Hello to all:

Wish I could write each of you individually, but I have a few other things to do than correspond! Now that we have been here for a whole week and a day, I’ll try to describe life. Please be aware that this is vacation time at the school and as of August 30, life will change.

RVA sits on the side of the escarpment of Rift Valley. We live at the very top. (This means that going anywhere is easy, but coming home is always UP!) The view is incredible. If we look West, we look out over the valley and other mountains beyond. If we look any other direction we see heavily forested slopes of the mountains on this side. We pause several times each day and just marvel at the beauty of this place.

We are in the season of short rains, but as mentioned previously we are in a drought and have only seen some fog and mist. Yesterday was gloriously sunny-the first such day. There are flowers and trees everywhere. Geraniums grow into 3and 4 foot bushes here since there is never a freeze. We also have lots of daisies, impatiens, scarlet salvia and cosmos. I haven’t figured out all of the trees yet, but we do have a banana tree in the front yard.

Our house/dorm is huge. And I have never seen so much closet and cabinet space. I will be thoroughly spoiled by the time we get back to America. The house is made of cement blocks. It’s a big 2 story rectangle. When you enter the front door, you can go left into a large living room with wood stove (the only heat in the entire place), right into the dining room and kitchen, or up to the bedrooms. The dining room has two 7ft by 4ft tables – enough to seat all 10 of our dorm boys plus us. Then there is the kitchen-more cabinets and counter space than I ever dreamed. I could conceivable make a mess that would take a week to clean!(except that I don’t have that many utensils!) The stove is brand new, the fridge is clean, no garbage disposal, but I do have an old microwave. I’ll save cooking for another letter, that is a story in itself. This is just about our accommodations.

Off of the living room is a guest bedroom and bath for parents of the kids to come and visit, a laundry room (and I have a washer!!), storage closets and another staircase up and back door.

Upstairs in our apartment (the left side) is a master bedroom and bath, 2 bedrooms and hall bath and small office. To the right is the dorm containing 3 large bedrooms (each can sleep4-6 boys) a large 3toilet, 3shower bathroom, and a large study/rec room with a ping pong table.

We have a nice front yard and porch with daisies all along the sides of the front walk. The back yard has a covered area for our woodpile and the hot water heater, which is heated by fire! Yes, if we don’t fire it up daily, we have cold showers – we have had 2 of those so far. WE also have a big clothesline, which I have used twice already.

The kids just love it here because no one has fences and everyone’s yard is open to all. They run wild and free! There are also lots of dogs that run wild and free. And at least 2 like to camp out on our front porch-hmmm.

We live right across the road from the elementary playground and school building. The boys can finally walk to school-should take them about 1 minute! I will be the elementary librarian so I can walk to work in about 1 minute! All of the elementary dorms are right up here on the same road with us so almost all of the kids’ friends live within a 3 minute walk. I know this isn’t heaven, but in some ways it is close!

Right now, during vacation, we go to the local Africa Inland Church, which is about a 10 minute walk from home. We have been invited to our helper, Fred’s church. We want to go with him, but it is a 30 minute walk up the mountain-and that’s a young Kenyan’s 30 minutes. We told him we had better get in better shape first! Actually the altitude doesn’t bother me at all, until I start back up the hills!

All for now. We are loving it here, but missing you. Take care,

Nancy for all of us