Kai has arrived in Namibia! His first blog.

Dear Friends,

Oh, what a great start I’ve had into my new job!!

With the first few weeks of many new and wonderful moments behind me, it is finally time to share my first blog. I am very excited.

At first I would like to say a massive THANK YOU for all your donations to the school (the box made it safely to Okonjima and there were no complications at the border, thank goodness).

Here is how my first week went:

After a long flight and a good rest I started my first day on Monday morning. I was very nervous and full of excitement. But I noticed very quickly that there was no need to worry. The kids all came running up to me and gave me a big hug and said “Good morning teacher”. I found this welcoming extremely heart warming.

After meeting all of my 28 kindergarteners we unpacked the box of toys in circle. The kids where so excited as one by one got the chance to take a toy out of the box. We put them on the carpet and decided together which one’s we could play with on the first day.

The next two weeks we spent getting to know each other through lots of play. Every day we would unpack more toys and find a space in the classroom together. Here are a few pictures of our best moments unpacking the box, playing with the new toys, looking at our new books, using the new pens and pencils to draw with! Thank you again so much to all Tandem IMS parents for donating all these toys, clothes and learning ressources, the children really appreciate them!

After my first two weeks were over, we sent the children off to their winter holiday. In that time, I have been working on recreating my classroom and developing a lesson plan for the new term. You can also view here a few pictures of how I set up the classroom with the circle time, role play and activity areas.

I am so glad I decided to take this adventure on. The kids, the new team, the colourful classrooms and the beautiful location and view of the school have made it so easy for me to start this once-in-a-lifetime-experience. I feel very lucky to be here in Okonjima and looking forward to sharing my next update very soon.

With best wishes,

Kai