First Class at Amani

Good Morning!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me, as it was my first day teaching a kids yoga class here in Kenya. Alicia and I slept in a little, got ready and left for Mumias at about noon to get cash for me from the ATM and look around the market before heading to Eshiakula where Amani is located. I was quite nervous today to start the class for kids yoga. I had no idea what to expect, and neither did Alicia. Now, in the US when I teach to kids I’m usually most concerned about how many kids will
participate, how they will get along with each other if they are different ages, and whether or not they will behave. Here, I was not sure what to be concerned about, but mostly I was worried they would
be too shy and not want to do anything at all, or that they would not understand with the language barrier! But, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about.

We had Tony translate for me, sentence by sentence which was different for me as I really tend to talk and talk, so it was a good challenge to figure out. And we had plenty of children show up, at least 20 kids! They just kept on coming and joining in and oh they were very good. They were so well behaved, honestly I’ve never had a group of kids that big and had absolutely NO behavior problems at all, not even one. The most exciting thing I had to address was the baby who fell over… Anyway, it was such a different dynamic, they were so attentive, and quiet and absolutely glued to me the whole time, even the 3 and 4 year olds! There was no talking out of turn (except from the adults sitting in back) and I had no trouble getting them to try out new poses and make silly sounds and just have a fun time. I would have even preferred a little more rowdiness and participation but it was still great. Everyone loved it and they all came up and said thank you at the very end, they were very polite and still a little shy. 

Amani is great center because we are not just going in once or twice to teach a class or two for fun, but we are hoping to provide these people and their children with the tools to make their lives better and to empower themselves to grow and learn. As people with disabilities, it is important that they feel able to accomplish things in their community and that they can feel better and more healthy on a

daily basis to complete their tasks and live and normal life. They have asked and asked for more stress reduction techniques and yoga has been their main focus. They have several women from the community who now teach the yoga, and I will be instructing and training another lady who will continue to teach the kids yoga lessons after I am gone. They feel so good about themselves when they learn new skills and can equally share and teach to others in their community. It is a very well-run Community Based Organization, and the people are so proud of what they have accomplished on their own and with just some start up help.

Today I teach a class to disabled kids, and then I will be staying the night at Rose’s house, which should be fun to really experience a Kenyan’s home and lifestyle! So I will write again maybe Wednesday. Alicia has been working hard to edit the video of my welcome party to Amani, and we will try to upload that here with a few pictures of the school and classes so far!

Thanks for reading,
Love love love
Maia

 

 

Here's the video of my welcome party to Amani! We had to cut it down quite a bit, it went on for almost 15 minutes! This one is just 3 :) It's pretty neat.