{"id":1338,"date":"2011-08-02T13:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T13:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.globalroutes.org\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2011-08-02T13:12:57","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T13:12:57","slug":"1338","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/2011\/08\/02\/1338\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya TIP reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Rachel Walsh:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is truly hard to believe that six weeks have gone by since I<br \/>boarded the plane in Detroit, Michigan and headed to Nairobi, Kenya.<br \/>Though the physical sings of time passing are there, my hair is a<br \/>little longer and my skin a little redder, mentally I find myself<br \/>shocked that I am approaching the last week of my homestay and<br \/>teaching. \u00a0 I think this is mainly due to the fact that each day has<br \/>been fillled with exciting new adventures and challenges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My Community.<\/strong><br \/>I have been placed with a delightful family in the village of Ivuyi<br \/>which is just a five minute walk to the neighboring village of<br \/>Kwirenyi where I have been teaching at the Salvation Army Kwirenyi<br \/>Secondary School. \u00a0I live with my host mom and three host siblings,<br \/>Griffins age 4,Iyvone age 6, and Kelvin 21. \u00a0However, I feel that I<br \/>have been welcomed into a family that is much larger. \u00a0The first<br \/>weekend was spent meeting as many neighbors as I could. \u00a0Each one of<br \/>them excited to meet the new muzungu in town and thrilled by my feeble<br \/>attempts to learn Kiswahilli and Kiluya. \u00a0The most curious by my<br \/>arrival were the children. However, they were the most skeptical as<br \/>well. \u00a0Groups as big as ten would come to greet me, but once they were<br \/>close they would run away and giggle. \u00a0Knowing very little english, if<br \/>any at all, made it difficult to communicate, but within a week the<br \/>neighboorhood children became some of the most important people to me<br \/>in Kenya. \u00a0I have learned that the simplicity of childs play only<br \/>needs the universal language of laughter. \u00a0Being so warmly welcomed<br \/>into this community has had a major impact on my journey thus far.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Salvation Army Kwirenyi Secondary School<\/strong><br \/>I have had the pleasure to spend the past couple of weeks teaching<br \/>math, english and lifeskillis in the Salvation Army Kwirenyi Secondary<br \/>School. \u00a0This is the second community that has warmly welcomed me to<br \/>Kenya. \u00a0Global Routes sent two interns to Kwirenyi which has been a<br \/>gift to be able to closely share this expereince with another student<br \/>from the United States. \u00a0 Kwirenyi is an upcoming school about to<br \/>complete its third year. \u00a0It is currently staffed by one principal and<br \/>eight teachers who have yet to attend University. \u00a0The school is<br \/>rapidly growing and will have all four years of secondary school<br \/>starting in January. \u00a0 Most of the teachers have recently graduated<br \/>from secondary school themselves giving the students a unique<br \/>opportunity to learn from someone who can easily relate to their<br \/>position. \u00a0The staff room is always filled with lively conversation<br \/>and is a great place to learn about Kenyan culture through the eyes of<br \/>young adults. \u00a0If there is one thing I have learned from teaching at<br \/>Kwirenyi it is the value of education.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our Leader: Geno!<\/strong><br \/>I could not imagine a more perfect person to lead a group of teaching<br \/>interns to Kenya, or anywhere in the world. \u00a0Geno is passionate,<br \/>open-minded and wise. I believe she has the unique ability to relate<br \/>and connect to people of every variety and make them feel comfortable<br \/>which has been invaluable. \u00a0Geno is constantly teaching us while at<br \/>the same time giving us room to grow and learn in our own unique ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rachel Walsh: It is truly hard to believe that six weeks have gone by since Iboarded the plane in Detroit, Michigan and headed to Nairobi, Kenya.Though the physical sings of time passing are there, my hair is alittle longer and my skin a little redder, mentally I find myselfshocked that I am approaching the last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kenya-tip-2011"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalroutes.org\/staging\/8011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}