Two nontrekkers creating outrageous goodness: Change comes from within

We said our goodbye's to Zimbabwe and our collegue, Charlotte Haggie, on June 25th. We crossed our fingers and hoped our flight would not get cancelled or delayed. Low and behold, we made it to Kenya, with no delays! We thank Charlotte Haggie for beings a fabulous hostess and sending us off with her well wishes.

Arriving in Kenya had a whole different feel....the strict military presence at the airport as well as around our hotel caused us to experience some trepidation, especially when being interrogated about why we were in Kenya. Luckily, we made it through and found ourselves in a peaceful hotel, which quickly eased the anxiety we had felt after the interrogation. We settled into the hotel, grabbed some food on huge patio while listening to some local guitarists, did some laundry, and hit the zzz's.

This morning we started the day early, 6am, and began the journey to the office through the traffic that Nairobi is well-known for. 26 teachers attend our training today. While the training was about learning now to teach Speak To Children's program, the teachers integrated their traditional Christian songs and prayers, which made the training more rich and reflected who they are. Again, it is evident that their faith is the foundation for their lives, which helps them deal with the tragedies and poverty in their lives.

The training is always presented to the teachers as a gift to them. While the program is meant for them to train children, we want to ensure they are engaged as well as understand how they will benefit. As you know, if people are going to change, they need to be clear how they will benefit. We make sure they understand how they will benefit, how it will feels to integrate the program in their own lives before they teach children. Today, we were reminded that for successful change to begin, it must start from within each teacher.

Over lunch the teachers shared how the change would need to begin with themselves. They took it a step further and began to think about the benefits of parents being trained and how they could shift and change their community. We were thrilled to hear the teachers realize the importance of taking responsibility. We also shared with them the concept of "paying it forward"' they smiled from ear to ear and nodded with excitement. They said they would try out the concept as they were already embracing how kindness and compassion was contagious. Pretty amazing to be around the world discussing how "paying it forward" could impact tribes in Afirican families.

As facilitators, we have a front row seats to observe which teacher is shy, outgoing, or an emerging leader. Today, most teachers were shy. Giulietta noticed one teacher in particular that was beyond shy, who provided no eye contact. While facilitating her section on the topic of Celebrating Differences, she was able to gather the input and participation from this individual. This person even volunteered to teach the same topic back to the class, which was quite rewarding. She completely got how to teach the concept and demonstrated quite well. It's always such a pleasure seeing how we can bring people out of their shell. This person was open to change and proved it to all of us.

At the end of the session to today, we talked to the teachers about how we were able to make this all possible through our donors. They were all extremely thankful and appreciative to us traveling all this way. In fact, they were so appreciative they took a photo for all of you showing their appreciation to you, all our donors, friends and family. So, we end this blog with a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your support through this journey! Today was the last day we trained teachers. Tomorrow we are off to visit schools and observe teachers practicing what they learned with their students.

"You must be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Ghandi

Cheers!

Giulietta and Melanie