In January I got the opportunity to go on a project trip with EMI to the Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe Kenya.
Rift Valley Academy (RVA) is a Christian boarding school in central Kenya with over a hundred years of history. The school was founded in 1906 and Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for the school's main building in 1909.
The school serves about 500 students representing 30 nationalities and most of the students are kids of missionaries from various churches and sending organizations who are serving in Africa. The school's role is both to support current mission work while investing in the next generation of leaders and gospel-bearers. RVA is a branch of Africa Inland Mission.
The campus sits on about 100 acres overlooking the Rift Valley. The site sits at an elevation of over 7,000ft and has a an average slope across the site of ~ 25%. RVA is sometimes referred to as the school in the clouds due to it's elevation and position on the Rift Valley. Sometimes during the cooler months, the entire campus is encompassed in an actual cloud .
Our goal for this project trip was to inventory, assess, and document the current infrastructure and provide recommendations to ensure RVA's facilities and campus will continue to meet their needs for many more years to come. We updated the current survey and looked at the programming, circulation, accessibility, zoning, drainage, structures, and wastewater on the campus.
The project team was composed of the following
- Project Leader - Tom - EMI Uganda
- Surveyor - Colin - Canada
- Architect - Mumbi - Kenya
- Landscape Architect - David - USA
- Civil Engineer (Water Systems) - Patrick - Kenya
- Civil Engineer ( Wastewater) - Antonio - EMI Uganda
- Civil Engineer (Stormwater & Roads) - Me - EMI Uganda
The goal of our ten days at RVA was to gather as much information as we needed about the site in order to prepare the report and provide our recommendations. After an introduction and site tour of the campus the first day the civil team hit the ground running. We set up percolation tests and started trekking up and down the hills of the campus to figure out what kind of systems we were dealing with. We probably popped open a hundred manhole lids and walked up and down the hill a hundred times. I think my totals for the days we spent inventorying was about 50 miles and almost 300 floors of stairs!
There's tons of wildlife in the area. We got to see monkeys, baboons, and tons of exotic birds. Some were very curious (like the people) of scoping out exactly what we were doing around the campus!
The hospitality RVA showed us was out of this world! We stayed in one of the dorms currently being used as the "Covid" dorm (although RVA hasn't had any Covid cases in months) and had a blast getting to know our hosts and other staff members around the campus. We were blown away by the passion these teachers and staff members have for the kids and the Lord and it really made us want to go back to school there!
We got to eat straight out of the student's cafeteria line and the food was so good! We were treated to chocolate chip pancakes, french toast, egg sandwiches, and egg scrambles for breakfast. We got pizza rolls, stir fries, roast chicken, curries, burgers, and more for lunches and dinners. And the vegetables. To die for. There were so many and they were so good!
The last day we have a debrief day. We grabbed breakfast (delicious chocolate chip pancakes) and headed back towards Nairobi. We went to the elephant sanctuary and went on a safari in the National Park right there next to Nairobi. Talk about a mind-blowing experience getting to see teams of wildebeest and lions all while the skyscrapers of Nairobi are in the background! We finished the day up at a wonderful restaurant (Boho Eatery) while reflecting on the trip and going over our next steps of the project. The EMI-Uganda crew then flew out that evening while a few of the other expats planned to stay in Nairobi for a few extra days.
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