Crutches, SFC, and more sewing

No day is alike here it seems...at least for me.  This morning I went up to look over the Christmas gifts for the staff that Jana had organized, and organized a few more, including one needed today for a pharmacy company rep that is very helpful in getting us good prices and extra medicines for the clinic.  Some of that shopping in the US came in handy.  I got some gifts to Valerie...who was also receiving an update to her 1965 era crutches via Dora...something to make them more comfortable while she hobbles around for the forseeable future before the surgery gets done.  I also tackled fixing her AC unit.  Finding a tripped breaker was easy...recognizing that even with the normal cold dry snap for December that inside the clinic was still on the warm side was surprising. 

How are we going to reduce the temperature more livable downstairs?  Well...upstairs is coming, which will accomplish much more than just cooling the first floor.  The TSP is winding down...still working for sure, but the next project will be the clinic second floor...which since it will be a long term project we are also giving an acronym for reference, the SFC, which won out over CSF since that would conjur images of Christian Student Fellowship...as well as Cerebral Spinal Fluid. 

Oscar will be leaving for vacation in a few weeks, and we have a group coming in January specifically to help with some of the construction up there, so that means some planning, and purchasing, now.  Oscar is a better structural engineer than some that went to college for that.  He planned and drew out two different ideas for the structure that will serve as our guide, as well as got cost estimates.  Given our experience with the TSP, the SFC will be similar in construction methodology (metal for exterior walls), but not buying materials in the US...doing it all ourselves with locally procured materials, similar to those in the US.  Given the options we had available for construction, this was the best combination of controlling costs as well as getting a long lasting, durable, and good look building. 

 

The group coming will help...but the costs will be of course more than what they will be able to bring.  Groups will help for sure, but it will take more than that.  We won't be pushing quite so hard for help on this project as we are with the TSP...mostly to not be pushing our luck again for another year with so many that have done so much there, but for sure this, along with everything else that happens here, will take God moving through us and a bunch of other people to bring to fruition. 

 

Speaking of the second floor of the clinic, one of the needs for the space there is the sewing ministry.  We need more space...well, for just about everything, than the roughly 12' x 12' former optometry room they are using.  I caught Dora (she did not know I was there) working on quilting today.  We sold the first quilt she produced...have an order for another already, and are going to be working on other quilting concepts coming up...but most exciting is the idea of having space to teach more women for the class that will start up probably in the first quarter of 2013.