It's not easy being so naive!

During my first week at Kenana Cottage I was invited to join a Zumba class. I’d not done Zumba before but I had promised myself from the outset that I’d take up any offer that came my way, so that I’d meet as many people as possible and get out of the house.

And so it was that I ended up going to Zumba.

I was pretty exhausted by the time we even got there as the drive involves a 7km stretch of ‘The Worst Road in Kenya’. It has so many potholes - many of them over 60cm deep - that drivers tend to use what we (in the UK) would refer to as the hard shoulder, here simply mud at a 45 degree angle with ruts, bumps and potholes included. My absolute least favourite road and one that definitely requires the Car Bra.

En route my mind went into overdrive; wondering how a Kenyan gym would compare to an english one, had I brought enough money with me to pay for the class and coffee afterwards and why on earth had I left my sports gear back in the UK.

After half an hour we arrived… at another farm! Then minutes later, rather than the usual ‘warm up’ instructions we were being asked to push an aircraft out of its’ hangar as the classes take place in the hangar! Well, I’ve never felt so naive, talk about ‘expect the unexpected’! Staff were in and out carrying wooden long drops, birds were nesting in the eaves, it was all so incredibly fascinating I could barely keep my eyes on the teacher nevermind focus on coordinating my legs and arms simultaneously.

A couple of days later I was invited to a Yoga session at Paddy’s on Kenana Farm. A lovely fifteen minute walk through our garden and down a farm track. This time I told myself to ‘be more local’ and ‘remember not to gawp if something unusual happens’.

Now I consider myself a regular!

We are a group of three sometimes four and we work out on an open air veranda usually with three dogs; a Great Dane, Zika and two St Bernards, Gruffalo and Baloo. Sometimes we're joined by another three smaller dogs. Picture yourself doing downward dog with an upside down view of a St Bernards face right between your feet! It’s just amazing. I’m obviously still easily distracted by the surroundings - race horses being guided through the garden to various paddocks, colourful birds all around me - maybe in time I will just take it all in my stride and actually focus on the Yoga!

To Yoga with Emma, thank you Emma for getting me into Yoga in the first place and apologies that it's taken me five years to get back into it!