Wow! I didn’t realize it had been quite so long since I had written…it’s been almost three weeks. It seems a lot has happened during that time.

We had our NA students for lunch at our home which was a very interesting time. See the amount of food on their plates…this is a usual amount for them since they eat just once per day. Ya Posseh cooked 7 cups rice for 10 people, however, 3 of the 10 were Meredith, Bud and me. I believe the students thoroughly enjoyed the meal, including the fruit salad from local fresh fruits which Meredith made. We prepared a slide show from pictures we have taken thus far in the program which they loved! It was a fun time, and we were able to get to know them a little better on a personal level.

Bud and his crew have finished roofing the new building by the generator house and are currently building a small generator house by the Ashers to house their small personal generator. Bud has started taking a couple hours from the hottest part of the day to have his crew, Andrew and John, come up to our house for classes. He is teaching them various things they will need to know about maintaining the equipment at the hospital after we have gone.

All the med students have been gone now for almost two weeks. They all had to leave when Tom, Karen and Bethany were required to go to South Africa for a Missionary Retreat for all missionaries in Africa. It has certainly been quiet, but we also miss the med students; we had our students make rounds with them in the hospital while they prepared the info on each patient to present to Drs. Tom and Karen when they made their morning rounds. They love teaching the students and really did a good job with it.

Mango season is in full swing, and we have many mango trees around the house in which we live; therefore, we are bombarded day and night with kids picking the mangos. They start as early as 6:15 am and stay as late as 10:00 pm…it’s not all the same kids…just a steady stream of different kids. Today, Bud had his guys pick a couple boxes full of mangos for us; Meredith, a few African teen-age girls and I will make mango leather, mango sauce (similar to apple sauce) and mango jam. Tomorrow’s a national holiday (Independence Day), so we’re out of class and the teens do not have school. It should be a fun afternoon, and I hope we are able to produce some yummy mango products. One day last week, Ya Posseh made a totally different kind of mango sauce than I have ever had; she cooked the mangos with palm oil (small), chicken, and bouillon type cubes (Magi cube). It tasted a lot like the rice and soup when I add pumpkin to the soup; we really like it.

We are still getting fresh pineapple and papaya, and now we’re also getting fresh avocados which we eat fresh or make guacamole! We get some fresh lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumber right now, so it’s a treat to have an occasional salad…we’ll still be glad to have the lettuce we get back in Indiana J.

Look forward to your e-mails.  Until next time….