08 September 2015

My computer reminded me that yesterday, September 7 was Labor Day.  I imagine that Stateside friends are having a day away from duty…actually I guess it was actually a long weekend wasn’t it?

Our local mosque (2 blocks away) recently got a more powerful sound system so there is no longer any hope of sleeping past 4:45a.m.  At this moment it is 5:45 a.m., I can hear 5 different mosques and they are not all saying the same thing at the same time.  A real cacophony of sound…and before morning coffee too! 

We are still praying for additional funds ($1000) to complete the base renovations and I was going to send out photos updating the work so far but, for some unknown reason, my computer will no longer read the SD card---bummer! 

A couple of my staff have laptops so I will see if either of theirs can read it.  We still have a way to go on projects but everyone agrees that the base is looking better.   We are paying fundi’s to do some skilled labor but the staff have really caught the vision and are working so hard with whatever they can do—sewing, painting, whitewashing, cleaning, mending etc.

The beginning of the LDC is only 3 weeks away and our delegates are coming from all over Africa—Madagascar, Seychelles, Ethiopia, South Africa, Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Cameroon and of course Kenya.    So far, we have 24 delegates (students) and 8 teachers.  This includes 6 couples, 3 of them with children and mothers-in-law acting as nannies.  We are way beyond base housing capacity and are knocking on neighbor’s doors asking for rooms to rent and looking at the possibility of new beds and mattresses to be bought!    Yikes, the pressure is on!