Boda-Boda and the Treasure Hunt

We have finished our first week of orientation and have learned so much about personal safety, hygiene, drinking water and cultural sensitivity. As a reward for our studies, we held a treasure hunt on Tuesday. Our group of 75 was split into 9 groups and unleashed on the town of Machakos. We needed to have lunch, learn the English meaning of ten different words, purchase a fruit at the market we did not know and learn of its origins.

The exercise was to help us with understanding that we CAN survive in Africa.

First up..... a Matatos ride for ten into town. Our driver drove well but did not understand our request. A ten minute ride turned into a 30 minute adventure as he drove and drove until we finally convinced him to turn around and take us to the center of town.

Everyone was quite friendly and helpful. We purchased arrow root which when washed and peeled proved to be sweet. Most Africans serve it as a breakfast food with rice. Our group consisted of two families with 5 small children between them. Janine and I were selected to go with them to help with their children. Unfortunately after lunch, the children tired quickly and both families opted to return to our dorm.

This left Janine and I a couple of hours to explore Machakos on our own :D We had to eat something we would not normally order so we stopped for coffe with liver and gizzards well-done.

We did well until we got lost trying to find our way out of town. We asked many people for directions and all seemed to agree on the way for us to go. However, we did not recognize the way we were going so we stopped and asked a policeman. He informed us that it was too far to walk and he would help by getting a boda-boda for us to ride home. First he looked at Janine and asked her if she would be able to climb on! After she assured him that she could, he looked at us both and decided we would need two in order to get home.

A boda-boda is a motorcycle taxi just in case you were wondering. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of us on the boda-bodas while we were holding on and praying for our lives!

Saturday is our next day off. We are all going on a half-day safari that the ABO team has arranged. We are looking forward to more time outside the campus and hope to be able to send many pictures your way. Love to all!

LAUNDRY DAY

Saturday was also laundry day for us. We hand washed our clothes and hung them to dry. We are optimistic that they will dry before sundown.   Either way, we will take tem down before the bugs come out this evening. Tomorrow is Sunday. We will split up into teams and be assigned a local church to attend. Though the local pastors have been told we are there to join them, not lead them, we have been advised to have some type of message “in our pocket” because you never know what the local pastors will do. We will not know our assignment until later today. Should be fun!

TEAM BONDING DAY

After four full days of learning, we have today (Saturday) off. First on the list was a 2000 foot ascent of Mount Iveki located just behind Scott Theological Seminary. The morning proved to be perfect with little wind and lots of sunshine. Now before you think we have completely done a 180, we hiked to the first “turn-around” and then headed back down. ftill we hiked about 90 minutes up and down. Here are a few pictures from our hike and yes……Julia did go with us even though she has stated all along that hiking was a “deal breaker” for her.  :D

ORIENTATION WEEK ONE

We have survived the first four days of our orientation tackling such subjects as personal safety, drinking water safety, medical care, education and transformational development.

So to review…. We learned how to safely exist here, what to do if there is an issue and how to work with the nationals without offending them. There are 42 adults in our group with varied amounts of missionary experience. We are all learning from each other as well as from the presenters.

Yesterday some of the teen were asked to tell their stories. We enjoyed their presentations and Julia wrapped up their time. She did very well considering the size of the group and that The head administrator from RVA was in the audience. Once the teens were done, it was time for a presentation on RVA. We were always aware of the purpose of RVA and it’s impact on the ministries of so many missionary families. What we did not know was the purposeful intent to work within the community in Kijabe. We are still astonished to be called to serve with the staff at RVA.

We did have a conversation with RVA leadership about our role. It seems as if we will indeed be in charge of the Simba dorm and nurturing the eighth grade girls. That is about 80% possible and we will not know for another week or so. I was also told that there is a role for me in procurement which will require me to deal with their outside vendors, handle some inventory controls and possibly begin to travel into Nairobi to assist with vendor relationships. WOW! I have some experience in this area but this should be a real adventure! As you can guess, our response is “ here we are, use us!”

Tourist Time







Our choice for Alpha Male

 In our last day in Nairobi, we decided to play tourist for a few hours. On the agenda: The Giraffe Orphan Sanctuary and the Elephant Orphan Sanctuary. We arrived early at the giraffe sanctuary in hopes of seeing the giraffes fed. However, we just missed feeding time so the giraffe were not in petting range. They were only 50-75 feet away so our pictures came out pretty well. Enjoy!

Next stop was the elephant sanctuary just up the road. The elephants are scheduled to eat between 11-12 so everyone knows when to be there. We arrived on time! First up the young elephants Age 6 months to 1 1/2 yrs.
They were very playful kicking mud on their audience.

Next up were the older elephants ages 2 yrs to 3 1/2 yrs. After that age they are taken to some of the animal game parks located around Kenya and Tanzania.

All the kids enjoyed the visit.

Especially Julia!

On the way out we visited with the resident Rhino. He is kept there due to his age and the fact he is blind. He would never survive in the wild.  :-(

Tomorrow we leave for orientation in Muchakos. We will post as best we can, but we are not aware of the internet capabilities.  Luv ya!





Catching up from a very busy week.

My thoughts from the past few days as internet has been spotty and I have been unable to post anything. Please excuse me for rambling on....

July 08, 2012

Commissioning day, I am a bit apprehensive about the scope of this service and the number of family members that are scheduled to attend. I am praying they are not put off by the ceremony. But after the service is over, I received nothing but good reviews from my family about the service and that they have a better understanding of what we are doing. Praise God! We are still working on finishing the tasks to complete move completely out of our home and prepare to move out tomorrow. We are all emotionally and physically spent. I continue to pray for peace about separation from Lizzy and her from us. I am sad, but I realize that God is in control even in the hardest of situations.

July 09, 2012

This was the hardest of days. Watching all my girls break down as they said goodbye. I think it was especially hard to see Julia crying. I guess I don’t see her cry so much. I did my best to hold it together, but I did not do so well. The time of prayer was especially hard as so many came to pray with us before departure. We were able to get our excess baggage to Nairobi via Adam Crain’s short-term group at Chelten Baptist. That was a huge blessing. Well it’s off to Peachtree City to orientation.

July, 12 2012

Orientation is over and we are heading out at 5:30 Am to start our journey. Julia enjoyed the golf carts and bonded pretty well with the Gessner children. Janine is struggling with a cold and I pray it doesn’t get worse. We will see the Daubenmeirs tomorrow and hopefully the Hamptons. The bulk of orientation will be in Africa when we attend ABO. So the PTC part was really financial, and employment issues. All safety, cultural and day to day issues will be covered at ABO.

July 13, 2012

We have finally arrived in Nairobi. My memory seems to have forgotten the strange noises and smells. The Mayfield guesthouse is overflowing with people as RVA graduates tomorrow and many families have traveled to celebrate graduation. On top of that, the crowd heading out to ABO with us is the largest ever with 42 adults and 30 children. So until the guesthouse clears out, we are all working with smaller rooms than we need and some (including me) are sleeping on the floor.

July 15, 2012

It is Sunday morning. It is quiet here now as some have flown back to the states for summer holiday following graduation  at RVA. Many have gone to church at Nairobi Baptist just down the street. Janine is still struggling with a cold. She slept in today which is good. I hope it is the start of her feeling better. Julia seems to be enjoying all the kids since there are so many teenagers. We may be heading out as a group tomorrow to see the giraffe and elephant orphanages. This trip was scheduled without us, but we are trying to be included for Julia’s sake. We don’t want to see her alienated from the other kids. That would be hard to deal with at this time.  It is very cool here and we have all windows closed. The weather will be the same at ABO so

we are glad we brought sweaters and jackets. We will have free time most of today and tomorrow. We do need to deal with getting the balance of our luggage to RVA. It all arrived safe and secure last night around 10:30, and the hallways are filled with baggage as there is no where else to leave it. We will need to square away our ABO bags today so that we are ready to ship the rest to RVA. Praying for a peaceful, restful day for the girls. Lord grant me the wisdom to provide for my girls andshow them that they are loved.

7 Days until Lift-Off

We are just 7 days away from leaving the comforts of Pennsylvania for the great unknowns of serving in Africa. We have shipped our possessions on ahead of us ( all 28 totes) and are now packing our travel bags and preparing to leave our home. We are blessed by the continuing love of family and friends throughout these days. We are humbled by the outpouring of love and concern for our "sanity". Thank you all for being who you are, Keep it up!
Now we must turn our eyes towards our commissioning service on Sunday and the hard goodbyes to dear friends and family.
We would love to see you at our commissioning service this Sunday, July 8th
at 6:30 PM at Davisville Church  325 Street Road  Southampton PA 18966

We are eternally grateful to all who have participated in this journey with us.

Love you all,

The McLavertys