About three years ago, I sat in church listening to Dan Poenaru, a Canadian, paediatric surgeon speak at our Yorkview church speak about the missionary work he and his family had been doing in Kenya. I was very inspired and signed up for his newsletter and followed their missions regularly via cyberspace. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to hear him speak yet again, a year or so later, on his next visit from Kenya. Who knew that these brief 2 minute meetings would translate into us staying in their home for 3 weeks as part of our journey through Kenya. In fact, there wasn’t much “journey-ing” once we hit the home of the very kind Poenaru Family, Dan, Dita, Daniel and Christopher are wonderful people and have made us feel so welcome. This was our chance to catch a much needed vacation from travel, and we were overjoyed to have such a beautiful place to wake up, overlooking the most beautiful “Rift Valley”, in the home of this God loving family, where we can ground ourselves for a couple weeks.
It is so lovely here in Kijabe, home to both the Rift Valley Academy (RVA) and AIC Kijabe Hospital where Dan and Dita both serve. RVA is the Christian boarding school located in central Kenya. The academy, a branch of Africa Inland Mission International, exists to provide a quality education in a fantastic environment for the children of missionaries serving in Africa. With over 100 years of rich history, RVA has played an instrumental role in the lives of countless missionary kids. Poenaru kids, Daniel and Chris attend RVA but are among the very few students that aren’t boarding there.
Our boys are in awe of the school facilities and regularly head up to watch various volleyball and rugby games, and are invited to shoot hoops whenever they like. We are all so enamoured with this community that Kevin and I actually set up some time to discuss the various opportunities at Kijabe with the school superintendent, (just for future reference). Truth is, given the role we know we could play here, and all that this place would offer our family, …if we had we come here last year or at the start of this trip, we would have probably just come to stay in Kenya for a couple years with the money spent on the trip. We would have been dorm parents, looking after the boarding kids of the missionaries. Perhaps dream #2? That said, at present, we wouldn’t be able to raise the funding to support us, so no worries, we are in back to Canada for years to come.
Staying with this lovely Christian family has allowed us stay focused on the Lord also. More time for reading the bible, prayer and snuggling up to the Lord also. We have attended a couple nights of devotionals, Kev went to bible study with Dan, and we’ve attended service at both here in Kijabe. Last Sunday we went to the small village of Eburu. The church was a corregated tin shelter, with dirt floors and maybe seating for couple of hundred but the place was rocking! They LOVE the Lord in Africa!
The boys are enjoying the kids around. All the wonderful kids around have had a profound influence on both of them (especially Aaron, who has been so incredible, so completely respectful of us, really mentoring Brendan, etc.. ) One night I looked at Kev and said, okay what did you do with my son, and who is THAT guy?! Ah but I won’t question it, as it may not last. Bren wants to live here of course.
Did you hear about our jiggers? Fleas that crawl into your skin and lay eggs?!….MMM nice huh. Yup we got them from painting the school in Uganda. We were getting paint on our shoes and so we decided to paint in flip flops… I totally forgot about the closed shoe rule!… So a couple days after we get here, my toes are so sore and look like blisters and infected… and then I notice similar spots on the boys and sure enough, Kev. So thankfully we are here at Poenarus and could treat them properly, just soaking and disinfecting etc… Thank God, that the Poenarus were so understanding. I would have freaked if a family of 4 came with toes full of eggs to spread around my house. But they just said to keep socks on and disinfect them and sheets etc every other day, and keep up with the soaking and what not… Thank goodness.
Oh, cool thing….We saw many Zebra and gazelle and big cape buffalo on the way here on the bus! And there are quite a few monkeys around, and Kev saw many baboons (about 50!) just down the road about a mile or two. We are told they are very dangerous, to carry a stick around and are all scared to go out in the dark now! Especially after hearing about a man in this village got his finger bit off by a rabid hyena a couple months ago!. YIKES! In fact, one day when I (Kim) decided to take Simba for a walk we came head on with a family of about 30 baboons, that thankfully did not see me before I saw them as I made a hasty retreat, (… I never knew I could run so fast!)
We decided to celebrate Brendans birthday with a Nakuru Lake safari. It was incredible, and from everything we are told is just a warm up for Masai Mara, which is suppose to be one of the best place in the Africa to safari. We’ll be there in the next week for 3 nights, but we can’t imagine how it could be better. We saw rhinos (8?), lions (4 and 3 cubs), 6 or 7 giraffe, masses of waterbuck, gazelle, zebra, warthogs, impala, monkey, baboons, vultures, pelicans, ….and so many flamingo that from a distance the edge of the lake looked lined with baby pink. The highlight was outside the park where we were on the highway and saw a giant dead boa constrictor python. It was about 10 feet long with the head about the size of my hand. It was in perfect condition except for a dent the size of a tire width, so it had just been run over and died on the side of the road. It was freaky.
The bummer of the whole day is our pictures were completely destroyed (transfer to computer trouble?) but regardless, it was a remarkable birthday for Brendan, and we can’t imagine what we will see at Masai Mara that we haven’t already. We also had the pleasure of bringing a couple young girls from the village with us. We were hiring the van, and realized we should not go with empty seats and ended up taking couple local girls who had never seen many of the animals or had the opportunity to visit a game reserve. Sharing the day with them really made the whole day extra special, as they were as thrilled to see these animals as we were!
In general, Kenya seems a bit more dangerous than Uganda, but not quite as poor. I think there is more personal risk here, with more potential of tribal clashes, and violence, as the political climate isn’t great. Ie., can’t walk out at night , double lock at all times, can’t even leave shoes outside or they will “walk away” even during the day. But with taking appropriate precautions, it feels as safe as living in a nasty part of downtown Toronto, but much more beautiful!
Still, I can’t explain how much we love, and how comfortable we all are in Africa. When I am here, I feel as if I finally snuggly fit into my own skin. (Sigh………………….)
