Day 1 at Rva

It has been a hectic weekend here at RVA. After finally finishing all the required orientations, the children finally filled the campus. Friday was new parent orientation. We were not only staff members, but new parents as well.

After all the dust had settled, we had a full house of eager 8th grade girls here at Simba Dorm. Today started our new routine. Up before seven to get the girls out to breakfast.

 then ..............Julia gets up and out!

Once Julia is on her way, Janine follows shortly to teach her 2 cooking classes! Janine was anxious, but all went well and she survived her first day.

After all are on there way, I go to work and start my day job in the purchasing dept. Many things here are done manually so I will do my best
to automate what can be automated. Purchasing is definitely different here,
it is more about the relational aspects than the cost of goods.

After school went well, we all spent time with the girls doing homework,
devotions and discussing expectations on the girls part as well as ours.
We did have our first health issue as one of the girls has a high fever and we had to send her to student health for observation.

Oh, by the way, I couldn't help but notice the beautiful scene from our front porch this morning as I took pictures of our first day!

We are truly blessed to be here serving our Lord in this manner!

Please know how much we appreciate you all and how big a part of this ministry you truly are!

Tourist Day 2: Acacia Farm Safari

Hello Everyone,

I apologize that we have not posted anything in a while. we are extremely busy settling into our new home and preparing for all our duties here at RVA.

School opens in 11 days so there are an insane amount of things to get accomplished!

I wanted to share a few pictures from our safari trip 2 weeks ago, though to us it seems like a lifetime ago. I will post the entire folder on smug mug shortly. To review more extensive pictures please visit our photo gallery

at: www.mclavertyfamily.smugmug.com

For now, I will wet your appetite with a few safari pictures:

Love you guys,

Steve, Janine and Julia

The pre-wedding Feast

So we are going a bit out of order….. But we access the internet when we can. Yesterday, Saturday the 4^th, we were invited to a pre-wedding ceremony at a local village. There where 13 of us who attended. We walked about 1 ¼ miles to arrive. When we arrived, we were “pinned” with a decorative hanchercheif for a “gift” of 200 shillings ($2.50 in US Dollars) we then sat in lawn chairs and waited for all the guests to arrive so the festivities could begin.

After some singing and dancing, the groom and his bride appeared. Only later did we find out they were already married. She had been “given” to him and the party was to raise the funds to pay his new father in-law the “bride’s price”. The happy couple was seated at the head table, a local pastor did a brief sermon on the wedding feast at Cana and then all were treated to a late lunch.

The ladies were served first, buffet style, which was unusual

In this culture so we were a bit surprised.

After the ladies were served, the hosts approached us with warm water and towels for us to wash our hands. Then each male was served lunch form the food set apart at the head table. Here is a picture showing the difference in the lunch served to Janine and I.

After all had eaten, people were called up by groups to present their gifts to the bride and groom. The groom started off the gifts with a hundred shillings and it went on from there. The entire ceremony was in Kicomba which is the local language so we were fairly lost as to what was going on. When it was time to presents our gifts, I accidently went up during a call for lady friends of the bride. This sent our group into histerical laughter! :D

We totally enjoyed the affair even after trudging home the 1 ¼” mile walk. We were glad we had been invited to go! Oh..... here is the official "hat" picture from Machakos, Kenya.  You never know what you will encounter while out for a stroll!  :D  We will be finishing ABO on Monday and will finally arrive at RVA sometime early afternoon on Tuesday. We are assured the internet connection will be better so we will be able to post all of our experiences including our safari adventure the previous Saturday!

Be Blessed,

we love you all!