I was going to be different.
You know the stereotype; the nervous sweating driving instructor who frequently screams in panic and bursts into tears with seemingly no good reason.
Calm was my mantra, and I’m not ever sure what a mantra is. But I would gently reassure them and guide them into happy driving. After all, I had spent the term covering the curriculum with them and had fallen in love with all of them. It was going to be easy.
Not that...
Last week I wrote about Kenya. This week I have to write about RVA. Although RVA is in Kenya and is influenced by Kenya, it is not really Kenyan. And it is a unique experience to live here. The following are interesting facts about living and working at RVA based on real events in the lives of real people (us) this term:
The only fist fight I had to break up as a dorm parent of 5th grade boys was because...
Continue ReadingThe Pinewood Derby was Saturday. After all the weeks of preparation, the time had come. On Friday night, the 1st through 3rd grades ran their races, or rather, their dashes, because they were not official. But Saturday, the 4th through 12th grade would race.
The track took almost the length of the gym. Because we have a Ph.D. in applied sciences, a masters in discrete mathematics and a masters in theater, the track was absolutely perfect, we had computer systems tracking...
It started last night about midnight and is still raining–a nice, steady, gentle rain that this parched land can drink in! And this after the local weathermen said that the weather patterns had changed and the short rains were over…God is faithful!
Thanks for praying.
Nancy
I’m in Kenya, not just RVA. Sometimes it’s hard to remember because we get so busy here. But this past week I’ve had several opportunities to be in Kenya more than RVA, and I loved them all.
First, our dorm went to deliver food to widows in the area. We didn’t have to go far off campus at all to get to the homes of widows in need. The homes were very small. The last one we visited was one small...
Jim Hoeksema is leaving Africa next week.
You’ve never heard of him. When he returns to the states, no one will be waiting for him at the gate with posters and no band will play. He wouldn’t want anybody to do that anyway. But he is a true hero, and I wanted someone to know that besides me.
Jim is from Iowa, and looks it. You would never know that he is a Ph.D. in Applied Sciences and a professor at a...
After writing an update, Steve and I always wonder if we are finally going to start running out of things to write about, but each weeks brings new fun and new realizations.
The fun last week was the Titchie Talent Night. I know Steve wrote about it, but I can’t help but say something. It was too…too…too! First, let me brag on OUR boys who really did have GOOD acts! Matthew played piano and did very well, although Jessie, the dog,...
Titchies are the first through sixth grade students at RVA. And from the first day I arrived in Africa, I had been warned about this night. The real title of the evening is called `Titchie Talent Night’ but different staff members had renamed it Titchie Torture Night.’ 37 different acts from the small fry set.
And as in much in Africa, I was naive. Surely it would not be as bad as everyone had said. Surely there would be delightful acts....
