Meet Peninah Muiru a Kenyan living in Hannover and enjoying it. She came to Germany December 2010 as an au pair and to her dismay, she encountered so much snow and cold like never before. According to her, “Clichée or not, Germany is freaking cold”.
After her au pair year, she was sent to the care home for people with disabilities in Bothfeld after visiting Diakonie to ask for a position. It was challenging trying to communicate with the people with mental disabilities as her German wasn’t as good as she wanted it to be but she kept on. At the home her main tasks were to go for shopping with the mentally disabled people, play with them, cook with them and help them out with simple activities around the home.
When she wasn’t working at the home, she used her extra time to improve her German at the VHS. By the time she was done with the FSJ, not only was her German much better but she had also perfected her cooking skills and made a collection of German recipes she had learnt.
Unfortunately, when she applied for the Ausbildung, her application was denied. But not to be put down, she got her colleagues to help her out to get an acceptance. With her colleagues’ help, her application was accepted and her she recently started the Ausbildung in Birkenhof. She aims to become a doctor someday whether in Germany or in Kenya is yet to be seen.
Though she misses her family in Kenya and plans to go visit, right now all her focus is set on passing her exams and excelling in the Ausbildung to ensure she reaches her goal to study medicine.
To all the au pairs out there, being an au pair isn’t your end and you can achieve anything you set out your mind to do. Also remember that just because you meet a few obstacles along the way doesn’t mean you won’t succeed at whatever you are planning to achieve.
To Peninah, I wish you all the best and I hope I can write about you in a few years, “From Au Pair to Medical Doctor”, I already got the title for that article, now complete the story…..*wink.
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