Teaching Students

Shortly after completing the electricity wiring at Kampala Primary School, we took a trip down to Fort Portal to visit Ian Wrangham's deployment site. There are 3 teams in Uganda and Ian's site is one of them.

Their primary school was in a beautiful country-side location and with the influx of volunteers and funds from their NGO, the school is rapidly growing in size and infrastructure. Below are two pictures of KasisIi:

Kasisii Primary School (near Kibale National Park and Fort Portal).

Ian's organized setup for charging their XO's.

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So after visiting Ian's deployment in Fort Portal, we had a better idea of how to proceed with ours. When we got back, we were ready to deploy the laptops to grades P5 and P6.

P5 students with their XO's

Kristen teaching P5 how to use "Write", the word-processor.

Working with individual students.

Sarah, a volunteer from our NGO, helps to clarify the lesson.

The first stanza of Uganda's National Anthem.

By the end of next week, we hope to have taught the students how to use Paint, Record, Calculator, Wikipedia and TurtleArt.

In the meantime, we are expanding teacher training to the other grades and exploring advanced programs with the P5 and P6 teachers. We are also working with Simba Telecom to see if it is possible to obtain internet access for the school.

-Jeff

Project Update: Nandblasting + Teacher Training

With the help of SAFY, our Ugandan NGO, we managed to get in touch with the local government. Our meeting with the Mayor of Kampala City Central division (K.C.C.) and the Inspector of Schools went pretty well. We managed to obtain their support and cooperation in helping us continue our deployment for the summer. It was tough, because KCC wanted to distribute our laptops to several schools and “spread the wealth.”

Rose, Inspector of Schools in KCC; Kristen Watkins; Jeff Xing; Godfrey Nyakana, Mayor Kampala Central Municipal Council; Victoria Cheng; Mariam, Chair Education KCC; Secretary KCC

We successfully received our shipment of 100 XO laptops and needed to update all the firmware & Operating System on each. Rita Nangono, the director of SAFY, graciously let us unpack them and reflash the laptops at her house. We spent a good 3 hours or so using two usb flash drives to reflash everything. One usb was plugged into one of our XO’s and was used to broadcast the image file wirelessly to all the other XOs. The other usb was used to update the firmware on each, before it can receive the image file wirelessly. Below are the picture of this process.

Victoria & Kristen unpacking the 100 XO laptops

Jeff reflashing the firmware on each XO

Kristen stacking the packaging materials.

Victoria playing with Matthew, the son of our NGO's director, Rita Nangono

Jeff teaching Matthew how to use the XO

XO's waitinng to be reflashed & nandblasted

34 passes before we finished! (bottleneck, because we only had 2 usb)

The following week, we began teacher training at Kampala Primary School. Paul Commons and Lynn Wang (OLPC staff) stopped by to see our deployment. Our school, as it turns out, had limited electricity so we had to first survey the site with an electrician to get a quote on new wiring costs to support the influx of so many XOs.

Unfortunately, the electrician gave us inflated prices (probably because we are “mizungu”—the local term for “white people”), and now we have to wait for another one to figure out the right prices. Since we can’t deploy the laptops to the kids until the electricity infrastructure is installed, we simply proceeded to train the teachers of the two grades we are deploying to: P5 and P6. There are 3-4 teachers total and we spent each day teaching them basic computer skills.

Kampala Primary School

KPS - about 200 students (P1 - P7)

Paul Commons teaching headmaster Zaiyed

Miguel Martin talking about OLPC to Math teacher, Saul

Jeff fixing the wall socket - hooray, leatherman!!

(somebody had wired the live red wire to where the ground wire should be)

Makeshift Blueprint of Wiring Plans for the 2 class rooms

Makeshift Blueprint for the socket layout in one room

Victoria guiding two teachers, Zaiyed and Robinah

Math teacher, Saul, teaching the another teacher, Aminah.

Official Handover of XO's to Teachers.

-Jeff

An update on our social lives....

And now, for an update on our social lives!

Uganda has proved to be quite the place for all types of adventures, from clubbing to beaching to whitewater rafting!

So the slums where we are staying is ok. By now, the locals have grown accustomed to seeing us "muzungus" walk by, although they still shout "muzungu" or "china" or "japanese" now and then.

The road leading up to our hostel in the slums.

Funny sign in front of the American Hostel.

(apparently, police in uganda carry either shotguns, rifles, or ak47's)

Last weekend, two members of OLPC staff, Paul and Lynn, came to visit us in Kampala, as did the director of OLPC Paraguay, Miguel. Along with the three of them, we’ve been having some pretty great adventures!

We discovered the Americanized part of town, a place called Garden City, which is essentially the equivalent to an American shopping mall, and we saw more mizungus (white people) than I think we’ve seen on the entire trip just in the few hours we were there! After some delicious Indian food, we hit up a bar called Sax’s Club, which is not the jazz club you think it would be, but actually where all the prostitutes hang out. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our Nile Specials (a Ugandan beer) very much, and had a great night out.

African Clothing!

Jeff with a cloud of gnats over his head

(he swore he showered that day...)

Group photo at Garden City Mall (the mizungu hangout place).

Other highlights from the week have been going to the Mosque, the National Theatre and seeing a Michael Jackson tribute, clubbing at Hi Table, a rockin’ club even on a Monday night for dancing and drinking, and going to more Viva Stars concerts and dancing on-stage with them!

Clubbing at Hi-Table

Dressed for a visit to the National Mosque.

Victoria waving a Viva Stars flyer as we head to the concert.

Rocking out live with Viva Stars!!

(it's like hanging out with the spice girls)

We’ve also taken several trips to one of the biggest markets in Kampala to purchase clothes, cheap food, headscarves for Victoria and I, and countless other small items. The market is a maze of stalls and people and anything you could ever want to purchase, bargaining, yelling, and occasionally getting run over by someone carrying a huge sack of flour or beans on their back.

Victoria adopted a kitten off the street and fed it milk.

Kristen enjoying ice cream at Nandos Diner.

Thursday, we all took a trip out to Jinja, a city about two hours east of Kampala, to go whitewater rafting at the source of the Nile! As you can see from the pictures, it was really an incredible trip – we went on five Class 5 rapids, and 10 rapids overall for the day. We managed to only flip over once, and that one was questionable – our guide was upset we paddled so well that we hadn’t flipped yet, so it was a bit more of an induced flip. Especially after lunch, there were nice long periods of calm water that we spent sunbathing, swimming, and animal watching. We didn’t get to see any monkeys, but we saw many kinds of birds, and even some snakes swimming their way to the other side. Luckily we weren’t in the water then!

First Rapid: Miguel, Lynn, Kristen, Victoria, Jeff (class 3 rapid)

Rapid 8 of 9: broadsided by the wave (class 4 rapid)

Rapid 8 of 9: holding on for dear life.

Rapid 8 of 9: too late... lol.

Class 5 rapid not shown... due to its graphical nature.

Yesterday, in honor of our American Independence Day, we took a trip down to Entebbe, a city about an hour south of Kampala, to go to the beach, which proved to be a great day full of sun, swimming, eating fresh fish (except for me!), and relaxation. And a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Victoria for the rest of the beach to hear.

A Beautiful Day for 4th of July.

The water was so warm!

Sunset on the beach at Entebbe (Victoria, Jeff, Hady, Kristen)

It’s been a great couple of weeks here in Uganda!

-Kristen

One Week In

So we've been in Kampala for about a week now. Sorry for the sparse updates, but hopefully they will become more recent, now that we've discovered a faster and nearer internet cafe!

Highlights:

We spent several hours NANDblasting and reflashing the 100 XO laptops at Rita's house. Rita is the executive director of SAFY. We also reconfigured the school server.

We had met a couple times with an electrician to come up with an estimate for re-wiring electrical cables at Kampala Primary School. They already have electricity, but not enough to support the charging of of 50 laptops at once. His estimate for materials and labor came out to 1.3 million/-, which is equivalent to about $600-700. SAFY board members voiced later at a meeting that we also attended that we were probably being vastly overcharged. White people seem to get overcharged pretty often...

So we are looking to get a second opinion and estimate soon.

Today we met with education reps from the Kampala City Council and had a very successful meeting, where we discussed how the KCC can support our project financially and in the long term. Made some important connections.

More later! Everyone's doing well and having fun, eating well :)

Victoria

Here in Kampala

Hi everyone!

We arrived in Kampala 2 days ago. Took a 5:30am bus from Kigali--took 10 hours on bumpy, dusty, curvy roads. We were greeted by 2 members of SAFY: Hadija and Meti. Hadija, we later found out, is a pop star. She's in an all-girl Ugandan band called the Viva Stars. They said we can join...last night we went to their concert and they invited us on stage to dance with them for one of their songs.

Yesterday, we also met Rita, the executive director of SAFY. She brought us to Kampala Primary School, where we will be deploying, and introduced us to the headmaster. We still need a couple weeks to finalize logistics and train teachers, but we are well on our way. Everybody appears to be very receptive of the program and excited to begin.

Tomorrow we will go to Rita's house to configure our server, etc. We still need to purchase access points and UK power strips.

Food has been good--similar to Rwandan food, as staples are similar (bananas, plantains, rice, potatoes, yams), but I like it a little more. There's also something called chipati, which is like a thicker, greasy tortilla roll, and it is fabulous. Everything is really tasty (and carb-loaded!).

For breakfast we eat white bread and boiled eggs with sometimes a banana. Food is cheap--you can get a full local meal with a bottle of water for less than $2.

The air is heavily polluted, as are the streets. Much dirtier and disorganized than Kigali, which is spankin' clean in comparison. In many ways, we were spoiled in Kigali. Now, we live in Najja High School dormitories, which act as our simple hostel for the next 2 months. It is in the slums near Makerere University, a renowned U in Kampala. Near our gated high school, there are many small shops for fresh vegetables, fruits, and convenience items.\

Today we attended a SAFY training session at Najja, where we live, and did laundry by hand in between. Tonight we will go with Hadija and her band to a place 20 km away for their concert. Tomorrow morning we will get picked up by Rita to work at her house (where XOs are currently being kept).

On Monday morning, bright and early, we will make a tirp to the US Embassey, just to let them know that we're here. I'm pretty excited to see it--I heard that it's humongous and intimidating.

We have tentatively planned a XO Launch for net Friday. We may have to push it to the following week, depending on our progress this week. We hope to bring in government officials and the media, in addition to the students, parents, teachers, and othe community members. In Kigali, we met the secretary to the First Lady of Uganda, who had sent her to the OLPCorps conference, so we hope to remain in contact with her. She was very enthusiastic about our project.

Further down the timeline, we hope to re-connect with the other 2 teams deploying in Uganda.

Well, that;s it for now. Hope to give more updates soon. Please leave comments of email me directly at victoriaycheng@gmail.com for any contact.

Victoria

It's been a full week since our arrival in Kigali, Rwanda and a LOT has happened!

The week has been pretty busy (workshops, seminars, presentations, field trips, traveling, etc.) and since our day starts early and ends late, there is not much time for leisure. Our internet here is slow when everyone is on simultaneously, but nonetheless, we are grateful to at least have 24/7 access. 

So what has happened in all this time? Let me recount the days:

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It is currently the dry season in Kigali and a balmy 27 degrees Celsius during the daytime. The surrounding terrain (mountains, valleys, and rivers) combined with the equitorial location produces a fairly moderate climate throughout the year. Believe it or not, we are actually farther from the Sun than you might have guessed; in the Summer, the closest point to the Sun is the Tropic of Cancer, not the equator. 

Looking at the City of Kigali. 

Kigali is surprisingly clean, at least visually. (It doesn't seem like there are any laws governing emissions). Apparently, locals voluntarily pick up trash for a few hours each Saturday, which must explain why the streets are near spotless. 

Downtown Kigali has a sizable supermarket, with all the essential items we were missing: water, shampoo and toothpaste. There was even a pizza diner where we ordered two cheese pizzas. They had almost no tomato sauce and tasted like goat cheese on very chewy bread: 

"American" food in Rwanda. 

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Each weekday of this past week has been spent on learning workshops, seminars, and presentations. As you may know, OLPC has officially moved its Boston office to Rwanda for many reasons. It is a rather logical decision, considering the large deployment of laptops ordered by the government of Rwanda and the recent strong collaboration and assistance offered through KIST to provide resources and training for some 2000 teachers. This week we used the classrooms and auditoriums in KIST to do our learning workshops. 

K.I.S.T. (Kigali Institute of Science and Technology)

On Tuesday, we were honored with the presence of the President of Rwanda: Paul Kagame. (For those of you at MIT, you may remember attending Kagame's lecture this past semester).  President Kagame is extremely popular among the people of Rwanda. Ever since his inauguration in 2000, he has established rapid economic growth and social stability in Rwanda. His ambitious policy, the "2020 vision", is a multi-faceted plan proudly shared by everyone here. The plan aims to bring Rwanda into the 21st century as a country built on information. ICT, or information communication technology, is the buzz word here as the government is taking huge measures to incorporate ICT into education and the economy. 

This is where OLPC fits in. Kagame has ordered 100,000 laptops for the primary school system, with the intent of giving each child an XO laptop by the end of 2020. These initial laptops will be deployed by the end of this year, allowing many primary schools the opportunity for interactive  learning. 

President Paul Kagame & MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte.

This summer is looking to be a very exciting one indeed. Through our interactions with the OLPC staff, other OLPCorps teams, and influential figures this week, we are beginning to understand the gravity and magnitude of our cause. 

That's all for this post--stay tuned for more soon. (If you have any questions or a request for content, feel free to ask us here).

Arrival in Rwanda!

Hi All,

Just a quick post to say: we safely landed in Rwanda and are settled into our hotel. It gets dark here early (5 or 6pm)...

We're all in one piece except for a toothpaste, shampoo, and swiss army knife that didn't make it past the two stops.

More to come later... dinner and meeting others right now!

-Jeff

24 Hour Packing Frenzy

Dear friends,

I am sitting in my room right now, with everything I need around me. Somehow I must find a way to fit them into two duffle bags. It looks like it won't be too difficult, but packing for a ten-week trip to foreign lands must be done well.

I've already decided to forgo my personal laptop. Jeff is bringing his.

Here is my packing list so far:
-2 bottles of 25% DEET mosquito repellent, 1 can of 99%DEET, a few dozen 30%DEET mosquito wipes.
-Sunglasses
-Hat with brim
-Water purifier: Iodine tablets from Polar Pure and Potable Aqua.
-Electric water kettle
-USB sticks, power strips, converters
-Notebook, pens, duct tape
-Permanent markers
-Anti-bacterial wipes (1 large plastic can), Purell
-Manually-recharging LED flashlight
-Lonely Planet East Africa tour guide
-Sneakers and flip flops
-Glasses and contact lenses + solution
-Long sleeved shirts & pants
-Rain jacket
-Energy bars and snacks
-Copies of documents (passport, yellow fever vaccination, Ugandan visa)
-Tissues, 1 roll of toilet paper
-2 King-size pop-up mosquito nets
-Activated international cell phone (for emergencies)
-Sleeping bag w/ attached pillow
-Vitamin C
-Rehydration salts
-Mini calculator (for currency exchanges)
-Money belt
-Nalgene bottle (1L)
-iPod + charger
-Sweatshirt w/ hood
-book
-Malaria prophylaxis + Tylenol + Advil
-Toiletries
-Power adapters

Applying to OLPC

In late March, Jeff Xing, Tim McKinley, and I (Victoria Cheng) applied to a wonderful program through One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) called OLPCorps Africa. The application asked teams of 2+ college students to establish a connection with a non-profit- or non-governmental organization in Africa, in order to compose a plan to deploy 100 XO laptops to primary school children.

Unlike many other programs, OLPCorps provided very few guidelines as to what teams would be doing for for 8 weeks in their chosen deployment country. 2009 is the first "pilot" year of the Africa program, so teams had to produce original proposals from scratch. Approved teams would receive up to $10,000 to cover operational expenses, in addition to 100 XO laptops for distribution.

In April, our MIT-Wellesley team was ecstatic to be notified that we had been chosen as one of 30 teams, out of over 220 that had applied. We quickly accepted the offer, and began logistical preparations and further brainstorming.

Unfortunately, while we were awaiting notification from OLPC (they had extended the notification date by a couple of weeks), Tim had accepted a summer internship offer with the Governor of New Jersey. Because OLPCorps would take 10 weeks of the summer, this meant that he could no longer join us. We were lucky to immediately find another qualified MIT political science student, Kristen Watkins, to fill his place.

In early June, Jeff, Kristen, and I will fly to Kigali, Rwanda, for a 10-day training session. While there, we will interact and share ideas with the other 29 teams from all over the world, as well as the OLPC leaders, including Bryan Stuart (our personal team mentor) and Paul Commons.

Afterwards, we will take an overnight bus ride to Rwanda's neighboring country, Uganda, and work for the remaining two months in the outskirts of Kampala (Uganda's capital city). There, we will work closely with our two host NGOs, Stand Up for Africa (contact: Neil Howard) and Safe Alternatives for Youth (contact: Rita Namakiika) to distribute laptops and work with children to help them grow fluent with computer technology and expand their critical thinking skills.

OLPC's educational philosophy is heavily based on Constructionism, defined by Seymour Papert and trailing from the learning theories of Jean Piaget. Constructionism relies on hands-on, experimental discovery, which discourages teaching by lecture. Instead, students are given the tools to learn, and make discoveries on their own through peer-to-peer interaction and a minimal amount of teacher intervention. The XO laptop encourages and facilitates this type of learning via the numerous creative and intellectually stimulating programs.

Below is a picture of the XO laptop. As you can see, it is clearly targeted for primary school users. Please visit OLPC's wiki page for more information on the operating system and special features


We are very excited to continue forward--only 19 days until we leave for Kigali (June 5). We hope to post pictures and updates as often as possible during our deployment, via internet cafes and other wifi areas.

Please feel free to comment or ask questions! Your input will help us make a more detailed and colorful record of our journey.

Your friends,

Victoria, Jeff, and Kristen
Posted by: Victoria