Our weekend at Rift Valley Academy

We got to spend the whole weekend at our old high school in Kijabe, Kenya. Not only did we get to see a bunch of old friends and staff members, we spent lots of quality time with my little brother Stan who is in ninth grade there. Isaac and Evan enjoyed playing with their Uncle Stan and it was so good for me to see what an amazing young man Stan is growing up to be! As you can see in the pictures, Eli got to play some rugby on the familiar "upper field".

Sudan to Kenya by air

On our flight from Sudan to Kenya, our friendly pilot invited Eli and the boys to come "help" fly the plane. As you can imagine both Isaac and Evan loved it. The pilot gave Eli his first flying lesson and let him control the plane for about 20 minutes. Yikes!

Our home in Yabus, Sudan

Our compound consists of:
a brand new secondary school
4 missionary homes
student dorms and staff housing
a community eating area
several kitchen huts
outdoor shower and outdoor toilet

Our house (until we build our own)

Instead of a tent or hut like we initially expected to live in, our house is made of brick and cement with a tin roof. The tin roof is nice for catching clean rain water.
The house has three rooms: one all purpose room where we have our table and chairs, our solar freezer, and a huge shelving unit Eli built for storage, one is our bedroom, and one is the kids' room.

Eli and Bethany's bedroom

Eli built our bed the day after we arrived in Yabus!

Isaac and Evan sleep in special mosquito net tents so we don't have to worry about critters sleeping with them

The kitchen

Our kitchen is in a separate mud hut. Our colleagues brought in a nice propane stove/oven and Eli installed a real sink and built a nice counter top.

Our shower

Our vegetable garden

We've got tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, 2 types of squash, pumpkin, watermelon, carrots, cucumbers, spinach, and broccolli. There's nothing like eating fresh produce from your own garden!

Family highlights

No two days are the same. But hopefully these photos will paint you a picture of our daily lives. Isaac and Evan play non stop all day and love Sudan. Every evening after dinner we spend a few hours together as a family as we wind down for bed. We've also set aside Saturdays as our day off and usually try to do something fun as a family. Some of our fun family outings: playing in the sand at the river, hiking up a huge rock, or walking to town for local donuts.

The boys help with the dishes

Playtime

Dinner time

Bathtime

Fun family outings: hiking and trips to the river

Eli on the job

Marco and one of our raincatching contraptions

Our backup boat: an inflatable boat

The Buldit church building (one of the new church plants)