Wow, what a time we have been having in Kijabe! We haven’t even been here a week and so much has happened. We arrived at RVA this past Friday. The ride up the mountain from Nairobi was filled with vast contrasts. The one that stands out most in my mind is of the slums in Nairobi. Driving out of a modern day city – it really does have a lot of similarities of big cities in the States – we came over a hill and I saw it, one of the slums in Nairobi. Make shift houses almost piled on top of each other. Sloping down the hill and back up again, quite a distance both wide and in depth! The increase of dirt, the change in smell, the dress of the people all different as soon as we drove by. Small shops lined the streets with hundreds of people looking for things they need. In a lot of ways it reminded me of places I’d seen in Mexico and India. Poverty truly isn’t confined to one area of the world! The strange part of it all was that right next door (I’m talking within feet!) of the outskirts of these dilapidated, tiny homes were huge, mansion type houses! Well groomed, pristine looking homes. Some overlooked the gully of poor. The contrast was undeniable.
The ride is about a hour (sometimes 1 ½, depending on the part of Nairobi you go to) from the city to Kijabe. Kenya is a former British colony. Apparently their driving style is similar too – roundabouts everywhere in the city and driving on the left side of the road. (They even walk on the left side of the sidewalk instead of the right, like in the States.) It’s going to take some time getting used to. I’m losing track of how many times I’ve went to get in the passenger seat of a friend’s vehicle only to see the steering wheel!
When we toped the mountain before Kijabe, I was literally breathless as I saw the Greater Rift Valley for the first time. It is spectacular. To be able to see for miles, 1000s of feet below. RVA is located on an escarpment on the side of the mountain, we could see where the school was along with about a dozen other little towns. It was more than I imagined it to be!
The way that RVA arranges their new staff arrival has been really nice. They have current families that “host” the new arrivals. They set up basic living (beds, food, furniture…) before we arrived. There are also families who host a meal for a few days after arrival. We ate with a different family for the first 5 days we were here. They all understand what we’re going through in adapting to a new climate, altitude, environment and jet lag. It also helped us to get a better feel of the atmosphere here and meet new people faster. The community here is very welcoming and its helped our transition immensely. Our host family was with us in our training in New York two years ago. Its been really fun to get reacquainted and have their help these past few days. We’re also neighbors too! An unexpected blessing.
ONE BIG THING that we found out when we arrived is that we are going to be dorm parents after all!!! We’ll be with 5th & 6th grade boys! We were waiting to hear if another family would arrive before school starts (they are still working on funding to get here). If they made it, we would move into another dorm just down the road & split the boys between the two dorms. (Why the move? …The other family is planning on being here longer than us and it would have been less moving in the future.) Unpacking and settling in was limited while we waited to hear – which could have taken until the week before school started! We found out yesterday that they are not going to be able to make it here before school starts. Unfortunately, this creates a few more holes in this year’s schedule that need to be filled (please pray for the administration as they work this all out!) For us, we have mixed feelings: we are sad that they are not making it, and yet, we are happy to know that we are staying in the dorm and now can work on making this a home before the boys arrive in a couple weeks!!! Its been said that I got an early birthday present in knowing where home will be for the next year! I agree.
One fun thing… our dorm is located near the edge of campus. This means that we are close to the forest. It also means that we have, and will continue to see, MONKIES!!! Thankfully we haven’t seen the baboon, but we are thrilled about the family of Calobus monkeys. Their black and white with really long white tails. They have been outside our house a couple times already! Watching them play and jump (up to 15 or more feet so far) is incredible!
Internet is different here. It will take a bit to get used to. If we take a little longer to reply to emails, post blogs, upload pictures, please don’t worry. We’re just getting used to it here and only get online every couple days.
Thanks to each of you who have been praying for us!
~BM
The Munson Family
