Outreach Day w/ Simba Dorm

It is hard to believe that the first term is nearing its mid-point. Next weekend the girls will all be heading home to visit family and friends. We will miss them all for sure!  But before we let them head out, we all participated in RVA’s first outreach day on Saturday, Sept. 29^th.

I had the pleasure of visiting the IDP camp with 6 of the girls from our dorm. This camp is located in the basin of the Rift Valley. This camp is a mix-match of houses and tents and home-made structures that these displaced people have lived in since the elections of 2007. It was a sunny, hot morning as we all embarked to the valley in an RVA school bus. All together, there were 42 students, 5 staff members and 3 RVA  national employees. We were all full of excitement and energy as we embarked on our journey. We were able to scrounge up some used balls and lollipops to bring to the children who lived there.

Once we arrived, we split into three groups. One group was 

to stay and play with the children and two groups were to head out to visit the residents of the encampment.  Our group was one that went out to visit and pray for the specific needs of the people. In order to reach their living area, we had to hike a little over a mile and climb through a water washout area formed during the rainy season. Even after hiking we were all still glad to be here!

As we walked, we met families who are persevering under difficult conditions. Water is scarce and we are just now heading into the dryer time of year. The tents and houses are small and have no ventilation, other than the holes in the tarps used as a roof. There will be no protection from the rains when they come. There were many children and they all followed along as we walked. We spoke to the residents and heard of their difficulties and prayed for their specific needs. After an hour or so, we began the trek back to the bus to meet up with the others. It was amazing to see the way connections were made in such a short time

On the way back to Kijabe, we stopped to let the kids explore a rift in the Rift Valley. Seems as though 15 months ago, or so, there was a “ground shaking” over the next 3 to 4 months this rift was formed and is now part of the permanent landscape. It is awesome to see how God continues to leave His mark on His creation! The kids only had 5 minutes to explore but they made the most of it!

We returned to RVA hot, a bit sunburned, humbled and happy that we all participated in this visit to the camp.

A SCHOOL DAY AT RVA

Hi All,

I thought I would give you a glimpse of what a single day looks like here at RVA. Today is Tuesday September 25th. The day starts early with the girls up by 6AM to do their dorm jobs. (Cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors) Then, they are off to breakfast by 710AM with school starting at 7:45 AM. Julia is up at 7:16 (not earlier, not later or we are in trouble). We check the dorm to make sure all dorm jobs are done well. We greet our inside and outside helpers, then Janine leaves to teach her cooking classes.

First I walked out back to examine the brand new baboon prevention system installed on the campus barrier fence. We will keep you updated on the effectiveness of this razor-wire protections.

After the inspection, I head down to the Arcade where I work. Now I know that sounds like every boys dream but in the British system, an arcade is simply a store. Here is a look at my corner of the arcade.

This is where I coordinate and order all supplies needed for the campus.
Today at 9:50 AM I went to Janine's advanced cooking class, along with my co-worker Dennis Doughty (also from Pa and another EAGLES fan)  to taste test and judge the corn chowder they have made that day. Tough work, but somebody has to do it.

The class set fancy tables and all. Mrs. McLaverty was very excited to have us. They even posed for a picture with the teacher!

After judging chowders, it is off to chapel, which on Tuesdays is a student led praise & worship time.

             Today's chapel was led by one of Janine's cooking students. They did a great job.

                                              After chapel, students and staff, head to chai,

                                                 a 15 minute break from their school day.

The staff met to pray for each other, the students and all of the community outreach programs scheduled for this coming Saturday. (visiting aids orphanages, building relationships with local workers, prayer walks and football with elementary schoolkids.

After chai, I helped Janine clean up(some) in Home Ec. and headed back to the arcade to clean up loose ends and look for cables and bulbs for the scoreboard in the gym. First stop was the cafeteria to help place the dry goods order. Every Tuesday, they serve cheeseburgers and french fries so I walked through to check it out! Notice the mound of french fries, all made from scratch. (serves over 500)

Janine was asked to ride into town with another staff person to keep her company so she gladly went!

I walked by the Physical Education class being held outdoors on the upper field. the boys and girls are playing a game called "SOCCI" a mini soccer game. (notice the valley in the backdrop)

 I enjoyed lunch with Julia and then it was time to return to school and work. Being up at 7200 feet, the weather changes suddenly and we found ourselves facing a huge thunderstorm! Janine reports that it is NOT raining in Nairobi.

As we were walking through the Titchie school area, we came across the sixth grade science class. They were working with thermometers to see if wind or rain would affect the accuracy.

After Julia headed to art class, I stopped by the music room to check on some of our dorm girls
to hear them play. We will definitely have a worship time in the dorm led by these young talented ladies!

At the end of the school day, all dorm students must go to the laundry and pick up their clothes that were washed, dried and folded by the very capable Kenyan staff.

The sun is now shining brightly and that is reflected in the smiles of the students (our girls).

After returning home, Julia works on her art project, drawing a portrait from a picture.                     Her subject? Lizzy of course!

After that there was a visit from the local fire equipment company to inspect our extinguishers.

Okay.... now you have a glimpse of a school day here at RVA. The day is hardly over as we still have homework, dorm devotions and our Tuesday dorm meeting (with treats of course)  then we will fall into bed and start all over again tomorrow!  Hope you have enjoyed this glimpse of our new lives!

Love you all,

Steve for Janine and Julia (Lizzie too)

Week Three Wrap-up

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to write a little something about week three. We are definitely settling into the school routine
at this point. The first progress report has been issued and Julia is doing extremely well!

Janine has begun to master the home economics classroom including understanding how to procure the
items she needs for her recipes. The students enjoy making and eating every day!

The driving thing is coming along for Steve. It looks like next week he will be set out solo on the weekly trips to Nairobi. Janine is stilled worried, but God is definitely in control of that situation!

Last weekend was another typically busy weekend on campus. With so many boarding students, you need to be able to keep them busy on weekends as well. Saturday was Titchie field day, a kind of fair day for the elementary age students. It was a beautiful day and everyone had fun. Here are a couple of pictures from the
event.

There were donut eating contests, wheel-barrel races, principals dressed as clowns and much much more!

After field day had ended, it was off to Senior Store for lunch. Senior store is a outdoor cafe run by the

senior class as a way to raise funds for their senior safari trip. almost the entire campus eats lunch to 

help the senior's cause. One of Steve's co-workers brought his family to field day and we all enjoyed

lunch together.

Next up: Our first dorm birthday party! One of our girls turned 13. So we had her for dinner with two of her friends and then all the eighth grade girls for cake and ice cream.

Sunday was a quieter day with church in the morning, lunch at the cafeteria, and then some yard work with the now famous (and correctly configured) home made axe! Sunday night Steve was able to stream the Eagles/Ravens game! It wasn't the greatest reception but he was able to watch the game! 

Anyway, that wraps up week three here at RVA. Stay tuned to see what happens next!

THIS IS AFRICA

Okay....we know you know that we are currently serving in Africa. This will be the first, of many, this is Africa stories.
Soe here goes: Our outside helper had to leave the Kijabe area to deal with a medical emergency in his family. He has been gone for about a week. Every night when the sun goes down, so does the tempature! We build fires as it is our only source of heat. However, the wood here is very wet and hard to ignite. We wind up using quite a bit of kindling to get a good fire started.
WE HAD RUN OUT OF KINDLING!  :-(

SO.....after I returned home from my day job today, I decided I could make some kindling. I went to the work shed to look for the axe I had purchased
only to find that our helper had not ever used it. Now you see, we can only buy an axe head here and you have to make your own handle. After a few minutes of searching, I found a piece of wood I thought would suffice and proceeded to whittle the end to fit the axehead. Now all I had to whittle with was a ponga (machete) so after praying that I did NOT chop off one of my hands, I proceeded to get to work. Below is the finished product:

Being pretty proud of myself and thinking "Fran Branigan would be proud to use this tool" I went to work making kindling. After 40 minutes and one large bandaid, I had produced enough kindling to get us through this weekend. :D

I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I did writing it!

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DORM PARENT

We are starting to settle into the routine of the school week. This is what it looks like for dorm parents like us:
Up at 6:15 AM
Make sure the girls do their chores, take their medicines and have everything they need for school. Get them out to breakfast around 7:15AM
Wake Julia at 7:15 AM for school. Julia leaves at 7:45 AM
Janine departs at 8:00 to teach her classes.
If I am going to Nairobi, I leave at 7AM returning around 3:30PM
if not, I go to my desk around 9 and work until 3.
Chapel is at 10:15 AM
Chai and staff prayer is at 10:30 AM
School ends at 3:25 PM
Everyone must be back in the dorm by 7:00 PM but most are back earlier.
Homework and showers are from 6:30 ish until 8:10 PM
Devotions are from 8:15 PM to 8:45 PM
Quiet Time starts at 9:15PM
and LIGHTS OUT is 9:30PM. :-)
Then........ we can correspond with home, skype with family and friends,
prepare lessons, hang out with Julia, play fantasy football and clean our apt.
Then.. it's bedtime around 11PM so we get some rest before we start all over again.
Now don't be fooled, it sounds like its alot of work but I cannot deny we have a huge smile on our faces the entire time!

Week 1 at RVA

Hello everyone. We have successfully survived our first full week here at RVA. Janine taught 10 home economics classes, Julia completed all assigned

homework and even managed to run the mile in PE and get drafted to be the team manager for the girls varsity basketball team. Go Lady Buffs!

Steve went into Nairobi just once this past week and caught up on all purchasing paperwork to get "acquainted" with the computer system and the paperwork system used by the business office.

Evenings were spent doing devotions with our dorm girls, (we have chosen to

study the book of Proverbs so that we all gain wisdom and discipline) doing homework, and tending to and visiting the girls who were ill. We had a virus spring up and were required to place three of the girls in the student health center. To date, two have returned but Anna cannot seem to break her fever!

Thursday night we were relieved for two hours. we walked the campus and visited a friend who was celebrating his birthday. On the way home, we met up with the bee exterminating team! There seems to be a bee situations on the Tichtie(elementary school)  playground. To the rescue came the terminator exterminators!

They dutifully climbed the swing set to get rid of the nesting bees.

It was overcast and pitch black during the entire operation, I will admit they were having more fun eradicating the bees than we had watching and documenting their actions!  :D eventually revealing their true identities....

So.......after all that we were looking forward to a restful weekend!

Friday night was dorm night. We hosted a party for our 8th grade girls as well as all the station girls (those that live with their families) all tolled, we had 18 girls

for snacks, smoothies and some games. We played happy family (thank you Bob and Lisa Larew) and the girls really had fun.

Saturday we all went to a nearby school to use their swim facilities. The party was for the entire 7th and 8th grade classes with teachers, dorm parents and their families. About 225 people attended. Janine and I were chaperones

on the 8th grade bus. The girls had a blast!





                                           Steve even managed to get some grill time in!

So after we returned, we had to go to a welcome night to introduce the student council and all new staff members. After we were introduced, the male staff were asked to do an eating stunt. We were each handed a wheatabix biscuit with 1 1/2" of peanut butter slathered on it. The task was

to eat it faster than anyone else. I apologize that there are no pictures, but we were both on stage at the time. For those who don't know, wheatabix is a dry

cereal type substance. Once in your mouth, it expands as it mixes with your saliva add in the peanut butter and you can just imagine all the men gagging

in front of the whole student body. Never fear, Steve did get it down but he was not the first to do so.

Sunday was a true day off. Church service at 8:30 AM at the nearby AIC church. We enjoyed lunch in the cafeteria and then back to the dorm. I took the opportunity to walk a bit and take some pictures. I found:

Teachers acting like children!

The welcome sign just inside the gatehouse.

          Students playing volleyball with the guards on their day off.

                 Senior High students walking around the campus.



Children paying on the bee-free Ticthie Playground.

Okay folks.... that sums up week one! Thanks for praying for us and remember.... YOU TOO are a vital part of our ministry!