With Kidlet in Kenya

With Kidlet in Kenya

Toy Sale To Benefit Mathare Mother Development Centre in Nairobi

Hey Toronto Bunchlanders! Joanna Goldberg is headed back to Kenya (for a visit) and she can’t bring all the toys that people have generously donated with her. Instead, she’s hosting a toy sale, the proceeds of which she’ll bring with her when she returns to the Mathare Mother Development Centre where she worked this last year.

With Kidlet in Kenya

A Look Back On Joanna and Cameron’s Kenyan Adventure

They’ve had quite the year

Take one cup of writer mom and a pinch of five-year-old daughter. Stir in a pint of volunteering and two tablespoons of Kenya. Mix well. We’ve been so proud to host this terrific blog about moving to Kenya for a year with your 5-year-old and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Joanna and Cameron’s adventures as much as we have. We’ve rounded up all Joanna’s post from the last year, so check and see that you haven’t missed anything!

Dive into the beginning of Joanna Goldberg’s yearlong “With Kidlet in Kenya” odyssey: Motivations to Chuck It All In and Move to Africa.

Mamma and Kidlet get culture shock at school: Excuse Me, Do you Discipline Students With Regular Beatings?

Costumes and candy and Doing Jewish in Nairobi: Mamma keeps Kidlet connected to life back home with her DIY Holidays.

With Kidlet in Kenya

With Kidlet in Kenya’s Last Post: What Will She Remember?

Joanna Goldberg sends communiqués from Kenya, where she’s living with her kid

When I first told my family I was seriously thinking of volunteering for a year abroad, they questioned why I’d do such a thing now, when my daughter Cameron was likely too young to remember any of it. What Cameron might or might not gain from the year away wasn’t something I had thought about in depth, as my decision to volunteer was largely a selfish one. It was something I needed to do for myself, an experience I hoped would help shift my career, bend my perspectives, expand my confidence and validate that I could fulfill my own dreams despite being a single mom with a small kid.

With Kidlet in Kenya

We Be Nice to Animals!

Joanna Goldberg sends communiqués from Kenya, where she’s living with her kid

I’ve been trying to raise Cameron as a lover of all life forms since day one. So far, I believe I’m succeeding. She’ll report to me if she sees kids purposely stepping on ants. She’s told off any number of class mates for poking the chickens in the school playground (this is Nairobi, remember) with sticks. She isn’t afraid of any insects apart from daddy long-legs and picks up everything from worms and spiders to moths and beetles. In fact, I caught her cuddling and – eek – kissing a worm before. We’re vegetarians, of course, and since she was old enough to talk she’s been declaring “We don’t eat meat. We be nice to animals!” But living in Kenya with Cameron has brought her appreciation of creatures big and small to a new level, enabling close encounters with everything from echinoderms to ungulates.

With Kidlet in Kenya

How Was School Today, Sweetie?

Joanna Goldberg sends biweekly communiqués from Kenya, where she’s living with her kid

Cameron reflects on her days at school. <My responses in parantheses.>

Cobra and kids
I saw a snake today in the playground! It was a black cobra! <What? How do you know?> The teacher said so. We saw its nest! <What did the teacher do?> Nothing. He said to leave it alone. But I’m going to look for it again tomorrow.

God and lesbians
Today I told Rutendo that a girl can be in love with a girl. And she got really mad at me and said they can’t. <Well, she’s wrong and you’re right.> But she gotreally mad at me. She said that if a girl loves a girl, then God will punish them. I told her that was not true. It’s not true, is it mama?

With Kidlet in Kenya

How High Can You Jump? Hanging at the Il Ngwesi Lodge with the Maasai

Joanna Goldberg sends biweekly communiqués from Kenya, where she’s living with her kid

The rough life of a volunteer on the front lines of international development sometimes involves some harsh sacrifices. Like going to a posh, award-winning eco-lodge surrounded by stunning vistas and amazing wildlife for the weekend, for instance.

Il Ngwesi Lodge is Kenya’s only lodge both owned and operated by the Maasai community. It costs about $350 a night per person. I believe Will and Kate visited once or twice. It’s a place I wouldn’t dream of being able to visit on my meagre allowance, but a fellow VSO volunteer works for Il Ngwesi and invited about 20 of us to take over the lodge for the weekend at a fraction of the regular cost. Finally, my daughter Cameron would have her chance to have a jumping competition with those who really put their heart into it.

With Kidlet in Kenya

This Kidlet Is Now Kenyan

Joanna Goldberg sends biweekly communiqués from Kenya, where she’s living with her kid

In many ways, my 5-year-old kid has integrated into Kenyan society a lot more than I’ve been able to, even if I was trying harder. She spends her day listening to and ignoring her Kenyan teachers, and playing with and ordering around her (mostly) Kenyan friends. She takes a matatu to and from school packed with Kenyan passengers and negotiates the fare and our point of alighting with the Kenyan conductor. She’s picked up from school from her Kenyan nanny, and when lucky, her Kenyan nanny’s son. In the time between her return from school and my return home from work, there is a steady flow of neighbouring Kenyan kids and their respective Kenyan nannies in and out of our apartment. Me, I don’t have nearly the same level of interaction with Kenyans compared to Cameron.
Then again – did you catch that?

Me I can drive this bus faster