Two days of STEM Training

Jambo Everyone,

So much for my first attempt at spreading Swahili. Spell Check changed Jumbo to Jambo and I didn’t catch it. My second attempt is wazungu. It means “whites”. In our trips here we contribute in any way we can. So I volunteered to help built 10 desks. I mentioned in Journal # 7 that I was working with a skilled handyman building desks. While building the desks we had quite an audience. I am sure that they were wondering what are these “crazy wazungu” guys doing.

The first 2 days of STEM training were exciting. After going through the goals of the STEM training and some other administrative things, the core training commenced. It is such a privilege to watch the American teachers doing what they are so good at. The matriarch of the training teaches math. She has her PhD in math and is, in my opinion, a world expert at what she does. She has been teaching for 53 years. She has pioneered teaching techniques. She recognized years ago that memorization doesn’t work. When I was growing up, students were taught to memorize their learning. After the test, zip-it was gone. She realized that students need to be interactive and engaged to retain knowledge. In Kenya, memorization is the standard teaching process. When the Kenyan see “engaged” learning, it is rewarding to see that they agree and want to learn how to be better teachers.

One of the areas of emphasis in the STEM training is to use technology while teaching. Several demonstrations were done to illustrate how technology can be used. While sitting in the biology class, the American teacher used these green cards with geometric shapes on the card. Each side of the card represents A, B, C and D in a quiz. So each student holds up their cards with what they believe to be the correct answer, the teacher scans the cards with her I-phone and hits a button on her computer. She has an App on her phone that tabulates and bar graphs the answers. The cards are all designed differently so you can’t look at your neighbor and see what way she/he is holding the card. So with 15 students after using the App, a bar graph appears showing that 12 got it right and 3 didn’t. Each card is assigned to a specific student so the teacher can see that Sally, John and Bob need extra attention. Neat. Another technology lesson that was done was contributed by Microsoft. Microsoft has developed a Dept. that is dedicated to education. So they developed a way students could make their own technological innovation. It is a remotely operated finger. So each student is given a device that inserts over the finger after you craft it from paper. You are given 3 strips of paper laying flat with wires attached to the paper. You custom fit the paper to wrap around your finger of choice. Once you have the transmitter constructed, it sends a signal via Wi-Fi to a mechanical finger that is 3 times the size of a normal index finger. When you bend your finger, the mechanical finger bends in the same manner. Neat. The third type of technology I saw demonstrated is called a document camera. Teachers in the USA have been using them for over 20 years but it is new technology here in Kenya. It allows you to connect what looks like an overhead projector but it can be hooked to a laptop and you can project anything on the wall. Stuff from the computer or something a student has produced. The beauty of document projectors is that the teacher faces the students instead of writing on a blackboard/whiteboard. The teacher can see who is paying attention and who is not. Students can be shocked into engagement by saying, “Why don’t you come up here and show us your solution to a math problem. The entire class can see whether the student has truly absorbed the lesson. Engagement is the key. Not memorization. In Kenya, everything is taught by memorization. The Tiata Taveta Sub-County Minister of Education visited the classroom and prior to his visit he was a doubting Thomas. He was overwhelmingly converted to the lessons being taught and after a question/answer session.

I normally don’t write about things till they happen. But what we are doing Saturday afternoon really has my curiosity going. I am excited about DNA testing. The Seattle teachers have brought some kind of DNA kit with them. The kit with some additional instruments not here in Taita is capable of identifying the DNA of a particular elephant. Poaching is a huge problem with elephants because of their ivory. I read in Smithsonian magazine that 93 elephants a DAY die in Africa every day. What a tragedy. So if you can identify the DNA of every elephant in Africa, you can tell where the poached ivory came from. Yesterday, we toured the garden that grows food for the restaurant in the hotel where we are doing the training. The garden is quite large, probably about 3 acres. They grow all kinds of vegetables, lots of bananas, fish, etc. But the elephants really want to get at that garden. So to stop the elephants, they dug a deep, steep trench around the garden. Elephants don’t like to go down steep slopes. It works most of the time but the elephants are smart and they still get in. We asked the gardener what he does then. He said he chases them away. Gardening can be hazardous to your health. One of the activities we undertook while in the garden was to chew/suck on sugar cane. The hotel grows sugar cane and makes its own sugar.

Yesterday, the prime morning objective was for the Rotarians to meet with the First Lady of Taeta Taveta county. I was accompanied by Judy Ginn from the Seattle International Club and the lead Rotarian on this grant. While we toured a business in Nairobi that has done astounding agricultural things, our tour guide said he was from Taita Taveta and would we like to speak to the First Lady? Making networks in Kenya is the name of the game so we said sure. So the day started out with us jumping in one of our rented vans and riding with the Baringo primary teachers to the Teachers Training College(TCC). Taita is much different than Baringo. The people live in the mountains mostly not on the flat land. Reason is the mountains get more rain and the soil is more fertile. So after we turn off the main highway, the road to TCC is blocked by a 4 foot wall of dirt across the road. So there is some head scratching and some jibber-jabber with the locals and we find out that if we backtrack there is a detour. No such thing as a detour sign in Kenya. So off we go on the detour bouncing our merry way up into the mountains. One other thing that is almost non-existent in Kenya is road barriers along the road. When we get to the turn off to TCC, there is a huge dump truck parked in the road. We get out and see an excavator scoping huge loads of dirt from the highway. We are told that they are fixing a “spring” that makes the road unstable. Behind the truck is a huge hole. So the 5 teachers from Baringo and the American teacher get out and walk the 1 mile up hill on a muddy, stony, road. So the driver backs up and we take a fork in the road and ascent into the mountains. The driver stops and we look down what appears to be a 60-70% slope. And there is a van that was stopped from going say 1,000 feet down because of all the trees. Turns out the accident occurred yesterday and no one was hurt. A silent prayer is said by me that our driver drives safely. One of the things that I mentioned in an earlier journal is that the Kenyans are constantly on their phones. Our driver gets or makes calls every 3-5 minutes, it seems. We pass through villages perched on the top of ridges. We see such church’s as the Jehovah’s Witness or other religions imported to Kenya. We pass by a prison. I don’t even want to contemplate what life would be like in a Kenyan prison. Every once a while we ask the driver if it is close. Answer always is not far, not far. We saw a beautiful rock outcrop that looked like a miniature El Capitan in Yosemite. I was told it was a journey of 30-40 minutes max. Our meeting with the First Lady was at 10:00 and we arrived at 10:03. I was unaware that there is a tarmacked road directly to the Taita Taveta county capital from the main highway. Our return journey took 30 minutes. In Kenya they use the word tarmacked for paved. So after talking a few minutes with some aides of the First Lady, we met H. E. Stella Samboja. Guess what H. E. stands for. Here you address prominent ladies by using the word “Madam”. The meeting was a resounding success. Judy and I make a helluva a team. Judy can talk education since she was an educator. I can talk Rotarese. We discussed what the VTT was doing for Taita and Baringo teachers and provided many examples of the benefits. We invited the First Lady to visit the training site. She didn’t commit but seemed interested. I put in a plug for Hifadhi Africa and explained their Vision for Africa. I asked if she knew the First Lady of Baringo County. Stella replied, Sure. She is a close friend. She offered to call the First Lady of Baringo and tell her about the good work Hifadhi Africa is doing in Kenya. Collins tried to get us an appointment with the First Lady of Baringo County. But she would not “pick” her calls. In Kenya when people don’t connect over the phone, they say that the individual being called didn’t “pick” their call. There is an organization of the First Ladies of the 47 counties in Kenya and although they are not paid, they are very influential with their husbands and government policy as it is in the USA. Judy conveyed her information with enthusiasm so the message was well received. Creating partnerships is the way you get things done anywhere and several areas we agreed upon as potential areas of partnership, including Taita paying the cost of shipment for goods from Rotary. We talked about a Rotary program called Books for the World where a container is shipped via ocean transport full of books. Another project to work on. If you are interested in donating books, let me know. They are also working to add a pediatric wing on the local hospital to serve Taita Taveta County and the surrounding counties. 

Chris has been able to employ her nursing skills while in Kenya. She carries a mobile pharmacy that I used to make fun of. But on every trip it has proven its worth. One the teachers banged her head while getting out of the vans and it was bleeding. She had everything needed to treat the wound. So the word has spread quickly and a number of Kenyan teachers with issues like pain, headaches, stomach issues, etc. have come to her and she has provided the requisite aid. There are some real advantages to marrying a nurse. My contribution has been in assisting making desks. Working as an apprentice, we have constructed 4 high quality desks with 6 more to go. I was relieved this morning by Marcos, the 9th grade son of one of the teachers, which gave me some time to do some catchup.

One of the things that Hifadhi Africa is really good at is to use technology to further their mission. On our trip to Baringo there was a video guy with us named Benjamin and he also came with us to Taita Taveta. One of the things that he did with me was to interview me and ask questions like why we are in Africa, what we are doing, etc. 

Another person that takes photos/videos and edits them into a final product. Hifadhi Africa uses these on their website and other social media to broaden people’s knowledge about Hifadhi Africa.

An interesting road hazard in Kenya is giraffes. Please see picture of giraffe in the middle of the road. Lions also.

My last tidbit for this journal is “Garnets”. On our last visit I saw these beautiful green garnets. It turns out that I asked one of the hotel staff what the lights were in the distance within the park. I was told that the lights were from a garnet mine. Last time I found out what they cost and it is way above my spending limit.

The Wi-Fi service here is probably the worst I have seen anywhere we have been in the world. Extremely frustrating. Virtually impossible to receive or send sometimes. I have tried many, many times to send e mails with photos to attach to these journals. I will have to wait till I can get better internet service at another location.