April 30: You are Welcome (Karibu!)

By africayogaproject
Posted in Africa Yoga Project Blog, on April 30, 2012

Everyone here is incredibly generous. It seems that the Kenyan ‘way’ is to invite you into their lives with open arms saying, “Welcome! You are welcome!” When you’re sitting at the Hare Krishna temple eating lunch and you want to share the heaps of food you put on your plate, you say, “Karibu! Welcome, welcome…have some”. This is just one example of the eager spirit to be friendly, gracious and welcoming that is so obviously a huge part of this beautiful culture and Katy and I felt this warmth and support today in our first workshop at Sarakasi in Ngara…

Katy and I are still attempting to sync our sleep patterns with this side of the world, but let me tell you, being woken up at 4am by the guy sweeping the driveway for an hour and a half doesn’t really help! It’s so interesting observing daily life and standards in this country. People take good care of themselves. Everyone on the street looks neat, clean and well-dressed and it doesn’t matter if they came from a home with electricity or running water, there is a self-respect that is evident and this made me feel a bit ‘slobby’ walking to the mall in my yoga clothes yesterday. Every morning when Hassan comes by to drive us to our daily location, he spotlessly cleans the car inside and out. I jokingly asked him this morning if he would mind coming to Canada to give my car a clean. Despite the mud, dust and pollution on these streets, our car sparkles! The same theory applies for the up-keep of homes and even driveways for example. A 4am sweep is quite common to ensure that the ‘home’ is respectfully clean and welcoming. I actually think us ‘westerners’ could learn something from this. We are genuinely lazy at times. I mean, when was the last time I cleaned my car and swept my driveway. It certainly wasn’t yesterday!

Once our car sparkled, the driveway was clean and we had ‘taken’ our tea and breakfast, we were off to Ngara for the first workshop of the Ambassador visit. I found myself feeling anxious and slightly nervous- Would I be able to offer something useful? Would I be able to communicate clearly? Would I inspire? Then…I woke up and realized that I’ve been waiting my whole frieken’ life for this opportunity to share myself, (the good, bag and the ugly) with these people. I decided to leave my worries at the door because how is that serving me or these people who are taking the time out of their days to listen to me? A wave of excitement, calm and anticipation pulled me out of my head and useless ‘stories’ as we drove into the parking lot…

Getting ready to share my knowledge of professionalism and etiquette, (from the viewpoint of a North American), I was standing in the AYP office printing some information and greeting the teachers as they arrived. I was warmly introduced to Sami, an AYP teacher who is considered to be one of the best African dance teachers in the community. Alas, how could I let that slide by without a request for a dance, so we were whisked away, into the big red room to join the rest of the teachers for an impromptu African dance warm-up. It was fabulous! If you know me, you know that I love to dance. Karen…I thought of you as I was up there flailing my arms and legs to the sweet beats. This was a perfect way to come together, laugh, sweat and smile before the offering.

To my surprise, the workshop was a great success. This morning was my turn to lead the workshop and I was deeply honoured to share my knowledge and experience to ensure that these already powerful teachers could become even more inspiring in their communities. We started the day focusing on the definition of team, setting up the week by creating ground rules in order to support, listen generously and respect everyone participating. We decided to hold each other accountable for our ‘way of being’ during the session and I hope this can be integrated into the weekly AYP meetings so everyone can feel seen, heard and valued. Next, we set our one-year goals, wrote them down, shared them, clearly stated them to the whole group and followed this with a short visualization where we created our experience of living our goals in the present, physically, in our bodies, instead of as a distant wish.

The next topic was ‘table manners’. Mom, this one’s for you- I guess all those years of you nagging me to sit up straight and remove my elbows from the table finally paid off!!!!! It was interesting to share the North American perspective on fine dining. After setting up a mock dining table, with napkins, cutlery and glass-wear and running through the typical etiquette that so many of us have become so accustomed to that we take for granted, I was swamped with questions. This surprised me and I felt a sense of pride in having the opportunity to offer new skills to a different culture. One of the teachers shared at the end of the lesson that she was so happy to now feel comfortable to walk into a classy restaurant and feel confident that she knows how to act. WOW. I didn’t realize the impact that this could have. My favorite part of the workshop was the suggestion at the end, that all of the participating teachers should be invited to attend a dinner at an upscale restaurant in order to apply what they learned. Paige- what do you think? Hehe

We concluded the morning with a discussion on professionalism, personal grooming, punctuality and customer service. All in all, I feel it was a great success, and I think a few of us may even have had some fun. I want to thank the teachers who participated this morning. Your willingness to listen, learn and immediately apply the suggested ground-rules was inspirational. I can’t wait for the next one…

But, tomorrow is a National holiday so we will all be taking an official day of rest. Katy and I are hoping to visit the Elephant Sanctuary and maybe take a little visit to the roof-top pool that Billy pointed out on our walk yesterday. That’s the latest from Nairobi-did I mention this place is awesome, because it is. It’s AWESOME!

PS. My new favourite Swahili word is: TANGAWIZI (meaning GINGER)

~Lisa C.~


Comments

PaulSeptember 15, 2010 Hey Paul, I thought about enniretg this on the PGT 28984 review but decided to enter it here because this is a design flaw that needs to be corrected, hopefully they did correct it on the PGT28985 (this tractor) (Sears who is in charge of creating model numbers and names?) (my tractor 28984 is also badged with PGT 9500 just like this tractor 28985)Love you website and am telling every blog I am on about it, at least you respond to your posts and seem to have some inside track with Sears/Craftsman.Following is the post I emailed to : I tried to enter my question/comment on the site and kept getting bumped off, the last time when it wanted me to choose a screen name which wasn’t available so it wiped off and wanted me to log-in again at the beginning.(plastic roller pulley on garden tractor 28984. I believe it is part number 756-04331, How do I prevent the steel cable from destroying the pulley when it slips.)I believe this to be a design/engineering flaw and have seen it on several comments about this garden tractor. The pulley is plastic and carries a steel cable which is used to manually change the deck height. The problem is that when the deck is bumped and the cable tension is relieved, the cable rides on the top of the plastic pulley and destroys it. This allows the deck on that side (there is one on each side of the deck) to fall to it’s lowest position scalping the lawn until you notice it. I made two passes before noticing it the first time. This has happened 3 times.I have ordered the pulley 3 times and received the wrong part twice, hopefully this is the correct part number this time or we will need to call out the repair guy to fix it. I used to be a service manager so know what a service call costs. However, I can’t keep patching up my original pulley anymore and my GT is under warranty.Sears/Craftsman/MTD; Issue a recall, change the plastic pulley to a steel pulley with a keeper to stop the cable from jumping out of the pulley groove.

Sergey on December 05, 2012

You are welcomed Christina. Karibu Kenya!

Africa Yoga Project on May 02, 2012

Beautiful!! Thanks SO much for sharing…it gives me butterflies and makes me that much more excited to be there! namaste.

Cristina Houston on May 01, 2012

Leave a comment

Comments must be approved before being published.

Africa Yoga Project Educates, Empowers, Elevates and Expands Employability with youth in Africa using the transformational practice of yoga. Our vision is to create opportunities for youth to step into their greatness and become self-sustaining leaders in their communities.

There are so many ways to get involved with Africa Yoga Project through fundraising, mentorship, or service trips and more! Click the email icon above for more information!

For general information: info@africayogaproject.org

You can take class at the Shine Center when you’re in Kenya or hire a private instructor in any of the countries we have teachers in. Click the email icon above for more information!

For general information: info@africayogaproject.org

Copyright © 2016 Custom theme by Sunbowl. Design by Live Big Co. Powered by Shopify.