Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officers, Jayce Klassen and Grayson Reid
Jayce and Grayson’s international experiential learning experience is funded by the Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) Program. This collaborative initiative is made possible through the leadership of the Rideau Hall Foundation, in collaboration with Community Foundations of Canada, Universities Canada, and Canadian universities. Through its promotion of international student exchange and civic engagement, the QES program is helping to grow young Canadians into global citizens while promoting Canada as a destination for the world’s top talent and attracting top talent and international research leaders to Canada.
Jambo! (Hello)
My name is Grayson Reid, and I am a Canadian SportWORKS Officer currently stationed in Nairobi, Kenya, with the National Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Association of Kenya. I am a Sport and Recreation Management honours student at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.
And… my name is Jayce Klassen, and I am also a Canadian SportWORKS Officer currently stationed in Nairobi, Kenya, with the National Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Association of Kenya (NOC-K). I am currently working towards my bachelor’s degree in Health and Physical Education, majoring in Physical Literacy at Mount Royal University.
We are currently one month into completing our final practicum through Commonwealth Sport Canada and the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Program. We are incredibly grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and for bringing you along on our personal experience here.
As Canadian SportWORKS Officers with Commonwealth Sport Canada, our main objective is to support Cheza Healthy, a sport-for-development project that focuses on the prevention of non-communicable diseases. ‘Cheza’ means ‘play’ in Swahili, which drives the project’s approach by focusing on movement, sports, and recreational activities to improve physical and mental wellness. We would first like to acknowledge that this opportunity would not exist without the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, Commonwealth Sport Canada, the National Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Association of Kenya, Mount Royal University, and Mount Royal International. We would also like to recognize the amazing team, their contributions, and their unwavering support throughout this journey. Thank you to Ryan Pelley, Dr. Julie Booke, Dr. David Legg, Gisele Marcoux, Jessica Mossiere, Kabiri (Tony) Karuru, and everyone else whose efforts do not go unnoticed.
Before we begin, we want to set one expectation for our blogs. What we share here is honest. It would be so easy to fill these posts with highlight reels, romanticized stories, and perfect photos, but that wouldn’t tell the whole story. Living and working abroad has been one of the greatest opportunities of our lives, but it has also been hard, scary, uncomfortable, and totally overwhelming. Sharing those moments is not us complaining, nor does it take away from how grateful we are to be here. If anything, it reflects how much this experience is pushing us to grow. Before coming to Kenya, we were fortunate to connect with previous Canadian SportWORKS Officers and hear about their experiences. They were incredibly helpful and played a huge role in our preparation. At the same time, no one can fully explain what it feels like until you’re living it yourself. Some things are simply impossible to put into words. We weren’t ready for what the beginning of this journey had in store for us. We were never going to be ready, but we were brave enough to try. For this reason, we will be sharing the homesickness, culture shock, self-doubt, frustrations, and struggles. Not because these moments are the whole experience, but because they are an unavoidable part of it. This isn’t a sob story. It is simply our very real and raw experience, shared in hopes that future Canadian SportWORKS Officers or others might learn, relate, or feel less alone.
Now, every good adventure needs a dramatic beginning, and ours certainly delivered. If you had told us a month ago that we were actually packing up our whole lives and moving to Africa, we wouldn’t have believed you. We can’t tell if our friends and family think we’ve lost our minds or that we are the coolest people in the world – honestly, we don’t know either. Getting on that plane was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done, and we’re not referencing the actual issues at the airport, like our flight getting cancelled, rebooked 7 hours later, rerouted to London, bags still going to Germany, and invalid visas. Yeah, that definitely wasn’t the smoothest travel day or exactly what we needed given the mental state we were already in. We were so close to walking out of the Calgary airport and getting back in the car. Was this rough start a sign from the universe? If it weren’t for our parents, best friends, and each other, we truly wouldn’t be here. We really do have the most supportive and reassuring village in our corner, and we know they’re reading this, so thank you, we love you, and we miss you all so, so much. After a few stressful conversations and a lot of waiting, everything was sorted out. Crisis averted… or so we thought. Not long after (5 mins after), our first flight was delayed, meaning we were going to miss our connecting flight. More scrambling, more rebooking, and more stress followed. Eventually, we made it onto a new flight and finally began our journey toward Kenya. Our six-hour layover in London felt much longer than six hours. We spent most of it wandering around the airport trying to find somewhere comfortable enough to get a little sleep.
Spoiler alert: airports are not designed for sleeping.
Eventually, we were back in the air and heading toward Nairobi. When we landed at 5:00 a.m Wednesday morning (keep in mind we left Calgary on Monday) we were beyond exhausted. We were greeted by Alex from NOC-K, holding a sign with our names on it. Alex took us to a hotel so we could get some much-needed rest. Our plans to stay awake to beat the jetlag quickly went out the window. (Spoiler alert: it’s been 1 month and were still jetlagged). What was supposed to be a short nap quickly turned into a seven-hour nap. That evening, we met Tony and Caro for dinner and officially began our Kenyan adventure. The next day, Purity helped us tackle some of the practical realities of moving to a new country. We set up M-PESA, Kenya’s mobile banking system (basically e-transfer), got local SIM cards, and started the hunt for an apartment. A couple of days later, we found a place to live and officially moved into our new home. It was a huge relief to finally unpack our suitcases and start settling in – even though that night we found out there was a nightclub right across the street (definitely didn’t help the jetlag).
As simple as that all sounds, there were a lot of ups and downs. It finally hit us that we were alone in a new country, but it felt like it was our first day in a new world. Everything is different here. Don’t even get us started on the driving. Every time we get in an Uber, we’re just praying we make it to our destination alive. It became very apparent just how much the concept of culture shock is underestimated. You know how in every job interview people say they’re adaptable? Yeah, well, we used to say that too, but oh, we were way too confident in ourselves. There’s this paralyzing feeling where it feels like everything you know is wrong and working against you. While you can have unlimited amounts of support from all over the world, there are moments when the weight of the experience still falls entirely on your shoulders. Learning to trust yourself enough to keep moving forward when you have no idea how things will unfold is incredibly lonely and a challenge no one can do for you. That uncertainty feels incredibly isolating, especially when you’re alone in a new country, far from everything familiar, trying to navigate a way of life you don’t understand while hoping that eventually the pieces will fall into place. Rewiring our brains and relearning many of the things we once took for granted has been one of the most humbling experiences of our lives. From crossing the street, navigating transportation, to understanding social norms and workplace culture, even the simplest of tasks sometimes felt overwhelming. While we are still learning every day, we have come to realize that some of the most meaningful growth happens when you are pushed far outside of your comfort zone.
Okay, enough about our emotional character development. This wasn’t supposed to turn into a travel memoir about two Canadians trying to figure out how to cross the street without getting hit by a matatu (their version of a bus).
We spent our first weekend exploring Nairobi and taking in some of the incredible experiences the city has to offer. We visited the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant sanctuary and the Giraffe Centre, where we got much closer to the animals than either of us expected. It’s a must-do!!! Feeding giraffes is definitely an experience we’ll remember for a long time. Another highlight was visiting the KoboTough Beads and Pottery Centre. Watching the artisans handcraft beautiful beads and pottery was incredible, but what made the visit even more meaningful was learning about KoboTough’s mission. The organization provides employment opportunities for disadvantaged women and single mothers, empowering them through artisan craftsmanship. It was inspiring to see how something as simple as handmade jewelry can have such a powerful impact on people’s lives.
After a very touristy weekend, we made it into the office and met the rest of the NOC-K team. Everyone was incredibly welcoming, and from day one, they made us feel like part of the team. The office was busy preparing for NOC-K’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), so we took the time to familiarize ourselves with the ins and outs of what goes into these types of events. Approaches and procedures are definitely different from Canada. As we know, preparation, communication, and time management are crucial for successful events, but adjusting to international differences creates quite a few bumps in the road.
One of our first experiences was joining a site visit to the AGM venue, Nokras Riverine Hotel, located about an hour and a half outside Nairobi. The drive was beautiful, and the hotel was surrounded by stunning mountain views that made it hard to believe we were there for work. We observed the event setup process, venue selection, hospitality, and other logistics.
That same weekend, we attended the World U20 Athletics Trials at Nyayo National Stadium. We had the opportunity to shadow the media team, including Wangechi and John, which gave us a behind-the-scenes look at sports event coverage. At the same time, we got to watch some of Kenya’s most talented young athletes compete. Seeing the passion and talent on display was incredible. Have you ever seen someone run a 13.40 5K? Yeah, we have since reconsidered our potential running careers.
A few days later came the AGM itself. We were tasked with helping record the meeting minutes. It sounds simple enough until you realize discussions are moving quickly and switching between English and Swahili. At the time, our ability to speak Swahili didn’t get much further than “karibu” (welcome), “jambo” (hello), and “asante” (thank you). There were definitely moments where we looked at each other, completely lost, wondering if we had managed to capture everything. Despite the challenge, it was an amazing learning opportunity and gave us valuable insight into sport governance and leadership.
After such a busy few weeks, the long weekend could not have come at a better time. The NOC-K team invited us to an Arsenal versus Paris Saint-Germain watch party, which turned into a great opportunity to connect with everyone outside of work. The following day, Julie invited us to attend the Women’s Rugby Africa Cup match between Kenya and South Africa. To be completely honest, we had no idea what was happening, but that didn’t matter. The energy in the stadium was contagious. The fans were loud, passionate, and fully invested in every moment of the game. It quickly became clear that Kenya knows how to celebrate sport. It reminded us of home and Roughnecks games! I mean, let’s be real, no one really knows everything about lacrosse, but they’re definitely having a good time in the dome.
When we’re not working or running around to different sporting events, one of our favourite parts of being here has been discovering Nairobi’s coffee culture. We’ve spent many afternoons trying different coffee shops around the city, exploring new neighbourhoods, and finding little spots that are quickly becoming our favourites. It’s become one of the simplest but most grounding parts of our routine here.
A month in, and we’re still figuring it out as we go. Some days we feel on top of it. Other days, we are absolutely not. But we’re here, we’re learning, and that’s pretty much it. If you made it to the end of this blog… honestly, impressive. That was a lot. We owe you a coffee.
-Jayce and Grayson