STEM Education (continued)

I saw a bumper sticker in the Taita Taveta County Building that was meaningful. It said, “Many who plan to talk to God at the Eveleth Hour, die at 10:30.

 Jumbo Everyone,

You have just learned your first word in Swahili. It is a greeting that people say to each other here in Kenya.

Part II is totally different than Part I. In Part II we stay in one place and not nearly as much time is expended traveling. Also, it is focused on one thing, STEM Education.

So on Saturday we rode the new train built by the Chinese. The Chinese are a big force in Africa and the American presence is zip compared to the Chinese. The train now runs from Nairobi to Mombasa. Eventually, it will go to Kisumu. The train is quite comfortable and modern. During the train ride, a number of different animals were seen from the train. We were met at the train station by the driver we met last year. We piled into 2 vans converted to safari vehicles and we off to Taita Hills Lodge, the location of the STEM training. On Sunday we unpacked a ton of gear bought by the Seattle teachers. It is probably literally a ton. Maybe 2. There were 20 plus suitcases full of netbooks, projects, document cameras, etc. The tools of modern education are so much different than when I was a student. The logistics and preparation to teach are far more than I ever realized. We set up the room, preparing it for 50 plus Kenyan teachers and educators. There are also 28 primary teachers being trained at a local teachers college.. There are 2 training sites this year. One at a teachers college which hosts and one at the lodge. It was great that the Baringo primary schools sent a full contingent of 3 teachers per school. The HS’s for complicated reasons did not send a full contingent. On Monday, some of the teachers went to various schools and conducted a learning session with those schools. These learning sessions were video-taped and used as a training aide on Tuesday. We kicked off the STEM education training on Tuesday. It is amazing to see these teachers in action. The first day a number of fun, training exercises are conducted. It changes the mood of the teachers and they become a great deal more interactive with the American teachers. As an icebreaker exercise, the Kenyan teachers were exposed to rock, paper and scissors plus an egg/spoon race and a sack race. It was out of control fun. Everyone got to know each other much better and became prepared for the training to come. Education is so critical to African countries and it is critical that the African youth become as educated as their western counterparts.

One of the aspects of Part II is that there are and were family members that want to contribute in their own way. Last year we had a computer expert and his 2 sons. This year we have a skilled handyman and his 9th grade son. His contribution to education is to provide desks for students. I volunteered to help him so today we started our first desks. Getting wood in Kenya is an education. Kenya has outlawed tree cutting because of the devastation caused by cutting trees and making them into charcoal. Lumber is expensive and of poor quality. We suppose to get the lumber delivered yesterday and it didn’t get delivered till today. It was fun and challenging to see a skilled handyman in action. We cut almost enough for one desk and assembled what we had. We are building a prototype before we implement mass producing desks.