A Busy Week Ends

I made it to the end of the week!

I trust my American readers had a fantastic Thanksgiving.
There is always so much to be thankful for and I've been reading some of your gratitude lists this week.

There is lots to report on the missions in Kenya and in other things too.
I've organized everything by subject so you can skip ahead to those areas of interest
My photos are sprinkled throughout this post.  All photos are from my archives with the exception of the baking photos & the graphics.

 MISSIONS OF HOPE, KENYA

The first bit of good news is that my friend Jonah in Kenya was released from hospital on Sunday. Since then he has been staying in a small hotel in the city of Nakuru and seeing the doctor for follow up. Tuesday was the last follow up visit and on Wednesday he expects to return home to Kericho.  He is still a bit weak but the doctor said he will recover his strength in time. He had been incorrectly diagnosed with food poisoning when in fact he had Typhoid Fever. It is the first, and hopefully last time he will contract this disease. I surmise that he picked up the bacteria at the small hotel where he stayed and ate in during his most recent trip to Nairobi.

 Lake Elementeiti, Kenya. You can just make out the lake through the trees

In other news, I've met a young medical student in northern Kenya who finishes his residency training in a week. I met him through an Indian woman I've known for many years. She lives in Guwahati.  She ministers at various Christian meetings in India through Word and song.  When I met her she lived in Mumbai and then returned to Mizoram, her home state after marrying an American.  She now makes her home in Guwahati.  She adopted the young medical student as her spiritual son and I told her when I next get to Kenya I will visit him and take photos for her and give her a report.

The young man is in the very last stages of his medical training. He needed help with his rent and food for this month so I offered to help him.  The amount was very modest but so much needed.  After paying his rent he shared the food he purchased with his grandmother who raised him after his own mom died. His biological mom died because they were impoverished and she could not afford medical help. Before she died she told her son she wanted him to be a doctor so that he could help people like her. It is amazing that he was only 5 years of age when his mother spoke these words but now he will soon fulfill her wish and his destiny.

In a week I will send a little more money for his grandmother.  This will help her get through the Christmas season because her grandson will travel to Nairobi where he volunteers with the Red Cross during school breaks.

In January 2019, he returns to university for one more class and after that expects to graduate in May 2019.

Kenya has very high unemployment hovering close to 90 percent but this young man should be one of the fortunate ones and be snapped up by one of the hospitals.  Medical personnel are very much needed in Kenya and there is currently an inadequate supply of doctors in the country.

Another student I am assisting has just returned to university for his final year of a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. Actually he graduated a year ago and we celebrated his achievement.  Unfortunately the university's program was not accredited and in order to get recognized he must take another year of study. He isn't alone in this.  When he enrolled at the university he and his fellow students were told that the program would be accredited.  By the time they graduated they found out the accreditation had not been achieved.

What it means is they must all return to university for one more year to get accreditation.
After he graduates he hopes to get scholarships to enable him to study abroad and possibly find employment before returning to Kenya. 

The other engineering student I was helping was not able to find steady employment.
After 2 years of  start and stop jobs where I assisted him with starting all over again several times I told him I was unable to continue supporting him if he couldn't find work or create a job.
He was able to secure a small loan from the bank.  Sadly the loan was insufficient for the purpose of opening a small hair salon and barber shop.
I matched the loan to try and help him get established.  Even with the loan funds I've provided it is a very modest start and it is difficult to get things going.  There have been various challenges to the business operation but he is trying hard to make a go of things. It is really up to him now to make or break because he doesn't have many choices.
Young men in Kenya have a very hard time to find work. In fact anyone who isn't very creative at creating their own business will find it very difficult to provide for themselves and to get married and start a family.

I am really praying he will succeed so he and his girlfriend can marry and he can also help provide for his disabled mother.

There is much more to report but I will save it for another post.

YARN

It's been a busy week working on my long list of 'to dos' which included several shopping forays to buy yarn.

In my last post I wrote about how I'd purchased and lost, the yarn I bought for the afghan I'm currently crocheting.

Once I got home I  called several stores where I'd stopped on my way home but none of them had my bag of yarn.

I was resigned to buying the needed yarn again so on Tuesday night I went back to the store. When I got to the cash desk the young lady that helped me on Sunday said  that I had left my shopping bag behind. She blamed it on her distracting me. I wasn't upset in any way because she had distracted me due to trying to find various discounts to save me money.

I was very happy to find my yarn.

Not only did I get my yarn back but I realized I actually needed just a bit more yarn.
I was able to purchase the required skein  for 55% off the regular price.

It was a nice bonus. 

Another nice bonus was the young lady who served me.

I often have wonderful service but this young lady was extra special.

She was so pleasant and kind and it was nice just to see her smiling face again.

I wish we could all be like her. It makes life so much brighter when you meet happy people.
 I'm now at the point of joining my granny squares together. I'm not sure how long it will take me to finish it but once I'm done I'll share a photo.

CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS

I've decided to give one of my finished crocheted afghans and some knitted dishcloths to my brother and his wife for Christmas. I told him he can use the afghan to keep his knees warm this winter (see more about this below under "Personal"). I've also been purchasing a few additional gifts and gift wrap items from the dollar store in my neighbourhood. Tomorrow or Friday I'm hoping to go to a different dollar store in Chinatown. I hardly ever get to the Dollar Tree (DT).  Whenever I'm on You Tube I see so many vloggers talking about their DT hauls and the fabulous things they make with the things they get at the DT.  Basically I need a few things to add to a basket I'm putting together for a young lady. It's a kitchen and baking theme. Earlier I purchased some baking pans and a Bundt cake pan. I will add various gadgets and utensils, oven mitts and some food items to the basket. I'll likely add a few of my knitted dishcloths too.

 I also purchased two Christmas gifts for the brother who lives locally.  I already gave him the gifts because I want to make sure he fit the slippers (he did). I also wanted to make sure he liked and would use the charging station I bought for his phone and devices.  He seems to like the charging station but I know he hasn't actually tried to use it yet. I will be making up a stocking for him to open on Christmas Day so he has a little something that is a surprise.

 I had a chance to put my new smaller tree together though I haven't had a chance to decorate it yet.  It already comes pre-lit so it doesn't need much.  I'm still keeping my eyes open for a white table top tree.

Last but not least, I've purchased a few items for myself as I like to do each year.  All items were purchased from Canada's home shopping network (TSC):  a pair of warm shoes with fuzzy stuff inside (Sketchers), gel soled slippers (Tony Little) and cashmere socks (Pajar). I haven't purchased any cashmere socks for well over 10 years and have been keeping my eye out for them. I finally found the best price on TSC and ordered them. I thought if I liked them I would order more but now they have sold out of their stock.  I haven't received my order yet. There have been mail delays due to a rotating postal strike but the order should be arriving soon.

I captured a lone gull bobbing on the water. There were a lot of them that day but I like this one off by itself.

PERSONAL

My brother had to go to the Emergency Room (ER) for observation a few days ago. He started hobbling in the morning and by the time he was at work he could barely walk due to acute pain in his knees. After testing the doctor diagnosed him with arthritis and gave him an injection of pain medication.

I had this same thing happen to me a few years ago though I didn't go to the ER. I waited a very long time to tell my doctor about it. When I finally did she sent me for x-rays and confirmed my fears about osteoarthritis.

When I first started having knee pain I could barely walk for 4 months. I went to the acupuncture doctor several times a week for several months.  When I didn't get any relief I just stayed home because I was exhausted from dragging myself around.  In that short space of time I gained 40 pounds and it took me years and very diligent effort to lose it.  Along the way I learned about rehabilitation walking poles, whole body vibration and curcumin.  These 3 things have kept me walking.

READING

I made some progress reading The Couple Next Door.  It isn't the usual kind of book I read but I am enjoying it so far.  You can click on the title to read more about it to see if you are interested.

Fellow blogger Diane at Photo Diary also recommended 2 books by Zimbabwean author, Diana M. Hawkins.
I purchased the ebook called Shadows along the Zambezi

 and recommended the Vancouver library purchase the second booked called Shadows over an African Heart.

The library agreed to my recommendation so I can borrow the book later and others can enjoy it too.

I believe these two books deal with the difficult subject of elephant poaching. 

Can you spot the gull atop the Inukshuk (the stone man)?

HOUSEHOLD

I started putting up the new curtain rod. 

I have to do this job in stages because it requires a lot of getting up and down on the little ladder and making sure

everything is as straight as possible because each bracket requires two holes.

I see there are actually 4 brackets in the box, not 2.  This is great because the sales lady told me there were only 2 brackets and I almost bought 2 more to make sure I had enough.  Now I won't have to purchase any more.

When I was out running errands I came across some free stuff outside of a thrift store. 

There were 4 tiles with printed scenes on them. I took two of them and the other two were scooped up by another woman.  When I put my two tiles together they make the face of an elephant and its tusks. I've put them on the wall behind the chair in my little reading area. They coordinate with the afghan I made for myself at the start of the year (the one on the top of the pile in gold, grey and off white colours).

 

BAKING

I made some cinnamon buns using the the same recipe I made bread with last weekend.

I made enough dough to also make one loaf of bread since all the other is gone.

The buns turned out perfectly. I used very little sugar and a lot of cinnamon spice.

Now that I've made bread twice in such a short time I probably won't be baking very often in the foreseeable future.
 I might bake something for Christmas (cookies or squares of some kind, maybe buns) but I don't really need that much since my family is not very large.

I try to capture the birds flying in the morning but they are very fast.

 Take care everyone.
Thanks for visiting.

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