Now and Then

I wrote this email a few days before my first week of teaching in Kenya. It was nice to look back and reflect on the past six weeks of teaching and how I feel about this whole experience...

“On Thursday I had the most amazing experience of my life to date. I went to my first school in rural Nakuru, specifically the Lake Solai Region. So we get out of the van and all eyes are on me and the students are giggling and hiding their faces and looking back and it was just so many feelings that I have never felt in my life before. I can’t sit here and describe it but being in the classroom was something else. The students were so happy, so curious so unsure so everything but so was I! The whole experience was just phenomenal and I cannot wait to start teaching on Monday! The energy that just consumed my whole body when I stepped in front of them and said my name and they giggled and smiled back at me, it was just indescribable.At one point when I was quite high on life coming back from the school it was about 5:30, just dusk and we were on the side of a cliff looking out across the Rift Valley and there was a fog that hung in the air. The smell was so fresh, because it had just rained. It smelt so thick and green, and the sky was oranges and reds and blues all at the same time. The grass was long and yellow and the acacia trees were scattered everywhere and I just looked out the side of the matatu window and wanted to scream and cry and jump around but I didn’t do anything. I just sat there and took it all in and realized how lucky I was to be there at that moment and I fell in love with Africa.”

Now, six weeks later, I drive to school along the dusty road, my t-shirt has been worn in a bit more, my hair has grown a little longer but the energy that reverberates through my body the moment I step out of that mat is still exactly the same as that first day at Lake Solai. One of the last days driving home from Kiamunyi Secondary School, I looked out the window and thought about the students giggling and smiling, touching my hands. I smelled the fresh air, looked at the green hills speckled with little white houses and huts, and realized that since the first day of teaching, the excitement that burns in my heart hasnt't faded one bit.

-Courtney