Technology in Taru

Although on a Kenya Keys trip, many activities are done as a group, each volunteer who goes to Kenya has an area of focus.  No surprise that George's focus is technology!

 One of his primary responsibilities is to help with the laptop program.  Sponsors and others donors will provide money to purchase laptops for college and university students.  For the first years of this program,  the engineering, math and science students were most in need of technology.  That has changed and every post-secondary student could benefit from their own laptop.  Working with his contacts at HP, George purchases laptops, sets them up with current software, gets them to team members going to Kenya and coordinates all this with Kabani on the Kenyan staff who then distributes the laptops to happy young students like these. 

Can you imagine what a game changer this is for a busy university student?

On this trip George also taught a class on the internet to secondary school students.  Unfortunately we were always busy doing something else while he taught so I didn't get a good photo of his 'human internet'.  

I'll let him explain in his own words what he did.  It was very clever and totally interactive so I am sure the kids were enthralled.  So often in Kenya the teaching is all by lecture preparing them for the rote learning necessary to score well on a test.  They LOVE interactive activities!

Exercise:  ‘human’ internet simulation

Introduce the internet as a very large set of computers that communicate with each other.  It really started with 4 computers at 4 different locations, all run by computer specialists.  As they explored what a computer could do in combination with other computers, they developed two fundamental capabilities necessary for sharing the computing load:

1. The ability for computers to share information with each other via a ‘network’ of communication links, and
2. The ability to select which computer to communicate with by assigning an ‘address’ to a computer, much like a postal address.

With these two functions, the internet could grow from the original 4 computers to the millions of connected computers today.

Exercise:  Have the students act as computers to show how the internet works.

1. Select one student to be the Internet Service Provider (ISP) required to connect to the rest of the internet.  In Kenya, this is usually a company called Safaricom.   This student will handle all requests we are going to make, and they hold a sign saying Safaricom.
2. Select several students to be the information servers.  They would specialize in various knowledge areas, like Sports, General Information, Schools, etc.   These students hold color-coded signs showing their knowledge area.
3. Select more students to be the computers forming the path between Safaricom and the information servers.  One student in the path will have a color-coded sign to match the information server.  Depending on the class size, we had 2-4 students in each path.

All of these students were brought to the front of the class, and arranged so that the ISP was in front, the servers were in the back, and the students in the path were lined up between the ISP and the server.

Now the fun begins in showing how the internet works.  I had printed a set of color-coded cards with questions about the knowledge areas.  There was also a corresponding set of cards with the same questions, but with the answer on the back.  The cards with answers were given to the information servers.  Then I had other students volunteer to “ask the internet a question’.  They came to the front, read the question, and handed the card to the Safaricom student.  Safaricom then had to identify the path to the correct server (by matching the color of the card) and hand off the card to the student acting as the path.  They then passed it down the line of students until it reached the information server.  The server found the corresponding card with the answer and passed it back along the path to Safaricom, who handed the answer to the student asking the question.  That showed the basic operation of the internet.

A couple of times, the server started to read the answer out loud and I had to remind them that they might be 1000 km away from the student asking the question, and that they had to pass the answer through the internet back to Safaricom, who would then communicate with the questioner.   And since most students were familiar with cell phones, reminding them that asking a question through Safaricom was just like what they were already doing with their phones.   It was also fun to see them get faster in running the internet as they got familiar with how it worked.

Questions included things like:

• What is the temperature in Nairobi?
• Who won the Women’s World Cup?
• Translate a Swahili phrase into English
• What is the phone number for the Girls School?
• When did Kenya Keys start?
• What was the most common topic searched last year by Kenyan students?

I closed with an overview of all the types of services the internet supports, like email, knowledge searching, websites, along with guidelines for staying safe when using the internet.

George taught this class 6 times, 2 times each at 3 different secondary school. 

The other area where George's expertise proved invaluable was in technology discussions for the new building which should be finished sometime next year.  There is a lot of technology  to discuss because there is both an E-learning center (which eventually will have 50 laptops) and a huge library that will be managed by a software program.  

The Kenya Keys Community Education Center will be the largest building in the area.  The 2nd story should be added very soon. So excited!

Mattress

 A number of years ago parents and students at Egu Primary school were concerned about their low performance on the all important test after 8th grade which determines if a student can continue on to secondary school.  The solution was for the students to board at the school.  This would give them time in the evenings to study.  You see at home, there are no lights so there is no way to review or prepare.  For the first years of the boarding program, students slept on the floor or on their desks, then thanks to a very generous donor, Kenya Keys built a dormitory. Now they have bunk beds. Such happy children in 2019!

We visited Egu again this year.  I was surprised when I was in the dorm.

Since my last trip in 2019, there has been a continual drought.  Fewer parents could afford to purchase a mattress for their student.

Some students have very thin mattresses, others simply put a couple of pieces of cotton fabric down on the metal grids and sleep on that.  Can you imagine?

I think sleeping on the concrete floor would be preferable. 

Again, Kenya Keys to the rescue.

Mattresses were purchased and delivered.

A good nights sleep should help these dedicated 8th graders as they take the exam that will determine their educational future.  

What We Do in Kenya

I am often asked what we actually do while we are on a Kenya Keys trip. My answer is always that we do so many things - from visiting schools to planting trees (I always feel like a member of the royal family) from visiting old friends to long planning/brainstorming meetings. However one of the highlight is interviewing Kenya Keys sponsored students.

These students are almost always the first in their families to attend secondary school or high school. They are in a world that is foreign and unfamiliar as they try to navigate fee payments, transportation to their boarding schools, or even how to get the supplies they must have when there is little or no money. What should they do if there is a problem? Mom and Dad are not just a phone call away and are often not in a position to offer a solution. Interviews with visiting US team members or, more often, with the local Kenya Keys staff are a lifeline.

Students, especially those who are brand new to Kenya Keys, are quite shy and fearful at first. They don't want to say something that will jeopardize their sponsorship. The interviewer must first gain their trust. Only then can sensitive things like grades or health issues be discussed.

George spent almost the entire interview time with a student who was about to complete his degree in electrical engineering. Kindred spirits bonding over math and science!

I'm not sure who enjoyed the conversation more!

My job during interviews is to take photos.  It's so fun to coax a smile out of these bright young people.

An experience that Mark, our executive director had in October illustrates the importance of the interviews.  (written by Christy Russell, Kenya Keys US Staff member)

"When Mark sat down with Kenya Keys high school student Mwaka Sombo, he could not have anticipated the series of events her words would put into motion.

Mwaka didn’t want to bring it up, because she had already received glasses, but she still couldn’t see the chalkboard, and headaches came daily. As did toothaches, unfortunately. The throbbing in her jaw was relentless and distracting in class. And not that she was complaining, because she was grateful to be in school, but it was concerning that she and her classmates at the boarding school were losing weight; the meals were getting smaller, and so were they.

This is why Kenya Keys can’t just pay tuition for students and walk away. First, because we care so much about these students, and if they need new glasses or a tooth pulled, or if something really concerning is happening at their school, we want to hear them and help them find solutions. Second, because paying tuition and walking away wouldn’t work - perhaps some would be lucky enough to avoid a thousand pitfalls, but many would stall in their education when they didn’t have money for transportation to school, or they couldn’t untangle the error in the college’s electronic payment system, or when the government entirely changed the tuition payment protocol, or the online application was baffling and crashed repeatedly - all of which happened this year. In Kenya, as everywhere, young people succeed best when they can walk a brave, new path in the company of an experienced guide.

This is why we hire compassionate, committed, and capable local employees in Kenya who understand the obstacles these students face because they overcame them. And this is why we take teams of volunteers from the US to listen to these students and hear their stories, one-on-one, because when we unite our hearts, we end up in a better place.

Back to Mwaka, who made a 6-hour round trip to Mombasa in the company of Kenya Keys staffer Clemence to get new glasses. It was a process, but just look at Mwaka’s smile! A tooth was pulled, which was a relief. 

And soon 30 days of food were delivered to 600 students in 4 boarding schools and an orphanage."

Just in time to be sure they were well fed before their all important exams.

What better illustration of the importance of an interview!

Interruptions

 Almost 15 years ago, I started my blog with a post about the experience Mary and I had when we attended the inauguration of Barak Obama; the day we spent in what has been since called 'the purple tunnel of doom.'  Hours and hours waiting, tickets in hand, before we finally were allowed to exit the tunnel only to find out that the inauguration was over.  What a day and what a memory! The first of many I recorded in this blog.

   My goal has never been to make money on my blog by developing a huge following.  Instead, I print out my blog book each year and love the idea of having a pictorial journal for my posterity to get to know me.  My cousin, Scott Boyle, recently sent me the letters that our Grandma Boyle had written to his parents in the early 1960's.  They are a treasure to me and give a glimpse into the heart of a woman who I just thought of as 'Grandma'.  My hope is that my blog books will give future generations such a a glimpse into ME.

During the summer there wasn't a lot of excitement in our lives so I didn't post much. In September we headed off to Kenya for two weeks and I came home with thousands of photos and ideas for blog posts.  Unfortunately my computer balked at the idea of adding more photos so I spent weeks moving photo albums around, deleting photos that were stored in multiple places on the computer, and generally cleaning out.  Now that my computer was happy again,  I could start to share our trip to Kenya as well as trips to southern Utah.  

Fate intervened, last week George had a cold.  He took a Covid test that was negative.  Then I got cold symptoms, nothing that seemed too severe.  Because we were meeting friends for lunch, I decided to test myself just to be safe and, you guessed it, I was positive.  George followed a few days later with his own positive test.   This is our first bout with Covid.  I am rather proud of that!  

 

Our symptoms were mild, just really a cold that lasted for several days, mild fever, and exhaustion.

This is the first day that I have felt reasonably ok.

So no more excuses - it's time to catch up!

Safari

Our team always stays super busy when we are in Kenya.  The days are long with interviewing students, visiting schools,  teaching lessons, leading discussions, planning, checking up on friends and organizing the hundreds of pounds of supplies that we bring with us.  Luckily for us, we do get one day to play tourist as we go on safari to Tsavo East National!

Tsavo is the largest park in all of Kenya but not as famous as Masai Mara.  Two claims to fame are: first in the movie and book 'Out of Africa' it was the destination of  Denys Finch Hatton  (Robert Redford) when his plane crashed.  Second, in the late 1800's a pair of 'man eating' male lions terrorized the Indian and African workers on the railroad that was being built from the port to Uganda.  No one knows exactly how many men they ate before finally being shot by a British officer.  Reports vary from 100 - 30.  No one knows if the high number was an exaggeration or if the number is correct since only the Indian worker's deaths were actually counted.   The deaths among the Africans weren't documented.  

Back in Parliament in London, Lord Salisbury made this statement when explaining the slow down on the railroad construction.

"The whole of the works were put to stop because a pair of man eating lions appeared in the locality and conceived a most unfortunate taste for our workmen." 

How very British is that statement!  

Interestingly the male lions in Tsavo don't have the big manes that are normal for African lions.  The two man eaters of Tsavo were displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago.  One of them was 9 feet long.

We were lucky to see quite a few lions on this trip.  A bit of an x-rated sighting as we saw a couple mating.  

During breakfast there were 12 lions that we could see in the distance, all having a nice little siesta under some trees.  All of us were nervous when a lone antelope started walking right towards the lions.  They noticed him about the same time that he caught wind of them.  I thought we might have some real excitement but evidently the lions had already had their breakfast.  

I saw this lion right by the side of the road.  This photo is taken with no zoom.  When the jeep stopped she turned and walked away.  Too bad but I still love this photo!

Can you see her in this photo looking at the herd of zebra?

Her pride must have already eaten because she was content to just watch.

Later in the day we saw this group of three enjoying another rest. Lions sleep about 20 hours a day.

I think that Mom was a little irritated at her young one, who must not have wanted to take a nap just then.

Watching them, I am always amazed at how their movements are so much like house cats....well except for killing large animals! Look at her grooming herself.  Haven't you seen your house cat do the same?

Lion weren't the only animals we saw.

It's great when you can get several different types of animals in one photo.  George took this one. 

Elephant, zebra and Cape buffalo. 

The last two times I have been to Tsavo, I haven't seen any Cape Buffalo.  The drought has caused them to go farther into the park.  This year we saw a herd of literally thousands.

As they crossed the road right in front of our jeep, they would stop and stare intently.  I understand that their vision is not the best, so they must have been trying to figure out our smell to decide if we were dangerous or not.

Since we were so close we could hear their mooing sound, just like a cow.

Lions kill about 200 people in Africa each year.  Surprisingly, Cape buffalo also kill 200 a year.

There were lots of calves in this group, some only a few month old.  I am glad that the lion we saw just down the road was so intent on watching the zebra herd.

Young buffalo and very old buffalo or the sick ones do fall prey to the lions.

Saw some giraffe the first day.  As Jackson would say, 'They are TALL, TALL!"

And some zebras close to the road.

Something spooked them but we never figured out what.  

Bird lover that I am, I have to share one bird.  This is the Superb Starling.  There were lots of them and they do have superb colors.

Our Kenyan friends think that eating dik-dik is a delicacy. They are such cute little guys.  Again Mbotte, our driver reminds me that I see 'cute' and he sees 'dinner'.

At the lodge they remind us to keep our windows locked because baboons like to 'steal passports'.  This one must be the lookout!

And last, we saw some of the hilarious pumbaas.  Did you know in Swahali the work pumbaa means, 

'careless, foolish, ignorant, lazy, stupid and negligent'? Not exactly a complimentary name. They are an animal that I would describe as so ugly that they are cute.  Maybe they remind me of razorbacks!

 

Teams and Team Building

 The month of September was a pretty quiet, one might even say BORING month until the 28th when George and I headed to Kenya again as volunteers for Kenya Keys.  This was my 7th trip and George's 2nd.  We were part of a strong team that included our Executive Director, Mark Friess and the Operations Manager for the US staff, China Ageros, plus new US Board members, Heather Cooke and Micah Stolowitz.  The last two members were Dave and Clare Peterson.  They have quite the story.  A number of years ago Dave's mother read about Kenya Keys in the Lake Oswego paper and decided to give Rinda, the founder a call.  She was so impressed with what she learned that she immediately started sponsoring students plus she recruited friends and family to also sponsor.  In total from her efforts 27 students have been sponsored through secondary school and university.

1st Row - Heather, Marilyn, China and Clare

2nd row - George, Micah, Mark and Dave

And here are Clare and Dave with some of the students who benefited from sponsorships thanks to Dave's wonderful mother's diligent efforts. Many of them had made long bus trips across Kenya just to give their thanks in person.

Part of our responsibilities this trip were to prepare and present a 'team building' exercise to the Kenya Staff.  George and I took our turn on the 2nd day and felt good about it.

 It is weird to have people taking notes about what I was saying.  Funny experience – our activity presented two ways of looking at the world.  1^st through a mirror when we saw our own reflection and how everything affected us and a 2nd way where one looks in a window and sees how things affect other.  We talked about ‘hearing, seeing, and respecting other’. HSR.  The plan was for me to do the first part of the training and then George would end.  Last night when he told me what he had planned it was not what I thought he should say.  I wasn’t very nice about it and definitely looked into a mirror and only saw that what he wanted to say was NOT what I had planned.  I wasn’t very nice about it.  I woke up early thinking about this experience and shared it with the team.  Illustrating that I had seen and heard George but not respected him.  Then I said that I had no idea what he was going to say but that I was confident it would be perfect and it was.  Our experience was a really good, real life object lesson.

Speaking of teams and staff - Kenya Keys is so blessed to have a dedicated and hard working team in Kenya.  To make it even better, they are so fun to be around. I just love them all.

First there is Joseph, one of the founders and as the Executive Director, is the heart and soul of Kenya Keys.  Then Clemence whose title is 'Program Director'.  There is a lot on her plate, from sanitary supplies for girls to transporting students to doctors and dentists.  Clemence blesses lives.  Titus is the Kenyan Operations Manager.  I can't even begin to imagine what his job encompasses.  Kenya Keys is a complex organization with many moving parts.  We are lucky to have Titus managing it all. 

Patrick just came on board as the accountant.  He will be a great addition.

Mariam and Stephen are the 'sponsorship coordinators'.  Remember that Kenya Keys has hundreds of students in secondary schools, colleges and universities located all over Kenya.  And each of those students has a sponsor who needs to be kept up to date with their students needs and successes.  It is a massive undertaking. 

Mwanaisha is the librarian.  I work closely with her.  She is a dynamo full of ideas and plans for the new library that is 20X larger than the one she has now.  

Last but not least are the 'Hope Springs' mentors.  This program was the brainchild of the Kenyans and was originally geared to primary school students.  During 2020, the staff developed a series of lessons to be given to young students to put them on a path to success.  The topics range from goal setting to entrepreneurship to global warming.  In the beginning 9 schools were included.  Other principals heard of their wonderful mentorship and begged to be included so now they go to 33 primary schools and 5 secondary schools and reach hundred of students.  Hats off to James, Nelson, Winnie and Betty!  And Clemence who directs this program too.  

George and I are proud to play a small part in this organization. 

'Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.'

Helen Keller

School and Birthday

My grandkids are growing up.

Isabella started 2nd grade with a smile on her face. Her mother's social media post about her describes her perfectly.  "You are sweet, empathetic, and intelligent with so many good qualities that make you unique."  Grandma agrees totally!

 By the end of the first day she 'LOVED' her new teacher.  Teachers make such a difference. 

I think the fact that two of her very best friends are also in her class was just the icing on the cake.

Jackson celebrated his 5th birthday after a fun summer with lots of baseball games and ice cream!  

He also learned to climb the wall to the top of his favorite slide.  

School doesn't start for him until after Labor Day.  Because of the August 1st cut off date in West Virginia, he has one more year of Preschool before Kindergarten.  I think Mary is glad to have him home for one more year of Mom time.  I'm glad too.  He will definitely be more than ready for Kindergarten in a year.