Charge it to your Account!

Steeves' Summary #20: Charge it to your Account! August 28, 2005

The view from our Kitchen window

We have spent the last week in orientation, learning about RVA, Kijabe, boarding school, and dorms. RVA is unique among mission boarding schools in that the dorms and classes are integrated and close together. RVA has about twice the number of boarding students as the next largest school, Black Forest Academy in Germany.

It is amazing that RVA has functioned for one hundred years. None of the foreign staff are paid, in fact we end up paying to work here! As different people came in to tell us about the services available to staff, it became somewhat of a running joke how everything will be charged to our account. Our trips to Nairobi in a school van, shopping at the "Academy Arcade", the on-site store, work permits, milk from the cafeteria -- all charged to our account. Tim Cook, the school superintendant was telling us about some discussions he had with Kenyan income tax people. It took some time for them to understand that he did not actually pay the staff, nor know how much money they made. From the kindergarten teacher to the top administrator, support requirements are solely based on size of the family. God has supplied all the people necessary to maintain a school of excellence for many years.

Monday is Arrival Day. We expect our eleven dorm girls to arrive, and life will change dramatically. We feel somewhat prepared, but we know for certain that we can't do this on our own. What an awesome responsibility to take charge of the children of missionaries and allow them to continue with their work while we do our best to look after their children. Nobody has ever written a "Dorm Parenting for Dummies" book, and it seems that the only way to learn it is to do it. With God's help, we will survive!

Things are different here. I'll explain a few.

Electricity: The Kenyan standard is 240V 50hz. All the RVA houses have 110V, North American standard outlets as well. The 240V means that we have a 3000w electric kettle, twice the power of Canadian kettles. There are drawbacks to the power here: it goes over every few days for unknown reasons. It has been such a normal thing that RVA has installed backup generators that automatically kick in and pick up loads within a minute or two. All desktop computers require Uninteruptable Power Supplies. RVA has over 200 computers, so it is big part of computer maintenance.

Internet: Our Internet connection consists of a 256kb connection for about 1000 users. The connection to our house in Canada was about three times as fast. It is sloooooooow compared to what we are used to, but perhaps limited access has weaned me away from spending too much time online.

Buildings: Wood is expensive and prone to be eaten by termites, so cement blocks are the standard building material. Hanging a picture on the wall involves a drill, a masonary bit, a plastic plug(or a whittled stick) and a screw. Windows are all metal framed with brass handles -- they are often open during the day to allow some heat in!

Transportation: We went into Nairobi on the RVA bus last week. I think the bus was built around an underpass above kijabe. As we went through, we were about three inches from one side, and six inches on the other. Every time the bus leaves Kijabe, it goes through that tunnel as it is the one paved road leading to Kijabe. It is narrow, steep and slow 3 km to the main highway. The main highway is full of potholes, slowed by trucks belching black diesel smoke, and confused by hundred of "matatus" (taxi vans) trying to get to their next passengers as fast as possible.

Views: We are on the edge of the Rift Valley, and the scenery is spectacular. Our windows look out at the edge and we see the old highway snaking up the side of the escarpment from the valley floor to the top of the Kikuyu escarpment.

People:
RVA Staff: It is amazing to have so many like minded people together working at the school. That being said, RVA has a culture of its own, bred from 100 years as an american school in africa, and further established by the fact that many of the students and staff have gone to american christian colleges.

National workers: We have two people working for us and with us. Sarah and John worked for the Bannisters for many years, and we were able to continue their employment when Bannisters returned to Canada. Sarah works inside cleaning, baking, and making us a meal of stew and chapaties (flat, fried bread) once a week. John, Sarah's brother, works half-time outside keeping the grounds neat and attractive. They are both very thankful for the employment in this country where work is scarce. We are thankful to have such wonderful Christian co-workers who allow us to have extra time to focus on our work. We sit down for chai (kenyan tea with lots of milk and sugar) most days and talk about families and life in Kenya.

People around Kijabe: We have barely been out of Kijabe, but we have seen many people who we know have very little. The missionary population has a huge impact on the local economy, but we can not make a dent in the widescale poverty. Many of the staff are involved in orphans work or other types of outreach, and for those people we make a difference.

Dirt and water: The one paved road out of Kijabe does not go through RVA. There is lots of red volcanic dirt around. Evan is the master of finding it, and it seems to gravitate towards his feet. Right now things are green and there is enough water. In a few months vegetation might turn yellow, the dust will build up more, and we will have to start thinking more seriously about water conservation. Water is very precious in africa, and RVA's wells provide clean, safe water -- but we still have to be good stewards of this limited resource.

Next time we write, our 11 girls will have arrived. We met four of them today as part of New Parent's Orientation. Please pray for all of these girls as they live away from home for three months. With improved telephones and internet, it is possible for them to keep in regular contact with their parents, but the physical separation is difficult. Pray for us as we try to be substitute parents for these young girls.

Thank you all for being part of what we are doing here. In Canada I recognized the importance of communication is between missionaries and their friends and suporters. We have been here a month and I realize just how much we have seen and learned, yet it is so easy to focus on what we are doing here and now and forget about our friends in Canada. This random collection of information might give you a touch of insight into our daily lives -- which will change dramatically tomorrow!

Blessings,

Michael and Bernadine Steeves

You can see our previous newsletters on our website at www.kijabe.org/mission2005.

	Michael and Bernadine Steeves P.O. Box 80 Kijabe, Kenya 00220 phone: 011-254-20-32046-101 cell phone: 011-254-735-317094 steeves@kijabe.org www.kijabe.org
	Africa Inland Mission 1641 Victoria Park Ave. Scarborough, ON M1R 1P8 (877) 407-6077 (Toll Free) www.aimcanada.org
	Canadian Baptist Ministries 7185 Millcreek Dr. Mississauga, ON L5N 5R4 (905) 821-3533 www.cbmin.org