Utilizing Downtime

Hello again! Hopefully this latest blog finds everyone doing well and enjoying summer, assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere.

The biggest news here is that we have a floor plan approved and next week we will be recruiting local workers to begin forming masonry blocks and prepping the site for construction. This also means that next week could see a dramatic increase in my work load. I'm looking forward to it. Last week we had a productive meeting on-site with community leaders, the contractor, estimator, and architect. We even got treated with sugar cane. I was also informed that eating eat helps the clean your teeth... If this is somehow true, can someone please confirm so I don't feel bad about eating it.

Based upon the conversations that we've had with the contractor, starting prep work next week will allow us to complete the clinic before our scheduled flights back to the States. The rainy season here can start anywhere from mid-November to mid-December from what I've told. If you're a praying person, and even if you're not, pray that the rains come on the later end for us. With steep, bumpy, dirt roads, our site access will be greatly affected by the cooperation of Mother Nature.

In other big news, the price of postage went up last week and I finished a book yesterday. Don't worry, if you gave me your address, you should still be receiving a card at some point saying hello. And if you didn't, and you want to, said it over and I'll add you to think list. So far I've gotten 14 cards out and am about half way through my list. I wonder how long it is going to take for them to reach the proper mailboxes? On the literary front, the book I most recently finished was The System. It investigates the intricacies of NCAA football and was really interesting for a big fan of the game. At one point, the author did say that WSU played a football game at Safeco Field. Outside of that, it seemed really well researched. Last week, I finished And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini. If you've read The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I haven't, you can probably guess it was extremely well written. I've now finished five books so far and already have my next one ready to go. Not having a TV is really good for my brain.

Oh, I've also fully embraced local food. I don't just mean eating it. For example, at the beginning of the week I saw a cow at the butcher shop. Still mooing. A day later I bought a pound of said cow, and by dinner time it was cooking in a skillet with green beans and carrots. From mooing to plate in just over 24 hours or so. I also experimented with making beans for the first time. This batch was pinto beans but there are also kidney beans and a few other varieties. Lastly, I currently have a loaf of banana bread in the oven using groundnut meal and maize flour. I'll be sure and let you know how that turns out. One of the most frustrating parts of being at the market is not knowing the types of leafy green vegetables. I am almost certain one of them is mustard greens. None of the locals seem to know English names for any of them though. Another was Chinese something, and looked like what I thought was mustard greens. Today I saw another kind in which the leaf looked slightly different, but still was on a stock. Sometimes I just buy them, start cooking, and see what happens. They're dark, green, and leafy. They have to be healthy. Right?

If anyone knows what either of these vegetables are, can you please let me know.

I tried to catch the super moon here, but there was too much cloud cover on the horizon to capture it rising. Instead I watched a football game and obliged in taking pictures of the kids a few times. At the end they asked for a team picture.

Zikomo, ndapita!

P.S. The banana bread just came out of the oven. Pretty tasty. I think I might need to spread some peanut butter on it.