Kenya Week 1 Blog Post

We’re through week one here in Kenya and we are absolutely loving life! After a long travel period, we landed in Kisumu last Sunday morning, greeted by smiles and hugs from Edward- our contact from Rieko Kenya! At the airport we took a quick photo, met Cosmos (our driver), loaded up our bags and headed to The New Victoria Hotel to have our first Kenyan meal with Edward. After our meal we went to the Nakumat to stock up on groceries, and some treats that we will not see for the next 6 weeks. Once we finished our shopping, we started the beautiful drive to our new home for the next couple months. When we arrived in the evening, we were greeted with so much love! Edward’s family and friends had been prepping our house, and helped us set up. We got organized, and headed straight to bed! We woke up on Monday in absolute awe of where we are to spend the next six weeks… IT’S BEAUTIFUL! We took the day to relax after all of our travelling, visit Mikei town centre, and meet some of the neighbourhood kids! Drinking tea and eating Chapati at Grace’s restaurantOn Tuesday, we met the elusive Duncan! Duncan works for Edward and Rieko Kenya (our host organization), and he is our contact with all of the schools. We drove to all 15 schools, introduced ourselves and QHO, and invited each school to attend our teacher’s conference the next day in Mikei. Wednesday was another very exciting day for us! We had the chance to chat with teachers from each of the schools about QHO, our curriculum, and listen to any ideas or advice they might have. The conference was incredibly fun, but also very informative! We were thrilled to have the input of teachers who interact with our students every day, and who know the specific needs much better than we could ever imagine. Thursday and Friday marked our first days in the classroom, and we couldn't be happier! Our three pairs of teaching partners (Jenna and Chris, Maddy and Lucie, and Claire and Marika) tackled 5 classes on Thursday and 4 on Friday. The students are amazing and our lessons were so much fun!!Getting ready for our first day of teaching Aside from teaching, we have been getting into a groove with cooking, cleaning and just embracing the Kenyan lifestyle. We have been quite creative in the kitchen, making some yummy pasta salads, veggie patties, curries…and of course avocado with every meal! We had our weekly grocery shop and meeting with Edward on Saturday- he welcomed us into his beautiful home for an amazing meal with his family, and a check-in as to how our first week went. We all went to church with some of the neighbourhood kids today (Sunday), which was a very cool experience! We are looking forward to having a few more days with Maddie and Katie before they leave on Thursday for a new adventure. Outside Edwards home Everyone has been so kind and welcoming (“Karibu!”), our students are incredible and the Mikei community is so close and caring. We really couldn't ask for anything more, and are looking forward to getting back in the classroom tomorrow morning! Oriti masani!! (Until next time)                   The spectacular view from our front lawn