PHOTO GALLERY

Our camp site on the 2nd night

The shores of the "Jade Sea"

Lake Turkana is considered the windiest place on earth.  There is a huge windmill project being built here to meet growing electricity demands.

The hotel called  Palm Shades

Our students get to greet the crowd in their native tongue in what ever they deem as traditional dress.

Our students are from 24 different Countries this year. Their parents work all over the continent of Africa.

Evan and 4 others who have all grown up here in Kijabe carried the U.S. flag for multicultural day. 

The community meeting hall ... meeting tree

The Road less traveled, sometimes the road we had to find as we went along.

One of our students enjoys the beauty of the waterfall up close.

Memories from our Ride last April

Nate took too many jumps

Time for a water break...it was so hot!

Packing up Camp in the morning!

Lake Magadi

Camping where the Elephants roam.  

Camp the last night.  425 miles of it was road.

Samburu Dancers celebrate that we brought food  as  an attempt to encourage these people in desperate situation due to drought. 

Amanda made a new friend very fast.

Students got the chance to go to a singing well.  This one was pretty shallow but sometimes the wells in the river beds are 30 feet deep.  The men sing to keep a rhythm as they toss buckets up to water the goats.  

With no real solid rain in 18 months, Northern Kenya is desperate for water.

Part of the interim trip is to see students get out of their comfort zone.   We tried this in several different ways.

Our view of Mount Kenya in the morning.  It is rarely this clear. 

 

PIZZA!!!!! This was the first time any of these kids had ever had pizza, been to a fast food restaurant, and boy did they eat!!

We have been working with the Greening of Kijabe project.  This term we have planted over 250 trees in the area.   Our students planted 100 in one day.  Our nursery has hundreds of seedlings coming so we are hoping to get more trees going out to the forest.  As you can see daily living needs the wood from the forest but we are working to train the community to replant quickly.  

 Multicultural day still has to be one of the best days at our school.  We celebrate through traditional games, songs, dances, and foods, the cultures represented at our school.   There are over 26 different passport countries this year.   The Koreans did a great job this year of teaching the whole school a traditional dance.  

It's a tradition that the students who have been at RVA the longest, carry in the flag of their passport country during our flag ceremony.   As you can seek there are quite a few in Nate's class that have been in Africa almost their entire life. 

New areas of learning and teaching.   I started a strings group 4 years ago.   Tragedy struck this year as our cello was dropped.  Sooo, thanks to Youtube, some tools from the States, and some reading, we'll try to put it back together.   We'll keep you posted on the progress. 

Unexpected challenges come in all forms in the class room.  This guy's attitude was great and he was even able to play the concert with his broken hand.  Being a goalie is tough work compared to band.  

During mid term Nate and Evan and several friends road via dirt roads and trails all the way to a national park.   We road part way as a a support vehicle.  We were at a friends  cottage and provided a midway point, water, fuel and lots of food.  Wow, those guys know how to eat.  It was a great experience in leadership, enjoying exploration and independence. 

We were privileged to take a group of 8 guys fishing in the Aberdare national park.  We always have rain as it is at 10,000 ft.   We were grateful that one of the staff members brought his really nice tent so we all stayed dry even though it poured for about 2 hours.   I think we could have done a commercial for REI tents.   Beatrice, (seen below) ties all our flies for our trip. 

 As you may recall we've been helping a lady named Beatrice use her skills of fly tying (for fishing) to help support her family.   When we came back from the States, we surprised her with a new vice that also came with special clamps or jaws.  Thanks PEAK vises for your help.    If you need flies, we can order them for you and have them mailed to you.   Then you can enjoy fishing twice as much!

A few weeks ago, I was able to present Bibles to doctors from all over the continent of Africa.  this was a fulfillment of an idea of my dad's from a few years ago. Through friends at Children's Medical Ministries, Jim Learned about PAACS.  (Pan Africa Association of Christian Surgeons.)  He felt that African Doctors need the best training possible however,  this training must be completed in Africa.   PAACS is meeting this incredible need for physicians in Africa.  Along with medical training, the physicians are receiving quality Biblical training.   These Doctors are in need of basic study materials such as a study Bible.  Thanks to the vision of Jim and Dorothy Taylor and many others, the first Bibles were presented to Doctors from all over the continent of Africa on May 21st.  This happened to be the 5 month anniversary of Jim Taylor "promotion to Glory".   It was December 21st, that Jesus called Jim Taylor home after battling cancer.    Thank you to those who gave money to purchase these Bibles.  Thank you also to Biblica Africa, who provided the Bibles and the Study Guides, especially the French Bibles.   It is the prayer of the extended Taylor Family that more Bibles will be able to be presented to each Doctor that attends  PAACS conferences in the future.  We are currently working with PAACS to see if there is a way to continue raising funds and supplying Bibles.   

Two weekends ago the sophomore class presented a dinner for the school staff and upperclassmen.  Our theme was New Orleans.  This event really brought the class together and they did a fantastic job of providing a high quality dinner for 215 people.  It was complete with decorations, live entertainment, and carefully trained waitering staff.

 It was a lot of fun for Steve to work with musically talented students and to jam with them on some jazz!

 The school cafeteria was used for all the cooking and food prep for the 3 course meal. 

Notice the Honda Generator. Without this gift, this house wouldn't have been built in time.  This house was for a widow who's mud house had collapsed due to heavy rains.
We also use it on every band and choir tour. Thanks JCC. 

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