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!

Meet Shilpa!

Meet Shilpa!

Shilpa is a trainer on our team. This means she will be in charge of training teachers about technology.

Role at Intel: Shilpa is a software engineer for Flex India 

Background: Shilpa was born and raised in Kolkata India, moved to Bangalore and obtained a BE in Computer Science.

Volunteering background: Shilpa has volunteered with Intel many times in the past and at Talking Book Library to help record audio books for blind people. She is leading a team of six at Intel, Oregon to help introduce technology to kindergarten classrooms and volunteering with an NGO in Malawi to help improve their pitch decks. 

Hobbies: Shilpa loves painting and anything to do with crafting. Other hobbies include cooking and hiking. Cleaning and organizing things is a stress-buster.

Travel: Nepal, Israel and US. This is Shilpa's first time in Kenya!

Our First Day at a School

Today our team of 6 has traveled through Eldoret and Kitale to Western Pokot in Kirindon.

We visited our first school today, and it was one of the most special days of my life.

From the moment we arrived we were absolutely mobbed by the children, I have never felt so welcome. They crowded around us for hours, I thought for certain they would eventually grow bored but their enthusiasm was totally endless and they wanted us to never leave.

They asked us our names, each of our family member’s names, if they could touch our hair, to sing them a song, to show them an American dance, to play games with them. They asked me to run around the field with them, and so we ran all the way around the soccer field together. They asked if they could come back with me to America. When we finally had to leave they chased after the car as far as they could keep up.

                                                                                                                     

Day 1 - We land safe in Nairobi

Everyone in the team has made it safe to Nairobi! There were missed connections, and our teammate from Costa Rica nearly could not fly because of the volcano activity in the region, but everything came together in the end.

Our contact at World Vision, Dennis, brought us to the World Vision headquarters.

Here we had a morning Christian service with the whole World Vision Nairobi staff where we were reminded in how our work can change lives.

Next was our security  and safety briefing.

Soon we will leave Nairobi for Eldered, our first location. Our bags are packed in the jeep and we are ready to work.

Toys and Gifts for the Kids

For our departure Saturday to Kenya with World Vision we are each allowed to bring an extra suitcase to fill with gifts and toys for the teachers and children.

Thanks to everyone who helped me collect donations my second suitcase is filled!
According to the previous team it will be a pain to haul this extra suitcase through the airports and between vehicles, but it will be more than worth it to be able to give gifts in person to the kids.

Meet Anatole - 2016 IESC Kenya team

Meet Anatole!

Anatole is a technical expert for our team. This means he will be charge of orchestrating all of us setting up servers and re-imaging PCs.

Role at Intel: Anatole is a developer and database guru for his team here in Oregon. 

Background: Bachelor's in Computer Science Engineering

Volunteering background: Like all of the IESC participants, Anatole has a strong background in volunteering that shows his dedication to helping others. Anatole orchestrated the largest GrassrootSoccer event in Oregon to bring awareness to HIV in Africa. He also has a range of experience volunteering in education, particularly in organizing robotics competitions and activities.

Hobbies: Anatole loves soccer. Besides playing and watching soccer, he also enjoys coaching. He also loves fishing and restoring old cars.

Travel: Anatole was born in Iran and has visited every western European country except Portugal. He has lived in Turkey and spent time in India. This is Anatole's first time in Kenya!

ROUND 2 - Meet the new IESC team going to Kenya!

For 2016, a new team of Intel PDIT employees has been selected from a pool of 500 applicants to help connect schools in rural Kenya with technology.
We're going to be visiting some of the same sites Stephanie's crew spent time in and setting up new infrastructure and new schools as well.
Stay tuned as I post bios of our new team!

-Haley, Social Media Expert for the IESC Kenya 2016 team