Week Two/Three in Kenya

As the school year approaches (almost one week away), the many responsibilities of teaching are becoming much more intimidating. Not only must I prepare lesson plans, unit plans and other assignments to satisfy the requirements for SAU, I also am starting to think about the duties of coaching. I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to coach the varsity tennis team here at RVA. Coaching and teaching have been my two dream occupations for as long as I can remember and these next twelve weeks will be packed with both coaching and teaching responsibilities. Although I am nervous about the term in regards to both of these, God has placed me at RVA for a reason and I look to continue to trust in Him for peace and comfort during the busiest, most stressful times this semester.

My second week at RVA was filled with new staff training, one lone hike to paradise falls, a trip to the town of Mai Mahiu for the purpose of discovering outreach possibilities during the school year, and a tour of the Kijabe hospital located just below the RVA campus.

It has been weird thinking of myself as a teacher and part of the staff of a school. For the last sixteen years of my life, I have been a student and I have always been called by my first name. Just thinking of the students here at RVA calling me "Mr. Scholten" makes me feel old.

Our hike to paradise falls was definitely an experience. We began by exiting one of the RVA gates and walked almost two miles down a small dirt road. On the road we made multiple sitings of the incredible colobus monkey. These animals are extremely beautiful, with large white beards and thick, wispy white tails. I could not get close enough to take a picture of my own, but here is what they look like...

After progressing down a dried up river and climbing over decently-sized rocks, we finally made it to a plateau overlooking the valley below. It is truly hard to put into words the vastness of the Rift Valley. On a clear day, which there has not been many in the last two weeks due to the uncharacteristically cold weather, one can see for miles. Once we had spent a considerable amount of time admiring the beauty of the valley, we slowly and very carefully made our way down the side of a steep hill in order to reach the falls. Huge boulders littered the area, and I did my fair-share of climbing and exploring. The water from the top of the ravine would trickle down and form large pools around many of the boulders. Many of the students on the hike went swimming and enjoyed the shade under the trees/rocks. At one point we noticed there were around six or seven Kenyan children watching our group from the top of the hill we had just descended. Unfortunately, they thought it would be amusing to start hurling rocks down the hillside haha and one of the boys from RVA got hit in the head. It wasn't bad, but we constantly had to stay attentive and out of the paths of the falling rocks. After lunch and some more climbing, we continued lower and lower down the ravine, until we reached the valley floor. The rural housing utilized by most Kenyans in the valley consists of small huts made with mud, stone and wire.

Last week I completed a LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical) course with a focus on Swahili. It was very enjoyable and I got to know my language helper, Naphtali, pretty well. He lives down near the Dukas and we will continue to keep in touch during the school year. I have learned some very useful phrases and hope to continue my use of Swahili as much as possible. I will need to make it a priority to use Swahili in normal conversations with people, as this will greatly help in my acquisition of the language.

I am hoping to do some rock climbing at Hell's Gate and also hike Mt. Longonot, which is a volcano, at some point during the term. However, with teaching and coaching tennis, I will be extremely pressed for time.

This post was more of an update on all of the things I have been doing at RVA since my last post. I hope to, as early as Wednesday of next week, post more on what God has been revealing to me in my own life. I am so grateful for the people I have met so far at RVA. They are truly God-loving people, and continue to be great models for me in my own walk with Christ.