Going to Kenya this time was a whole lot of mixed emotions! 

Back to Kenya!!!

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Going to Kenya this time was a whole lot of mixed emotions! 

I had been home for two months with mom and got on the routine of cooking for her, going to aquaerobics with her and her friends, and doing our stuff together wednesday afternoons. I had not been with her this long for at least 15 years so in a way it was hard to leave her again.

At the same time I was super excited because volunteering in Kenya was so much fun and now bringing friends just added an extra layer of fun and excitement.

I had been dealing with finding an apartment for us for a while and Kenyans are not the best as fast responding and getting things solved in speed time (like I would like them to do!) The first house that I found was in Kikuyu which meant way closer to the school and only one matatu (bus.) A month before our arrival I emailed the guy and he said that the house was not ready and sent me pictures of an empty house with rain water all over, paint chipped, and no furniture. He had known of our arrival months in advance and had never said there could be a problem! I decided to tell him goodbye!






With my friend Wamuyu’s help, I was able to get another apartment, this time in Kinoo, a 2 matatus ride away from school. The apartment was 2 bedrooms one bathroom, enough to host me and my friend joining. The only problem with the house was the toilet: it had no seat! For three and a half weeks I had been asking the landlady about the seat and details of the house to make sure everything would be fine. 

It wasn’t until FOUR HOURS BEFORE MY FLIGHT that I texted her past midnight in El Salvador to let her know we were arriving in 2 days that she said “My place is ready but we will have to move you to another house for a few days as the drainage has an issue and I thought it not safe to be around!” I couldn’t believe what I was reading! More than a week ago she mentioned plumbing but never that there was an issue or that it was not going to be fixed. 
At 1am ES time there wasn’t much I could do and her only option was 1 bedroom apartment for the three of us, offering that we could sleep on the floor and also pay extra for electricity! Was she kidding me? I immediately texted Wamuyu and helped me with it. The landlady said that the ONLY solution was her friend’s apartment and eventually stopped texting back! 

At 4:15am I woke up to still no solution and had to leave to the airport. If this had been earlier I could have done something but I was about to go on a 36-hour journey from El Salvador to Kenya and there wasn’t much I could do. Between flights and running through airports not to miss my connections Wamuyu had found us a place for one night so at least we would have where to sleep our first official night!

I arrived in kenya at 3am and met April at the airport hotel we were staying and the next day headed to our apartment for one night. The apartment was nice, located in westlands but the wifi was not working. Luckily, our apartment was directly in front of Copia’s gate so we went to use their wifi so we could find a place to live while in Nairobi. We spent some time looking at airbnbs and emailed a couple of people until we found Robert, our life saver!

We ended up renting an apartment in westland with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms that was perfect for us minus the distance from the school.. an hour drive or an even longer matatu ride. The plus side was that we were in westlands, close to shops and restaurants.

The day after arrival we moved to Robert's place and then I texted a driver to see if he could take us to the school, thankfully he said yes and the price was within our range, yeay!
After dropping our bags off we headed to the school so I could show Sita and April where it was and to introduce them to the teachers.

As we entered the school everybody was excited to see us! Kids were going crazy, heard my name being called all over the place, it was madness!
I feel like the kids want to see us, want to touch us, want to talk to us, but they don't really know how to appropriately do so. Instead they start pulling on everything we have, they touch, grab and pull us by the hair!

Here is Sita being pulled by the hair!
After stopping by the main office we headed to teacher Laura's classroom!

"Ok everybody! Let's make a circle!"
Kids patiently waiting!
Because it was already late and we were jetlagged, I decided that we would go to school just for a bit and then head back to Nairobi. I asked the kids to form a circle and I read the very hungry caterpillar to teacher Laura's class.



After the book at teacher Laura's I took the girls to teacher Virginia's class and asked April to read the book to the kids so she could start getting some first hand experience with the kiddos.





Two books and two classrooms later we were on our way back to Nairobi! When preparing for the trip I had told the girls that we would be splitting the costs and that I could cook so on our way back home we stopped by the local market to grab some produce for the week.


Sita and April at the fruit stand!
Picking red onions!
Day one

The following day was our fist official day! Yeay!
I like to start the day with circle time so all the kids can begin the day together, can see each other, get a sense of community. At circle time I usually read a book, sing some songs, and then I get a lesson in with an activity to follow.

This day we read "Brown Bear, brown bear, what do you see?" and had the kids do the movements in the book.






The activity for the day was easy... Coloring!

I had to check what materials they had from last time I was around to be able to come up with lessons for the following two weeks. As April and Sita took over the colouring I took over the storage and made a list of the cards that I left so they could be incorporated into the lessons.




I sent Sita and April to write everyone's name on their paper so they could start learning their names! 
Crayons from the donations!
Once again I let the girls go on their own in the classroom next door. I opted to always do teacher Laura's circle time on my own and then they could observe and do it in teacher Virginia's classroom. 


and now colouring!
After the lesson teacher Virginia got some teddy bears for the kids to play with:





When we returned from teacher Virginia's class, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the kids at teacher Laura's were doing counting with the beans like I showed them last year. She had created number strips with cardboard and given kids beans to count to the number on the card... So amazing!
Sita counting with Juliet
April with Jane and Mary!

During lunch we went outside and Sita got attacked by little hands pulling her hair!!!

Here are some girls jumping rope on the playground!

And the boys playing ball... check out the ball! I absolutely love how in Africa children get so creative with the toys!

After lunch we visited the first grade classroom where Teacher sita and Teacher April got to read "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" to the children.




Day 2

Day two of teaching was all about sizes!!!
I thought the family bear would be perfect to show the kids the difference between small, medium, and large!

We first started by reading a story in circle time and then I brought out my amazing home made singing glove! (I love them! Had a hard time letting go of them!)





Our first song was Five little ducks!
I love the glove because it gives the children a visual. From my experience in Africa, children learn by repeating a lot and sometimes the repetition gets in the way of actually knowing that the number had a certain value. Many times I noticed that although I had my five fingers up the children kept on counting even though the fingers were finished so this time I thought having the visual would be a really nice way of creating the link between the number and the value.

First round: me!
Second round: Teacher Laura!
I came back to Kenya to bring some materials and to help out but it would be pointless if I just came and didn't actually show the teachers how to do it. After I sang the song it was teacher Laura's turn!

After singing I did a three-period lesson on small- medium- large!

First I had April and Sita walk around the circle and show the children the small bear, then the medium bear, and then the large bear.





After that I had drawn three bears in the blackboard and had the children come by one by one to the board. First I told them the size of the bear and I pointed to it. Second I would ask the child to show me a size bear. Third, I would ask the child what size was the bear I was pointing at.
April showing the kids the size bears.
From the three-period lesson we moved onto the activity! I grabbed the size cards and had the children arrange them by size: S-M-L





After the lesson I had some visitors from grade 2 who had made me a necklace! So sweet!





Then it was time to go to Teacher Virginia's class where Sita and April red the book "Stick and Stone."



And then they sang five little ducks all on their own!
It's so interesting for me to see how I teach other adults how to teach. For me it is just natural to do everything from left to right because that's how I've been trained and I don't even think to let them know the little details. We all read and write from left to right, all written vocabulary, letters and words, are written from left to right so every activity we do, had to be done left to right to reinforce the concept of order. 

With the singing gloves is the same, except that the teacher has to do it in reverse (from right to left) so the children can see it as being from left to right!



Here's teacher Sita doing the three period lesson:

and some sizing cards:


Kids loved the bears!
In the afternoon we went back to first grade to read a book and do some singing!



And just like that our day was gone!
Kids are out!
We visited teacher Laura's house

And then walked around the small town of Kamangu!
Where we got our avocados and tomatoes from!
Walking on the main street of Kamangu:




What butcher shops look like in Kenya!



Day 3


Well, day 3 was uneventful!
The day before teacher Laura told us that she had just been notified that school would be closed the next day to say goodbye to the old principal. 

We still went to the school in order to talk to the teacher and to get a better idea of how we could be of help and what kind of materials they would like us to bring.
Parents gathered to say goodbye to Mr. Thomas!
We held a meeting with the lower class teachers and then went to 2nd grade:

I had not met the 2nd grade teacher previously because she was on maternity leave but she said that much of her classroom was decorated with materials that I had left last year! It made me really happy to know that the materials were being used and that the children were enjoying them!



Checking out the construction!

We had a short but productive morning, I would say! Can't wait for the 2nd week!



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About Post Author

Hi! It's me... Andrea! In 2016 I decided to drop everything and take a year to enrich my life and travel around the world. It turns out the world is just too big for 12 months! Still on the road and sharing my experience as a solo female traveler around the globe!

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About me




Hi! It's me... Andrea!

In this blog you can live vicariously through my journey around the world!

Please feel free to share tips or places to go!
Contact me: andreaheartstraveling@gmail.com