Goings-ons

It is almost the end of our third week in Kenya and I can't believe how fast time has flown by.  I've been super lazy about writing blog entries, so I'm finally going to sit down and write a little update of how things have been.

After taking about three days to actually get to Asembo, it was great to unload all of the books Josephine and I had brought over from Canada.  So, as Jason worked all day figuring out what needed fixing with the computers, Hilary and I organized the books, made a bunch of posters (which is surprisingly really hard work!) and spent the afternoons reading with the kids and making the centre much more open to the younger kids who were curious to see what us muzungu were up to.

During the second week, it seemed all too perfect that things were running so smoothly.  Hilary and I had developed a routine where we'd have a lazy morning in the centre, head back to Bertha's for lunch, then go to the centre for the afternoon and hang out with some kids, and then come back home in the early evening.  Obviously things are not meant to go so smoothly, and I ended up getting a pretty nasty stomach bug which set me back a couple of days.  Luckily for me, Josephine and Hilary had switched off on Wednesday and it so much better to have my longtime friend (you rock Josephine!) put up with my complaining and illness then poor Hilary who I've known for just two weeks! Not getting any food and lying in a humid room completely listless is really not something I would ever wish upon anyone.  It just plain sucks.  But after taking the lovely antibiotics that my wonderful travel doctor had prescribed, I was back on my feet and ready to take on Asembo, and the yummy Kenyan food (kales, tilapia, plantains...) I had been missing out on.  We headed to Kisumu for the weekend to spend Jason's last weekend here all together, and we had an amazing time walking around the city, checking out a few markets, and we even made it out on the lake to spot some hippos hanging out in the water.

Now it is nearing the end of our third week in Kenya, which means that we've been teaching computer classes in Asembo for about a week.  After a few schedule changes last Friday, and then some very last minute changes before starting classes on Monday morning, we learned that we would have far fewer students than expected, and would only need to teach 5 classes a day instead of the 6 originally proposed classes a day.  This is working out really well, as there are only three laptops and about 12 students per class, which still leaves around 3-4 students to share each laptop.  I can't even imagine what it would have been like to teach the proposed 16-17 students per class 6 times a day!

With the exception of maybe one or two students in the entire group, Monday was the first day for them to ever see or use a computer.  We started out with some basic information about keeping the laptop plugged in and identified the main parts of the computer, such as the mouse, desktop, keyboard, on & off button, etc.  Since then, we've moved on to using the copy and paste functions, using shift and the other very useful keys, and just getting the kids to practice typing, which they seem to really enjoy.  Also, we've stressed over and over again how important it is to save a document you are working on... we even got the students to write in their notebooks "ALWAYS PRESS SAVE!!!"  While the students were writing this all down in their notebooks, I noticed that one had written: "The most impotent (instead of 'important') thing for me to remember is to press save," which set Josephine and I both on a laughing fit.  Another student also held down the 'f' key which showed up on the screen like "ffffffffffffffffffffffff" which perfectly described the way we were both feeling at the moment.

Despite having to take things super slowly, and having to get past the little frustrating moments, the majority of the students seem to be getting the hang of things quite quickly.  Obviously we're taking it step by step because they really knew absolutely nothing, but they are all very keen and have asked about how they can practice outside of class time.  Hopefully they'll start coming on their own to the centre the use the computers without our help!

Currently I am sitting in an internet cafe with Michelle, who's been showing me the ropes in Kisumu. I'm so excited to finally be in Kisumu to see what's been going on here, but I'm not going to lie, the showers and toilets are definitely a perk!  Today was a long day, beginning in the morning spent at the orphanage playing with the babies and reading a couple of stories to a group of very excited young kids.  It was so sweet to see how attentive they are to us and I'm looking so forward to spend more time there next week!  Who knows, maybe I'll get around to writing a new blog post around that time!

For now, I'm off to dinner and then some good old r & r in my lumpy bed back at Novelty!

Robin