The first day was spent installing software on Intel powered classmate PCs which Karibu Center purchased or received as donations. After a long day of mounting and installing one CD after the next, on one computer after another, hearing the jingles of preschool computer games playing over and over and over, the team could barely talk. Our communication skills were reduced to grunts.

It was a welcome relief to spend much of the next day training the preschool teachers. Before long, the computer game jingles were back on as the teachers got used to the software they would use to enhance their classrooms. We also spent some time working with the social worker who counsels the young girls, to help her integrate computer training to her curriculum.

Some of the teachers were very serious when we worked with them and it was a surprise to see their faces light up as they interacted with and taught the preschool students. The students were so happy to see the laptops (or small TVs as they first called them) and all wanted to touch the screens as the jingles started all over again.

Karibu Centre staff had visited the surrounding slums to inform parents and grand-parents that computers would be used in class, and many were skeptical about the value of teaching computers to children who had limited opportunities anyway. Some parents expected to see bulky desktops when they visited the class and were shocked to see how child-friendly the classmate PCs are. Many were surprised that their children were not afraid of pounding away at the keyboards and by the end of the week, saw the potential of exposing their children to computers.

It was heart-wrenching to hear some students tell their teachers that they’d slept hungry the night before and I wondered if there was any value to providing them with laptops when there were seemingly more immediate needs. But when I watched the teachers work with the students, I saw role models that the students would ordinarily not have if they stayed at their homes all day. When I saw the students drawn to a popular TV puppet teaching them their ABCs from the laptop, I thought of the new world the children would be exposed to. They have acess to basic computer training that many 4 year olds in Kenya don’t have, and this is hopefully an opportunity for them to look beyond their living conditions and aspire to more than they see.

Since we were here for only a few days, we barely had enough time to train the teachers and social workers on all the capabilities available to them. We look forward to communicating with them to make sure that the students get the most out of the laptops.

The IESC Kenya team started out as strangers who met for the first time 2 weeks ago, but we’ve had an amazing time working together, getting to know one another, laughing together late into the night, and listening to our fearless leader share her very amusing stories. We thank Intel for this opportunity of a lifetime to work with recipients of the computer chips we work on from our grey cubicles. Back to the cubicle it is!

Kageno Trust has a solar equipped vehicle that’s used to charge up to 14 classmate PCs (they only have 7), a teacher’s PC and also powers a wireless router which connects the teacher’s computer to the Classmate PCs. Rusinga Island has no electricity or running water, so the Computer Program facilitators, Nguka and Justus, drive the vehicle to schools around the island to give students an opportunity to have hands on computer training.

Our team’s goal was to train Nguka and Justus to effectively use the Classmate PCs in the classrooms. We were all very impressed at how respectful the students were. The moment we entered their classrooms they would stand up, get chairs for their honored guests (us) and even called us Sir/Madam. Elizabeth Njenga perfected the art of elaborate introductions whenever we met the School Principals who were very gracious and welcoming.

There were 6-12 students sharing 1 Classmate PC, but the students made sure that each one had a turn on it. It was interesting how the students were too shy to ask questions at the beginning of class, but would send more questions than their teacher could handle on the chat tool of the collaboration software.

At the end of every class, the students would always plead with us to stay another hour or visit them at least one more time. Some went as far as offering to go to class on Saturday AND Sunday for a chance to learn something new on the computer. We gave in to their request and the tired lot of us made it through two classes on Saturday.

We’ll miss the students from Kamasengre Primary and Secondary, Kamayoge Primary, Uya Primary and Dr. Williams Primary schools. All the students we met asked us to send our regards to everyone in America. So if you are reading this from the U.S, wamosi.

We have so many fond memories of Rusinga Island: sitting and chatting in Alphonce’s living room each night after a scrumptious dinner; watching the women dry their fish at Kolunga Beach; encouraging the students to study hard in spite of their circumstances; bravely using the latrine in the dead of night; watching the students’ faces light up as they learnt how to type; watching the lake light up each night with hundreds of kerosene lamps of fishermen, two of whom unfortunately died on the lake on our first night here and their bodies recovered three days later (the lake was dark on Friday night as fishermen stayed home in honor of their lost colleagues).

Looking forward to our trip to Karibu Center in Thika next week!

Team (left to right): Keegan Wincewitz, Elizabeth Njenga, Lucy Kuria, Lisa Robinson Spader, Amanuel Abebaw

Afterwards, we met with Save the Children USA officials at their Bangladesh headquarters in Dhaka. Security and Human Resource briefings were followed by a review of STC’s programs in Bangladesh, focusing on Early Childhood Development and Basic Education in their chosen impact area of Meherpur. This is the district in Bangladesh with least access to education and very high dropout rates in primary school. Margarita Clark, the Deputy Country Director for Save the Children USA’s Bangladesh program, emphasized the need to develop evidence-based, replicable solutions to enable all children to be successful learners. This is where the 60 Classmate PCs donated by Intel’s World Ahead program to Save The Children USA in Bangladesh will allow a pilot education initiative to take shape, deploying English language and mathematics learning software being developed by Save The Children.

On Thursday, Oct. 15th., we travelled to Meherpur, near the border with India. It was a seven hour ride from the urban bustle of the capital city, Dhaka, through the countryside - a lush green landscape of rivers and ponds after the monsoon rains.

The four of us arrived at the Ujalpur Prathomik (Primary) Government School at 10 am on Friday, Oct. 16th., to be greeted by all six teachers, the School Management Committee and even a few of its 557 students.

The headmaster, Mr. Nurul Islam, is keen on science and technology in the classroom, and eagerly engages with us throughout the session. We set up a classroom with 25 Classmate PCs, and the excitement among the teachers and the students is palpable. We had no idea that so many teachers and students would come to school on their one weekend day (Friday is the weekend holiday in Bangladesh.) Computers are a big draw here in this remote part of Bangladesh. Our Save The Children hosts had informed us that this Saturday is a school holiday, but when we spoke to the teachers about training on Saturday, they appeared to be very willing and happy to come in as requested.

In the afternoon, we drove through Meherpur’s town center to get to the next school.

At the BM Model Primary Government School, we again worked with our Save The Children partners to set up another 25 Classmate PCs, and introduce the principal and two teachers to computing.

We are all set to start training the teachers tomorrow, who will then co-teach their students with us over the next few days.

After checking the coupon for the breakfast, I realized they stopped serving at 9:30, not 11, that was the floor of the restaurant. Instead of calling and possibly waking Todd or Sovinti, I decided to go eat, and call them around 8:30 so they would still have time to eat. The buffet was nice, without all the high calorie dishes, and I enjoyed the view from the 11th floor. I watched as the motor bikes did their dance around the traffic circles, weaving in and out of traffic with a well rehearsed respect for each other. It seemed as if traffic lights were absent, but there was no gridlock, road rage, or other negative side effects. Could it be that cars and motorbikes, plus copious amount of horn honking, can really flow so smoothly without artificial distractions such as lanes and stop signs?

My fast sufficiently broken, I wandered out on to the streets below. My first interaction with the locals was a man on a motorbike wishing to show me around the city. He asked me where I was from , and I told him America. He told me about the market, the river, the war museum, and he could show me around for 30 minutes. I told him thank you, but I wanted to walk. At the next corner, a similar conversation took place, and I politely declined again. There were several other similar encounters, and I was not surprised, since I definitely look like a foreigner. I may take one of them up on it when I return in a week, but I don’t know if I really want to ride on the back of some of the smaller motorbikes, considering my size. We have talked about renting motorbikes on one of our days off, but so far it is just talk.

The early morning hustle and bustle was punctuated by many horns blowing, reminding others of their presence. Again, the use of the horn appears to be a matter of diligence, as a warning sign, that one should be aware of their surroundings. No one seems upset to hear the horns; noise pollution doesn’t appear to be a concern. Every does some give and take, but the smaller the conveyance, the bigger the give. Perhaps we try too hard to make sure everyone is in their proper lane, going the proper speed, travelling in the correct direction, and using the proper signals.

I stopped by a shop selling carved wooden ships. They were all lined up on shelves, on the floor, up and down the narrow shop. There were many models of clipper ships, racing boats, Mayflowers, Titanics, Endeavors, and they all were missing price tags. I wasn’t really ready to take one home, but I asked how much one of the larger ones was. They wanted $70 US dollars (which are easily used all over the city), and they would lower the masts and pack it for shipping. I imagined they would go for much more back home. I asked if it would be OK to take some pictures before leaving the store.

One of the things I wanted to do was get some gifts for the children before leaving the city. Julie Clugage gave me $500 to spend, and I figured this was my only chance. I wanted to get some practical things, and some fun things. I found a stationery store that was the closest thing to a back to school sale. I loaded up on notebooks, pens, colored markers and pencils. These I planned to give to the teachers to use as they saw fit.

After another 30 minutes or so, I headed back to the hotel, and packed. We soon met up with the rest of the Intel Vietnam team, Ly, Nga, and Trang, all with the last name Nguyen, which as a family name is even more common here than Smith is in “the States”. Ly took us around to find a currency exchange and ATM. I exchanged two hundred dollars for 3.6 million Vietnamese Dong. Looking back I should have taken out more Dong, as that would be the last place to get cash for a while. Sovinti looked for some clothes to last until his suitcase arrived, while Todd and I looked for toys for the kids.

A few minutes later, we had checked out and were headed by taxi to the airport. We couldn’t all fit in one, and our driver decided to take an alternate route. After about 30 minutes of mid day traffic, we got to see more of the city than we could make out the night before. As a developing nation one would expect to see all levels of disrepair and new construction. We were not disappointed. One of the signs of the Information Age was huge bundles of telecommunications cable strung across streets, up and down poles, and along thorough fares. This wasn’t obvious in the downtown areas, as I assume that is mostly underground. However, just as cellular phones are common place, it appears the internet is all over town too.

After arriving at the airport, we learned our flight was delayed, so we went for lunch. One of our warnings about the food was to drink only bottled water, and to avoid the ice. Without going into details, let’s just say we didn’t all follow that advice at first. Having been to Mexico several times, I was reminded of the saying “Don’t drink the water, drink the beer”. Coca Cola would also work for me. The food court had a KFC, but I did not fly all the way to Vietnam to have KFC, so I ordered a BBQ pork and noodle dish. The food court lets you sit while they prepared everything and brought it to the table.

A short one hour flight to Hue, and we were soon in a much different world. The plane had old fashion stairs to the tarmac, and a large bus that everyone got on. After a 30 second ride to the terminal, we were soon all loaded into a large Mercedes van on our way to Quang Tri. The 90 minute ride took us through down town Hue, and into the lush farm lands of central Vietnam. I was still tired, but there were too many new sites to see for me to want to take a nap. The driver knew the way, and he was very adept with the horn, but this one had a high low “toodle” to it. Crossing the center line on the two lane that goes from Saigon to Hanoi was no big deal. Indeed, passing with oncoming traffic wasn’t either. I decided they knew how to drive in Vietnam better than I did, and we all laughed as if we were on a ride at Disneyland.

Eventually we arrived at the hotel, where we met Tad Kincaid, the director of Orphans Overseas in Vietnam. He and several members of his staff were there to help us with the taxis, food, and other logistics. A transplant from Oregon, he and his wife had been working with kids in Vietnam and Laos for several years. We checked into our rooms, which while very basis, had air conditioning, and a refrigerator for chilling our water. The TV, had something like 13 channels, all carrying the same three Vietnam TV networks. The sign said two stars, but I think one star was about what it would have been at home. Even so, it was nicer than I had imagined: there were no mosquito nets, and every room has a gecko to keep the bugs down.

Our dinner was at “the best place intown” (which isn’t saying much) across the highway from the hotel. The food was good, mostly seafood, vegetables, rice, and noodels. It was early to bed for me, and I was ready to face the orphans tomorrow. Brad Houser