Archive for July, 2008

Many of you have asked about our living arrangements once we get to Kenya. Unfortunately, we don’t have the answers to those questions yet. There are a lot of variables that go into the logistics of lodging so many families in a small area. The following is copied from Ryan Murphy’s Blog, “Strangers in Kenya”. If you remember, he is the author of a book about life at RVA and is currently a missionary there. It helped give me more perspective on housing at RVA and I thought that we’d share it with you as well. ~ BM

“With 35 families leaving and nearly 30 coming, it’s felt like a carousel of flying furniture lately. But moving here at RVA has an added dimension to it. This will really confuse you, so hang on.

When people leave for good, they have to sell all of their things. Sometimes the people whom they sell to are on campus, sometimes they haven’t arrived yet. Few of the sold items can be transferred until the people leave (which is what’s happening now). So all at once, entire household worth of goods disappear into other households. However, those households are often in transition as well.

Once people move out of their houses, the school’s maintenance team has to repair and repaint and get them ready for the next person coming in. The households for the people coming in are set up by “host families.” So, the host families move furniture for the new families. Many of the people who are staying (host families) move as well. So, almost all families remaining on campus are moving at least 1 and sometimes two families within a two week period.

But, the new households can’t be set up until the old houses are moved out. And sometimes people can’t move out of the old houses until another house is cleaned up and fixed by maintenance. And sometimes old houses can’t be moved out of until they know where they are moving. With our staff still undecided for next year due to people still raising money to come out here, administration can’t decide where everyone should be. Housing is very tight on campus and so administration has to be careful to get the right person in the right spot. It’s like dominoes and a jigsaw puzzle all rolled into one. I’ll give you a sample of something I heard today. (I’ll use letters to make it less confusing.)

Family A has bought furniture from family B and wants to move into family E’s house. Family B is gone and family C wants to move into family B’s old house. Famly A, however, can’t move into their new house because family D bought furniture from family E, and it hasn’t been decided where family D will be living yet.

If this seems confusing, remember that someone is waiting to move into family C’s house as well. Once that family moves out, someone will need to move into their house. Rinse, lather, repeat.

We’re grateful not to be moving ourselves this time around (in the same house for 18 months straight! Yeah!), but it’s a full-time job just getting other people out and other people in these days.”