Whitney, the social work intern who helped host us at the Karibu Centre, is one of the gutsiest young ladies I’ve met with an amazing grace and strength. She gets around on Boda-bodas, (motorcycle taxis) laughingly keeps the street boys at bay and volunteers both in the Maasai Mara and in the slums of Nairobi …when she is not sourcing food for us in the market and ensuring we are all well cared for. We on the other hand, rode in Matatus, the vans that one sees commonly all over Kenya and oftentimes on Safari. Only our Matatus were not packed with passengers stacked on top of one another like sardines. We generally had one seat per person, though the young Karibu field teachers had no qualms about “double buckling” and appeared to like cramming three alongside the driver upfront. Twende!
DIBELS
DIBELS is an internationally recognized diagnostic assessment of early English language literacy. It is composed of four short tests, each a minute or so long. The first shows a set of four pictures and asks the child to identify the picture or word that begins with a particular sound. The second tests simple letter name recognition. The third assesses the ability to break down a word into its composite sounds, e.g. s – ou – n – d – s. That one turned out to be incredibly difficult. Surprisingly, most of the students we assessed excelled at the final test of three letter nonsense words. While we could only theorize regarding the possible cultural or contextual explanation, we did find the phenomenon to be nearly 100% predictable. Our first surprise though appeared as we were training ourselves to deliver DIBELS. In theory one person can deliver the assessment in 5 min. while keeping score and working the stopwatch. I am baffled by who exactly could do that. We ended up working in pairs of two, with a native speaker delivering and scoring, while we timed and assisted. Even then, it took us nearly 10 min. per child from start to finish. And though we were stiff from sitting almost 4 hours straight and straining to hear those shy little voices, we still were not done. Thanks to our leader, Julie’s diligence and some determined reinforcements the next day, the task is complete and we now have a baseline by which to empirically measure progress. Whew!
Nights of Wine and Chocolate
We were so impressed by the skill of the cooks at Karibu Centre. Still, it didn’t take this group of women long to find out there was a store nearby where various necessities could be had. At the top of the list was of course… wine and chocolate.
Somehow we always ended up each night crammed into our little snack room, laughing, telling stories and sharing a bit of wine and chocolate. Even on the nights where it was “all hands on deck” to set up something required for the following day, we somehow managed to sneak in a few moments of together down time. Those are the precious moments of warmth and friendship that you never want to end.
Teachers Academy and The Best Laid Plans
Though we had prepared lesson plans in advance, we needed to reassess, take stock and recalibrate each day. We had been forewarned that we would need to stay flexible, and we had no precise idea of what would be needed, feasible or necessary. It turns out Keeping 60 teachers with limited or no computer skills on the same page while doing hands-on exercises is no small feat! Every morning we met with the “fab four” Karibu field teachers to review the previous day’s outcome, then agree upon and prepare for that day’s session. We had come armed with a lot of training materials, but almost everything after day 1 had to be modified. And the personal irony for me…the presentation over which I agonized before embarking, ended up being thrown out of the mix. “Stay flexible” is the IESC mantra!
Deep breath, move on and tomorrow, you laugh. 🙂
Life is Never Dull at the Orphanage
Karibu Centre takes in, cares for and provides “mommies” for abandoned children in the Thika community. There is one house mother for every group of five children who form a consistent family unit within the overall room of 25 orphans. All mommies watch out for, play with and love all of the babies. But they do take special pride in “their” children. Two social workers, Faith and Anyes come every weekday to work with the children as well. By our standards they are poor, but these children are happy, well-loved, well-fed and well-cared for by any standards… But especially in contrast with the at-risk kids in the community.
A few weeks before we arrived, the first ever adoption was celebrated at the center. We missed out on that excitement, but while we were busy training 60 teachers on computer skills, a mother came to the orphanage to reclaim and be reconciled with her baby after serving time for charges of abandonment. Although the staff was teary eyed over losing this precious baby, they knew this reunion was a true Karibu success.
Doing What It Takes
I’m not technical. Period. But when 50+ hard drives have to be removed and replaced with SSDs (solid state drives)… and it has to be done the first afternoon you arrive, you just jump in and try. The tech team showed us what to do and patiently coached us through each step. It was a true team bonding moment with a lot of giggling, sharing tools and helping each other out along the way. I admit the experience confirmed I am not technical nor terribly gifted with fine motor skills. But as the light in the hall faded, and the candles and headlamps came out, the work was complete and we had become a team. – B
Cheering for Diapers – Thank you Tiny Tots!
On our second day at Karibu Centre, we gathered with the house mothers and orphans to share our gifts. It was a memorable celebration with songs and dancing while the toddlers ran about happily jumping and throwing their arms up to be held. There was joy and tears and happy gratitude for each gift, but what I didn’t expect… As I opened the suitcase full of diapers a great cheer went up! Who would’ve thought something so humble could generate that much excitement.
The roller coaster – 20 feelings in Kenya (partial list..)
- Overwhelm when an amazing 3 years old orphan jump on me as I enter a room.
- Fear of the unknown and of all the stories/scenarios which run through my head.
- Pride of being an Intel employee and a team member of such an assignment.
- Exhaustion after a 13-14 hrs working day, parts of it with flashlights since there is no power.
- Celebration after a successful complex training day or a breakthrough implementation of a computers lab.
- Frustration when things go much slower than expected or initially estimated.
- Excitement when seeing the joy of a curious child, a committed teacher and a hopeful parent.
- Concern that the planned training to 60 teachers won’t be good enough.
- Hope when seeing the fast pace of a small child moving between different phases of a SW program on a laptop.
- Nervousness when unexpected issues appear and all plans are not relevant.
- Gratitude for everything I have in my life and for those who enable such a trip for me.
- Sadness & loneliness of being away from home for 2 weekends and one public holiday.
- Appreciation when seeing so much that is being consistently done and achieved by people around me.
- Helplessness when feeling unwell or when there is no electricity / connection / batteries.
- Peace after adjusting to local conditions & pace, settling down and expecting the unexpected.
- Boredom when believing I saw/understood the essence and thinking that there isn’t much more here for me. Until…..
- Curiosity when experiencing so many new things I haven’t seen before.
- Satisfaction at the end of another meaningful day of really touching another person, contributing to more lives.
- Relief and Joy to go on a wonderful day trip after a very intensive week.
- Deep connection to dozens of people in different ages and from different cultures that suddenly feel so close..
Joy of Learning
– Seeing teacher’s engage and their eyes light up when they had the opportunity to play Tux Typing in the computer
– Hearing the sudden outbreak of laughter when the computer camera turned on and they saw themselves
– Seeing them grapple with basic computer navigation
– Hearing the excited chatter as they make a spreadsheet automatically count down a column
– Seeing them hungrily ask for help them ask for more besides
– Hearing the occasional teacher break out singing as they become so engrossed in the Waterford assessment that they forget others around them…or cease to care.
-B
Aspen Foundation Dinner in Nairobi
An amazing dinner together last Thursday in Nairobi with the Kenyan Minister of Education, one of the architects of Kenya’s Vision 2030, various govt and NGOs. Fascinating to hear the work going on and the opportunity for development ahead but above all enjoyed the warm reception by the wonderful group of Aspen Fellows. -B
Thika Tech 