Final Entry to an incredible journey

I wrote this blog at the end of each day in Tanzania before I went to sleep. It was a way for me to reflect and close out my thoughts for the day. Tonight we had our final debrief with team4tech in their Redwood City office (in a shared incubator space - very cool vibe) and this is my last blog to close out my final thoughts.

I was so looking forward to the night and mostly because I was going to see my special amazing Tanz friends and be able to connect on our experiences again. We are the only ones who can truly appreciate the range of emotions we have been through  - from the prep of the project, through the 2 week adventure, and then the reintegrating into life. Yeah, it was like looking forward to a therapy session with your friends....the only thing missing was the red wine. :)

The night was great and therapeutic. Julie (team4tech CEO) and her team were as usual, gracious hosts. They had lovely appetizers, drinks and a ton of yummy Thai food for us to enjoy while we went through our memories and suggestions. Gita, Theresa, Noel and I were in-person from our team and Marta joined via Skype in Australia. We laughed like school girls at some of our memories, paused deeply at some of the more touching points, and vowed to get together again soon so we can keep these special feelings of gratitude and peace alive. It is indeed a special bond.

The reintegrating conversations and what has changed in our lives because of this experience was very interesting. For me, the appreciation for how plentiful our lives are here and the amazing opportunities we have available to us - no matter where you fall in the socio-economic first world. I also have learned to take more time to just pause and enjoy the moment. I don't want to get numb to the grind of the daily routines, but instead pause and appreciate what is going on around me. It's so easy to get caught up in the insignificant.  I know these feelings will fade over time, but never leave me completely.

Thank you, thank you again to all of you who supported me. I feel like someone sprinkled pixie dust on me to give me this opportunity. Blessed all around.

I am a big advocate for team3tech and think anyone who is interested in a similar experience should email Julie Clulage at: julie@tem2tech.org. Absolutely make the time if you can! It will be amazing, exhausting, humbling and life changing.

Here are FINALLY some pics to enjoy.

Gratitude

Theresa and I are sitting in the Kilimanjaro airport right now waiting for our flight back to San Francisco. The two weeks have flown by and I think we are both feeling a sense of disbelief that we are headed home (and have 24 hours of travel ahead of us). We said our goodbyes to the rest of our project team this afternoon and while I expected us all to be crying, it was more of a "see you soon" and gratitude that we all have made some new life long friendships. With the intensity of our experience it would almost be impossible not have bonded they way we did. I am so grateful.

Earlier today we watched again as our second class of teachers presented their lesson plans and was very impressed by a few of the standout students. Incorporating the digital content into their lessons was again what they embraced the most and because the 21st century skills are so foreign from their traditional way of thinking, it is the area of opportunity for the next team who comes in 2016.

This afternoon we gave a debrief to the World Vision country director and his program staff on our experiences with the "spark a child" program we were supporting. He seemed genuinely grateful and optimistic about the work we have been doing and long term impacts it will have to the people we touched and their students. One statement that hit home to me was "in these oral communities, your visit will be shared for years and through generations to come". It certainly made me feel the impact of our work and lasting impression we have made.
As we drove away from that conversation (which was followed by a beautiful prayer for us) and the zen gardens of the World Vision center, I felt so fulfilled and fortunate. Fortunate because of the whole experience.

"For Children
For Change
For Life"
....World Vision

Teaching the 21st Century approach to lesson planning has been very educational for me and I realize how much thought and effort our teachers in America go through to really include all four of the elements and engage our children. It is sooooo much work and requires a ton of creative thinking.

We watched our teachers work so hard today to build lesson plans that incorporated digital content tools and the 4 C's: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. The traditional way of teaching here is more teacher presents, students listen and do what they are told. We are trying to guide them to think differently about this approach. Hard new concepts to grasp and I am looking forward to their presentations tomorrow.

Our final dinner was tonight and probably the best "work dinner" ever. Noel had put together a super fun evening and was absolutely the host who pulled out all the gracious stops. I felt very spoiled and special. We had a blast giving each other "the best" awards ever. Laughing was off the charts and no award was off limits.  Imagine: "best rapper", "best DJ", "best singer in the shower", "best scream from a bathroom", "best herbivore", "best sawa sawa", "best handball tennis player", "best 'I've got a guy'", "best protector", "most likely to be a princess".....yeah, we have become a close group. We all missed Gita who is struggling from an awful bug and was top of mind the whole night. Don't worry, we saved you your awards and are here for you all night. :)

Is it really the last night??? Whole experience flew by.

I feel so grateful and sad it is over. Gotta keep this feeling alive somehow. Hmm.....

For pretty much any job, who knows what you do, can make a difference in how your area gets funded and moved forward.

Today we were fortunate to have both the leader for World Vision's Tanzania education programs and a head school inspector from the Ministry of Education observe part of our class. Both were beaming at the instruction, our unconventional style in delivering curriculum, and most importantly hearing the reflections at the end of the day from our teachers on what they learned. We couldn't have planned it better!

Theresa gave another fantastic and engaging lesson on Kiwix, searching, and using PowerPoint. We shared several  educational gaming resources with them and Gita shined with advanced Excel as she taught budgeting using examples from some of our more advanced teachers who we gave an "extra assignment" to at the end of yesterday.
The budget lesson was eye opening to see as our teachers shared examples of a household budget. They included: school fees, oil for cooking, maize, tea, rice, an exercise book, pens/paper, electricity....
Very basic livelihood essentials. There was no clothing or gym
membership line item listed. Again, another reminder that even though we are in a nicer facility this week, our teachers still come from the areas in Tanzania with the most need. I also think-  THANK GOODNESS for organizations like World Vision who exist to reach and improve these communities.

Some stats we learned today to reinforce the need for volunteers to teach and fund digital literacy:

-  in one of our teacher's village schools, she said there is 1 teacher for 120 students PER class!
- In her whole school there are ONLY 10 teachers for 520 students!
- the whole school only has 20 computers they share through weekly computer time.

No PTA exists here to help fund. It is what the government can fund. What is so reassuring though,  is that the officials we did meet today from the Ministry of Education and World Vision so understand the needs, and clearly have a vision and desire to move forward. With this type of commitment we will see changes over the next decade. Yes, not a couple years...this is a journey and we have to stay focused and committed for the future of the children.

After teachers left class, our intense and exhausting day of teaching ended with our project team playing a fun and impromptu game of handball (and we used a box, plate and shoe as racquets when needed) against the conference room walls with a tennis ball and Pharrell Williams "Happy Song" playing in the background. Have I mentioned how we are always listening to music? Several of the team members (Terry, Joel -aka Toto, Joseph, and pretty much everyone else)....is totally into songs and dancing)?? It is a blast. Thank goodness for the speaker Terry brought! We use it all the time during and outside of class.

Fun evening in our hotel garden together. Tomorrow is our last full day together. I love this team, the project, the exposure to so much, and am so lucky I was able to take this trip.

Thank you again to all of you who supported me. Special thanks to Tae for the introduction, sponsorship, and passion for philanthropy, Bailey for supporting me and covering my work (at a very busy time:)), Mark for embracing my inner gypsy from the beginning and being a rock for our children, and all our family and friends who made this possible and have been so supportive.

Less than a couple of days and I will be back in Mountain View. While I am so excited to hug my family, I am going to soak up these last 48hours.


Btw- Noel mentioned he never said to shorten my blogs...so they are back to long. :)))

You know you've become close to your teammates when they can give you open feedback and aren't worried they will hurt your feelings or damage their relationship with you. Noel told me I need to keep these blogs shorter. I get it. Let me try...:)

Today the moments I want to share are a few of the touching reflections the teachers shared at the end of the day and then some of the team reflections we do every night together.

Here are a few from the teachers that clearly show how much the World Vision "spark a child" program benefits the teachers and their students:

"More practice makes perfect. I am learning"
"It was difficult"..and then laughs
"I will try to see if I can do it"- after we gave a teacher a special challenging project because we could see her strong aptitude..
"It is my first time and I am learning. Thank you"
"I am so grateful" (more than one said this)
"I am happy I learned how to use Saterra (software) to teach geography"
"I am happy I learned how to freeze columns, hiding columns, averages, sum and sorting in excel" (more than one said this)
"I liked learning how to make a watermark in MSFT word" (who knew this would be such a popular feature???:)
"I am going to teach this to my students"

A few of my teammates reflections which shows how much we are all getting out of this experience too:

"One of the teachers explained how she has been teaching for 30 years and using a calculator to so Totals, averages, and class ranking. Now she has learned this in excel and how much time this will save her"

"We gave a few teachers a more challenging side project and they started their own team huddle to communicate on how best to solve the problem. On their own they used the 4 C's!"

"Great to hear the teachers saying they are bringing their lessons learned back to their children. This program is so worth it"

"Love being part of this team. It is so much fun to be with you all"

Lastly, Joseph, our scholar from Kenya shared a Lucky Dube song this morning with the students, "Different Colors". He gave a small prologue about how we are all different colors with different backgrounds and yet we are "all one people". Then he added how others had commented to him how close our project group seemed to be with one another and they were shocked we'd only met a short week ago.
It is so true and to hear how much it meant to him as well and to see all the teachers nodding in agreement was incredibly heart warming.

I can't believe we only have 2 more nights together. Sniff sniff.....:)

Feeling energized in Arusha

After last week's both physically and emotionally draining first day of teaching I would never have thought our first day teaching in Arusha would have ended with us dancing to raggae together in the hotel park. I think we decided on a Lucky Dube song for freeze dance as our warm up activity.:) trying to bring some local music into our classroom and also a song that both ChristiNs and Muslims can appreciate.

We totally came together as a high performing teaching team who understood each others strengths and could improvise with only a few words between us. We also learned from our last session and opened up with introductions that were way more fun and showed our "human side". Terry in particular shined today as he shared his blue and yellow Lakers socks (I'm also a fan growing up in SoCal) and then his sick soccer moves bouncing a tennis ball on his knees and then ending with a head bump. He had the group howling with laughter. The teachers clearly felt comfortable with us by end of Day 1 which will make it so much easier for them to ask questions as the content gets more difficult throughout the week.

While this week we are in modern hotel conference room facilities, I am reminded that the teachers have come from remote villages like Motinko that we were at last week. A couple teachers drove 9 hoods on a bus to come this week. These are not luxury air-conditioned with bathrooms on board buses we are accustomed to either. Imagine crowded, hot and uncomfortable. It speaks to their commitment for continuous learning.

We adjusted our course content to the lowest common denominator of levels and then learned we had some real Microsoft tool experts in our class and quickly came up with some more challenging activities. A few of the students had been to one or both of the previous team4tech sessions in Tanzania over the last 2 years and it was impressive to see how much their skills grew from a basic learner to expert and they are still eager to push their learning and grow further. That is our hope for all the teachers we have worked with and brought me optimism knowing how far they can come in such a short period. Our beginner learners leveraged the experts for some peer to peer coaching. Great example of collaboration, one of our four 21st century skills. :)

Have I mentioned how much we eat here? Geez...I have never been so well fed and so full in a long time! Breakfast, two tea breaks with substantial food, lunch and dinner! Also every meal comes with rice and some sort of vegetables/sauce combo. They have these meat or veggie samosa's that are incredible too! If I knew they weren't fried, I would eat 5 in one sitting! I will be rolling myself off the plane next weekend.

Lesson planning was short tonight and software uploads a breeze compared to last week where all the pc's had a Trojan virus we had to deal with. Thank goodness for Charles and Joel, our World Vision IT support. They make troubleshooting any problem look simple without any stress at all.

Listening to some 80's flashbacks and raggae music, dancing together and playing cards in the hotel garden was the perfect end to Day 1 in Arusha.

Sunday in Arusha

Today was our real day of rest where we could catch up on our sleep and didn't need to be to breakfast until 9:30. We all took advantage of it and I got my first night of 8hrs of sleep. So needed!

We spent a few hours in the morning planning our weekly lesson plan and getting ready for our first day with a new group of teachers tomorrow. With all the lessons learned from last week, it went pretty smoothly and we all clicked into our roles of planning.

Once we felt we were done, we piled into 2 jeeps and did what I know best...some shopping!!  We went to a Maasi market where they sell tons of local souvenirs. Maasi is a tribe of people who make beautiful beaded and patchwork items made from the traditional Maasi fabrics. Maasi are known to be very entrepreneurial. We bargained for 2 hours and then the group was ready for our next outing. Admittedly, I could have shopped for another hour...it was so fun and they had beautiful things!:)

We drove through the bustling city of Arusha - albeit quiet compared to weekdays since most people spend the majority of the day in church. It reminded me a lot of Bangalore with the combination of modern-"ish" and shack like buildings along the busy two lane roads. Roads are well paved and there is decent order to road rules (unlike Bangalore).

We arrived at the Rivertree resort. We found the beautiful huge green garden area equipped with its own wood fire pizza oven and settled ourselves into a Napa style table and ordered drinks. Some of us wandered over and sat under some trees along the river and enjoyed watching the young monkeys playing  above us. So cute! A few European families played with their children on the open grass areas and it just felt so relaxing. We ordered just about every pizza they offered and gorged out as they were so delicious. Really...I don't think I have ever eaten so many pieces..at least they were thin crust!  Even our Italian national, Marta, said they were great.:) Noel, our team4tech PM, certainly hit a home run with all of us on this choice.

While it was an absolute lovely place and somewhere many visitors stay, I was still glad to drive back through the chaos of the Arusha streets to our more local type hotel. Somehow it just feels more real to be in a place that has local charm and where we can hear the active streets outside through the night. I think we are assimilating back to civilization from
our experiences in Singida. That felt like the salt of the earth and I want to hold onto that special pure feeling where my modern lifestyle was fully put into perspective.

Very full Saturday at Tarangire

Today started our weekend with wake up at 5:15am and a 3 hour drive to the Tarangire (phonetic: taren-Geary) animal preserve.

As we drove Northeast back the way we arrived last Sunday, the realization of how remote and accepting we had become to the simplest forms of lifestyle were apparent. The houses that last Sunday when we passed them seemed primitive, now seemed new and modern compared to the dwellings of the Singida area. They had concrete walls all painted one color and aluminum roofs, compared to the rustic run down concrete and wood patched homes of Singida.
As we stopped at the entrance to the national park we all went to the bathroom and to have stalls again with a flushing toilet seemed like such a treat again for all of us. Our perspectives had definitely been broadened to appreciate the little luxuries our every day life offers.

A bit about our experience at Tarangire- it is one of many national animal preserves in Tanzania. It is 2850 square kilometers and imagine slightly hilly terrain, the Tarangire river running though the canyons, and brown tall grass everywhere sprinkled with trees like- the famous African Baobab, Ebony tree (trunks are black inside and used for carvings), Acacia (not related to Chardonnay as far as I know), Strangular fig tree (baobab strangled by a ficus), and my personal favorite, the sausage tree that looks like it has Bratwursts hanging from it.

Everyone comes to see the animals in Africa and we were no exception. We were so excited.

When going on safari's there is the goal to see the "big five":
- Lion (Simba), Cape buffalo (mbogo), Elephant (Tembo), Leopard (Chui), and Rhino (kifaru)
And then additionally they add the cheetah (Duma) as the "pretty six".

According to our guide, Dominic, "You will be lucky if you see a lion and extremely lucky if you see a leopard". Let's say we felt lucky:)

We saw 5 lions, 1 leopard, several herds of elephants, impalas (both in families and as bachelor groups), dikdik's (full grown look like mini impalas), countless zebras and wildebeests (who like to hang out together for the zebras good eyes and wildebeests sharp sense of smell to detect predators), water bucks, warthogs, giraffe's, towny eagle, suburb starling (most popular bird in Tanz), red hornbill's, secretary birds, vultures, baboons, green monkey, and many giant ostriches.

The sleeping VERY mature male lion we saw just barely 20 feet from our truck sleeping on his back with paws in the air was an absolute highlight. The other was a herd of elephants we watched for quite a while cross the river, drink water and then go to a watering hole and cool themselves off. The younger ones rolled around in the muddy water completely covering themselves and only left because the matriarch decided it was time to move onto another nearby bathing spot. It was so surreal to see all these animals in their natural habitat. They were meant to have room to travel and be one with nature. It was so peaceful and calm and we were just observers to their world. Because this park was established in 1970, the animals are use to the safari trucks and just ignore us.  If you have ever watched Planet Earth or National Geographic footage of animals in Africa- exactly the same. Everything was stunning.

As we left the preserve, we passed on its outskirts the local Maasi tribe villages where families live in compounds that are build in a circle of huts and then further sounded by a palisadee fence (made from tall sticks). The round huts are made from sticks stacked next to each other and then rubbed over with a mud made from cow dung and dirt as the insulation). Strange juxtaposition when you compare to the huge tourism industry passing by them by every day.
I highly suggest visiting the preserves if you you come to Africa.

With that said, I can't imagine coming here just for the animals. Doing what we did with the teachers carries so much more weight to the experience of being here. I wouldn't have felt fulfilled.

Around 6:30pm, we arrived at our new hotel in Arusha where we will spend the next week teaching teachers from several schools a similar curriculum. Arusha is a main city and our hotel feels like the Ritz compared to where we were at before. Let me be clear, it isn't the Ritz. We still don't have warm shower water. When we arrived several weddings and special events were going on and people were dressed in modern colorful and very beautiful outfits. They had BMW SUV's decorated for the bride and groom. It was culture shock as we rejoined modern civilization and frankly, I was a bit sad to leave the rural simpleness.

What I really appreciated from our last place in Singida was that we were all vulnerable to the humbling experiences and we bonded over them all - bringing us immediately closer as a teaching team.

Over dinner we talked about how we need to preserve that community feeling through our next week.

What a gratifying and proud day. If you had asked me on Monday if our teachers were going to be able to present lesson plans using 21st century skills and digital technology (ICT as it called here), I would have said, no way. With limited English and rudimentary computer skills on Monday, it was mind blowing to watch how well these teachers were able to pick up the tools, philosophies, and then put it all together into well thought through lessons plans they can share with their students starting next week. We had teachers share lesson plans from simple 3rd grade math to complex topics like democracy and economics. They did it all.

The most impressive student was, Silvery. He is a new teacher with just about 2 yrs under his belt. His desire to learn is insatiable and ability to pick up the technology and concepts so quickly incredibly impressive. He shared a lesson plan on States of Matter that literally almost made me cry. Trust me, I know that sounds silly. It's just that before we came I had spent hours building a lesson plan on the exact same topic prior to our trip (and wasn't able to share it because it was affiliated with KAlite, a program we were unable to install due to performance).
He thought through and incorporated so many clever elements and technologies into his plan where students collaborated, tested their critical thinking, were
creative,  and communicated together. He truly has the gift of teaching and blew us all away. Many others were also impressive and I would say about 70% hit the mark to include all we taught. The other 30% tried and are still struggling with the 21st century 4 C's and will need to really think hard about how to move away from the traditional teaching model of teacher lecturing students.

A few of us were fortunate to also visit a nearby convent where they have a Montessori pre-school, hospital, and teaching center. The children at the preschool entertained us with songs and dances. The sisters shared their very organized and well supplied classrooms. They had such vastly better resources than the Motinko primary school we were teaching at and I asked the sisters why. They said it was because each student who attends their school must pay 5000 shillings ($2.50) a month and that is how they pay for supplies, whereas the primary school gets only government funding and that is clearly limited. I can only imagine what a shock is for these preschoolers to go from such a well resourced school to them primary school at age 7. It was hard to leave the kids especially because every one wanted to shake my hand and their smiles and enthusiasm
of our visit clearly was so special. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to visit the hospital or training center. Maybe on another visit to Africa.....

In the afternoon we had the ceremony to congratulate and celebrate our teachers through the program. We had music, a cake, and a certificate ceremony. It was so fun and after 5 intense days together, it felt like hanging out with old friends. We took pictures together and said our good-byes. It was super sad to see this part of our trip end. However, I am reassured by the belief that the teachers will use what we taught and really grow their students. They were also so proud of their  own growth.

Tonight the team4team was exhausted. We were just so happy to hang out together without any lesson planning needs for tomorrow. It felt like a well deserved Friday!!!

Tomorrow we go on a safari and have to wake up at 5:15am to get on the road! Yikes! I better go to sleep under my mosquito net (top preventative technique to avoid mosquito bites and malaria). Don't worry, I am taking pills too and have DEET spray just in case:))

It is the end to an emotionally and physically draining week. It has also been one of the most gratifying ever.

So today was such a special day to be at our school in Singida! It was 7th grade graduation ceremonies and the graduates will go to the equivalent of middle school next year. Gorgeously dressed parents and family walked miles from all over the area to help celebrate and decorated their graduates with the Tanzanian version of leis and gave gifts with beautifully wrapped shiny paper. The students put on performances where they imitated their teachers teaching (very comical from the translations we received), they danced, played musical chairs, had speeches, and laughed a lot. The festivities and family admiration is just like what we would expect from our 8th grade graduations. Some traditions clearly transcend cultures:)

At the end of our school day, our World Vision liaison, Charles, brought two special graduates into our classroom to share how they have both embraced the technologies they have used over the last three years since team4tech has been visiting. One boy received an award from his school titled, "most promising" and the other girl for "leadership". Both are whiz's at the Microsoft Word, Kiwix, and math programs we offer on the computers. They are the hope for the future of this village. Out of 140 graduates from this school,  they estimate only 20 will make it to high school and 2 will make it to college. It sounds bleak, but when I  see how eager these teachers are to make a difference and then these students who have real potential, I truly believe we are making a difference to bring the few up and out of this intense poverty.  By giving them the tools and sharing the possibilities, the numbers will go up.

A bit more about the commitment we see from the teachers and education community.....
While the school and surrounding area is obviously very limited on resources, their mission to help the children seems united. As part of a new program, they are working to identify in early child development those who my require glasses or have hearing issues. Yesterday, parents flooded the school to hear how their currently enrolled children (starting at 5yrs old) and their upcoming younger children would do in these exams. We met the district lead for this effort and he said they really want to identify these early on to help the children and believe it or not getting them glasses is an affordable and small expense.  So far we haven't met any children with glasses yet. They do have a dedicated teacher, Bernard, (who is in our class) whose main focus is on deaf children and others with disabilities. Some of the team met a few of his students and were so impressed with their clever questions and obvious intelligence. He is making a difference.

While we are served morning tea (food and tea), lunch, and then afternoon tea (popcorn, nuts, tea), the children only receive one meal from the school at 10am (typically grits type carb and beans- both cooked from an outside dilapidated brick structure. They don't bring lunch boxes. If children want another meal, they have to walk home during their breaks, which doesn't happen because of the length of the journey. Their next meal won't be until 6pm when they walk home. Despite this children seem happy and stay active at breaks with soccer and just normal kid silliness. Soccer balls are ripped of their outer leather shell and soft, but it doesn't stop them from kicking it around and having fun. Between that and the young boy who showed us his homemade wood guitar that he tunes by putting an empty water bottle under the strings, it made me realize how vastly different our first world children are being raised.

Many would say we are more fortunate. Of course I agree on many levels, but the happiness, joy and love these kids have in their lives from family and community is no different than what we give our children. The sad part is they may never know the difference in lifestyle ever - running water vs. the well, electricity vs relying only on the sun, cars vs walking for miles on a dirt road to school and work, flushing toilets vs a hole in the ground that once it fills up, a new hole in a structure is built, grocery store with all the food you could possibly want vs walking for miles for rice and maybe a few vegetables that last weeks, new clothes for each day of school vs wearing the same tattered hand me down outfit every day....and  the list can go on. So, yes, I feel incredibly fortunate and will no longer complain about the cold shower I have had most mornings since we arrived. At least I have a warm clean place to stay with running water. Life is good and we are bringing tools to them that give hope.

Believe it or not I look forward to the 45 minute rough dirt road journey to school in the morning. The scenery is incredible and there is a sense of peace that I think comes to us all along the journey. We try to take pictures to capture the moments we see, but the 4x4 is a bit bumpy and too fast for the quality to be any good for most shots. Once at school, we get to see the teachers who are so excited to learn and the kids who just giggle when they are near us. It is an absolute treat.

As we spend time getting to know the teachers, we learn more about their challenges and situations. All seem so eager to learn and hungry for the information we are sharing. Today we taught an offline version of Wikipedia called, Kwix. They really reveled in seeing all the topics they could get information on. At one point I saw someone searching for "chickens" and then "menstrual cycle". Was obvious what a clear desire there is for understanding.

We are throwing so many new software programs at them and techniques to be effective (imagine learning all the MSFT short cuts all in one day and having to apply them) and they embrace each challenge with intensity to succeed. I am so impressed. This is a smart bunch who just needs the tools to grow.

Many have expressed how helpful it would be to be able to take the pc's home after work and develop their skills further by building lesson plans at home. Just to give an idea of their situation- most have no electricity at home, there is no internet, super limited smart phones, and certainly no personal computers. Children don't even have books at home to read and wear the same outfit to school each day. As one teacher pit it to me today, "we are poor here". I am going to work with team4tech lead, Noel, and World Vision lead, Charles, to see how we can make that possible. It's the only way they can really practice to proficiency after we leave and grow themselves and then their students.

It is really a great group of volunteers and we have gelled quickly as a team and are having a lot of fun together...and fortunately managed to find the local wine shop to get us through our late evenings.:)

Yesterday's exasperation turned to hope today as teachers really started embracing the concepts and thinking about how they could apply to their teaching. We taught advanced Microsoft suite and some fun gaming tools to use with their students for geography (Seterra), typing (tux typing), and math (tux math).

We had a lot of software to download onto the computers after class and as installs typically go, we had some issues. As a result we left late from the school and drove our dirt road back into the gorgeous Africa sunset. We passed people who were also walking home trying to catch the last hours of the sun before they went home to no electricity.

Today Gita and I had the absolute pleasure of spending a few moments with the children of the school who embraced our iPhone cameras when we showed them pictures of themselves and most fun videos we took of them. They swarmed us with giggles and keen interest. My blonde hair seemed to be a novelty they also wanted to touch and at one point I did feel a little hand swipe the back of my head. They were so endearing. Some of them walk up to 10km (7miles) each way to school each day!

It is almost 11pm and we are just wrapping up our lesson plans for tomorrow and the last of the software downloads. It's been a long day.:)

After today's 45 minute journey down a very rough dirt road, I know why we have the gnarliest looking 4x4 safari type trucks trekking us around!

We were up at 6:30am for a prompt departure by 7:30 to the village school in Motinko where we met 17 teachers who would be our students for the week. Each immaculately dressed teacher came into the class eager to learn about basic computer skills and how technology can be used to make their teaching more effective.

Candidly we have been surprised by the limited English most speak and how many need very fundamental computer training. As expected, we quickly re-grouped and improvised our lesson plans from intermediate to basic and Kristen, Terry, Marta, and Gita did a phenomenal job sharing an introduction to 21st Century skills and the Microsoft suite. Simplifying what we all do every day was tough, but the team pulled through with flying colors and by the end we had teachers creating attendance sheets in excel vs using their notebooks to track attendance.

Tonight we worked on trying to figure out what we can truly teach them that they will be able to take on long term and use. Many have limited to no electricity at their schools, students who don't even speak the native Swahili (they speak their mother tongue derivative), teachers who don't have access to computers because they share 20 across 500 students....so figuring out how to create competency with longevity is our challenge.

It is so gratifying when you see the light click with teachers on some of the applications and I believe those moments will carry us through the week.

Now that we know our audience, we have adjusted our curriculum and are prepared for Day 2.:)

Day 2- traveling to Singida

This morning during breakfast we got to meet the entire 8 person team face to face! 11 weeks ago a few of us met in the team4tech Redwood City offices, but 3 from our team live in other parts of the world- Marta (an Italian living in Sydney), Terry (an American living in Hong Kong), and Joseph (a curriculum designer from Kenya). Maybe knowing what we are about to go through together for the next 2 weeks or maybe the fact that we all are pretty adaptive people...we all immediately felt a tie to one another and the openness in conversations and bonding happened right away.

We spent the hour after breakfast with a security briefing from World Vision (don't worry, Mom and Dad...all the typical stuff you taught us traveling over the years...nothing out of the ordinary). Then we spent the next 5 hours traveling to Singida where we will teach 14 teachers for the next week.

Surprisingly, the drive went by so fast! The scenery was ever changing from arid desert to lush agriculture to complications of barren rocks stacked on top of each other in the middle of nowhere. We passed so many simple villages with wood huts, desolate dwellings, and Boabab trees.  The charm was everywhere and what was most stunning were the vibrant and colorful Sunday outfits everyone was wearing next to their primitive backdrops. People just stared from their lookout spots at the cars passing along the highway. Young children, no more than 9 yrs old, shepherded with confidence, herds of goats and cows.  It was like looking at moments in time captured in National Geographic photos. My family calls these moments, "mental pictures". I will forever have them.

We are staying at a Catholic training center where dinner and breakfast are provided. I am very impressed at the diligence World Vision has gone through to ensure we are staying in a secure and comfortable place.

It has been a long day. We ended it with lesson planning for our first session tomorrow, dinner, and of course, a glass of wine.:)

After two long flights through Amsterdam we arrived in Kilamanjaro at 7:30pm, Sat  Aug. 22. We rendezvoused with two more of our team mates, Kristen and Gita in Amsterdam and all arrived through Tanzania customs together. Our plane was full of climbers for Kilamanjaro and humanitarian workers (Red Cross, Center of Disease Control, entrepreneur trainers for indigenous people, and so many more!!). It definitely felt like a plane with a very positive vibe of "do-holders"  and adventurers :).

Since it was dark we missed seeing the countryside on our hour journey into Arusha where we will stay the night before traveling to Singida in the morning.  Our World Vision hosts met us and did an  impressive job navigating the highway where along the way we could see some of  the lively activity of the Arusha bar scene. It is a happen'in Sat night!

Our rooms are bright and comfortable and we are going to be sleeping under the fancy mosquito nets! Theresa Wright, my good friend from Cisco has joined me on this journey and we are roommates for the next two weeks!

Time for bed now. Will figure out how to ad pics to blog via mobile tomorrow too!

In five days, I will be leaving for Tanzania!! I am traveling with team4tech, an organization committed to improving the quality of education around the world. This trip was certainly not in my 2015 plans when I was putting the family calendar together in January. Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Avila Beach, and Huntington Beach...all were on the list of excursions...not East Africa!

However, I was fortunate to meet, Tae Yoo, who leads Cisco's Corporate Affairs organization and someone always looking for opportunities to give back to the world and improve education for the global community. She posed "an opportunity" to me and after a few conversations with Julie and Noel from team4tech, I was so in! How could I refuse? Opportunity of a lifetime. Leaving my children for the two weeks was the biggest decision point, but at the same time I know that sharing my experience with them will change their perspective on humanity and how they interact with the world....as it will for me.

It was back in March when I decided to do this (thankfully, with support from my husband, Mark who will be playing single Dad while I am gone) and I can't believe the day is almost here to leave.

Our small group of eight has been getting ready for the trip by learning what we can about the software we will teach (ie: MS suite, Kwix, KAlite, etc),  21st Century teaching techniques (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity), and building curriculum for our teachers in Tanzania. It has certainly been a great learning experience so far and everyone is so enthusiastic about our work. 

Almost done packing, shots all done (yes, there were a lot of them!), malaria pills ready to take, and everything else CVS sells that I can legally take on a plane is bagged, and kids schedules getting documented out for all our friends and family who are helping (thank you!).

More to come as we leave. Thank you to so many of you who have supported me as I get ready for this experience. Super excited.