A country-to-country exchange with our Kenyan team over the last few years has proven to be very valuable for both sides. That’s why this year it was our director who we were able to welcome back to Munich after five years. The summer temperatures that awaited him at the beginning of April may have contributed to his rapid acclimatization.
But there can be no talk of a vacation. In consultation with the members of the active group, who contribute significantly to the success of such a stay, a varied and intensive program was put together. In the first week, the plan was to visit the Franz-Marc-Gymnasium in Markt Schwaben, the Theresien-Gymnasium in Munich, the secondary school in Prien and the Herrschel secondary school in Ingolstadt as well as the Gaimersheim secondary school. A colorful mix of educational institutions where Jimmy gave presentations about our projects to various grade levels and answered many questions. All the schools are so incredibly important to our association because they contribute to the success of our projects and the support of the children in Kenya through their fundraising runs, bazaars and other events during the school year. Jimmy also took impressions and ideas from each of the schools, which gave him suggestions for school life in our projects in Kenya.
A highlight was our active meeting on April 13th, where many of our active group members were able to meet Jimmy in person again for a long time and later exchange ideas with him in a relaxed atmosphere. As always, physical well-being was well taken care of and thanks to the Klement family and the Gaimersheim community, who kindly made their parish hall available to us again, space problems were not an issue. Before that, Jimmy also visited the Riegg family and was able to get an idea of their ever-developing organic farming, “in the middle of it instead of just there” was the motto here and there was certainly one or two tips for our Shamba.
Another highlight of the weekend was the visit to the benefit concert of the Rotary Club of Munich-Hofgarten, which has supported our club with generous donations for many years. A wonderful summer evening in Nymphenburg Palace, accompanied by a fantastic, very entertaining, classical concert “Opera Paradiso” rounded off Jimmy’s first week.
In the second week there were again various school visits such as those at the Lena-Christ-Realschule Markt Schwaben, the Thomas Mann-Gymnasium Munich-Sendling and the Max-Planck-Gymnasium in Munich. Our program was rounded off with a visit to the primary school at Gotzinger Platz, where Kathrin Walk is currently completing her traineeship and gave Jimmy the opportunity to sit in on one of her lessons. He was impressed by the way the children were taught and, above all, the tools for discipline and calm that were used and hopefully much of this can be adopted for the Maisha Mazuri Primary School in Kenya.
Jimmy spent the last few days with the Promoting Africa association, which is also part of the Youth Support Kenya Family and didn’t want to miss this opportunity. On April 22nd we go back to Kenya.
We would like to thank Jimmy for his time, as well as everyone involved who made this visit a success.
Asante Sana!
