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
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
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
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