First day on the hill - Scott Hayward

I will apologize up front for this posting as it will not be nearly as exciting as the last one by Ann. While the team is on the hill, they are struggling with the internet connection. Hopefully they will be able to navigate a solution soon so that we can get some direct information and some great photographs. What follows is an update from Jill and Nate over the phone....

The team made it to the hill on Tuesday late afternoon. The drive was fairly uneventful, but thunder clouds rolled in making their arrival to Kilgoris and the TMD community spectacular. While it rained quite a bit, it did not limit their progress. They were a little worried about the sleeping arrangements, but Joseph cleared out his entire house and filled it full of beds. Sounds like the accommodations are working quite well. I can only imagine the arrival ceremony: probably about 30-40 men and women dancing and singing thanks to God for their arrival. They were all up late talking and preparing for the first day of work. The power situation at Joseph's was a little iffy; on and off. The portable generator was having a hard time keeping up and came to a complete halt when they plugged in the new laser printer that they brought out from Nairobi. They set out the following morning to purchase one that had the necessary power.

Nate was up first at 5am and quickly put his plans in motion. No surprise there. Last time he was there, he made it to the children's home so early one morning that he forgot to change out of his pajamas. Nate quickly scouted out the appropriate rooms needed for the teaching and medical evaluations so that the team could hit the ground running. The first day was a full one for everyone! The medical assessment teams got to work and made great progress. The expertise of Anita and Dr. Matlak were very obvious as they went from child to child. The teaching teams also had a great start. Jill's oral hygiene monkey was huge hit with the little kids who were a little rambunctious (sp?). The hearing tests run by Danna were also very successful. They were able to move the generator far enough away so as to not affect the results. A lot more work to go, but great starts on all fronts.

Nate had quite a bit of time with the General Contractor and his engineering team and it was great that he was there. As much detail as he put into the drawings, there is always a need for clarification. One of the big discrepancies was the target elevation of the new dormitory floor. They were using some pretty old technology which resulted in some errors. Nate quickly pulled out the Site Level that one of our team members donated on our last trip and corrected the situation (thanks Bob!).

Jill described a very special moment that she had with some of the smaller children there, specifically with Jamilla. To put this in context, Jamilla was born on the same day as our youngest daughter Willow, except 8,000 miles apart. Jamilla and Willow struck up almost a sister like relationship when we were they last April. Well, back to the story: Jill found herself laying down in the grass taking a little break with kids climbing and laying all over her, including Jamilla, Boke and many others. This went on for some time. At the end of their lounging time Jamilla removed a small beaded ring from her finger and gave it to Jill and said in very broken English "this is for Willow". Willow will wear that ring for a long time. Just a reminder of how important our friendships are to these kids and to us.

The last update is on the food. We always prep our teams to expect to be presented with things that they may not recognize or particularly enjoy. But hey, the least we can do is eat what they eat - it is only for 6 days. Well this trip is a little different. Joseph has a cousin who is a chef at a very high end resort in the Maasai Mara called Little Governor's camp. Guess who is on the hill doing all of the cooking for the team - yep, the chef! Still probably not like home, but it sounds like they are doing quite well.

That is it for now. I wish I had more details from others on the trip, but I only had a chance to speak with Jill and Nate. Please continue to pray for them and they have a lot of work ahead. Specifically you can pray for the installation of the well pump, holding tanks, generator, valves, controls etc.. They have received a proposal from the drilling contractor yesterday and will be sifting through it tomorrow (Thursday). It is a little expensive!

Joyfully,
Scott Hayward