Jason Settle moved to

Tanzania with his family at

the age of ten. He attended

high school at Rift Valley

Academy (RVA), a mission

boarding school in Kenya.

Africa. The sound of it conjures up images of mud huts, of innumerable animals on endless plains, of ragtag children playing with plastic bags and string. It brings to mind infinite beauty and unbelievable poverty. I have had the opportunity to live in the middle of it all.

The first ten years of my life can be summed up as entirely ordinary. I was born in Indiana, the son of a car body repairman and a stay-at-home mom.

The model of a typical American boy, I was interested in normal things like Superman and computers. This all changed when our family boarded the plane for Africa with all of our earthly possessions tucked into 10 foot lockers.

We were leaving to be missionaries to a tribe of people in a remote village. What did that mean to me?

It meant that my life would be transformed forever. My first home in Tanzania was a four- room mud hut with a thatched roof. We lived in the middle of a family of pastoralists who owned 1500 cows. They ate strange food, drank seemingly disgusting sour milk, and lived with thousands upon thousands of flies. Believe it or not, Africa soon became my home.

The model of a typical American boy, I was interested in normal things like Superman and computers. This all changed when our family boarded the plane for Africa with all of our earthly possessions tucked into 10 foot lockers.Living deep in the bush of Africa, my siblings and I soon fit into our new home. We rode our bikes far and wide, exploring the huge African savannah and becoming adept at two local languages by playing with our newfound friends.

I became as much at ease drinking tea in the homes of the locals as I had been living in the US just months before. My junior high years in Tanzania served to permanently cast me into the mold of Africa.

I entered ninth grade at Rift Valley Academy, an American boarding school tucked into the forests that surround the slopes of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Here I had to readjust to American culture, re-learn how to relate to kids my age, as well as get used to life away from my parents.

My faith has grown tremendously at Rift Valley. I have been able to participate in such things as a discipleship group and teaching Sunday school to AIDS orphans near the school. I enjoy leadership activities such as managing class fundraising programs, and participating as an ambassador in the East African Model United Nations program. God has blessed me with an incredible high school experience and a very challenging education in a unique setting.

What does the future hold for me? I am planning to attend university in the US next year with the goal of becoming a pilot. It is going to be a huge change for me, as it has been four years since I was last in the US. God is faithful, however, and I trust that he will continue to guide my life regardless of what is to come.

In retrospect, the last 7 years that I have spent in Africa include experiences that most young people from the West can only dream about. Few Americans can recount stories of cycling alongside ostriches, of participating in traditional wedding ceremonies, or racing snakebite victims to the distant hospital. Not many can say that they have lived in a mud hut two miles from the world-famous Serengeti National Park. I think that it is an amazing way to have grown up.

Bookmark