JEANE, 29 YEARS

Dear family, Thank you for taking the time to read my letter and I hope it finds you well :-). My name is Jeane Okello. I am a 25 year-old (female) Kenyan. I currently live in Nairobi, where I was able to complete my undergraduate study in Genomic Sciences with a Second class Honors (upper division) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. I actually come from Bondo, which when compared to Nairobi (Kenya's capital city)is a small town situated near Lake Victoria. I come from a family of 3: My parents, Audi and Amos, are self employed. I have one sister and one brother. My elder brother is 30 years old and is job searching. My younger sister Stephanie is 20 years old, and is in her second year of medicine school at the University of Nairobi. My first language is Swahili, and I am fluent in English. I started learning English and Swahili in nursery school, and it was also the language of instruction throughout my education and communication at home. I speak abit of French which i learned in primary school and I'm still learning online. When it comes to child care experience, I have looked after children in both formal and informal contexts with about 3 years of experience including: taking children for walks, swimming, changing diapers, taking showers and dressing up, attending school events, play dates (tea parties), birthday planning, camping, cooking meals, moulding with plasticine, planting flowers and watching as they grow and progress over the days and fun DIY( Do It Yourself) activities. I am currently taking online courses on; English and language in Early Childhood Development, A certificate course in Psychology and a course in Nutrition. I will gain the best from them to improve in different and effective ways. I have taken part in and organized visits to children's homes with some clubs ( Rotaract ) where we took part in recreational indoor and outdoor activities: we sang, danced, played games, role played, drew, painted, and narrated stories. At the end of the day we made a meal and shared it together with the children and left them some goodies. We also went out on picnics and a camping trip. I have helped my parents look after my sister since birthand I am still looking after her and involved in caring for them on a daily basis. In addition, when she was young, my sister used spend a lot of time playing with our neighbor's children so from time to time I found myself in their ever animated company. I have also helped care for some of my nephew and nieces for some period, assisting my cousins to take care of the baby, feed and wash. I can comfortably say that I sincerely enjoy spending time with children. When it comes to leisure, I take pleasure in being both outdoors and indoors. Being with my friends, going for walks, visiting places I have not been to, and reading a good book. I also enjoy swimming on warm days, I often take part in some DIY activities with my brother and sister whenever they are around. I am looking for a live-in arrangement with a host family, that would be happy to have me stay with and work for them for at least 12-24 months. I would also prefer looking after children aged between 3 months to 18 years. Lastly, although I am quite flexible, I would prefer to have working hours that would allow me to attend day time language. I would be happy to have the opportunity to speak with you, to answer whichever questions you may have about me or my experiences; to learn more about your family; your interests and to know more about what you expect from the au pair arrangement. Thank you very much for your interest in my application. I look forward to hearing from you.