Check out these videos from the 2016 Kenya IESC mission!

Everyone has made it home safe and our adventures in Kenya are over, but I wanted to post one last time to share with you the videos we took during our outreach in Kenya.

While we were visiting a girl's Catholic school in Kenya we had the chance to witness something really cool.

Our technical expert, Anatole, had a chance to capture this beautiful view while driving in the Land Cruiser to one of the schools:

At the most exciting point in our journey while our project manager, Maciej, was out sick with malaria, the rest of us were waiting nervously for our technical experts, Philip and Anatole, to come home. They were supposed to arrive back at the hotel in the early afternoon, but we did not see or hear from them until nearly midnight.

When they finally made it home we found out they had been stuck in an insane flash flood! Check out the video Anatole took on his phone of the flood.

But my favorite videos are of the children and their endless enthusiasm:

Watching these videos again is making me feel nostalgic already. I told my team that this was the best month of my life so far and I mean it. 

Thank you Intel!

Our Last Day

 Today was our very last day with the children. From here on out we are done at the schools.

Since we had a number of schools to visit we decided to split up. Shilpa and Jason stayed at the World Vision Center to continue training the teachers on computer literacy. Anatole and Maciej took decided to cover half of the schools and Philip and I covered the rest.

Philip and I were very privileged to get to cross a locally-made bridge. This bridge is used by the children to commute to school everyday.

Out route was very off-road and we got stuck in the mud in a ditch. We nearly gave up on getting ourselves out of the ditch and were about to call for help but we all gave one last push and made it free!

I am very lucky to have spent time one-on-one with Philip, he is really the hardest working and most dedicated and caring on our team. He told me today was his favorite day on our trip so far, he really deserved to have a good end to our trip.

Meet Jason

Meet Jason!

Jason is the funny guy on our team. He lives with his beautiful wife, Adriana, in Costa Rica. He is a trainer on our team.

Role at Intel: Jason is a computer engineer from Intel Costa Rica

Background: Jason has his bachelor's in computer engineering

Volunteering background: Jason volunteers with his church every last Friday to give food to the homeless. 

Hobbies: Jason loves video games, traveling, movies, e-sports.

Travel: Jason has visited the United States. This is his first time outside of America!

Working hard in Webuye

This team has been working so hard. From sun up to nearly midnight every day hardly taking a moment to rest. We are motivated by the idea that if we can just get through 2 or 3 more days of this we will have a chance to visit a school one last time before we leave.

Meet Philip!

Philip is the technical expert on our team, which means he's in charge of coordinating re-imaging and repairing of PCs. Philip is the hardest working member of our team!

Role at Intel: Philip is a developer for Flex at Intel

Background: BS in Computer Science from Purdue University.  Go Boilers!!!

Volunteering background: Philip is a scout master for the Boy Scouts of America and a lacrosse coach.

Hobbies: Philip loves skiing and snowboarding, water sports, hiking and camping

Travel: This is Philip's first time in Kenya!

Before we left for the weekend we had a chance to say goodbye to the children of Chepararia Primary School.

The children held an assembly and sang us a beautiful song.

This weekend we got Sunday off. We spent half of the day at Lake Victoria where we took a boat tour and got to see wild hippos close up!

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Next we visited Kakamega Forest, where we saw waterfalls, monkeys, and beautiful views.

Now that the weekend is over we are starting our busiest week yet. We have over 400 PCs to re-image, clean, update, and fix. To give you some perspective, that is several times what the last team handled during their entire trip, and we only have one week. We are going to be very busy, but it will be worth it to have an impact on so many schools.

More good news: Our project manager, Maciej, has made a full recovery from malaria. We took him to the hospital to reassess his blood work and the report shows he is officially malaria free!

Our most exciting day so far

The past 24 hours have been crazy!

We decided to split up. Our two technical experts, Anatole and Philip traveled far away from our home base in west Pokot to help set up computers at a boarding school for girls who have been rescued from female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage. In this area the rate of female genital mutilation is 75%, and many girls are not so lucky as the students here to escape. The school provides a refuge for the survivors and children who would be sold as brides.

Meanwhile, our trainers Shilpa and Jason went back to the same school we visited yesterday to help train teachers on technology. Our manager, Maciej, and I (Haley) went with them.

The training was a success. The teachers were so grateful and receptive, we had never experienced engagement in a classroom like this before. One of the teachers told us he felt he had been "reborn," and the enthusiasm was contagious.

Unfortunately, a few hours into the training and our leader Maciej was starting to look very ill. He had broken out in a rash on his neck and arms the day before, but was sure it was only a reaction to the immunizations we took prior to our trip. Then the night before he could not sleep as he experienced waves of chills followed by sudden overwhelming heat. By midday it looked as though he may pass out and was barely able to stand.

Our driver, Peter, recognized some of his symptoms right away as a textbook case of malaria and rushed him to a hospital. There he received diagnostic blood tests which confirmed he had malaria as well as another type of blood infection.

It is lucky our driver recognized the symptoms and persuaded Maciej to get help immediately. Malaria is very easily and completely treatable, but can be very dangerous or deadly if ignored. has since made a near full recovery and has even returned to work.

Back at the school for rescued girls, Anatole and Philip finished their technical tasks and began the drive home only to become trapped by a flash flood. When the rest of us returned to the hotel we were worried to find they did not return for hours. They should have been home by 4:30 but it was not until 11 that we found out they were completely stuck because of the floods.

Our driver once again came to the rescue. They were able to find a crossing point on foot and abandoned their vehicle and rode home with Peter. When they returned we could not believe the video footage they had captured of the flash flood, the roads were dry that morning but a raging river had suddenly appeared.

I cannot believe how much has come to pass in so little time, I can't even relate everything that has happened this day in one post. We are all so thankful that everyone has made it home safe and well!

Check out the photos from today:


Photos: Facebook album - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.279131175762413.1073741831.145950932413772&type=1&l=d8bdedca88

I will upload videos of the insane flood as soon as I can get strong enough internet!