After a few weeks on my own in January, and once it was confirmed that the schools and kindergartens would be closed in Germany for the beginning of tye year, Andrea and the girls came back to Kenya for 3 weeks. They really enjoyed playing with their friends back here who they missed a lot, and we even organized delayed birthday parties for them with their friends. We hired a tutor full-time to help Hannah with her school work (which is sent by email from the teacher in Germany, but there are no live lessons) and to start teaching Leah to read.
We were planning for the girls to switch to a UK system instead of the German system at some point anyway, since the German School here is not very good at older levels from a combination of a lack of students, lack of investment in facilities and teachers, and poor management. However, the German school took the matter out of our hands by refusing to let us rejoin for the last term because they were annoyed that last year we had privately criticised them and given suggestions as to how to improve their awful online learning; and crazily they also decided they could not meet our standards which was demonstrated by us helping our Children at home last year. More realistically it boils down to the fact that the headteacher was supposed to have learned all about online learning a year before COVID-19 at a conference and then integrated technology into learning, but instead skipped most of the conference, did nothing upon returning, and then was angry when this was pointed out to her.
So in the short-term, we thought it would be a tricky few months until the girls could start in their British school. However, the tutor we hired has been fantastic, especially for Leah who has learned so much it has definitely been better for her in preparing for her for primary school. Hannah enjoyed it as well, and we have seen the value in having personalised learning. So it has definitely worked out well (especially as we have neighbors the girls can play with daily to still have social interactions, whilst also doing sport, art and other activities with the tutor). In fact it worked out so well that when Andrea returned to Germany for a month of school before Easter, she left Leah in Kenya with me to continue with the tutor.
Whilst they were here, we went away for a weekend with some other children and they all had fun swimming, seeing animals, making a bonfire, and also walking to Kitengela glass. This is a well known business that recycles glass into some quite distinctively designed glassware, including furniture. The kids enjoyed looking at it, seeing the furnace, and also walking across the rickety bridge over a gorge next to it.
There was an online birthday party for a friend of Hannah's who left Kenya 2 years ago, and attempted a party in English and Spanish for kids from Kenya, Israel and Mexico amongst others, which was a bit of a struggle, but the organiser did do as good a job as she could do.
The weekends have been lots of fun, often with the kids cycling whilst the adults run, visiting waterfalls in forests, and also walks in various nature parks; there has also been plenty of swimming (though often in hotel pools, since our pool remains empty) and a lot of playing. With Hannah gone for a few weeks, Leah has had more time to develop friendships with others and I think it has been good for her though she does miss her sister and mum a lot.
Life still continues then as normal, except for the wearing of masks, and smaller in-person events than normal. Now some vaccines have arrived, which will help health workers who continue to work very hard dealing with poor health infrastructure (though one that has improved since pre-COVID).
So a nice few months, though complicated, and certainly we are more fortunate than many others around the world. Hopefully all will continue.
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