Craziness, Critters and Construction

I know, I know -- it's been a while.  So today I'll make up for it.  Lots of pics, lots of info on what we've been up to lately.

Construction:
Let's start with the hospital!  There has been some great progress and it's high time I showed it to you.  Before I get into all the details, you need a bit of a picture in your head of what this hospital is supposed to be like.  This is NOT a North-American hospital.  Instead, it's a series of one-story buildings that lead from one to the other.  There is also a building called the 'cuisine' where the families of the patients will cook their meals and stay while their loved-ones are being cared for in the hospital. So let's take a peek:

This is Phase 1 from the front, as you come past the gate and guard shack.  It's a long low building that has three different purposes.  It will hold Triage, the Pharmacy, and Records, as well as treatment rooms.

And here is Phase 1 from thew side view.  If you look behind it on the right side you can see some of Phase 2:

Here's the same side of Phase 1 with a better view to Phase 2.  The walls in Phase 2 are as high as they can go right now until we get the electrical plans. Phase 2 will house the OR, the lab, the laundry facility, and administrative offices.

This is back to Phase 1 - this is the back of it.  If the picture was wider you would see Phase 2 on the right hand side of the photo.  Phase 3 has also been started - they are just working on the foundation right now.  

 I can't remember the name of this little building, but families can rent out the little rooms in it if they want a place to stay that is more private than the cuisine. I know, let's call it The Motel.  It's right next door to the cuisine.

And this is the cuisine.  It's a large building and they just started putting the steel on the roof this week, so once that's done, I'll post some more pics so you can get a better idea of what it will look like.  It's got a lovely stone exterior on it.

Besides those buildings, they have also started another home for a doctor and family.  The foundation is poured, the walls are going up and the plumbing is going in.  There's a lot of stuff happening on site these days.

Critters:

I know this isn't a great pic, but it's a picture of the hippos at the hippo pond near the hospital.  It's only about a 10 minute drive and there is this big man-made lake with hippos in it.  Up until last week, I didn't believe the lake had hippos.  Now, I'm a believer.  We went out with the team from Pennsylvania and saw and heard the hippos.  The latest news is that the hippo pond has crocs as well.  John took some of the kids out there yesterday for a little ride and they saw two crocodiles (or alligators -- we don't know which)!  One was about 3 feet long and the other was about 6 feet long.

And this is Howard.  He's our pet owl.  The guys found him in the shop and brought him to us and Nolan has decided to take care of Howard.  He's a superb owl. 

Howard is pretty ugly right now, but I think he's going to grow into a beautiful bird.  He's losing his baby fuzzy feathers and growing these beautiful dark grey and brown ones.  He lives in this box in our carport and every night he begins to screech.  I'd rather having a hooting owl than a screeching owl, but I can't be picky.  Turns out that every night when Howard begins screeching, his mother hears him and brings him dinner.  Every morning we go out there and Howard has between 2 and 6 dead, headless mice in that box.  His mom comes in at night and drops off these delicious snacks for him.  It's gross to see Howard with a mouse tail coming out of his mouth.

We also have another bird named Frank.  Actually, it's Frank 2, because the original Frank flew away.  I think he's a pigeon.  One of the guards on the property saw Nolan out with his sling shot and thought that Noles was trying to catch us some dinner.  So the next day the guard brought out Frank - he had trimmed Frank's wings so that Nolan could practice with his sling shot and we could eat Frank.  Alas, Frank became a friend and flew away.  So the guard brought us Frank 2. 

This next critter is my LEAST fave.  I think I might be more afraid of these guys than snakes.  But I can't say for sure.  This is called a camel spider.  It's huge and vicious and we've seen a few already. Yuck. That's Nolan's hand beside it -- the spider is dead, don't worry.

Turns out these friendly fellows will chase you down.  They are flesh eating and several missionaries have seen them chase humans.  They have four mouths and big long furry legs.  They can sort of "stand up" and attack.  So nasty.  So, so nasty.  (Christine, this pic is for you.)

Other Craziness:

Nolan celebrated his 12th birthday last week.  He wanted "man-food" for his birthday dinner, so I cooked "bangers and mash" (read: sausages and mashed potatoes for those of you who don't eat at British pubs),  sauteed onions and mushrooms, baked beans and GRAVY!  He was quite happy.  And here he is blowing out his 12 candles:

And this last photo is just a cool one.  When we drive out to the hippo pond, there are some rice paddies that we go by.  And this one patch is ever so green that each time we go out, we stop and take a look at it.  We call it The Greenest Patch in Mango.  Where most everything is brown, it's quite a breathtaking little sight.

Okay, I think I've covered just about everything.  That's us. Oh, and Kylie and I were supposed to head to Lome today for her to have an MRI and new SED rate test.  Alas, that trip has been postponed.  We'll let you know when we plan to head south for those tests.  Thanks for praying!!