Pain in the neck

I’m sure that skeletomuscular disorders brought on by overusing a computer aren’t very common in our part of Kenya. Today I’ve been working on a website for our Agriculture College students and I think I might have overdone it a bit.  It’s a bit of an obsessional thing when you start getting into it – (fortunately Pizza and Red Bull aren’t an option over here so I can’t really go for the full on web designer approach).

I’m sure I’ve blamed my Dad for a number of things in the past without any justification, but I am absolutely sure that he is largely responsible for my hoarding instincts. Fortunately my hoarding is almost entirely electronic these days, (unlike my Dad whose garage is home to a cornucopia of amazing tools, gadgets, fishing rods, home brew, fixatives, fixtures and fittings that are testimony to a lifetime of inspired ‘stashing things away’). Not to mention the loft full of books! To be fair to Dad his hoarding instinct has meant that he’s always been on the money when the proverbial ‘rainy day’ has come or anybody has needed that specialist tool for an otherwise impossible job.

I digress. Back to the web site. Having made a living as an ICT teacher for a number of years I’ve witnessed the phenomenal growth of the Internet and Information Technology as tools for learning. Despite the more grandiose claims that have been made about the educational value of computers they have certainly opened up a whole new world of learning for anybody who can get on to the world wide web. Unfortunately you really need a fast Internet connection if you want to make the most of the vast quantity of books, audio and video files that are freely available if you have the patience to drill down to the fiftieth page of a Google search. So far I’ve managed to collect about 1500 video files, 4,000 audio files and 7,500 text files, (PDF). Nearly all of them are directly related to our work in Kenya – a combination of resources for our church, school, agriculture college and staff training.

I have a dream, (honest), of rural schools in Kenya that have access to these fabulous resources. On laptop computers, running on solar power. Viewed through a website. At fast broadband speeds. At present not very many of these schools have computers or solar power. Or the skills to design websites for learning. Or a fast internet connection, (despite explosive growth in mobile network coverage in rural Kenya, the Internet is still accessed via a phone SIM, making it nearly impossible to download large audio, video or PDF files).

We’re working on a solution. The website I’m designing will run from the hard disk of our laptops and can be shared with other schools by simply transferring the entire website to their computer(s) via a portable USB hard drive or large capacity memory stick. With the help of our friends from Cisco we are hoping to run the website on a wireless network around our school site, (using the same, simple, router technology that most of you use to run wireless networks in your homes). These simple systems will make it possible for some of the poorest pupils in Kenya to access the same high quality learning resources that better off students in the West take for granted. We hope to have the prototype running by March. Once it’s up and running and the bugs have been ironed out we’ll be able to start offering training to other teachers in the area. After that it’s just a question of helping them to obtain the computers .........................

Growing concern

The week-end looms after a very busy week in our school and college. The week seems to have passed quickly which I’m taking as a good sign. There has, as usual, been a lot to do and I think we have made good progress on our various plans and schemes. It’s been especially rewarding working with the new college team – students and teachers.

 The papers today have continued to speculate on the future shape of education in Kenya. The letters that readers have sent in offer fairly overwhelming support for the proposed changes. It’s interesting to note the widely expressed feeling that.

 “To date Kenyan children, almost from nursery school, are burdened with an overwhelming curriculum that places emphasis on rote learning and cramming for exams, rather than on creativity and nurturing talents.”

I seem to remember similar sentiments being aired throughout my past life as a teacher in the UK.

As I type there is a breeze stirring the air. This is a welcome break from the very hot, dry weather that we have been having all day and throughout the week. (Apologies to UK readers who are going through a cold spell). As we get further into February the weather will become more critical for our area, as farmers will be planning to plant seeds at the end of the month.

The current hot spell, (which has lasted all of this year so far), is not unusual but does come at a cost – literally. The price of sukuma wiki, (kale), has nearly tripled. As ever this places the largest burden on the poorest people. Sukuma wiki, (Swahili for "stretch the week," or “push the week”), is a ubiquitous Kenyan dish. Nutritious and tasty, it is a way of "stretching" out kitchen resources. It is traditionally served with Ugali, another Kenyan staple, made from maize flour. The price of maize has also risen steeply exacerbating the burden on members of our community and creating real hunger.

As our college students continue preparing the land on our farm for planting we will be keeping a keen eye on the weather and praying for rain by the end of the month. Having celebrated our farming success following the harvest in December 2011 we, like all the other farmers in the country, face the coming growing season with a mixture of expectancy and anxiety. Every new growing season brings you back to the start of the farming cycle, with its attendant rewards and pitfalls. We are fortunate in being able to experiment on our farm in a way that our neighbours can’t. They have too much at stake to risk a crop failing.  We have every confidence in our methods of farming but are, like every farmer, at the mercy of an increasingly unpredictable climate. It is, for us, less of a life or death challenge than the poorest members of our community. None the less we will still be working very hard to maximise our harvest. Every farmer faces the same challenges every year. The climate is a great leveller.

Stepping out

Being at the cutting edge of education is always an exciting place to be – as long as you are the person who is planning the new moves. It’s less fun if you are on the receiving end of any changes, as we are discovering with our new Agriculture College venture.

In Kenya it is every primary school students’ dream to get to High School. The prospect of starting a new, and therefore untested, course like ours is a bit of a worry for some of the students. We have been busy explaining the benefits of our new course to some of the students, (again), and reassuring them that it will lead on to great things.

Starting a new college is a bit like launching a completely new product – you invest a lot in the research and design, plan for as much as possible and hope that the punters will be enthusiastic. So far it’s been hard work with a couple of them but I think we are getting there.

We have been assisted in promoting the college by the Kenyan government. In another of our serendipitous coincidences the national newspaper, (the Daily Nation), published an article today which announced the Kenyan government’s plans for “a major departure from the current [education] system”. The government is proposing a radical shake up of education in Kenya to be implemented from September 2013. The newspaper article goes on to give details of two new types of school that would be introduced if the proposals are accepted:

“Talent schools will offer courses in performing and creative arts such as music, drama and games besides the common courses. Vocational secondary schools will focus on artisan and trade courses in addition to the common academic subjects. Some of the core subjects are citizenship education, entrepreneurship, environmental studies, information technology and languages.”

The timing of the announcement could not have come at a better time for us. Our Agriculture College curriculum puts us at the forefront of educational innovation! Being able to share this fact with the students this morning helped us to head off a potential motivation wobble for some of them and lent an extra shine to our promises of a brighter future.

It remains to be seen how long it will take for educational reform to be achieved in Kenya. The proposals pose some serious funding and planning challenges. I really hope that they happen sooner rather than later. However it pans out we will continue to push forward with our plans for changing the students’ experience of secondary education in our bit of Kenya. Tonight I’m very optimistic that our students are less apprehensive about their prospects and that we will all enjoy working on the cutting edge together.

Much to do

One of the great things about being in Kosele is that no two days are ever the same. This is a great antidote to the whole ‘daily grind’ mentality that it is easy to get trapped in but it does mean that, no matter how hard you try, finishing the days to do list is almost always impossible. The obvious conclusion to draw from this is that it is a waste of time writing one in the first place so it would be best to just let stuff happen. The two extremes of this planning spectrum represent the worst of the West, (to do list slavery), and Africa, (Hakuna Matata – no worries). Somewhere in the middle there is a sane, productive place where heart attacks hardly happen and the really important stuff gets done. I'm really aiming for that place this year, as I will be in Kenya for a fairly long stay this time and have a lot to work on.

Our three goals this year are to make sure the new Agriculture College gets off to a good start, to continue making our primary school an exciting and challenging place to learn in and to set up the most productive farm in our district. Fortunately I have a great team of people to work with and we are all committed to being successful. We were encouraged by the harvest that we brought in at the end of December last year and by coming second in our Zone in the primary school KCPE, (Kenya Certificate of Primary Education) exam. Our candidates did us proud and set a high standard for the Year 8 pupils who will be taking the exam this year. Good progress has also been made on our new school buildings, (we should be moving into them on Monday 6^th) and on the Visitors Centre, due to accommodate the first team of visitors from February 18^th.

At this point in the year there are always tough decisions to make. We have received a number of applications from pupils who want to come to our primary school and expect to receive a requests to join the Agriculture College once word gets round that it is open. These decisions are always hard to make. Nearly every application comes from a ‘deserving case’. The level of poverty in our area is very high as is the demand for education, (especially at secondary level).

The High Schools in Kenya start the new school year next week, giving rise to a flurry of fund raising and assistance seeking activities by family members on behalf of prospective Form 1 students. Nearly all of the book shops and school suppliers have got some special offer on for the students who will be starting their first year at High School and for the next week or so public transport will be packed as the next crop of High School students heads off to study.

Five of our young people will be starting High School on the 6th. This will mark a special time for us as we venture out into new territory. They will be going to boarding school, (most good High Schools in Kenya are boarding).  Having looked after most of them for the last ten years it’s a bit of an advanced case of ‘the children leaving home’. Still, we are very proud of them and are confident that they will achieve a great deal in their new school.

So far eleven of last year’s Standard 8 class have started in our new Agriculture College. It’s early days yet but the teachers are very positive about the new courses that we will be running in Agriculture, Enterprise, Maths, Science and English. In two years time these students will be taking International GCSE exams. As with any new venture we have a lot to prove if we are to establish ourselves as the course that the majority of pupils want to take after finishing primary school – hence the busy year ahead. Must remember to keep that sane place in focus.

H2 Oh!

We had a timely reminder about the importance of water today. When I arrived in Kosele yesterday I found that our borehole was unserviceable. A couple of weeks ago I received a slightly worrying email saying that the generator that powers the water pumping gear had stopped working. This was a concernbecause it’s a very powerful generator and cannot be easily swapped out with our other generator. Trying to pump water using the Plan B backup facility is not possible because there is, effectively, no Plan B. It’s a bit of an all or nothing approach to operating the borehole and makes any equipment fault a major problem. Fortunately the generator was easily fixed so we breathed sigh of relief and moved on. Until yesterday.

It may sound a bit like talking up a basically simple story, but you only realise how crucial a resource like the borehole is when you face the prospect of not being able to use it. A fault in the pump control panel had been ‘fixed’ a couple of weeks ago. A quick consultation in Kisumu yesterday, with the technician who fixed it, suggested that a bit of loose wire tightening would sort the problem out. You may recall from previous posts that I am getting better at this type of electrical DIY. Loosening, tightening, poking, switching trip circuit on and off and general bodging about last night didn’t work. To add to our worries, (though probably, with hindsight, to the benefit of the electronics inside the control panel), the starter rope for the generator broke, making it impossible to start the generator up and try any more ‘fixes’. An SOS message was sent to Kisumu and Oliver, (the technician), agreed to come out to see us today.

As 1 pm approached and Oliver didn’t I began to worry about the water situation in earnest. We have been relying on the large water tanks we put up for irrigation for our drinking and cooking water and we only have about five thousand litres left. That doesn’t go far when you are feeding about two hundred people a day and trying to make sure that 35 young people are able to wash themselves and their clothes. Five thousand litres would, under normal conditions, last about 3 days. Given the speed that help, spare parts and problem diagnosis arrive at in Kenya it looked like a major catastrophe loomed. Closure of the school until the crisis is resolved, strict water rationing, no showers at least.

Fortunately Oliver turned up and set to work. We thought we’d try starting the generator with a car battery but that didn’t work so a very Heath Robinson repair was made to the starter rope. After a short experiment in knot tying we managed to turn the generator over and …….. still the control panel light stayed resolutely off. More poking about inside the control panel followed. Still no green light and pumping noises. Situation deteriorating by the moment. Emergency measures imminent.

At this point I noticed a switch on the front of the generator that I hadn’t fiddled with yet, (mostly because we had never tried using the car battery starter method before). With the generator running and nothing to lose I flicked the switch up and bingo. Ignition. Blast off. Water running into the generator house. Relief all round. Just to be on the safe side and to add an element of testing rigour to the solution we tried the new ‘fix’ out a couple of times. Switch down, no water. Switch up, water. It still worked.

There are a number of lessons to be drawn from this incident. First, the best discoveries are often accidental. Second, make sure you know your knots. Third, living on the edge is overrated – Plan B rocks. Finally, don’t take water for granted. A day will come when you, or your children, will wish you were worth your weight in H₂O.

Is matatu travel linked to deep veined thrombosis?

Back in Kenya and back to blogging. It’s great to be in Kosele again but challenging being so far away from Judi, Ellie and Tom, (my family), for so long. I won’t be seeing them until July.

Being an avid people watcher the flying out to Kenya bit of getting going is always fun. There weren’t many people about at Birmingham airport when I set off but Dubai was, predictably, much busier. I was surprised by the number of people filming the walk through to their departure gate on mobile phones. Navigating the one way system through to the departure gates as a transfer passenger could form part of a personal training regime so I guess they could have been trying to commit the route to film in case they ever have to do it again.

As ever on an overnight flight I didn’t get any sleep and had to stay awake in Dubai for fear of missing my flight to Nairobi. I’m generally a very optimistic person but I tend towards being a bit of a fatalist in airports, (especially when I know I need to stay awake). After walking from one end of the terminal to another in search of gate 225 I managed to find a seat right next to the departure gate and a similar distance from the toilet – double bonus. If you have to wait at Dubai airport gate 225 don’t make the mistake of leaving going through to the departure lounge until the last possible moment in case you need the toilet. Unlike just about every other departure lounge I have ever sat in gate 225 had an entrance to the loo inside it. (I think the practise of not having an accessible loo in departure lounges is a form of torture which should be addressed by a suitably international human rights committee).

I arrived at Nairobi airport somewhat wired through lack of sleep. I decided to bite the bullet and put my new missionary status to the test at the immigration desk by declaring it as my occupation on the arrival declaration form. I got through the check at the immigration desk in a personal best time with no hassle! I am taking it as an encouraging sign that someone up there likes me and is actively on my side.

I eventually arrived in Kisumu, (nearest airport to our place in West Kenya), after an only slightly diverted internal flight from Nairobi to Kisumu via El Doret. This was definitely not advertised on the original plane ticket. I did at one point wonder if the diversion was a further test of my faith, (on two counts i) that we would actually fly to Kisumu from El Doret and ii) that my luggage would fly with us). I still think someone up there likes me. Finally got to the St Anna guest house in Kisumu at 8 pm. (I have, I think, previously blogged about why I don’t like travelling on the roads at night in Kenya so had an overnight stay).

I had an uneventful trip to Kosele, (our base in Kenya), from Kisumu today, (Monday), and managed to catch up on a bit of sleep crammed in the back of a matatu, (14 seater mini bus), that we had hired. It was packed full of mattresses and cushions, (long story related to 5 of our oldest students starting High school as boarders next week). As I was going through the ritual of trying to get wedged in comfortably enough to get to sleep I was struck by the thought that I had spent a considerable part of the previous 24 hours doing the same thing in a variety of locations, (3 departure lounges, 3 planes and a matatu). Having read about deep veined thrombosis, (but never really understanding the finer details), I fell asleep entertaining the slightly worrying thought that wedging myself into the matatu seats in the wrong position might set me up for a DVT. Fortunately it was only a relatively short journey so I didn’t have enough time to hit deep sleep and avoided the psychotic type of dreams that come as a side effect of the anti malarial I am taking. They seem to come from the deeper recesses of the mind and usually start off with your last thought before falling asleep. I arrived shaken, (see previous blogs about the roads in Kenya) but rested in the late afternoon with my veins intact. It was really good to see our place again and to start catching up with everybody’s news. So. It’s back to the blog and back to business as usual, (as it can be), in a hot dusty Kenya.

As I type it’s 11.55 p.m. The dogs up the road have been barking for about the last half hour, the mosquitoes are taking advantage of my slow reaction time and I’m looking forward to a busy day tomorrow. It’s going to be a good year.

Back on the blog. Arrived in Kisumu today after a circuitous flight from Nairobi via El Doret. Lots to do - can't wait to get going.