see them more.
Cherry, give C and T a hug from me. Looking forward to seeing them too.
Shena, tell S&D “bad dog”, and say it really mean (just like I’d do it).
Love you all.
Paul/dad
Monday, April 4, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Mon 3/28/2011 2:28 AM
Hello Family and Friends:
Another week shot.
Was a very challenging week. There were many problems with the plant. Power distribution in Kenya is very poor. Whenever the wind blows or there are electrical storms, there are power outages. Whenever there is a power bump, the entire plant goes down. When it goes down, it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours to start back up. What a nightmare. I shutter whenever I see lightning or a rain storm headed toward Magadi. There was a new power line being constructed in Nairobi and the contractor had a pole being erected fall into the line coming to Magadi. So even when there is good weather there are still accidents that curtail power at the plant. So this is one of those weeks I wonder if the call will come “Paul time to go home”.
Church was interesting this week. After the branch split, attendance in the Langata branch is almost back to the level prior to the split. I guess the Stake President called it right that the church grows by dividing. Almost have all the organizations filled. Called the RS president this Sunday; she is apprehensive to say the least. She was the young women’s president in the previous branch. So now it is just a matter of having all the Presidents call counselors and teachers. Hopefully we will be there by the end of April.
The RS president works in the Kenya Educations system (for Margaret’s benefit, its Evelyn, you met her). She said she is in the process of translating the upcoming conference talks into Swahili. She just finished Elder Holland’s talk and is now working on Elder Cook’s talk. She said it was a tremendous experience. It was like you were walking in their shoes and were given special inspiration as to how to translate. She gave an example in English and said there is no to convey that concept in Swahili. That is where she said inspiration comes in; the Lord helps you know what to say so the meaning is not lost. Anyway she said it took five hours to translate the talk but it was a tremendous experience. There are 132 teams that work on translating conference talks. If one of the translators has question they have a contact in SLC they go to for clarification. Presidents Monson’s talk will not be translated until next Friday. So the translator has a day and a half to get his talk prepared. It is an interesting process.
Going to be a short letter this week.
Love you all.
Paul/dad
Couple of other items just to make sure we don’t surprise anyone. Mya we would like to take you and the boyz (both big and little boyz) out to dinner and visit on the night of May 9th. Our next trip to the US is scheduled for August (Mya, if possible we would like to spend a few days with you and your boys then). We will get back on August 13th or so and stay in the US for about two weeks; haven’t firmed up that schedule. In October we will go to India for a week or so and then return to the US in December for Christmas.
Hope that doesn’t surprise anyone.
Another week shot.
Was a very challenging week. There were many problems with the plant. Power distribution in Kenya is very poor. Whenever the wind blows or there are electrical storms, there are power outages. Whenever there is a power bump, the entire plant goes down. When it goes down, it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours to start back up. What a nightmare. I shutter whenever I see lightning or a rain storm headed toward Magadi. There was a new power line being constructed in Nairobi and the contractor had a pole being erected fall into the line coming to Magadi. So even when there is good weather there are still accidents that curtail power at the plant. So this is one of those weeks I wonder if the call will come “Paul time to go home”.
Church was interesting this week. After the branch split, attendance in the Langata branch is almost back to the level prior to the split. I guess the Stake President called it right that the church grows by dividing. Almost have all the organizations filled. Called the RS president this Sunday; she is apprehensive to say the least. She was the young women’s president in the previous branch. So now it is just a matter of having all the Presidents call counselors and teachers. Hopefully we will be there by the end of April.
The RS president works in the Kenya Educations system (for Margaret’s benefit, its Evelyn, you met her). She said she is in the process of translating the upcoming conference talks into Swahili. She just finished Elder Holland’s talk and is now working on Elder Cook’s talk. She said it was a tremendous experience. It was like you were walking in their shoes and were given special inspiration as to how to translate. She gave an example in English and said there is no to convey that concept in Swahili. That is where she said inspiration comes in; the Lord helps you know what to say so the meaning is not lost. Anyway she said it took five hours to translate the talk but it was a tremendous experience. There are 132 teams that work on translating conference talks. If one of the translators has question they have a contact in SLC they go to for clarification. Presidents Monson’s talk will not be translated until next Friday. So the translator has a day and a half to get his talk prepared. It is an interesting process.
Going to be a short letter this week.
Love you all.
Paul/dad
Couple of other items just to make sure we don’t surprise anyone. Mya we would like to take you and the boyz (both big and little boyz) out to dinner and visit on the night of May 9th. Our next trip to the US is scheduled for August (Mya, if possible we would like to spend a few days with you and your boys then). We will get back on August 13th or so and stay in the US for about two weeks; haven’t firmed up that schedule. In October we will go to India for a week or so and then return to the US in December for Christmas.
Hope that doesn’t surprise anyone.
Sun 3/20/2011 10:47 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
All week I try to think of things I can write about and then when Sunday night rolls around, I can’t remember a thing I thought I wanted to write about.
The fellow from Green River arrived Saturday night and came to Magadi today, so I no longer the only Mzumgu at the plant now. Hope he knows what he is in for. He should be able to add a lot to the financial area of the plant. It is another are that needs help.
Rainy season started again!!!! and new bugs coming to visit. Went to the Nairobi on Thursday and the roads were flooded going up but had cleared off a little by the time we came back. Then going to Stake meetings on Saturday and Sunday there was rain but no flooding. Last year when I was coming home in April the roads were really bad and I almost didn’t make it to the airport.
So, I’ll end the suspense, I’m not the new Stake President. L. Whitney Clayton one of the Presidency of the Seventy and Paul Koelliker of the first Quorum of the Seventy conducted the interviews. I was the first one after the existing Stake Presidency. I came from the greatest distance and was there first. Africans give whole new meaning to “Mormon Standard Time”. They were a little surprised to see a mzumgu walk in and when I told them I was only going to be here another few months, the interview ended pretty fast. They told me to be sure the counselors in the branch presidency know how to conduct branch business and help them understand what is done well in the US. And to learn what the Kenyans do well and take that back to the US. Elder Clayton asked if this was the first time I had worked overseas. When I said yes, he made the comment that this is about as remote as it gets. (I hear they will be looking for a new Stake President in Green River soon.)
Stake conferences here are very uplifting. There were a number of things said today that maybe I should have heard years ago. Maybe they were discussed but I wasn’t listening. Elder Koelliker talked about when he was called by President Hinckley. He, and the other 11 men called that day, were in a room with President Hinckley. They were told they looked like an ordinary bunch of men. President Hinckley told them he could go out and get 100 other men that would be just as good as they were. He told them they were no better; but they had been called by the Lord. They were no better than anyone else, they were just called. President Hinckley told them they were ordinary men that had been called to extraordinary things. He went on to say there were many men that could have been the new Stake President but that the Lord wanted Bother Obdevo.
President Ondevo’s wife was asked to bear her testimony. She got up, and as she was standing there the new President got up and stood by her. She read what she said from a program she had written on. When the new President started to speak, he said that was the first time she had talked in a church meeting. She is extremely shy and not well educated.
There was also a portion of a talk that had a theme fathers are leaders in the home, not bosses. In many cultures in Africa the women do all the work at home and many times they work outside the home too. So emphasis is placed on making sure men view themselves as equals in the marriage relationship and not the “boss”.
One last thing said by the departing Stake President, in 1998 when he got home from his mission there were 12 units of the church in Kenya, now there are 36. Elder Koelliker said in the last few weeks there have been three new Stakes created in East Africa and two more are planned shortly. He said that Africa is growing very fast. One other indication of that is there are 32 missionaries serving from the Nairobi stake. Anyway conference was great.
And, about work; there are still struggles but it’ll turn around. A new year starts in April and we have money targeted for those areas of greatest problems. It should improve greatly by mid-year (I hope).
Hope you all have a good week. Write occasionally.
Love
Paul/dad
All week I try to think of things I can write about and then when Sunday night rolls around, I can’t remember a thing I thought I wanted to write about.
The fellow from Green River arrived Saturday night and came to Magadi today, so I no longer the only Mzumgu at the plant now. Hope he knows what he is in for. He should be able to add a lot to the financial area of the plant. It is another are that needs help.
Rainy season started again!!!! and new bugs coming to visit. Went to the Nairobi on Thursday and the roads were flooded going up but had cleared off a little by the time we came back. Then going to Stake meetings on Saturday and Sunday there was rain but no flooding. Last year when I was coming home in April the roads were really bad and I almost didn’t make it to the airport.
So, I’ll end the suspense, I’m not the new Stake President. L. Whitney Clayton one of the Presidency of the Seventy and Paul Koelliker of the first Quorum of the Seventy conducted the interviews. I was the first one after the existing Stake Presidency. I came from the greatest distance and was there first. Africans give whole new meaning to “Mormon Standard Time”. They were a little surprised to see a mzumgu walk in and when I told them I was only going to be here another few months, the interview ended pretty fast. They told me to be sure the counselors in the branch presidency know how to conduct branch business and help them understand what is done well in the US. And to learn what the Kenyans do well and take that back to the US. Elder Clayton asked if this was the first time I had worked overseas. When I said yes, he made the comment that this is about as remote as it gets. (I hear they will be looking for a new Stake President in Green River soon.)
Stake conferences here are very uplifting. There were a number of things said today that maybe I should have heard years ago. Maybe they were discussed but I wasn’t listening. Elder Koelliker talked about when he was called by President Hinckley. He, and the other 11 men called that day, were in a room with President Hinckley. They were told they looked like an ordinary bunch of men. President Hinckley told them he could go out and get 100 other men that would be just as good as they were. He told them they were no better; but they had been called by the Lord. They were no better than anyone else, they were just called. President Hinckley told them they were ordinary men that had been called to extraordinary things. He went on to say there were many men that could have been the new Stake President but that the Lord wanted Bother Obdevo.
President Ondevo’s wife was asked to bear her testimony. She got up, and as she was standing there the new President got up and stood by her. She read what she said from a program she had written on. When the new President started to speak, he said that was the first time she had talked in a church meeting. She is extremely shy and not well educated.
There was also a portion of a talk that had a theme fathers are leaders in the home, not bosses. In many cultures in Africa the women do all the work at home and many times they work outside the home too. So emphasis is placed on making sure men view themselves as equals in the marriage relationship and not the “boss”.
One last thing said by the departing Stake President, in 1998 when he got home from his mission there were 12 units of the church in Kenya, now there are 36. Elder Koelliker said in the last few weeks there have been three new Stakes created in East Africa and two more are planned shortly. He said that Africa is growing very fast. One other indication of that is there are 32 missionaries serving from the Nairobi stake. Anyway conference was great.
And, about work; there are still struggles but it’ll turn around. A new year starts in April and we have money targeted for those areas of greatest problems. It should improve greatly by mid-year (I hope).
Hope you all have a good week. Write occasionally.
Love
Paul/dad
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sun 3/13/2011 1:29 PM
Dear Family and friends:
Another week down the tubes. Weeks are all running together and beginning to all look alike. It is getting more difficult to come up with “newsy” things to talk about. But I’ll try.
Mom may be able to remember my letters home from my mission, as the end drew closer, I started filling out form letters. All I had to do was put checks in boxes, didn’t have to say anything. So I’ll start looking for form letters for ex-patriot sons (not sure I can get John to use them, but I'll try).
I’ll break this email down into bullet points like doing a presentation and see if that makes it easier to write
• I forgot to tell one story from last week. In the Board meeting there was a presentation going on by a Finance guy and he was talking about consumption improvements for fuel and electricity. He looked at me and asked “Paul will these improvements be sustained”. About a minute before that time, Debi had sent a message saying “she’s here” along with a picture. So I was looking at my phone waiting for the picture to come up and was not paying attention at all. Fortunately the group knew that Debi was in the US and I was expecting a granddaughter so I was forgiven for being “absent” when I told them what I was doing. Anyway I’ll always remember what I was doing when I found out my granddaughter was born.
• I had some interesting experiences this week in dealing with people that wanted jobs. I can’t “give” people jobs, I only recommend the number of people I need to operate the plant and then the HR people supply the men I need. Well most people don’t know that. I have men come and talk to me all the time asking for jobs. This week I had a man come in whose contract was expiring. We needed a translator because he didn’t speak English. But it came out that he had two wives and 11 children. Needless to say he needed a job. To give all community people an opportunity, people are only hired for 9 months and then they leave and give others a chance to work. So this man wanted me to bypass the system and give him a job. Another fellow came in and presented me with all his educational paper work and letters of reference and asked for a job. He told me he was married and had a family. I had to give him the same story that I don’t hire, the HR group hire men, when I told him that he began to cry. The people here need work so bad but the economy can’t support all the needs of the workers. It is far worse than in the US. It gets heart breaking at times. Some of the people that have jobs don’t deserve them and some of those that need them and deserve them can’t get them.
• On the way to church today I saw kids out on a stock pond dipping water out of the pot holes so they could recover what little water was left. It was reminder to me how blessed we are to just turn a faucet to get water. Life is so simple here, they don’t have to decide what dress to wear or which pair of shoes to wear, they only have one of each.
• Today was the first week with the two branches separated. There weren’t many people in attendance. But having the church move closer to those members in Rangai will be a huge blessing for those members what won’t have to spend much money to get to church. It will be an interesting process to organize the branch with so few members. Not all organizations will be fully staffed and all will be required to have more than one calling. But it will be exciting.
• There was a young man that came in and talked to me today and said he wanted to start preparing to serve a mission. Those experiences make it all worthwhile. The youth here between 18 and 27 are incredible. They have a good understanding of the gospel and strong testimonies. Of course those older than that are strong too. But there aren’t too many in that age group in the branch. 75% of the members are under 30. I’m the oldest guy in the branch.
So much for babbling, I’ll shut if off.
Love you all
Paul/Dad
Another week down the tubes. Weeks are all running together and beginning to all look alike. It is getting more difficult to come up with “newsy” things to talk about. But I’ll try.
Mom may be able to remember my letters home from my mission, as the end drew closer, I started filling out form letters. All I had to do was put checks in boxes, didn’t have to say anything. So I’ll start looking for form letters for ex-patriot sons (not sure I can get John to use them, but I'll try).
I’ll break this email down into bullet points like doing a presentation and see if that makes it easier to write
• I forgot to tell one story from last week. In the Board meeting there was a presentation going on by a Finance guy and he was talking about consumption improvements for fuel and electricity. He looked at me and asked “Paul will these improvements be sustained”. About a minute before that time, Debi had sent a message saying “she’s here” along with a picture. So I was looking at my phone waiting for the picture to come up and was not paying attention at all. Fortunately the group knew that Debi was in the US and I was expecting a granddaughter so I was forgiven for being “absent” when I told them what I was doing. Anyway I’ll always remember what I was doing when I found out my granddaughter was born.
• I had some interesting experiences this week in dealing with people that wanted jobs. I can’t “give” people jobs, I only recommend the number of people I need to operate the plant and then the HR people supply the men I need. Well most people don’t know that. I have men come and talk to me all the time asking for jobs. This week I had a man come in whose contract was expiring. We needed a translator because he didn’t speak English. But it came out that he had two wives and 11 children. Needless to say he needed a job. To give all community people an opportunity, people are only hired for 9 months and then they leave and give others a chance to work. So this man wanted me to bypass the system and give him a job. Another fellow came in and presented me with all his educational paper work and letters of reference and asked for a job. He told me he was married and had a family. I had to give him the same story that I don’t hire, the HR group hire men, when I told him that he began to cry. The people here need work so bad but the economy can’t support all the needs of the workers. It is far worse than in the US. It gets heart breaking at times. Some of the people that have jobs don’t deserve them and some of those that need them and deserve them can’t get them.
• On the way to church today I saw kids out on a stock pond dipping water out of the pot holes so they could recover what little water was left. It was reminder to me how blessed we are to just turn a faucet to get water. Life is so simple here, they don’t have to decide what dress to wear or which pair of shoes to wear, they only have one of each.
• Today was the first week with the two branches separated. There weren’t many people in attendance. But having the church move closer to those members in Rangai will be a huge blessing for those members what won’t have to spend much money to get to church. It will be an interesting process to organize the branch with so few members. Not all organizations will be fully staffed and all will be required to have more than one calling. But it will be exciting.
• There was a young man that came in and talked to me today and said he wanted to start preparing to serve a mission. Those experiences make it all worthwhile. The youth here between 18 and 27 are incredible. They have a good understanding of the gospel and strong testimonies. Of course those older than that are strong too. But there aren’t too many in that age group in the branch. 75% of the members are under 30. I’m the oldest guy in the branch.
So much for babbling, I’ll shut if off.
Love you all
Paul/Dad
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sun 3/6/2011 12:13 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
So the big news of the week is I’m a grandpa, again. This time it's a GIRL. She was born on Tuesday (I think) it was late at night. Her name is Elliett Taylor Ashley Fullerton (not sure any of the spelling is right other than Fullerton). Shortly after she was born she was taken to the ICU because of an infection. We held a family fast on Thursday for her. When they tested her again the infection was gone. One more little miracle in life and prayers are answered. Elliett will be blessed in May when I return. She will come home from the hospital on the 9th after she is done with the antibiotics (the Dr wanted to complete the regimen even thought the tests were negative).
Well I survived the Board Meeting. Actually it went very well, the Board is very pleased with how the plant is operating. With increased production, the plant is also making money and there is a good chance earnings this year will meet the budget set last year. The prospect of meeting the earnings budget just a few months ago was totally out of the question. So things have turned around very nicely. Hopefully we can keep the wheels on the plant until the end of March when the year officially ends. Then we will be given a new year to work with. There are outages planned early in the year to make repairs so both plants operate more smoothly and hopefully the stress level will go down even more. But with a plant that will turn 100 years old this year there are plenty of opportunities for problems.
Rusty the new finance guy returned to the US on Friday. His work visa was approved so he will return on the 21 and start working in Magadi for two years. I’m over half done with my assignment and not sure I would want to be looking at two years. Two years is a long time!! It has gone pretty fast and I’ve had a lot of good experiences. But the work trials have been plentiful. I’m sure Rusty will experience the same thing. There are many opportunities to fix finance. The purchasing and the stores areas are in need of a lot of help and I hope Rusty can fix those areas.
Church today was interesting. They organized the other branch so next week Langata will be really small. When the Stake president was talking about the change he told of a ward they split that had about 90 people attending. Shortly after splitting, both wards were back at 90 attending. He made the comment that the church grows by division, interesting way of looking at it. It will be a challenge but I’m not in this alone. Stake conference is coming up in two weeks and the visiting Area Seventy wants to visit will all Bishops and Branch Presidents so I guess I’ll have an interesting interview. They are going to reorganize the Stake so I know what they are looking for but that person won’t be in the room when I’m being interviewed.
Not much else to say other than the wildlife is still all over Africa. Saw four twigas on the way to church today. For those of you that don’t know Swahili, a Twiga has a very long neck and brown spots. I looked twice Mom, once for me and once for you.
Love you all
Paul/dad
So the big news of the week is I’m a grandpa, again. This time it's a GIRL. She was born on Tuesday (I think) it was late at night. Her name is Elliett Taylor Ashley Fullerton (not sure any of the spelling is right other than Fullerton). Shortly after she was born she was taken to the ICU because of an infection. We held a family fast on Thursday for her. When they tested her again the infection was gone. One more little miracle in life and prayers are answered. Elliett will be blessed in May when I return. She will come home from the hospital on the 9th after she is done with the antibiotics (the Dr wanted to complete the regimen even thought the tests were negative).
Well I survived the Board Meeting. Actually it went very well, the Board is very pleased with how the plant is operating. With increased production, the plant is also making money and there is a good chance earnings this year will meet the budget set last year. The prospect of meeting the earnings budget just a few months ago was totally out of the question. So things have turned around very nicely. Hopefully we can keep the wheels on the plant until the end of March when the year officially ends. Then we will be given a new year to work with. There are outages planned early in the year to make repairs so both plants operate more smoothly and hopefully the stress level will go down even more. But with a plant that will turn 100 years old this year there are plenty of opportunities for problems.
Rusty the new finance guy returned to the US on Friday. His work visa was approved so he will return on the 21 and start working in Magadi for two years. I’m over half done with my assignment and not sure I would want to be looking at two years. Two years is a long time!! It has gone pretty fast and I’ve had a lot of good experiences. But the work trials have been plentiful. I’m sure Rusty will experience the same thing. There are many opportunities to fix finance. The purchasing and the stores areas are in need of a lot of help and I hope Rusty can fix those areas.
Church today was interesting. They organized the other branch so next week Langata will be really small. When the Stake president was talking about the change he told of a ward they split that had about 90 people attending. Shortly after splitting, both wards were back at 90 attending. He made the comment that the church grows by division, interesting way of looking at it. It will be a challenge but I’m not in this alone. Stake conference is coming up in two weeks and the visiting Area Seventy wants to visit will all Bishops and Branch Presidents so I guess I’ll have an interesting interview. They are going to reorganize the Stake so I know what they are looking for but that person won’t be in the room when I’m being interviewed.
Not much else to say other than the wildlife is still all over Africa. Saw four twigas on the way to church today. For those of you that don’t know Swahili, a Twiga has a very long neck and brown spots. I looked twice Mom, once for me and once for you.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Friday, March 4, 2011
Sun 2/27/2011 12:09 PM
Dear Family and Friends:
Well a few things happening but nothing too exciting. Rusty Bayles has been here for the week. He is coming over to be the head finance guy. He is really excited to be coming. He has been at Green River for 17 years and is ready for a change. Magadi soda has applied for a work visa for him, so when it is granted he will return for about two years. His family will be staying in green River. He has a son that is a senior this next year and a son that will be in the 7th grade. So it would be difficult for them to come here. They will come over for visits and he will go back for big events. It shouldn’t be bad for him while we are here together. But when I go home, it will be lonely.
Earlier in the week, the Stake Presidency was reviewing youth programs and was considering how to get the scouting program kicked off in Kenya. There are no organized troops here in the church and I’m not sure there are any troops in the country. The Duty to God program is used here to help the young men in religious training but as far as activities there is no program other than ad-hock activities. Well the answer came today in church. I invited Rusty up to introduce himself in Sacrament meeting. As he was bearing his testimony, he talked about going to the national scout jamboree. After Sacrament meeting the first counselor in the stake presidency came up to me and he told me they found their guy to get scouting going in Kenya. Rusty was a scout master for years in the 4th ward in Green River and has been involved with scouting for years. President Kelsey, you can’t warn Rusty, I haven’t told him this. I figured I’d let the Stake talk to him.
So this week a guy came in to see me. He has no job; he just sits around all day. He is a guy that I have been climbing with before so he is a pretty good kid but jus that no ambition. So anyway, here is how the story goes. He came in and started telling me about his health problems. He has been in a hospital because of back problems. They haven’t been able to do much good so he decided to try some tribal medicine. To do that he told me he needed to go to his village where his goats (notice plural) are kept. He was going to butcher the goat and eat certain parts to help his condition. Then he asked me for money so he could pay for his ride to the village, he needed about $15 US to get there. I knew that’s about how much a goat costs so I asked him why he just didn’t buy a goat here and do his treatment in Magadi. He told me he wanted to use one of his own goats. I thought this would be a good opportunity to teach him some self reliance. So I suggested he bring back one of his goats and sell it so he could take care of his own expenses and not have to ask others to support him. That is when he told me he only had one goat. It is just too easy to ask others to support you and not try to figure it out for yourself. So anyway, I told him that I wouldn’t give him any money. He had the resources to handle it on his own and that is what he should do. Hope I am not being too mean. As you can probably tell, I’m getting tired of being asked for money at every turn.
So anyway, work could be going better but there is progress being made in the plant. The Board of Directors are here this week and a few of them will be here tomorrow. So it is dog and pony show time. Hope they don’t run me off. Doubt they will but you never know.
Krista is ready to have her baby, Debi is there now helping. We are excited to have a baby girl in the family. I don’t know if they have come up with a name yet, my suggestion of Paula Taylora Fullerton didn’t go very far. Can’t understand why, I liked the name.
Can’t think of much else to say.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Well a few things happening but nothing too exciting. Rusty Bayles has been here for the week. He is coming over to be the head finance guy. He is really excited to be coming. He has been at Green River for 17 years and is ready for a change. Magadi soda has applied for a work visa for him, so when it is granted he will return for about two years. His family will be staying in green River. He has a son that is a senior this next year and a son that will be in the 7th grade. So it would be difficult for them to come here. They will come over for visits and he will go back for big events. It shouldn’t be bad for him while we are here together. But when I go home, it will be lonely.
Earlier in the week, the Stake Presidency was reviewing youth programs and was considering how to get the scouting program kicked off in Kenya. There are no organized troops here in the church and I’m not sure there are any troops in the country. The Duty to God program is used here to help the young men in religious training but as far as activities there is no program other than ad-hock activities. Well the answer came today in church. I invited Rusty up to introduce himself in Sacrament meeting. As he was bearing his testimony, he talked about going to the national scout jamboree. After Sacrament meeting the first counselor in the stake presidency came up to me and he told me they found their guy to get scouting going in Kenya. Rusty was a scout master for years in the 4th ward in Green River and has been involved with scouting for years. President Kelsey, you can’t warn Rusty, I haven’t told him this. I figured I’d let the Stake talk to him.
So this week a guy came in to see me. He has no job; he just sits around all day. He is a guy that I have been climbing with before so he is a pretty good kid but jus that no ambition. So anyway, here is how the story goes. He came in and started telling me about his health problems. He has been in a hospital because of back problems. They haven’t been able to do much good so he decided to try some tribal medicine. To do that he told me he needed to go to his village where his goats (notice plural) are kept. He was going to butcher the goat and eat certain parts to help his condition. Then he asked me for money so he could pay for his ride to the village, he needed about $15 US to get there. I knew that’s about how much a goat costs so I asked him why he just didn’t buy a goat here and do his treatment in Magadi. He told me he wanted to use one of his own goats. I thought this would be a good opportunity to teach him some self reliance. So I suggested he bring back one of his goats and sell it so he could take care of his own expenses and not have to ask others to support him. That is when he told me he only had one goat. It is just too easy to ask others to support you and not try to figure it out for yourself. So anyway, I told him that I wouldn’t give him any money. He had the resources to handle it on his own and that is what he should do. Hope I am not being too mean. As you can probably tell, I’m getting tired of being asked for money at every turn.
So anyway, work could be going better but there is progress being made in the plant. The Board of Directors are here this week and a few of them will be here tomorrow. So it is dog and pony show time. Hope they don’t run me off. Doubt they will but you never know.
Krista is ready to have her baby, Debi is there now helping. We are excited to have a baby girl in the family. I don’t know if they have come up with a name yet, my suggestion of Paula Taylora Fullerton didn’t go very far. Can’t understand why, I liked the name.
Can’t think of much else to say.
Love you all
Paul/dad
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sun 2/20/2011 12:24 PM
Hello Family:
Well the most exciting thing that happened this week is that Debi and Margaret (Margie as she is known in the schools here) went home, they left Thursday. It was an all day ordeal taking them to the airport. We left about 1:00 pm and got back at around 9:00 pm. Traffic in Nairobi is bumper to bumper in the evening and it took about three hours to travel 20 miles.
They made it home safely so now Krista can have the baby anytime. The plan now is to bless the baby on May 1st so I’ll be back in the US then. So Krista the pressure is on you now. Let’s have the kid!
Work is still a challenge in the old plant but the new plant is doing quite well still. The Board of Directors is coming the first week of March so it will be interesting to see what they have to say. Another fellow is coming to Magadi for a two year assignment from Green River. He is a finance guy that I worked with for 15 years. He is a member of the church also so we will have quite a few things in common. He is real smart so we are different in that area. He graduated from the University of Utah (the top school in Utah) and then went on to Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie is one of the most prestigious business schools in the country. I taught one of his kids in Sunday school and liked him a lot, really a good kid.
I’m going to have to make more changes in the management here. The longer I’m here, the more I find there are only a few men that do all the work. I need to aggressively move the non-performers to areas where their damage is minimized. And in some cases that will be off the payroll. Some are good employees that are just in the wrong job. There are positions for them but they need to be moved for the operation to succeed. So the process will begin this week. The way I look at it is that if I don’t make the changes my boss will bring in someone that is willing to make the improvements. The plant is doing better but it still has a way to go to meet the profit expectations of the board.
So church was interesting today. I stayed up late last night preparing a talk and arrived at church today to find out a High Council member was going to talk. What a relief. I’ll save the talk for later, I’m sure I’ll use it sometime. I continue to be impressed with the young man that is the first counselor in the branch presidency. He is so committed and willing to do anything to make sure the branch succeeds. Made an announcement today that the other branch will be organized prior to stake conference in March. If they haven’t found a building to meet in they will use the building we are in and we will share. Apparently if authorization is given to form a branch and it isn’t complete within three months the request has to be made again. There are three or four splits going on in the stake now. The church is really growing in Kenya. There was a new senior couple that came to church today. Their name is Tuttle and they are from SLC. They are humanitarian missionaries; there are many opportunities here for service. I don’t know what their goals will be but some have come to put in wells to provide water to villages. You probably know what a blessing that would be to the people here to not have to carry dirty water for miles.
I was busy today doing interviews. One young man was interviewed to be ordained an elder. He is a recent convert and is really excited about the gospel. He is a student and is studying bio-medical, whatever that is. He will finish his studies later this year. Then there were two young women that wanted to get their patriarchal blessings. Really great young women, one is planning to get married to a young man in the branch (Debi, it was Sharon who is Joseph’s girl friend). Joseph is in the US at Harvard for a couple of weeks at a mock UN meeting. He is a pretty bright guy to. I feel a lot better about my Sundays when I get to deal with interviews and not welfare situations.
Run out of things to say and it is late so I need to go to bed.
Love you all
dad/paul
Well the most exciting thing that happened this week is that Debi and Margaret (Margie as she is known in the schools here) went home, they left Thursday. It was an all day ordeal taking them to the airport. We left about 1:00 pm and got back at around 9:00 pm. Traffic in Nairobi is bumper to bumper in the evening and it took about three hours to travel 20 miles.
They made it home safely so now Krista can have the baby anytime. The plan now is to bless the baby on May 1st so I’ll be back in the US then. So Krista the pressure is on you now. Let’s have the kid!
Work is still a challenge in the old plant but the new plant is doing quite well still. The Board of Directors is coming the first week of March so it will be interesting to see what they have to say. Another fellow is coming to Magadi for a two year assignment from Green River. He is a finance guy that I worked with for 15 years. He is a member of the church also so we will have quite a few things in common. He is real smart so we are different in that area. He graduated from the University of Utah (the top school in Utah) and then went on to Carnegie Mellon. Carnegie is one of the most prestigious business schools in the country. I taught one of his kids in Sunday school and liked him a lot, really a good kid.
I’m going to have to make more changes in the management here. The longer I’m here, the more I find there are only a few men that do all the work. I need to aggressively move the non-performers to areas where their damage is minimized. And in some cases that will be off the payroll. Some are good employees that are just in the wrong job. There are positions for them but they need to be moved for the operation to succeed. So the process will begin this week. The way I look at it is that if I don’t make the changes my boss will bring in someone that is willing to make the improvements. The plant is doing better but it still has a way to go to meet the profit expectations of the board.
So church was interesting today. I stayed up late last night preparing a talk and arrived at church today to find out a High Council member was going to talk. What a relief. I’ll save the talk for later, I’m sure I’ll use it sometime. I continue to be impressed with the young man that is the first counselor in the branch presidency. He is so committed and willing to do anything to make sure the branch succeeds. Made an announcement today that the other branch will be organized prior to stake conference in March. If they haven’t found a building to meet in they will use the building we are in and we will share. Apparently if authorization is given to form a branch and it isn’t complete within three months the request has to be made again. There are three or four splits going on in the stake now. The church is really growing in Kenya. There was a new senior couple that came to church today. Their name is Tuttle and they are from SLC. They are humanitarian missionaries; there are many opportunities here for service. I don’t know what their goals will be but some have come to put in wells to provide water to villages. You probably know what a blessing that would be to the people here to not have to carry dirty water for miles.
I was busy today doing interviews. One young man was interviewed to be ordained an elder. He is a recent convert and is really excited about the gospel. He is a student and is studying bio-medical, whatever that is. He will finish his studies later this year. Then there were two young women that wanted to get their patriarchal blessings. Really great young women, one is planning to get married to a young man in the branch (Debi, it was Sharon who is Joseph’s girl friend). Joseph is in the US at Harvard for a couple of weeks at a mock UN meeting. He is a pretty bright guy to. I feel a lot better about my Sundays when I get to deal with interviews and not welfare situations.
Run out of things to say and it is late so I need to go to bed.
Love you all
dad/paul
Monday, February 14, 2011
Sun 2/13/2011 10:31 PM
Dear Family and Friends:
Another week down the drain.
Pretty quiet at work this week. The new plant that I was sent here to help get producing set a weekly production record last week and had to shut down on Thursday and Friday because silos were full and the distribution and sales people couldn’t sell it fast enough. It’s nice to have the target off my back and on someone else’s back. I may have mentioned it last week, but the old plant has been struggling with production but its problems are known and will get fixed before long. Finances are improving quickly also. In a meeting on Wednesday, the accounting folks said we will have caught up on all our bills by the end of February so there won’t be any reason not to buy the parts we need to keep the plant operating. We’ll see!!!!
The weather here has been very hot. It has been 43 degrees some days (I’ll let you guys figure out how hot that is; I’ve had to do the calculation for a year now). So for those of you that are math challenged, 43 is hot!!!! Trust me…. It has been very dry also, with the exception of last night when we were coming home from church. It was a downpour. There were rocks washed out onto the road and water running over the road in many places. The maintenance along the road is not good (polite way of saying horrible). Most culverts are filled with debris so in any rain storm half the water runs through the culvert and the other half runs over the road. The local Maasai will like the rain because if helps the grass grow and the water holding ponds were filling up. The ponds being full make it easy to water the livestock and the women don’t have to haul the water from long distances.
So the other excitement was at church. I had no idea how needy the people were here. On fellow had the building burn down that he lived in, another fellow was locked out of his apartment (he has two children), and another fellow came in and told me his rent was late. It is amazing how little people have here and how little it takes to live on. The fellow locked out of his apartment needed 7,500 shillings (about $95). That is enough for three months rent! So by the time I left church, I felt like the dog that caught the car; going down the street at 60 mph getting thumped on the road every time the tire went around. I’ll need to talk to the former branch president so see how to handle the requests. I was told that welfare was the most challenging aspect of the job but had no idea it would be that challenging. I have the Sacrament meetings all arranged for the month so that part is easy. There are some priesthood advancements also which will be enjoyable. One young man who just joined the church late last year is going to be interviewed to be advanced to be an Elder. He will graduate later this year with a degree in biomedical science and wants to go on a mission once he graduates. A very bright young man and excited about life and the church. Those will be the highlights of the job.
The return plans for Debi and I have changed (well at least Debi’s have). She will be coming home this week (one week early). Krista thinks she is going to have a baby early and Debi doesn’t want to miss this one. So she leaves here on Thursday and arrives in LA on Friday. Margaret is traveling at the same time so she will be in SLC on Friday also. Not sure when she gets back to IF. I’ll let Margaret update those that “need to know”. I return on April 28th. For the Peterson kids; would like to bless Paula Taylora Fullerton (I picked out the name; not sure her Mom and Dad have bought into it yet. I like it a lot though) on May 1st. Drive the see Cherry/Cody and crew later in the week (Cody graduates on the 7th of May). We would then drive back to SLC and fly from there to Seattle to see Mya/Kermit and the boyz on the way back to Kenya. We will stop over either in Amsterdam, Paris, or Dublin on the way back and see some sights. Don’t have all the dates figured out yet, so will fill in the gaps later.
I’ve babbled enough already, love you all.
Paul/dad
Another week down the drain.
Pretty quiet at work this week. The new plant that I was sent here to help get producing set a weekly production record last week and had to shut down on Thursday and Friday because silos were full and the distribution and sales people couldn’t sell it fast enough. It’s nice to have the target off my back and on someone else’s back. I may have mentioned it last week, but the old plant has been struggling with production but its problems are known and will get fixed before long. Finances are improving quickly also. In a meeting on Wednesday, the accounting folks said we will have caught up on all our bills by the end of February so there won’t be any reason not to buy the parts we need to keep the plant operating. We’ll see!!!!
The weather here has been very hot. It has been 43 degrees some days (I’ll let you guys figure out how hot that is; I’ve had to do the calculation for a year now). So for those of you that are math challenged, 43 is hot!!!! Trust me…. It has been very dry also, with the exception of last night when we were coming home from church. It was a downpour. There were rocks washed out onto the road and water running over the road in many places. The maintenance along the road is not good (polite way of saying horrible). Most culverts are filled with debris so in any rain storm half the water runs through the culvert and the other half runs over the road. The local Maasai will like the rain because if helps the grass grow and the water holding ponds were filling up. The ponds being full make it easy to water the livestock and the women don’t have to haul the water from long distances.
So the other excitement was at church. I had no idea how needy the people were here. On fellow had the building burn down that he lived in, another fellow was locked out of his apartment (he has two children), and another fellow came in and told me his rent was late. It is amazing how little people have here and how little it takes to live on. The fellow locked out of his apartment needed 7,500 shillings (about $95). That is enough for three months rent! So by the time I left church, I felt like the dog that caught the car; going down the street at 60 mph getting thumped on the road every time the tire went around. I’ll need to talk to the former branch president so see how to handle the requests. I was told that welfare was the most challenging aspect of the job but had no idea it would be that challenging. I have the Sacrament meetings all arranged for the month so that part is easy. There are some priesthood advancements also which will be enjoyable. One young man who just joined the church late last year is going to be interviewed to be advanced to be an Elder. He will graduate later this year with a degree in biomedical science and wants to go on a mission once he graduates. A very bright young man and excited about life and the church. Those will be the highlights of the job.
The return plans for Debi and I have changed (well at least Debi’s have). She will be coming home this week (one week early). Krista thinks she is going to have a baby early and Debi doesn’t want to miss this one. So she leaves here on Thursday and arrives in LA on Friday. Margaret is traveling at the same time so she will be in SLC on Friday also. Not sure when she gets back to IF. I’ll let Margaret update those that “need to know”. I return on April 28th. For the Peterson kids; would like to bless Paula Taylora Fullerton (I picked out the name; not sure her Mom and Dad have bought into it yet. I like it a lot though) on May 1st. Drive the see Cherry/Cody and crew later in the week (Cody graduates on the 7th of May). We would then drive back to SLC and fly from there to Seattle to see Mya/Kermit and the boyz on the way back to Kenya. We will stop over either in Amsterdam, Paris, or Dublin on the way back and see some sights. Don’t have all the dates figured out yet, so will fill in the gaps later.
I’ve babbled enough already, love you all.
Paul/dad
Monday, February 7, 2011
Sun 1/30/2011 1:41 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
A lot happened this week so I’ll review the week in order. To start with production has improved considerably in the new plant. The first few months of the year, the plant struggled to make 500 tons a day. Three of the last four days production has exceeded 950 tons and the fourth day production was 700 tons. So needless to say, things have improved a great deal in the past week. There were some changes made earlier in the month, but there were so many operational problems the process improvements were masked by mechanical problems. So the challenge in keeping production at this level will be to just keep the plant running. With all the financial problems over the past year, spare parts have not been ordered and downtime is often made worse by simply not having the right parts. If the current production rates continue, the plant will be able to catch up on all outstanding debt in six to eight months. So now the pressure is on the marketing people to get out and sell the product. With the world market about sold out that shouldn’t be too difficult. The old plant is now having problems meeting budget and its problems stems back to lack of parts too. So hopefully it will recover quickly The old plant started production in 1911 so it has quite a history and should recover fairly quickly.
The other exciting thing was a trip to the community west of the plant. It’s the one I went to last March and I thought I’d entered the Garden of Eden. There are bananas, mangos, maze, and papaya. It’s not at all like Magadi because it’s right at the base of some mountains so it has all the water that is needed to grow anything; quite the place. We wanted to take Margaret to show here more of Kenya. While visiting we say baboons, zebras, giraffes, monkeys, gazelles, a lot of Maasai people. One of the monkeys we saw was the one that is black with a white beard and a long black tail with a white bushy end. The monkey is rare in this part of Kenya so we were excited to see it. We all looked twice Mom, once for us and the other time for you.
Margaret was complaining all day about how hot it was. She kept wiping her forehead and by the end of the day she was asking how to say “muddy face” in Maasai. We thought it might be nice to say “Margaret” was how to say muddy face in Maasai. I think she is enjoying her time here but she is always complaining about how hard she is working. It’s tough when you have to be up three days a week before eight and the other two before 10. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. She just finished her letter so I’ll let her tell her story. But if you want the straight scoop, call me.
Last of the excitement; I’m now officially the Branch President. Debbie said she wasn’t going to call me President. I didn’t expect she would. A few years ago I came home from work while her dad was visiting. When I walked in the door, he said “Debbie, your lord and master is home”. He didn’t ever dare refer to me as her lord and master again. So it didn’t come as a surprise that my name didn’t change from Paul (or any number of endearing names). With the success the plant has been having, I didn’t think I could decline the call to help in the church.
One of my counselors was been in the branch for a long time and has been a member since 1992. The other one is 23 and been in and out of the country a number of times. He spent a number of years in Canada because his father is a diplomat for Kenya, went on a mission and is now in school. A very bright young man. I will be depending on these two brothers to help me organize the branch. I know most of the Elders after having been the Elders Quorum President but I don’t know many of the sisters. The other branch (Rangai) will continue meeting with us until they find a building and move out. So we have a little while to extend all the callings and organize the branch. It is going to be a real education to help minister and administer in Kenya.
Debi continues to be the driver for Margaret and I along with keeping her following updated with facebook posts. For those of you looking at her facebook page, you’ll see most of the posts from the safari in Tanzania. She has some wonderful pictures of all kinds of animals she has seen.
I’m about talked out for the night so I’ll keep everyone posted on what is going on at work, with Auntie M and the Branch. Life isn’t too boring these days.
Love you all
Dad/paul
A lot happened this week so I’ll review the week in order. To start with production has improved considerably in the new plant. The first few months of the year, the plant struggled to make 500 tons a day. Three of the last four days production has exceeded 950 tons and the fourth day production was 700 tons. So needless to say, things have improved a great deal in the past week. There were some changes made earlier in the month, but there were so many operational problems the process improvements were masked by mechanical problems. So the challenge in keeping production at this level will be to just keep the plant running. With all the financial problems over the past year, spare parts have not been ordered and downtime is often made worse by simply not having the right parts. If the current production rates continue, the plant will be able to catch up on all outstanding debt in six to eight months. So now the pressure is on the marketing people to get out and sell the product. With the world market about sold out that shouldn’t be too difficult. The old plant is now having problems meeting budget and its problems stems back to lack of parts too. So hopefully it will recover quickly The old plant started production in 1911 so it has quite a history and should recover fairly quickly.
The other exciting thing was a trip to the community west of the plant. It’s the one I went to last March and I thought I’d entered the Garden of Eden. There are bananas, mangos, maze, and papaya. It’s not at all like Magadi because it’s right at the base of some mountains so it has all the water that is needed to grow anything; quite the place. We wanted to take Margaret to show here more of Kenya. While visiting we say baboons, zebras, giraffes, monkeys, gazelles, a lot of Maasai people. One of the monkeys we saw was the one that is black with a white beard and a long black tail with a white bushy end. The monkey is rare in this part of Kenya so we were excited to see it. We all looked twice Mom, once for us and the other time for you.
Margaret was complaining all day about how hot it was. She kept wiping her forehead and by the end of the day she was asking how to say “muddy face” in Maasai. We thought it might be nice to say “Margaret” was how to say muddy face in Maasai. I think she is enjoying her time here but she is always complaining about how hard she is working. It’s tough when you have to be up three days a week before eight and the other two before 10. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. She just finished her letter so I’ll let her tell her story. But if you want the straight scoop, call me.
Last of the excitement; I’m now officially the Branch President. Debbie said she wasn’t going to call me President. I didn’t expect she would. A few years ago I came home from work while her dad was visiting. When I walked in the door, he said “Debbie, your lord and master is home”. He didn’t ever dare refer to me as her lord and master again. So it didn’t come as a surprise that my name didn’t change from Paul (or any number of endearing names). With the success the plant has been having, I didn’t think I could decline the call to help in the church.
One of my counselors was been in the branch for a long time and has been a member since 1992. The other one is 23 and been in and out of the country a number of times. He spent a number of years in Canada because his father is a diplomat for Kenya, went on a mission and is now in school. A very bright young man. I will be depending on these two brothers to help me organize the branch. I know most of the Elders after having been the Elders Quorum President but I don’t know many of the sisters. The other branch (Rangai) will continue meeting with us until they find a building and move out. So we have a little while to extend all the callings and organize the branch. It is going to be a real education to help minister and administer in Kenya.
Debi continues to be the driver for Margaret and I along with keeping her following updated with facebook posts. For those of you looking at her facebook page, you’ll see most of the posts from the safari in Tanzania. She has some wonderful pictures of all kinds of animals she has seen.
I’m about talked out for the night so I’ll keep everyone posted on what is going on at work, with Auntie M and the Branch. Life isn’t too boring these days.
Love you all
Dad/paul
Monday, January 24, 2011
Mon 1/17/2011 12:16 PM
Hello Family and Friends:
Well to start with I better wish my Mom a happy birthday. Her birthday was yesterday and we called her on skype and wished her a happy birthday. This was the first time we had used skype since we arrived. It didn’t work all that well. The connection in the house is not that good. If we try it again we will go to my office and see if it works better there.
Margaret has arrived and has started work. Maybe she will write an update to keep you all informed about her adventure of “Teaching in Africa”. So far I think she is enjoying it but she has only taught one day.
Work has been a challenge. There have been problems the last two weeks and both plants have been struggling to make soda ash. So maybe I sent out the letter with the atta-boy too soon. I may be coming home in a few weeks.
So there is some more exciting news. Last Saturday night I got a text that said “Am President Suchi, will u be at Langata I need to see you”. To which I sent a text back saying “Yes. I will be there”. Should have gone inactive last week!!!! President Suchi is the Stake President. I have been called as the new Branch President of the Langata Branch. Don’t know if I’m ready for this or not. They are going to split the branch very quickly. The process began by calling me, next they will call the President of the Rangai Branch, find facilities and separate the two groups. So next week I will be sustained and start organizing the branch. It will be an interesting experience to say the least. I’ll keep you all posted as the work progresses. I’m sure I’ll need a lot of inspiration, so remember me in your prayers.
This is already late, so I’ll send it out now without adding much more. Hug all my grandkids and tell them grandpa (Mike) loves them.
Shena, how was my baby in STG. Did she like the attention last weekend?
Love you all,
Paul/dad
Well to start with I better wish my Mom a happy birthday. Her birthday was yesterday and we called her on skype and wished her a happy birthday. This was the first time we had used skype since we arrived. It didn’t work all that well. The connection in the house is not that good. If we try it again we will go to my office and see if it works better there.
Margaret has arrived and has started work. Maybe she will write an update to keep you all informed about her adventure of “Teaching in Africa”. So far I think she is enjoying it but she has only taught one day.
Work has been a challenge. There have been problems the last two weeks and both plants have been struggling to make soda ash. So maybe I sent out the letter with the atta-boy too soon. I may be coming home in a few weeks.
So there is some more exciting news. Last Saturday night I got a text that said “Am President Suchi, will u be at Langata I need to see you”. To which I sent a text back saying “Yes. I will be there”. Should have gone inactive last week!!!! President Suchi is the Stake President. I have been called as the new Branch President of the Langata Branch. Don’t know if I’m ready for this or not. They are going to split the branch very quickly. The process began by calling me, next they will call the President of the Rangai Branch, find facilities and separate the two groups. So next week I will be sustained and start organizing the branch. It will be an interesting experience to say the least. I’ll keep you all posted as the work progresses. I’m sure I’ll need a lot of inspiration, so remember me in your prayers.
This is already late, so I’ll send it out now without adding much more. Hug all my grandkids and tell them grandpa (Mike) loves them.
Shena, how was my baby in STG. Did she like the attention last weekend?
Love you all,
Paul/dad
Sun 1/23/2011 10:18 AM
Hello Family and Friends:
Weeks go by pretty fast, and for those of you keeping track, it’s been one year since I left. When I arrived and began looking forward to two years, I didn’t know if I would make it. The transition was pretty tough; being alone and without anything to do but work. There were times I was ready to throw in the sponge and head home. So I guess I’m at least half way done unless I sign up for another year (which I haven’t done yet).
So to start with, they branch was not reorganized today, was delayed until next week. Something about not being sure about the new branch president or something. Ok, that wasn’t the reason, not sure what it was other than the Stake President wasn’t able to come to Langata and take care of the business. So next week will be the big day. Both branches will continue to meet together until the Rangai Branch finds a meeting place. About 70% of the members live in Rangai so attendance will be pretty slim in Langata for a while. We are closer to Rongai also but they asked us to continue attending Langata. I guess my job will be to have someone trained to take over as Branch President once I leave. I compare what is going on at church to what is going on at work. There have been many people from the Green River plant come to Kenya and many from Kenya visit Green River with the purpose of exchanging best practices. Same thing is going on in Langata, hopefully I can add to what they already do well and those who served missions in the US and other countries left those things done well here in Kenya. Just re read this- hope you understand it. All are made better by sharing best practices.
Work is back on the mend I hope, there were a few good days and less bad days this week. So I hope the trend continues with more and more good days and fewer and fewer bad days.
It has been interesting with Margaret here. It is a challenge with three adults and one car. Debi has become the designated driver. We need to get a bumper sticker that says “Mom’s Taxi” for her car. I ride my bike to work so I’m not too dependent, but Debi drives Margaret to school. It’s not too far to school but it is too hot for those with Idaho roots. It is summer here so it is above 100 degrees every day. The heat doesn’t bother the locals but for us foreigners it’s tough. The locals put on winter coats as soon as the temperature goes below 80. Just don’t know how they stand the heat plus a coat. Anyway, Margaret stands out in the school yard; she may have a book bag and be in school, but she doesn’t look anything like the others there. I think she is enjoying the experience but I’ll leave the story telling up to her.
We did some driving around Magadi yesterday. We went to a remote area north of the lake/plant. When we were driving there I couldn’t figure out why anyone would travel in such a remote area. About that time we came upon a village. It was hot and dry. Couldn’t believe anyone would live there. It was about as poor a village as I have seen. Living in the mud huts with temperatures over 100 degrees must be a challenge. As we were leaving the village, I drove by the hut and gave the man the two water bottles we had brought with us. I figured if I was there, water would be about the best gift someone could give. Speaking of water, I have no idea how far they would have to go to get water.
After we went to the village, we drove south of the plant and saw a heard of giraffes. There were at least 24 (or maybe two dozen). It is unusual to see a herd of giraffes that size. They are usually in small groups. There were about 10 babies in the group. So it was exciting to see them all together.
Well so much for this week. Hope you all have a good week and remember that those of us in Africa love you all.
Paul/dad
By the way President Kelsey, the cat is out of the bag regarding Rusty Bayles so now you can discuss it freely. For those of you not in the loop, another guy from Green River is going to come work in Kenya. He is also a member of the church.
Weeks go by pretty fast, and for those of you keeping track, it’s been one year since I left. When I arrived and began looking forward to two years, I didn’t know if I would make it. The transition was pretty tough; being alone and without anything to do but work. There were times I was ready to throw in the sponge and head home. So I guess I’m at least half way done unless I sign up for another year (which I haven’t done yet).
So to start with, they branch was not reorganized today, was delayed until next week. Something about not being sure about the new branch president or something. Ok, that wasn’t the reason, not sure what it was other than the Stake President wasn’t able to come to Langata and take care of the business. So next week will be the big day. Both branches will continue to meet together until the Rangai Branch finds a meeting place. About 70% of the members live in Rangai so attendance will be pretty slim in Langata for a while. We are closer to Rongai also but they asked us to continue attending Langata. I guess my job will be to have someone trained to take over as Branch President once I leave. I compare what is going on at church to what is going on at work. There have been many people from the Green River plant come to Kenya and many from Kenya visit Green River with the purpose of exchanging best practices. Same thing is going on in Langata, hopefully I can add to what they already do well and those who served missions in the US and other countries left those things done well here in Kenya. Just re read this- hope you understand it. All are made better by sharing best practices.
Work is back on the mend I hope, there were a few good days and less bad days this week. So I hope the trend continues with more and more good days and fewer and fewer bad days.
It has been interesting with Margaret here. It is a challenge with three adults and one car. Debi has become the designated driver. We need to get a bumper sticker that says “Mom’s Taxi” for her car. I ride my bike to work so I’m not too dependent, but Debi drives Margaret to school. It’s not too far to school but it is too hot for those with Idaho roots. It is summer here so it is above 100 degrees every day. The heat doesn’t bother the locals but for us foreigners it’s tough. The locals put on winter coats as soon as the temperature goes below 80. Just don’t know how they stand the heat plus a coat. Anyway, Margaret stands out in the school yard; she may have a book bag and be in school, but she doesn’t look anything like the others there. I think she is enjoying the experience but I’ll leave the story telling up to her.
We did some driving around Magadi yesterday. We went to a remote area north of the lake/plant. When we were driving there I couldn’t figure out why anyone would travel in such a remote area. About that time we came upon a village. It was hot and dry. Couldn’t believe anyone would live there. It was about as poor a village as I have seen. Living in the mud huts with temperatures over 100 degrees must be a challenge. As we were leaving the village, I drove by the hut and gave the man the two water bottles we had brought with us. I figured if I was there, water would be about the best gift someone could give. Speaking of water, I have no idea how far they would have to go to get water.
After we went to the village, we drove south of the plant and saw a heard of giraffes. There were at least 24 (or maybe two dozen). It is unusual to see a herd of giraffes that size. They are usually in small groups. There were about 10 babies in the group. So it was exciting to see them all together.
Well so much for this week. Hope you all have a good week and remember that those of us in Africa love you all.
Paul/dad
By the way President Kelsey, the cat is out of the bag regarding Rusty Bayles so now you can discuss it freely. For those of you not in the loop, another guy from Green River is going to come work in Kenya. He is also a member of the church.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Hello Friends and family:
It’s difficult to even begin a weekly letter after three weeks of being away. It was good seeing most of our family. We visited all of our children and Debi’s dad, but didn’t have a chance to visit any other family. Mom, I’ll do better in May when we come to bless Krista’s baby and attend Cody’s graduation.
It was a tough holiday for Debi. As soon as she got off the plane in SLC a rash broke out. Turned out to be shingles, it took two weeks to get the correct diagnosis so she was in a lot of pain most of the holidays. In addition to shingles, she also had strep throat. But in spite of not feeling too good she was able to play with Cherry and Cody’s kids and spoil them. Shena and Cherry were spoiled before they arrived in STG.
We then went to LA to visit Krista, Greg and Zac. While in LA I was given a new name; I’m Mike. Greg’s dad’s name is Mike, Greg’s best friends name is Mike, and Greg’s sister’s boy friend is named Mike. So he thinks all men are named Mike. We worked the entire time we were there to get him to call me grandpa or Paul. But when I left, I was still Mike. New goal in life; get Zac to call me grandpa.
After LA we went to Seattle to visit Mya, Kermit, and the boys. It was good to see them. Seattle is beautiful. Didn’t see a lot of the city but were able to go up in the space needle with Kermit and the boys. The boys also got in some quality swim time at the hotel pool.
In Seattle, we met up with Margaret, Ethan and Christine. We all flew back to Nairobi together. As soon as we arrived, Debi, Margaret, Ethan, and Christine left for Serengeti for a safari. They also visited other places along the way but I’ll let them give the details. I can’t spell most of the places they were going and because I would have to work learning them it would just make me feel worse (not; it was good to get back to work so I could relax and get some rest). The safari was six days so they all return to Magadi tomorrow night. Margaret will stay until the end of February and return with Debi but Christine and Ethan return on Thursday. They go via Paris for more vacations time.
This was the fourth trip I’ve made to Kenya and I’m batting 500. This trip was all messed up from the start by snow in Amsterdam. My flight was 7 hours late leaving Nairobi so I missed all my connecting flights. My luggage didn’t leave with me and by the time they found it, I told the airline to keep it in Nairobi and I’d get it when I returned. While in Seattle, the airline called to tell me there was no one home at our STG address; duh. I told them if they could get it to Seattle before we left to send it if not send it back to Nairobi. Well it arrived and I quickly unpacked all contents and sent them to the family. I was very happy to send the grandkids noise makers to drive their parents crazy; a little revenge on my part. That is why some packages arrived with no notes and no warning. I had about two hours to get to the post office and get them out prior to our flight leaving. The other trip was messed up when the volcano in Iceland was spewing ash and I had to fly through Dubai and not Amsterdam. Traveling is great! But Debi and I are racking up some sweet frequent flyer miles to use when this gig is over.
Speaking of when this gig is over. At the board meeting in December, the president of the company (the guy that asked me to come here) asked if I would be interested in working a little longer following my assignment here. There is a plant possibly being built in Utah that he wants me to work at. May be janitor or flunky, he didn’t get too specific. But it looks like there will be a job if I want to leave after this year. The day after I was asked that question, the HR director asked me if I would be interested in staying a third year here. So make that two options following my second year here. Don’t know which offer I will take; still have a few months to figure it out.
The plant’s performance has been improving over the past few months. In December we shipped more product that ever in the plants history. I have attached a letter distributed by the Managing Director (equivalent title to CEO in US companies). After all the grief I’ve had to deal with this past year, it was good to get some good press. There were times I wondered if I would make it through the next week. We are not out of the woods when it comes to plant operations but things are improving.
It was good to visit with all the kids and grandkids over Christmas. I love all of you. And to those we weren’t able to visit, I love you too. We’ll do better next May when we come home.
Love you all
Dad/Paul
PS: Happy birthday Mom on Friday. Don’t party too hard!!!!
PSS: Can't get the letter attached, so I'll forward it as an email
It’s difficult to even begin a weekly letter after three weeks of being away. It was good seeing most of our family. We visited all of our children and Debi’s dad, but didn’t have a chance to visit any other family. Mom, I’ll do better in May when we come to bless Krista’s baby and attend Cody’s graduation.
It was a tough holiday for Debi. As soon as she got off the plane in SLC a rash broke out. Turned out to be shingles, it took two weeks to get the correct diagnosis so she was in a lot of pain most of the holidays. In addition to shingles, she also had strep throat. But in spite of not feeling too good she was able to play with Cherry and Cody’s kids and spoil them. Shena and Cherry were spoiled before they arrived in STG.
We then went to LA to visit Krista, Greg and Zac. While in LA I was given a new name; I’m Mike. Greg’s dad’s name is Mike, Greg’s best friends name is Mike, and Greg’s sister’s boy friend is named Mike. So he thinks all men are named Mike. We worked the entire time we were there to get him to call me grandpa or Paul. But when I left, I was still Mike. New goal in life; get Zac to call me grandpa.
After LA we went to Seattle to visit Mya, Kermit, and the boys. It was good to see them. Seattle is beautiful. Didn’t see a lot of the city but were able to go up in the space needle with Kermit and the boys. The boys also got in some quality swim time at the hotel pool.
In Seattle, we met up with Margaret, Ethan and Christine. We all flew back to Nairobi together. As soon as we arrived, Debi, Margaret, Ethan, and Christine left for Serengeti for a safari. They also visited other places along the way but I’ll let them give the details. I can’t spell most of the places they were going and because I would have to work learning them it would just make me feel worse (not; it was good to get back to work so I could relax and get some rest). The safari was six days so they all return to Magadi tomorrow night. Margaret will stay until the end of February and return with Debi but Christine and Ethan return on Thursday. They go via Paris for more vacations time.
This was the fourth trip I’ve made to Kenya and I’m batting 500. This trip was all messed up from the start by snow in Amsterdam. My flight was 7 hours late leaving Nairobi so I missed all my connecting flights. My luggage didn’t leave with me and by the time they found it, I told the airline to keep it in Nairobi and I’d get it when I returned. While in Seattle, the airline called to tell me there was no one home at our STG address; duh. I told them if they could get it to Seattle before we left to send it if not send it back to Nairobi. Well it arrived and I quickly unpacked all contents and sent them to the family. I was very happy to send the grandkids noise makers to drive their parents crazy; a little revenge on my part. That is why some packages arrived with no notes and no warning. I had about two hours to get to the post office and get them out prior to our flight leaving. The other trip was messed up when the volcano in Iceland was spewing ash and I had to fly through Dubai and not Amsterdam. Traveling is great! But Debi and I are racking up some sweet frequent flyer miles to use when this gig is over.
Speaking of when this gig is over. At the board meeting in December, the president of the company (the guy that asked me to come here) asked if I would be interested in working a little longer following my assignment here. There is a plant possibly being built in Utah that he wants me to work at. May be janitor or flunky, he didn’t get too specific. But it looks like there will be a job if I want to leave after this year. The day after I was asked that question, the HR director asked me if I would be interested in staying a third year here. So make that two options following my second year here. Don’t know which offer I will take; still have a few months to figure it out.
The plant’s performance has been improving over the past few months. In December we shipped more product that ever in the plants history. I have attached a letter distributed by the Managing Director (equivalent title to CEO in US companies). After all the grief I’ve had to deal with this past year, it was good to get some good press. There were times I wondered if I would make it through the next week. We are not out of the woods when it comes to plant operations but things are improving.
It was good to visit with all the kids and grandkids over Christmas. I love all of you. And to those we weren’t able to visit, I love you too. We’ll do better next May when we come home.
Love you all
Dad/Paul
PS: Happy birthday Mom on Friday. Don’t party too hard!!!!
PSS: Can't get the letter attached, so I'll forward it as an email
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)