TBC Doro Team #3

The painting of the interior of the building began about 3 weeks ago. The place looks great! The men are standing in what will become the labor & delivery room. Electric wiring is overhead... some switches, plugs, main box, etc are yet to be completed, and this will be one of our tasks.

Most of the building is open above, to dissipate the heat which is oppressive from late November through May. October is not exactly cool (!), but pleasant. The lab and the operating room have completed ceilings. This shows the work in progress... We'll purchase cornicing this week, and send it as cargo on one of the upcoming flights -- nailing it in place will also happen in October.The 'half wall' in the foreground is between the nurses' station and the small 8-bed ward. We'll want to build a desk with a plyboard top and some cabinets, for the nurses' station. I'll purchase large sheets of plyboard on Monday, and those will also be flown in ahead of us. I may not have much choice, but would appreciate your thoughts about materials needed - thickness of the plyboard, for instance (OK, it's not quite like the plywood you have... but it works). I can purchase hinges and handles here - please advise if a certain type would be best. Now a challenge:

This is a close-up of the un-painted windows to show you a problem which will affect us in the lab (4 windows) and the OR (2 windows). The other 20 or so windows aren't such a problem, if they allow dust or rain to blow in during those two seasons of the year. You can see the light shining through the narrow gap next to the window-latches; and in the other picture, below the hinge (which still is covered with cement plaster). I hope there is some type of easily-attached and durable rubber strip which might provide even a partial seal for these windows. Ideas?? We can purchase various silicone sealants and adhesives in Nairobi. Again, thank you for your ideas.

The next picture is confusing: We're standing in the ward, looking over the half-wall of the nursing station space (which you can't see), and beyond it is a wall with window looking into a small room designed for sick babies. The window shutters are open from the window out of view on the left side. We bought two sheets of perspex transparent plastic, and will want to have a sliding window in the space looking into the 'neonatal ICU' !

This is a great time of the year. The Yabus River is at its highest; the endless dirt which is Sudan's lot for most of the year has been transformed by 3 months of rain, and elephant grass stands 10 feet high all around. You can see the cultivated fields of sorghum and maize near the river. Months of hunger are ending this month, and October is when the 'firstfruits' celebrations take place. All for now. Thanks for your preparations and prayer, that the Lord will make these weeks a life-changing time for all of us in Doro. In Him, Rob