Hi, my name is Niklas and in June 2018, I had the pleasure to work at the Village Kindergarten program in Kenya. I am 21 years old and from Hamburg, Germany. The project is located in a village in Central Kenya; it’s about an hour from the capital. Monica is the local manager and she helps the participants a lot to get to know the neighborhood during the first days. On my first day I had orientation and went to Thika with her to get a card for my smartphone.
Tuesday was my first day in kindergarten. I had a good welcome at the kindergarten classes. I bought some sweets from Germany as well as some balls for the kids to play with. It was overwhelming to see their happy faces.
You need to know that they don’t have a lot of toys and equipment in the kindergarten. An example is the game “airplane”: They take a branch from a tree and put a leaf on it. If you hold it in your hand and run very fast, it looks like a propeller from an airplane. Furthermore, the teachers need to improvise a lot because they don’t have much equipment they can use. Due to those facts, I am even more impressed about the positive vibes in kindergarten. The children enjoy their time with friends. I really enjoyed the time I had in Kenya, playing with the kids (their favorite game was that I lifted them as high as I can) as well as teaching them the letters of the alphabet or numbers.
Another great memory I have are the mornings when I went from the apartment to the kindergarten. It’s about a 20-minute walk. Every time I met one of the kids from kindergarten, we went the remaining part of the way together hand in hand. I had the great feeling to give kind of protection and safety.
All in all, I had three of the best weeks ever. I met amazing people and enjoyed every day in kindergarten a lot!
