Dog-time

I’m home alone. Well, kind of. Wayne and I have a new puppy called Buddy and another dog called Hamilton so I’m actually in quite good company. Little Buddy is a Staffordshire bull terrier and the cutest thing ever. Hamilton is a Jack Russell with psycho tendencies! Kind of thinks he’s human a lot of the time. Wants the comforts of human life, the food, to sit on nice chairs....and is a bit on the moody side. While Wayne is away visiting family for the month I am head down with my preparation work for a training session as well as proposals I will write. Buddy and Hamilton are keeping me well entertained and far from lonely. According to those results that come up on Google Buddy is ‘very easy to house train’. I have never trained a dog in my life and so who knows how the little thing will turn out.  I could do with a crash course on how to stop him eating and biting everything but also on how to get him to sit and come when called. He’s twelve weeks old and I’m sure if I don’t strike now I’ll miss my chance. Any tips on the easy way to make a puppy learn?

I am very pleased to see the start of a new project. Delighted actually. Fr. A and I wrote a proposal together and received funding to build homes for staff of a health centre he manages. It was when I saw the men actually digging the foundations and sweating under the heat of the sun that I realised our hard work had come to fruition. This health centre is 25km from a main road and closest town and far into the open lands where Maasai and rural tribes live. It is very difficult to attract good (or any) staff because like anywhere in the world the urban centres are more popular and some of them pay more. The staff houses on site are awful, just awful.  It was becoming more difficult to attract anyone to work for them but also to keep the doctor they have, their key employee. He lives on site without his wife and children because she won’t join him until the new homes are built.  I thought at one point that he was going to leave, it was hard for him not to see his family. It took quite some time to pull this off and I think Mr. Doctor almost didn’t believe Fr. A and so when the building work began there was a big smile across all our faces. These homes will rehouse all staff and allow for more to be recruited, in line with plans to develop the centre. They will have their own garden and shamba(allotment) and will be just lovely. I can’t wait to see them finished and everyone moved in.

The health centre has been the only source of water for miles around due to the sources drying up and rains not coming until this week. It is also the only centre for a population of about 20,000 people and we have worked hard to put some plans together to grow it and start to offer more much needed services. The Rosminians want to build a theatre and create a whole hospital as well as use only solar energy where possible. There is no power and until the national grid hooks them up (who knows when that would be) they have only solar or generator. The genny costs a fortune to run and although initial outlay is a lot the solar is by far the way to go.  If we can build staff homes to keep the back bone of the centre upright then we can do anything is my motto. Watch this space….a hospital in the making.

PS. I didn’t even see an Easter egg this year. I feel deprived.