It looks like Sue is going to be very busy this term as they are short staffed in the Student Health Department. Her nursing schedule is going to be both during the day as well as over-night if their are students who need to stay in Student Health over night. My job is also going to be fun! Working on computers in the middle of rural Kenya is difficult. The town of Kijabe, where Rift Valley Academy is located, currently has a 1MB line into Nairobi on which their are about 800 computers (400 at the school, and 400 in the rest of the Kijabe station). That leads to very slow traffic. Over the next couple of months I have been asked to manage a financial application that they use for many of the services here, as well as look at some computer infrastructure build that they need to do.

Yesterday we took a trip to Nairobi for the day. A wonderful family who has been here for many years (Todd and Kylie Dubber) has been helping us setup and get organized. Food like meat, cheese and milk can only be purchased in Nairobi and takes about 1 hour to get to. We have been told that the opportunities to get into Nairobi is difficult during the term so we should stock up now. Sue and Beatrice went with Kylie to do lots of grocery shopping. Todd and I went with Hannah and the Dubber kids to visit AIM Internation Services in Nairobi. On the way we went through several very very poor towns. It was incredible to see (and reminded me of a World Vision commercial!) We drove down muddy, bumpy roads with hundreds of people walking around the few cars on the roads. Hannah asked my why it smelled so bad. The difference here between the very poor and the wealthy is night and day. These are areas where AIM missionaries don’t go near when their are any problems in the country.

At International Services the kids go to go inside the airplanes they have (AIM Air provides air freight and evacuation services in East Africa to many missionary organizations). They had a great time. After shopping we met up with the women and all went swimming at a Nairobi hotel.

Well, that is all for now – I’ll post some pictures next time.

Karibo!

Greetings from Kenya!

We are here! Yes, we made it in one piece and we are all doing well! It’s taken us a few days to sort ourselves out here but now it’s August 18, Monday evening and one week since we took our British Airways flight. It certainly has been a fun adventure so far and we have lots to share!

Jetlag and Altitude We all seem to finally have gotten over the major part of our jetlag – it took a while. The time difference here is 7 hours – so as I write this letter it is 9:00pm at night here in Kijabe and in Ontario it is 2:00 in the afternoon. One of the things to get used to (especially for the adults) is the high altitude and the air is thinner – so basically we puff and pant as we climb any little hills and when we get to the big hills we really are short of breath and tired!

Cold in Africa?!! Being in the Rift Valley means that the weather is quite cold and very windy. Our dear Kenyan friends Irene and Mumo (who are renting our house back in Canada) had told us that is was cold here but we confidently looked at them and said ‘we’re Canadian and we’re used to the cold! Well, Irene and Mumo you are right, sorry we doubted you! Yes, we’re used to cold with heaters in our house. Here we have a concrete house with concrete floors and the only source of heat is a big concrete fireplace in the family room. Our slippers and warm PJ’s have proved very useful and at night we bundle up in our quilts and blankets. At night the windows tend to shake and rattle with the wind as it whistles around (or maybe it’s the monkeys!).

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere! Up where we live in the Rift Valley, it is truly beautiful. The views driving up were magnificent, there are lush bougainvillea bushes and trees with dark pink flowers, fruit trees like banana, lime, lemon, passion fruit, mango, papaya and more. There are all sorts of other wild flowers everywhere – feels like a flower paradise. Kenya grows and exports roses – so for $1 or less you can get 12 beautiful long stem roses and many other beautiful flowers too. Yesterday I went into Nairobi and picked up a huge bouquet of exotic flowers which cost $2. Far cry from the $50 price tag it would have cost at a florist in Canada! Am I convincing you to come for a visit?

Driving Driving in Kenya is definitely not for the faint of heart! The vehicles drive on the left side of the road, steering wheel is on the left side. Most vehicles are standard. The roads are riddled with large bumps and deep potholes and there seem to be no traffic rules and few traffic lights. It’s complete mayhem. The air in Nairobi is filled with smog from all the diesel engines and it’s hard to take a deep breath. The city would certainly would be a hard place for anyone with respiratory problems. (The air quality where we are in the Rift Valley is much cleaner). When you drive it’s every man for himself.

Our first ride into RVA was a treacherous drive – not for the faint of heart – the roads were steep, winding and full of potholes. Drivers are constantly passing and impatient to get ahead. I was holding my breath several times and praying that we would survive the trip. I’m sure over time we’ll get used to it. We passed by a vehicle that had driven down a gully which was rather sobering. Good thing we won’t be driving for at least 3 months!! There were monkeys and baboons long the roadside as well as hundreds of farms and pastures with sheep and their shepherds, cows, goats and stray chickens. There were several fruit/vegetable stands along the way as well as other wares for sale.

‘Police Checks’ – We found out about these random police checks – on the road to Nairobi and in Nairobi, the police set up their little posts with nail tire shredders. If you are stopped they will do whatever they can to find a fault with your vehicle or your license and registration – we’ve been told if your license isn’t signed in 7 different places or if your sticker is soon to expire or a myriad of other possibilities then you are at fault and they will threaten you with a ticket. However there is often a way out of a ticket and that is called ‘Chai money’ or tea money – aka a bribe. The policy of AIM is not ever to give bribes – end of story. So if you are indeed at fault then you are to ask for a ticket or else ask them to forgive you. Anyways these police checks can last from a few minutes to hours. Missionaries have been told that they will be sent to jail for their infraction – the police hope that this will shake them into paying a bribe but when they say they are ready to be directed to the jail house they are finally waved on. I’m sure we’ll have our own police check stories to tell you some day!

Now I will chronicle the past few days – little journey entries starting the night we arrived to walk you through.

Day 1: Monday 11th – We arrived in Nairobi at 8pm local time and after getting off the flight we had to apply for our visitor visas. We had been given the Visa application ahead of time and so we jumped the queue of everyone madly filling out the paperwork and walked right through immigration and got our visas with no problem. Then came the bags…all 18 arrived – rather beat up but arrived! This was a big answer to prayer as BA is notorious for losing bags. The only thing missing was the girl’s booster seats – they will arrive later on. As I was filling out the paperwork for the boosters, Andrew took all our bags up to the customs desk and started a conversation with one of the male agents there. He was a jovial sort and they had a great conversation, as soon as I joined Andrew, another female customs agent wanted to sort through our stuff and this guy spoke to her in Swahili and waved us through without opening one zipper. Again another answer to prayer. None of the bags had been tampered with – someone had suggested that with the duffel bags we use small electrical plastic zip ties to tie together all the zippers. It worked really well!

A lovely Canadian couple named Kylie and Todd Dubber met us at the airport with such warm smiles and a beautiful welcome and took us to an AIM operated guesthouse called the Mayfield for our first night. They are our host couple which means that they are assigned to mentor us and have been particularly wonderful to us. They set up and cleaned our apartment for us which was a lot of work and Kylie put a bouquet of red roses in all the rooms!

After baths at the Mayfield we were in bed by 1am and slept soundly – awaking at 7am to the cock-a doodle of the roosters all around us. After breakfast (with strong Kenyan coffee – yumm) they took us to get money. The currency here is Kenyan Schillings and $1 Canadian is approximately 60KSH which fluctuates.

On our way up to our house at the Rift Valley Academy we stopped at the local grocery store it was interesting to see how much things cost! I have written below a small sample of some of the things we purchased:

Small can regular Tuna 236 KSH $3.90 Canadian
1 KG Washing Detergent 171KSH $2.85
Fabric Softener 339KSH $5.65
2 KG sugar 145 KSH $2.40
White Flour 2KG 116KSH $1.93
800 gram Peanut Butter 339KSH $5.65
3Litres Fresh Milk 207 KSH $3.40
1 Litre boxed apple juice 130KSH $2.20
Ball of Cheese 429 KSH $7.15
Small Box of imported Rice Krispies 399KSH $6.65
Imported from UK Lip balm 265KSH $4.40

Food – Well, meals are fun. We were surprised at how much is available here – but at a price. Chicken breast is 900ksh per KG which is $15 so about 8 per pound and most missionary families here can’t afford that. Ground beef is less. There is also flank steak which is much cheaper. For the local people – the food prices have almost doubled with inflation and many are skipping meals as they are unafordable. The basic staple here is cornmeal mash and kale with onions – meat is a treat. We had to stock up our freezer with enough meat for one month as that is all we’ll get going into Nairobi at least for now. I have a new cookbook called more with less – so my meals will focus on more lentils and beans and fresh vegetables and less meat. We can get fresh milk which is good as well as yogurt, eggs and very very expensive cheese imported from Europe. The kenyan cheese is not my favorite but over time we’ll all adjust to different textures and flavors.

We made it to our apartment at about 4pm and by the time we lugged all the groceries and suitcases up the hill we were tired!

Our New House – Our apartment is a cosy open concept layout and just fine for the four of us. We had purchased the house contents from the Rebert’s who lived here for several years before us – what a blessing to move into a fully furnished home! We have a guest room just waiting for company! The bedrooms are large and lots of natural sunlight. The girls spent their first night in their black and white striped zebra bunkbeds…must admit – doesn’t go with the pink fairy quilts but they don’t care!! We have a large kitchen and dining room combined and two bathrooms – all clean and bright! We took out our beautiful quilts and blankets that Grandma made for us and set up the pictures and a few other things for the walls.

Grade 1 and Preschool – We walked around the campus today – it’s huge! Hannah got to see her classroom and the playground and she is so excited to start Grade 1. Her class will have 12 students in it and she has a morning and afternoon teacher. The campus is surrounded by tall walls and guards – 3 guard houses in total. There are safety protocols and emergency measures which we will all learn about soon. Beatrice will be in a parent led preschool program for the two years that we are here – the mom’s all get together to sort out what they will do, and I’m sure she’ll have lots of play dates too!

Tuesday 12th – Today two local ladies arrived at our house who worked for the previous owners here. There is an expectation here that we have an inside house worker to do housework, do meal prep and help with chores. This help means that we can spend more time doing the things that we are trained to do and also the time to spend with our girls as well as provide an income to the local population who are extremely poor. The older lady is in her 60’s and looks like Aunt Jemima on the maple syrup bottle – she is very friendly with a warm chuckle and a beautiful smile named Josephine. She brought her granddaughter also named Josephine. (The younger Josephine is 17 and is going back to school in September and said she would like to help watch the children until she leaves for boarding school which is perfect for us especially next week when we are in new staff orientation all week).

Election Crisis Aftermath – We found out from Sho-Sho that her brother was stoned to death during the Kenyan clashes earlier this year -she told me his face was bludgeoned beyond recognition. This local community was hit hard by vicious murders of family members living in Nairobi during the Jan/Feb election crisis. Hard stuff, these people have tough skin – certainly makes me much less of a complainer about our seemingly minor challenges. The other problem is that the cost of food has almost doubled here which means that many people are without enough food.

Our Jobs – Sue’s role as nurse in the infirmary and student health sounds challenging. There are 500 students and when viruses pop up the school is hit hard. This term there is one full time hole in staffing which means that I will be taking a hefty amount of work – especially on call during nights and weekends. I’ve been told that I’ll be casting, stitching – yes me doing stitches and most nurse practitioner roles..it will be a big learning curve. I won’t start for another week or so – we’ll take our time setting up house. Andrew is still unsure about what he will be doing – but perhaps a project manager type position.

Hannah and Beatrice – The girls are great, we’ve had a few tears and the jetlag has kept us all in a bit of a daze but they have met some really special friends already and there is so much to do here – running around, exploring and learning about our new life here in Kenya. This is an amazing community for the children – huge trees to climb, sports to play and lots to do! Today we had a mini-Olympics for the kids which was lots of fun. Hannah is already climbing trees and exploring her new surroundings with some other kids which is great fun!

Mail – On Tuesday we had a BIG surprise, our first piece of mail and a package from Hannah’s SK teacher back home – thank you so much Cindy! The girls were so pleased to have a letter and the balloons and pencils were a hit. We plan on writing back to every snail mail card that’s sent our way although we might have to wait for someone who is traveling back to the US or Canada so we can send our mail with them as the mail system out is often unpredictable. Please do write us and the girls!! Email is much appreciated too – so we can keep up to date with you!

We’ve been told that if you do want to send something besides a letter or card, use the Canada post style manila mailing envelopes – they rarely get opened – boxes will. It sounds like stuff does get here after all sometimes takes awhile. When you are writing the value of items on the customs sticker – please keep the cost low as we get charged duty on the amount you declare and will save us $ on this end.

We will be sending out another much shorter letter in a month or so but will be updating the BLOG on our website more frequently with interesting stories and updates so please visit it and if you have a Google account you can also post comments which we would love to read from our end!!

Well that’s all for today, if you’ve actually made it through this letter your probably close to fast asleep!!

Until then,

Love,

The Fabers

Andrew, Sue, Hannah and Beatrice