Dear Family and Friends,
Will let pictures do most of the speaking with this journaling, but will share that the day went extremely well, with Kimondolu's well-prepared reality and our expectations well adjusted, resulting in Happiness as a very positive integer.
Loading up the Mwangaza Land Rover and on our way, soon on-site and presenting the Sheltered Instruction texts to the school for use by the seminar participants and any other interested teachers. Recent history shows teachers have moved frequently from school to school, so this establishes that the books stay with the schools Mwangaza is supporting in the Intervention Program. We did let them know we expected to see fingerprints of the seminar teachers on many pages.
On the right, Michael Moshi is speaking of the one day workshop he and two other seminar participants organized for the rest of the staff so that all the school's personnel would have some understanding of the new methodology. Was reinforcing to hear him speak of using some of the strategies and much of the vocabulary from his week at Mwangaza.
Art & Linda Milton, and some others, will undoubtedly remember Mr. Monoya (below, middle photo) from his '96 visit. We are impressed with his staff, having shared with some in previous years' Mwangaza seminars. Their readiness factor today was a strong indication he, and the staff, are in sync with the Intervention process.
Salome and Mary Jo were soon off to administer the assessment — No pictures of that exercise today, but will relate more later — while the rest of us went to the computer lab.
They have made an effort to set up and maintain donated computers, resembling those at Mwangaza, but 'tis challenging to address today's information and options with the last decades' technology. You can see the modem plugged into a flash drive extension in the first photo below, then the impatient waiting for the limited memory available to process and install the software. Incredibly, it takes only 256 mb of available memory, but this computer had little more than that.
While waiting, we plugged in the flash drive which had been loaded with content (Powerpoints) and showed that these could be downloaded to each of the computers, thereby being available to teachers and their classes with no need of the internet for watching. Since had gathered several of the Powerpoints between seminar weeks, these teachers and computer lab coordinator were seeing the option and the pictures for the first time.
Once the modem had established internet connection, John demonstrated how to connect long enough to find what you were seeking to read, then disconnect to spend the time reading, making notes, etc. before re-connecting to do more searching or sending. In this manner of efficiency, the purchased memory can serve for some time.
After handing over the modem to the computer coordinator, our team prepared to leave. Nice timing to be stepping outside just as a distinguished gentleman arrived. A former teacher, he has been Kimodolu's "school manager" (board member who regularly speaks with the principal, teachers, students, and staff) for a number of years. Here he is telling the rest of us about Salome's tenure with his school, when she was both a respected and respectful teacher.
Back at Mwangaza, we debriefed while marking the assessments. It is obvious the teachers and students need support.
Peace and Love,
Mike and Sharon
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