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Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Surgery and Construction

Today there were three Myhres in the operating theatre for a few moments: Scott performing a C-section, me waiting to receive the baby for paediatrics, and Luke there to observe. Scott has been on a grueling schedule for OB for the last couple of weeks, but it is paying off as he's had a solid number of opportunities to refine his surgical skills. He can write more about his experiences with the scalpel. It feels a bit awkward to take photos as women have their abdomens sliced open . . . so I've documented the other side of his job, that of construction engineer. The original surgeons were also barbers, so I guess it makes sense to be a person who saves lives by cutting and sewing and also creates new buildings. In this case, the long-awaited pizza oven. Scott and the boys started on Saturday, after the Longonot hike. Above they are digging out the site for the foundation. Making concrete from cement, sand, and stone on our driveway. Caleb ferried uncountable loads to the foundation site. After the first layer of concrete, a wire mesh, and then more. Smoothing the layers, adding more. Meanwhile Julia was inside, washing and paring 2 kilos of strawberries bought from a local farmer.When the foundation was full, they smoothed the surface with this board. Final touches. If you can see the stack of local stones in the background, quarried from a site very nearby. Unfortunately when we tried to stack them the next day to prepare for the walls that support the oven, we found them to be rough, uneven, and unsuitable. So . . .Scott spent his only day off driving into Nairobi to purchase bricks. He contracted a lorry to drive them out to Kijabe, rushing to get home first, which was rather pointless as it took the lorry 8 hours to get there. Meaning the massive load arrived in the dark . . Here we are at 8:30 pm unloading 1,400 bricks. With Thomas L. It took the seven of us plus two lorry drivers about half an hour to carry them four at a time off the truck and onto our porch. Calebtopia . . . Scott and Caleb constructed piles. The proverbial ton of bricks was actually 4.2 tons. Dreaming of pizza . . . which is still a couple months away.

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