Happy Thanksgiving in Bere

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Hello Everyone!!! Happy Thanksgiving to all our Families!!!

We are all missing our families today very much! Philip has something special to be thankful for. His wife went for and ultrasound while he was here and he just found out they are having a girl. Yeah, Peter!! They have a 2 year old already!!

Rick will be a grandpa for the first time any day now. So we are thankful for that.

We are especially thankful for you, our families. Being in a place like this reminds us of how much we have and how much God has blessed us with.

Today was a usual work day for us since we have so much to do before we leave. The hospital never sleeps and we have a house to build. Graham and Steve made a lot of headway today. They have taken the basic structure of the cabinets that were up and framed them and finished the edges. Basically all that is left is the counter tops and the sink.

Rick says that they have had the best day as far as floor pouring goes. 17 110lb bags of cement was the previous record for the day. Today they topped that at 25. All the floors are almost poured. They will finish tomorrow and then all that will be left will be the porches. They also hot tested the house and there is power. Yeah!!! We are accomplishing things by leaps and bounds in these last days.

Peter has finished attaching all the compression lugs to the battery cables. This is hard and tedious work. It has taken him the past two days to attach the compression lugs with a crimper. Tonight he is going to go rewire the electrical panels to accommodate the new system. Then all we have to do is wait for the batteries. James left for N'Djamena yesterday. He had a meeting today and hopefully will pick up the batteries while he is there, if they are there. Pray they are.

Jamie has been busy too. He ran the main electrical wire over to the house and built the electrical panel, then helped to test the system. Then he spent the rest of the day helping Peter and doing Sudoku. (I have him hooked.) Sorry Tammy, I think you will have to buy him a couple of puzzle books when he gets home.

I spent the day doing ultrasounds and teaching Milka, the midwife, the ultrasound machine. My French is getting better and better. I can now communicate most of what I want to say to her in French, the only language she understands. We scanned 9 pregnant patients and one Pelvic ultrasound from 9:30 to 1:30. I was worn out. It is tiring teaching and scanning in that short period of time.

I then came back to the house and had lunch. I had a short 10 minute rest and then I had to start thanksgiving dinner. They caught the rooster and killed it this morning. Guess what they grilled for thanksgiving dinner. I didn't have any, Veggie that I am. They said it was good. Oh well, guess I'll miss out. We had mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread stuffing (homemade), veggie chicken (or as my husband would call it, feet (fake meat combined) chicken), cranberry sauce, fried eggplant that Solomon the cook made this morning, Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream!!, and brownies. Yummy!! But it all isn't the same without our families. You are sorely missed and we will be happy to see you and talk to you again when we get home.

We miss you. All our love.

Kelli, Graham, Rick, Jamie, Peter and Steve.