Karatu

Jambo from Miller (Milla) and Lex (Alexa)!! Today was an exciting day for everyone from Menlo and the Banjika school; we got assigned our homestay sisters and brothers! We had a calm morning at the hotel with World Leadership Activities and lunch right across the street. Our day officially started around 2:00 when the Banjika students arrived at our hotel. While there was a lot of nervousness as we were getting introduced to our sisters and brothers, all the students were very excited to meet each other. After a few minutes of talking we headed off into downtown Karatu. The Banjika students led us around the racing motorcycles and cars as we made our way to the market. There we bought many snacks and drinks to share with everyone.  After, everyone was then released to walk around the town. All 32 of us walked through the allies and dirt roads to find ice cream, belts, and torches (flashlights); but had no luck with the ice cream. We walked back to the market to meet up with everyone, there we taught and learned dances, games, and shared snacks. We had time to bond with our homestay partners when we got back to the hotel where we sat at the pool, played basketball, and played a little bit of soccer. At around 6:00 our day ended when the Banjika students left, as they drove away in the bus we gave high fives and fist bumps out the window. Everyone from both Menlo and Banjika are very excited and cant wait to spend 2 weeks together. 

Love you all!   

Kwa Heri (Goodbye)!!!

Miller and Lex 🩷

(Editors' note. We will post some more pictures a bit later. You might have noticed that we posted some videos  as addenda to yesterday's post, and we will do that again tonight and probably every day going forward. The reason the videos come a bit later is that we need some help from the home office to get those up, given our bandwidth issues.

WLS does a really nice job easing the students into the homestay. Yesterday, we went to the school; today the Banjika students came to us, we announced the pairings, and the kids started bonding right away. So by the time our students meet the rest of their host family and spend the first night, they have a solid relationship with their host student. You will see in the videos plenty of laughter and inclusion. Your kids are great by the way, and really leaning into everything in front of them.)



















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