Today was great. After a review session, to which everyone expected turned up on time, Alia and Sarah did a phenomenal job of the Marketing Workshop. This was by far the longest workshop, and yet they handled it so well, it went better than any of us could have asked for. The participants were so engaged the entire time, they were constantly taking notes (especially Frank!) as well as asking questions of the intricacies of the Marketing World.
Even at the very end, after two intense hours of hard learning, they were laughing and making suggestions throughout the skit that Sarah, Josie and Alia created.
After, we had an equally productive Break Out Session that resulted in5 marketing surveys being created as well as two other participants working towards other parts of their business plans.
Because we had a long, tiring day that used up far too much brain power, we played soccer (football) with a number of the participants. We were more entertainment fodder than useful players, but everyone had a good time none the less (the youth were actually constantly encouraging us, even though our skills were somewhat lacking). Teaching them how to play Frisbee was somewhat redemptive and fun at the same time.
It is really neat to see how much more comfortable everyone is becoming; cartoon- or william but on a lady's wig and pretended to be his cousin for us- it was great.
This has gone so well so far, and I am so proud of all of us (the youth and the team) for working so hard to make this happen, and make it amazing.
Day 3 out.
Kathy
Posted by Kathy Cochrane
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Cultural Stereotypes
So the 2nd day went by as quickly as the sleep I've been getting in Nairobi (endless works had kept me up late at night unfortunately.)
We arrived early at 9am and we prepped until classes started at 10am.
It's interesting in our concept of stereotyping cultures. The few days that we had spent here have taught us what "African time" means-- if you want someone to arrive promptly at, for say, 9am, you'd tell them to arrive at 8:30am. To combat this concept, we had purposefully start off our morning with a Q+A (unstructured), in hope to combat this cultural norm.
But interestingly, perhaps as results of setting group norms, expectations, or even as simple as respect, the youths surprisingly arrived at ten to 10am. Another surprise came when Patrick, one of the four youths with the winning proposal, came into the door and showed us his homework-- 4 assigned pages fully completed. We really didn't expect much of these youths will actually do their homework (perhaps we are thinking of ourselves in Canada). Are stereotypes always true? Of course not.
We had a finance workshop today with Dr Waema-- a finance professor/ banker from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He commented of how pleased he was with our choice of location-- somewhere convenient to our participants, and somewhere which reflected the current hardships-- not anywhere fancy, intimidating, which further exaggerated the class differences. He talked on for about two and a half hours, and surprising the youths were listening sincerely, taking notes, and fully participating. This is so unlike any university lectures that I've ever sat on. To sum up Dr. Waema's charismatic speech, "opportunities is all that are needed, and poverty is in our hands to eliminate."
On a side note, we hope to quantify our education successes. We gave the youths a test today and we are going to give the same test by the end of our project, in hope for some significant improvements. The results were not bad: mean-- 63%; median-- 57%. But of course, we hope that in about two weeks time, everyone will be in the 90's range-- or at least that's what all teachers hope in every class that they teach.
And for myself, Dr. Waema discussed his interest in researching about cultural management practices-- and specifically in African Management characteristics (I'm sure we've heard of the Japanese Management, North American management etc.) And suddenly I'm thinking: that will be SOOOO interesting! Perhaps I'll look into it, and see if I can find myself another excuse to come to this amazing continent! (And plus, it's management research; something I'm truly excited about!)
Posted by Eiston Lo
We arrived early at 9am and we prepped until classes started at 10am.
It's interesting in our concept of stereotyping cultures. The few days that we had spent here have taught us what "African time" means-- if you want someone to arrive promptly at, for say, 9am, you'd tell them to arrive at 8:30am. To combat this concept, we had purposefully start off our morning with a Q+A (unstructured), in hope to combat this cultural norm.
But interestingly, perhaps as results of setting group norms, expectations, or even as simple as respect, the youths surprisingly arrived at ten to 10am. Another surprise came when Patrick, one of the four youths with the winning proposal, came into the door and showed us his homework-- 4 assigned pages fully completed. We really didn't expect much of these youths will actually do their homework (perhaps we are thinking of ourselves in Canada). Are stereotypes always true? Of course not.
We had a finance workshop today with Dr Waema-- a finance professor/ banker from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He commented of how pleased he was with our choice of location-- somewhere convenient to our participants, and somewhere which reflected the current hardships-- not anywhere fancy, intimidating, which further exaggerated the class differences. He talked on for about two and a half hours, and surprising the youths were listening sincerely, taking notes, and fully participating. This is so unlike any university lectures that I've ever sat on. To sum up Dr. Waema's charismatic speech, "opportunities is all that are needed, and poverty is in our hands to eliminate."
On a side note, we hope to quantify our education successes. We gave the youths a test today and we are going to give the same test by the end of our project, in hope for some significant improvements. The results were not bad: mean-- 63%; median-- 57%. But of course, we hope that in about two weeks time, everyone will be in the 90's range-- or at least that's what all teachers hope in every class that they teach.
And for myself, Dr. Waema discussed his interest in researching about cultural management practices-- and specifically in African Management characteristics (I'm sure we've heard of the Japanese Management, North American management etc.) And suddenly I'm thinking: that will be SOOOO interesting! Perhaps I'll look into it, and see if I can find myself another excuse to come to this amazing continent! (And plus, it's management research; something I'm truly excited about!)
Posted by Eiston Lo
Empowerment
So, as Sarah and Eiston posted, our project finally started. I was teaching our first workshop with Eiston yesterday and we were truly amazed by the students' willingness to learn, participation, language skills, and their appreciation of us being there. Even though life is tough, they are the happiest people I've ever seen, way happier than in Vancouver.
I saw students looking out of the school bus in their uniforms, which reminds me of myself when I went to elementary school in HK. But instead of weary faces, they are all smiling and waving to us, shouting to us, "How are you?"
Word of the day: Condiments
I think I was not thinking when I was typing some of the paragraphs up in our "textbook" and I just put that word down. It was funny trying to explain this to them. I'm glad that people are willing to share with us what they know and what they not know without being shy. When I asked if anyone wanted to read out the paragraphs in the book so many people were willing to volunteer, something that I have not encountered in my 15 years of education both in Vancouver and HK. I remember when I was little (and still do) when my mom gives me Chinese lessons she will make me read out the poems and essays and I really enjoyed that. Seeing the students doing the same really warms my heart and brings back some warm moments of my childhood and education experience too. I have done workshops before when I was in high school to "junior grade" students but I have never felt so intrinsically motivated, satisfied, and appreciated as I feel now. It's really quite special feeling.
My mom is a teacher too, and since I was young, she told me that education is a meaningful profession because it is about knowledge empowerment and we should never become a teacher just for money or because there is nothing else to do. I never really understood what it truly meant until yesterday.
One of the proposals that we chose to work with was a girl who wanted to operate a wholesale banana kiosk in Kibera slum. I spoke with her personally today, and she told me how she had refused to follow the norm to get married and have kids. She said she can have a future of her own and take life in her own hands and not depend on men. I cannot say it any better than she does and that really touched my heart. I am so glad to be here because many people who I know are more fortunate and live in Vancouver - they think about marrying rich. You will not believe how intelligent these people are.
We had a university professor come in to talk to the students today, and he said, "Yes, we are poor, but that is no excuse to stay poor." This is very well put - we may be born underpriviliged, but we have the tools and means to advance our own lives if we are determined to do so. It is quite the inspiration.
On a side note, here are some fun facts:
- People love my hair. They asked me if I dyed it or if my hair actually has two different colours. They don't believe that my hair turns out the way that it does without blowdrying. Shampooing and conditioning daily is quite the luxury in living standards here.
- The average income is 8USD/week
- We have had Indian and American food so far. Food is cheap and we don't really have a lot of lunch because we are in the slum, but we are well fed with regular meals.
- Brit slapped a moth in my face last night and it was quite the drama and amusing for the receptionist at the guest house.
Students here are very intelligent and they have the same dreams as we do, if not more ambitious. It is truly inspiring and being so fortunate to live in Vancouver, none of us should complain about homework anymore - anybody can achieve his/her dreams if he/she sets his/her mind to it.
Posted by Josephine Wong
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