Baba Bud

Baba--->dad in swahili

Bud--->name of my husband

(although his real name is Joseph, secrets out now, sorry babe)

Baba Bud---> what our mattaw children call my husband.

I must take a moment to brag on my strong, loving, hunk of burnin looove. Oh yes, he is that to me.

And often he is either behind the camera, haggling prices in town for things needed at Mattaw, or off in a field working hard with his Kenyan work crew. Ok, so he is also found taking breaks from work to wrestle with the boys at Mattaw and sit down and give time to our girls. So you don't see or hear from him much. I decided to try and get a glimpse into his world this week.

We were blessed by a donation to build team housing at Mattaw. We have over 100 people coming through the gates of Mattaw this summer. I can't wait for our children, staff and surrounding villages to be so very blessed by visitors. We have an exciting summer ahead of us! We also have some visitors in the next couple of months... I'll talk about them later though.

Since my husband is hard at work with our Kenyan friends at Mattaw (staff), looking for ways to self-sustain Mattaw a little bit more, team housing was a good avenue to go this year. It will also be very convenient in not having to transport people from town out to Mattaw. (this past year we rented a house in a neighborhood in Kitale, about 15 minutes from Mattaw). Now teams can wake up, have devotions, eat breakfast.... then walk right on over to be with our children and staff.

There's a lot of ground work going on for this to happen though.

A lot of this....

And a lot of going around from one hardware shop to the next. My wise husband is all about being responsible with the money donated. For instance, the plumber he hired gave him a 3 page paper, quoting all the items needed, the prices and how much labor he was charging. It was outrageous and obvious this guy was overcharging in everything. So Bud spent a day going around checking all his prices and finding that EVERY single item listed, the guy lied about the prices. Sometimes doubled the prices and sometimes quadrupled.

So now bud typed and printed it out. He will have each hardware store list their price. This is time consuming but ensures that the donor's money is used wisely and goes further.

He also spends a lot of time out there working with his construction crew...

This gains a lot of respect amongst his crew. From generations ago, a bad rep was set for white people. That they don't work and just bark out orders. But we're here to not put ourselves above anyone. And love people, even if it means getting out and digging dirt for hours in the blazing hot sun.

And that's who I'm thankful to call my husband. He might not be too impressed that I'm bragging on him publicly. But I think you should know! It's a peek behind the scenes.

I love my man.