The Treehouse Team - Nicodemus

What a Guest Wrote About Nicodemus:

I met Nicodemus Mwambire Ndundi (or Nico for short), a yoga teacher at Treehouse Watamu. His story is like something out of a fairy tale. He, father of two, ex-footballer, gardener at Treehouse, yoga teacher, and meditator, is always all smiles. I kid you not. I have never seen a frown on his face. His smile is so genuine it lights up your day.

He came to Treehouse as a gardener six or so years ago. Now, he is also one of the resident yoga teachers and one of the few teachers of yoga on Stand-Up Paddleboards in Kenya. He also is an assistant watersport guide - and still maintains the garden. Treehouse, a Watamu guesthouse and yoga centre, is built on the highest point in Watamu. The beautiful glass art embedded into the walls, white walls, wooden railing, and jagged edges are enchanting. They invite peace.

Nico was introduced to yoga through Treehouse’s weekly yoga class for the team. Through this regular practice, Nico found his love of yoga. He no longer had the time to play football and needed something to allow him to maintain his physical health. Paul Krystall, owner of Treehouse, encouraged him to learn how to swim, develop his yoga and do yoga on the paddleboards, and told him, “Nico, you are going to be the next teacher at Treehouse.” Nico got a scholarship with the African Yoga Project in Nairobi and the rest is history.

Nico recently incorporated meditation into his practice. He had experienced a need from his clients to meditate. He says, after a practice like yoga, meditation helps to bring everything together. The physical and the mental peace.

He started teaching weekly community yoga classes in the 3 nearby villages to Treehouse - Dongo Kundu, Dabaso and Gede. Within these communities, and I have faced it within my own, there is a general apprehension towards yoga and meditation – a suspicion as to their intent and effect. Many believe them to be ‘cultish’ practices. Kenyan culture can be very religious and sometimes superstitious. When Nico started teaching within these communities, their initial suspicion turned into acceptance. Yoga has begun to take hold, especially amongst the children. Nico introduced meditation at the end of his community classes. Now, when he forgets, they ask him to do it.

His children are no exception. Both, the 3-year-old girl and the 8-year-old boy are the newest Yogi’s in town. 3-year-old Jennifer even corrects people when they get into yoga poses wrong (although she is usually the one in the wrong).

Yoga by all means has changed Nico and his family’s lives. He has found a healthy replacement for the exercise he used to get in football and the peace of mind and stress relief which the meditation and the movement meditation (yoga), offer him. Now he is changing the lives of the members and the very nature of the communities in which he is a part. Nico is driving this change here. Organisations like the African Yoga Project are fuelling it.

There is an arising of consciousness enhancing activities in the world. A return to the peace of the self. We have delved into the nature of man-constructed societies and found them wanting. There is something they cannot offer. Something that can be found in the search for peace, for love, for happiness, for stillness, for healing, for the Divine.

Faith Gathoni - Nov 2020