{"id":12220,"date":"2026-06-23T14:50:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T12:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/2026-06-theresa-and-anna\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T09:44:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:44:39","slug":"2026-06-theresa-and-anna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/2026-06-theresa-and-anna\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 \u2013 06: Theresa and Anna"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 \u2013 06: Theresa and Anna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Family, we are one<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the beginning of May, we, Theresa and Anna, traveled to Kenya. After some initial difficulties with our flights and our first encounters with Kenyan corruption, we finally stood at Nairobi airport. Hundreds of taxi drivers wanted to take us, but ours wasn’t among them. Moses stepped in as a rescuer and drove us to the MCC in his red speedster (aka clunker). He couldn’t understand how surprised we were by the many cows on the roadside, and now we aren’t either. We were also very amazed by how green the nature was and how many flowers were blooming. After increasingly deteriorating roads, Patron Patrick finally welcomed us to the MCC with a warm “Karibu.” This is how we immediately got to know the warmth of the Kenyans and quickly felt like part of the MCC family. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

During the week, we not only got to know all the staff members but also (as Patrick prophesied) all the children’s names. Since there is currently no permanent Matron, Siborah helps out as a step-in and, together with Patrick, is a great contact person for us. Besides us German volunteers, Helen, a Kenyan volunteer and MCC alumni, helps in all areas. She primarily supports Joseph and Mercy with health work and administrative tasks. We created our schedule with Mercy and were thus able to gain insights into the different departments right in the first week. We particularly enjoy working with Philip in the bakery. This involves kneading kilograms of dough, shaping hundreds of buns, and brushing everything with liters of oil. We also supported Julius the cook with chopping vegetables, Emma with sweeping the chicken coop, Boniface with weeding the Shamba, and accompanied the Matron and Patron with cleaning the hostels and Mercy on home visits, which were very impressive. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

\u201cGermans have a clock, Kenyans have time.\u201d
\nWe soon realized that plans can change quickly and times are more like guidelines. Meanwhile, we are already used to the constant power outages; however, we also noticed that electricity isn’t that important here. The road had been damaged by the heavy rains of the last month, so the children had to take a very long detour to school during our first three weeks. It has since been repaired, so the children can come home earlier, and we can spend more time with them on weekdays. Once a week, we accompany the children to Primary and Junior School and get insights into the different grade levels. The learners run towards us as soon as they get off the bus and would love to take us all to their class. In the schoolyard, we learned the Kenyan double meaning of the word “smart,” as our hair, in particular, is very smart and perfectly suited for braiding by ten children’s hands at once. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\" \"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

Because learning the children’s names was difficult for us at first, we played get-to-know-you games on the first Sunday and divided the children by age into three groups, which we still use for our various activities. The following weekend, we organized a game Olympics with many small, age-appropriate participatory games. In the end, we crowned the winning teams, who received German gummy bears as prizes. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

The phrase “We are one family” made such an impression on us right from the start that we decided to launch a choir project with the children and rehearse the song “We are one.” Since then, it’s been practiced every Saturday and echoes across the entire MCC grounds even after rehearsals. Other projects also got their start. For example, we’ve already baked cookies with the youngest and cinnamon rolls with the middle group. These were taken on two Sundays for picnics by the riverside and enjoyed with watermelon and German gummy bears. Surprisingly, a few free days opened up, which we used, among other things, for crafting name tags, listening to music, and playing outdoor games. Besides the holidays, another reason was protests across the country due to rising fuel prices, which is why the children stayed home for safety reasons. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\" \"4kenya\" \"4kenya\" \"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

It’s lovely to go to the library with the children after dinner, help with homework, and practice the flute. In the very first week, each child received pencils and an eraser, which are now diligently used for homework. The donated clothes were distributed very fairly among the children and by the children. The brought-along soccer ball and ball pump (also for the Secondary) were particularly well received. We took charge of the library, tidied it up, and reorganized it. We especially enjoyed being read to and reading aloud. <\/p>\n

The children have grown very dear to us. They have also introduced us to Kenyan life. They taught us how to wash clothes by hand, extract fibers from the sisal agave to make ropes and traditional skirts, and dance steps for the church we visit on Sundays. There’s a lot of dancing and singing there, but also hours of preaching in Kamba. Although we’ve learned a few words in Kiswahili and Kamba, they don’t really help us much there. We also feel very comfortable in the community around the MCC now. We’ve been to the market in Tala several times on our days off, the first few times accompanied by Helen or Siborah. It was initially overwhelming to be approached from all sides, but now we’ve gotten used to “Mzungu,” riding boda-bodas, and matatus, and have found our regular stalls. Otherwise, we really enjoy choosing from a wide variety of fruits to enrich our rather monotonous, typical Kenyan food, which mainly consists of ugali, rice, and beans. <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\" \"4kenya\"<\/p>\n

Now the Kenyan winter is beginning (the so-called cool dry season), and it’s slowly getting colder. It’s impressive how quickly time passes; half of our time at the MCC is already over. We look forward to many more great projects with the children and will thoroughly enjoy the remaining time as part of the family, because we don’t just sing it, we feel it too: “Family, we are one!” <\/p>\n

\"4kenya\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family, we are one At the beginning of May, we, Theresa and Anna, traveled to Kenya. After some initial difficulties with our flights and our first encounters with Kenyan corruption, we finally stood at Nairobi airport. Hundreds of taxi drivers wanted to take us, but ours wasn’t among them. Moses stepped in as a rescuer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"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":"","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":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internship-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4kenya.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}