2 transforming years in the field

    Working with Wefoco GBV Ambassadors 2021

It was September 2019 when I first stepped in Africa, in Kenya and in Shianda. We are now in November 2021 and here I am, preparing to leave. At first, I thought I would stay just for 6 months, but as always I allowed myself to flow with what makes me feel good, and I ended up working in Shianda with Wefoco for almost 2 years.

I can’t compare the Andreia of before to the Andreia of now, so much growth as happened in these last years that it would be impossible to put it all in a blog post. 

About the work there were a lot of doubts and fears in the beginning, and it is ok, because it means there was a sense of respect and responsibility towards the project. And this brings commitment. The fear is now gone, the doubts are a constant. 

Questioning ourselves if what we are doing is the best way or not, should we do it differently or not, is a constant in a volunteer deployment time. For me, it was essential to research, read, understand how development organizations work and take some best practices to apply in our context in Shianda. With those tools in hand and a lot of flexibility, I worked with Wefoco projects, allowing the local team to adapt the approaches to what makes more sense to them and supporting on their plan implementation.  

I can say that in 2018 I knew nothing about development work, but now I feel totally different. I didn’t take a course or a master, but I learned by experience. And what an experience!!! being in the field challenged me physically, psychologically, philosophically, emotionally, spiritually and in so many dimensions of my BEing. I am a person that adapts very quickly to different contexts, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be aware of the gifts that my time in Kenya brought in my personal development.

Living without running water, electricity (don’t worry now the houses have everything, lol), in a different climate, dusty road, muddy roads, different gastronomy, waiting hours to get a simple procedure in the hospital, or on a matatu ride from Kisumu … these “challenges” I almost even didn’t notice them, it's how it is, and I flowed with it almost naturally.  

 

                  Shianda and Nakuru, 2019 

                 

But the work in a diverse cultural context, the intention to make the actions not about “my impact or reach” but about “how this community want to develop and how they can do it on their own” definitely had a huge impact on me.

          Working in wefoco GBV library, 2021

The flexibility to not push things in to what I think is best, the patience to allow a team to reach their decision even if it takes them 30 min or 1h of discussion… the understanding that things always get done in the end of the day even if its looks like a total mess 2 hours after they were supposed to start…

I feel the biggest growth came from interacting with diverse people at a professional or personal level. Meeting persons from so diverse backgrounds (not only locals but also other volunteers) it was such a blessing. Sharing professional relations with some, sharing friendships with others, sharing just small talk, just observing their way, being neighbors, falling in love, being intimate, detaching… all these allowed me to get a clear understanding of who I am and how that “I am” is in constant development and expansion.

My goodbye to Kenya comes with a deep sense of gratitude to:

• Mondo for believing in me and all the unconditional support and attention they gave me.

• To Wefoco for accepting and embracing my straightforwardness and irony, and being great teachers in all this process.

• And to all Kenyans, Ugandans, Tanzanians, Ethiopians, Estonians, Rwandans, Spanish, French, Belgians for showing me how beautiful is the human diversity. It doesn’t matter where we come from, there is no right or wrong, we are just diverse and there is beauty everywhere.  

With Kristy and Steven (Estonia) and Sophie (Belgium), 2020 

       Locking the dreads in a street of Watamu! 

   Trying to cook Ugandan Casava Pankake with Sisa from Uganda, 2020

With Marion (from France) and Inma (from Spain)

        Christmas with Ugandan Friends, 2019

       With Kenyan friends playing drafts, 2020

                         Kakamega, 2021

 

With this consciousness, I want to continue to expand my being with people from all over the world, learn, share and grow. So I have a feeling I will keep on being a volunteer for a while 😊

                      Kipkaren - Kenya, 2021

There is a new library in Shianda!

Yes, there is, and it is in Wefoco. But this is not a common library!

WEFOCO GBV RESOURCES LIBRARY is a library that offers resources for teachers, community-based organizations, individuals and off course Wefoco staff and GBV Ambassadors.

Access to knowledge is limited in a rural area like Shianda, and despite the great work on awareness-raising on GBV issues done already by the ambassadors, their reach can still be expanded. Added to that, in Kenya, the education system is mainly based on expository teaching methods.

So we decided to respond to some of these issues by creating a library of participatory tools to support local facilitators to conduct sessions on GBV and SRHR.

There are resources targeting work with youth, men and women and persons with disabilities.

Today we presented the library resources to 25 guiding and counselling teachers from different secondary schools in Mumias east. They tried out some resources and were introduced to the other ones. We had a lot of fun and interesting discussions aroused from the participatory activities.

The WEFOCO GBV RESOURCES LIBRARY will be operating from Wefoco cyber, with resources available for anyone.

The resources were shared with local CBO's, Special Schools and with WEFOCO GBV Ambassadors. The feedback has been positive, so far.

We hope there will be a lot of requisitions and that these tools will support raising awareness in the community about Gender Equality and human rights. 

Andreia Silva
Senior EU AID Volunteer Gender and Education Project in Kenya.  

Disability Inclusion on GBV Programing

When an occupational therapist ends up working in a Gender-Based Violence program...what happens? 

Well has I shared in previous posts since this was not my expertise area, I read a lot about GBV, informed about community participatory approaches and successful methods to implement with the Ambassadors Project.

But despite not being an OT practitioner for many years, the love and respect for persons with disabilities are always with me, and the need to improve the accessibility of the services I work on, it comes naturally.  

So after the capacity building training for the GBV Ambassadors (GBVA) on gender topics, and noticing that the participants in their community awareness sessions were mainly persons without disabilities (we were able to understand this thanks to the use of the new age and gender-sensitive attendance sheet that I developed at the beginning of the deployment, to support Wefoco to get differentiated data on the reach of their actions), it was definitely time to raise awareness within the ambassadors for the need to make their sessions more inclusive and accessible. 

Training materials for the session. 

GBV can happen to anyone, information should be given to all, and persons with disabilities, especially women and girls,  due to the intersection of gender and disability, are more vulnerable to GBV, due to: 

• discrimination and stigma; 
• negative perceptions of society about their capacity;
• lack of access to information;
• isolation; 
• poverty; 
• environmental barriers and lack of transport.     

Together with Catherine from the Network of Persons with Disabilities of Mumias East, I facilitated a 2-day capacity building training for the ambassadors, covering the following topics: 

• Personal attitudes towards disabilities.
• Understanding disability: a rights-based approach
• Gender, disability and inequality
• Root causes of GBV against women and girls with disabilities
• Vulnerabilities of women and girls with disabilities
• Barriers to access participation and strategies to inclusion
• Paths for inclusive programs:
• Respectful language and Accessible Communication
• Support networks for persons with disabilities.
• Planning inclusive actions

Catherine facilitating a training session. 

The training was filled with participatory activities and the ambassadors were very engaged. They were able to be more conscious of their own negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities and to feel somehow in the skin of someone that has a lifelong history of discrimination, subordination and disempowerment. A lot of moments during the training made the ambassadors get emotional when realizing the amount of barriers persons with disabilities might face in society.  The ambassadors also understood that not only the person with a disability might be more vulnerable to violence but also the caretaker or spouse. 

Participatory activities during the training: how to adapt sessions to persons with different needs and reflection on who has more opportunities/power and who has less. 

After understanding the factors leading to increased vulnerability to violence, we reflected on what we can do as ambassadors to reduce that vulnerability in our communities. So we defined what we need to do to make sure persons with disabilities are invited for our awareness sessions, how we can adapt our venues so that they can more easily participate. How can we communicate in a manner that is more accessible for all and respectfully when addressing persons with different disabilities. 

Andreia facilitating the recap on how to plan inclusive sessions. 

From the ambassadors' feedback of the training, the most useful learning was related to the perception and attitudes towards persons with disabilities. “It has helped me change my attitude towards persons with disability... to be positive” “they are all same like other people, should be involved in activities”. In general, they felt that the training increased their knowledge on GBV and Disabilities on a Great and Moderate level. 

Activity on Respectful Language: reflection on how we address persons with disabilities with negative and positive statements in our daily lives. 

The average confidence level of the ambassadors, to work with persons with disabilities and improve the accessibility of their actions after the training was 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 is not confident and 5 very confident). 

Let us hope the results will be shown in the next participants' attendance lists :) 

Embroidery work in a rural village in Kenya - WEFOCO tailor shop

THE EMBROIDERY SUCCESS STORY

One day a few years ago, Mondo donated a Janome embroidery machine to the WEFOCO tailor shop as a mean to generate income for its workers. They had seen The embroidery market as a potential for generating income, as the embroidery market in Shianda wasn't yet developed and the schools embroider their logos on their uniforms. The tailors of the village go to other cities to embroider.

Several tailors had once been trained on how to use the machine and a few volunteers contacted embroidery experts in Kisumu and Nairobi to try to understand the machine's abilities and to find an embroidery designing program for the tailors to create schools logos. 

A first program called SewArt had been found online and researched on by previous volunteers. They worked on the machine but recurrent problems were happening, such as thread breaking, embroideries not being very clear, needles breaking and so on. The work to stable and clear embroideries was still on-going and far from being achieved.

Then came Sophie - a fashion designer by profession, used to working on tailoring machines and activities - who was assigned to help the tailor shop grow as a community business, reach more stability and generate more income. The embroidery challenge had been assigned to her as one of the important tasks of the project. 

She first followed up on the previous volunteer's work, learned how to use the SewArt program, tried making a first logo on it. 

Very quickly the recurring problems of the machine itself were fixed and the first logo design was tried on the machine and adapted accordingly. 

However, the embroidery quality struggle wasn't yet cleared. Many trials to improve the first logos were made. 

Examples of failed trials from the beginning.

Up to the day the WEFOCO director directed her to a new embroidery expert she had heard of in Kisumu. Sophie got in contact with Benard, the embroidery expert, and started a work relationship with him, going to visit him in his firm with all the samples they had made in the tailor shop as well as questions for improvement. 

Benard was in charge of an embroidery industry in the city, working on designing school logos and embroider them on hundreds of uniform jumpers every day, using an eight head industrial embroidery machine. Very different from the WEFOCO Janome domestic embroidery machine. 

One day Benard showed Sophie the designing computer program he uses in the firm - the WILCOM embroidery program. Sophie was amazed about the professionalism of its use compared to the one the previous volunteers had found for the tailors, meant for domestic amateur use rather than professional. 

WILCOM embroidery designing program.

A few weeks later, Sophie acquired the WILCOM program and a computer for the WEFOCO tailor shop in the aim of generating income with the embroidery machine. A precious Mondo donation yet to be used and profitable but with great potential still. 

As time passed, Sophie learned how to use the program and started designing the school logos the tailors were asking her to design for potential orders. The aim was to have logos saved inside the machine, ready to be used at any time, to make embroidery samples to present to schools and get tenders. 

Once the program was mastered, the challenge was to understand and adapt the difference of outcome between the computerized embroidery files and the stitching machine outcome. Differences were discovered at every try as the domestic embroidery machine was changing the professional computer designing program files to it's standard. After many trials and adaptation, Sophie got the hang of all of it. The logos were coming out with a good quality and the tailors started having a few orders. 

As that long work on the machine itself and the designing program was going on, the tailors were trained on how to use the machine with all its new abilities and practiced embroideries. They also planned an action plan as part of their Sustainable Development Project for the tailor shop. 

The embroidery machine has always been a good time and money investment throughout the project. 

Tailors being trained on the WILCOM designing program.

It was also amazing to see how the rural tailors were bedazzled by the computerized machine and its use, getting new skills and excited for what that knowledge and tool could bring them. 

Today, the tailors have been trained on how to use computers (basic skills) and the complex WILCOM designing program. They have embroidery orders such as embroidered table cloth sets - highly popular in Kenya, school logos, name tags and firm logos.

Work still needs to be done in terms of marketing and advertising for the service. Let's give them time for that now. 

Meeting Erick and his Lamborghini

It was already getting dark, so I was already inside the matatu (local bus) to go back to Shianda when Erick replied to my message saying "wait for me, I got a bike, and I am on my way to Kakamega"! 

I thought he hired a boda boda (motorbike taxi) to come and meet me in the town centre, so I got out of the matatu and waited. A few minutes after here he was, with his Lamborghini (as he called it):  a bicycle he borrowed from a friend just to come and meet me.  

I had contacted Erick previously asking for his availability for a short interview since he was one of the 52 students that answered the Mondo Child Support Program Follow-up questionnaire I had distributed in the previous months. 

Mondo has been supporting children education in Kenya since 2012 and this year we ran a follow-up assessment to understand how the supported children have been doing after the support finished, their future plans and what was the most significant change the support had in their lives. 

So here I was getting to know Erick story in person!    

In 2015 Erick was struggling to continue his education at a secondary school level. Living only with his grandmother and his 3 younger siblings,  it was difficult to raise income to pay the school fees. One day he came in touch with Wefoco NGO, Mondo partner in Kenya, through the Wefoco Women groups. He applied for Mondo Brilliant Fund, a fund that provides bursaries for secondary education based on students merit.  

“Mondo support was the backbone of my education, without the support I don't think I would have made it” 

The Mondo Brilliant Fund allowed Erick to complete his secondary studies - “It made me be equal to those who are educated” -  in a conducive environment and without stress and concerns on how to find income to pay the school fees “I was full time in class without being sent home for school fees”.  

After finishing secondary he didn't give up on his passion and willingness to continue with his education  “my passion was always to be a biology lab researcher”. 

It wasn't easy, but he never gave up. He continued to apply for government bursaries and started looking for small jobs to raise some money to pay for his university, "I was carrying carts with water to construction sites to get some money to be able to pay for my studies".

Erick today is an independent young man “I work during the day to pay my rent, my studies and support my siblings... and I study part-time. Currently I am in my second year of Applied Biology and hoping to graduate by the end of next year”. 

When Erick replied to my message he said he was honoured to meet me and talk to me, but at the end of the day, I was the one honoured to meet him in person. He made my volunteer day with his I can make it attitude. His humbleness, strength and resilience were an inspiration to me.

Thanks to Mondo Child Support Program, 186 vulnerable children are currently accessing primary and secondary education in Kenya 2021 school year, including children with disabilities and young mothers.

If you also wish to make a difference and support more children to achieve their dreams, you can join us here: Brilliant Fund | MTÜ Mondo

Andreia Silva

Senior Gender and Education EU AID Volunteer with Mondo in Shianda, Kenya.  

 

What did I learn from Kenya?

My two-year-old ordered from me yesterday to take a boda (moto-taxi) and go to Kakamega for ice cream. I guess it has not hit him yet that we are back and no bodas or matatus here. Despite the abundance of ice cream and toys, I guess both of my kids miss the sunshine and carefree days in the lush green garden with free-roaming chickens and kids of Shianda.  I definitely miss the morning boda rides to the work to see how the village wakes up and friendly faces greeting you. Every day was an adventure and you never knew how it might turn up. Will there be electricity to run all the planned activities, what crazy stories or situations you or other volunteers will up or what plans will be made for the weekend. My brain really felt awake and stimulated!

People in Kenya live truly in the moment and when immersed in the local setting one also learns to seize the present. Not to worry too much about the future or past, just to savour the present. There is a phrase in Swahili Hakuna Matata (no trouble) that really well describes the stress-free atmosphere and learning-to-let go vibe. I am still a learner in that School, but with every experience growing more and more. Another aspect of daily life is hassle culture, to seize an opportunity and to act on it. I mean I see the benefits of it, but I guess I need to take a year to really practice it and see if it is energy efficient for me.  As the majority of people there are religious they love treating everything that comes their way as a sign. I experienced it mostly with boda drivers, who took my presence (or you know any other muzungu) as a sign or token of good luck. Would be amazing to start reading the signs myself. I feel that I rely a lot on my intuition when making decisions, but not welcoming all the things and people as signs of something in my life.

It all sounds amazing, but do not get me wrong there were also many challenges such as a different concept of time. For a typical westerner, time is money and you want to be sharp, but on the contrary, here time is for spending and enjoying and there is no rush. As they love to say pole pole (slow) in Swahili. I already had one experience with the workshops in Ghana and I knew that things take time and if you make an agreement no need to expect that everyone (or anyone)  will be there on time. For me, a bigger challenge was that people do not like confrontations so a lot of things are just left hanging. Similarly, they rarely give criticism or negative feedback. One really needs to have a good cultural understanding to read them during the workshop and understand if the activity and content are suitable and engaging.  I personally am quite a straightforward person who loves a good critique and can sometimes sound too bossy so I had to take many levels down in Kenya.

Despite all the hassle, bucket showers, garbage-burning smell, electricity cuts, chocolate-less village shops (I am addicted to chocolate) life in Kenya was amazing and I would go back anytime when a new opportunity arises. Mondo is doing such a great job and the community in Shianda is beautiful. Other volunteers became our second family and it was a magical time.  At the moment I am excited to continue with my PhD research at Tallinn University and help with educational projects, but let`s see what the future brings. I have a feeling that Africa shall see me again soon! Until then I am happy to share my experience with anyone interested to hear about volunteering or life in Shianda.

Thank you, Mondo and the Estonian Ministry of Foreign affairs for such a wonderful opportunity and all the work you do with the communities!

Visiting the member of parliament Benjamin Jomo Washiali

PAPO digital trainers

Our Shianda family

St. Paul’s Ebusia Secondary School

Viimane kool, mida enda lühikese vabatahtlikuaja jooksul külastame ning kus koolitusi läbi viime, on St. Paul´s Ebusia Secondary School. Shiandast distantsi ning kehvade teeolude tõttu umbes 30-minutise boda-sõidu kaugusele jääv kool jätab sisenedes koheselt positiivse mulje. Hoolitsetud välimusega hooned, piiretega ning aedniku kätt tunda saanud lillepeenrad ja professionaalne vastuvõtt tõstavad ootusi kooli tehnilise võimekuse ja teadmiste osas.

Esmatutvust sobitame luo hõimu kuuluva direktoriga, kes võtab meid soojalt vastu. Enne kui jõuame arugi saada, on lauale ilmunud chai ja võileivad. Kooli huve ja vajadusi kaardistavast kohtumisest, kuhu lisaks direktorile kaasatakse ka mitmed õpetajad, saame teada, et õpetajatel on koolis olemas arvuti kasutamise võimalus ning paljudel on see olemas ka kodus. Lisaks on koolis määratud, et tehnikaga seotud küsimustega tegeleb kooli sekretär, kes käib ka aegajalt ennast täiendamas ja annab info teistele edasi.

Talle on õpetajate hulgast appi määratud ka kaks abistavat tegevõpetajat. Nendest mõlemal koolituspäeval on kohal Gabriel. Teised osalejad vahelduvad.

Töisele koosolekule järgneb veelgi pikem vabas vormis arutelu, kus tuntakse huvi nii Eesti haridussüsteemi, õpetajate palkade, üldise eluolu, usu, kliima jm vastu. Pärast arutelu oodatakse meid lõunale, kus lisaks tavapärasele (ugali, riis, chapati) pakutakse  ka kana ja karastusjooke. Täis kõhtudega lepime kokku kaks koolituspäeva ning lahkume nägu naerul.

Kahel reedel toimuvatest koolitustest (reedeti on õpilastel ja ka õpetajatel kell 8-12 iseseisva töö aeg) esimest alustame alles kell 11.30, kuna õpetajatel toimub enne kohalik versioon õppenõukogust. Loomulikult ei puudu ka seekord tee ja suupisted. Alustame lihtsatest tehnilistest nüanssidest. Hoolimata oluliselt pädevamast arvutipargist ning laiemast teadlikkusest puudub ka St. Paul´s Ebusia koolis projektor ning Wi-Fi. Tutvustame kaasa võetud seadmete omavahelist ühendamist ning erinevaid kasutamisvõimalusi. Kohtumise põhirõhk läheb veebikoosolekute korraldamisele ning erinevate platvormide tutvustamisele. Tasuta lahendustest leiab kajastust Google Meet ja Jitsi Meet. Kuigi ka WhatsApp´is saab teha videokõnesid ja mööndustega ka koosolekuid siis kohalikud seda suure andmemahu kasutamise tõttu enamasti ei tee.

Ka Google kontod on kõigil õpetajatel olemas ja Google Meet tutvustamisel ei pea me sellel teemal pikalt peatuma. Koolituse lõpus leiavad osalejad, et omandatust saab olema palju kasu ning kindlasti viivad nad mõningad kohtumised kolleegidega (ehk ka lapsevanematega) veebi üle.

Teisel koolituspäeval nädal hiljem kuuleme esimese asjana, et esmaspäeval toimus koolis esimene veebikoosolek. Great success! 

Seekord võtame sihikule ettekannete tegemise põhitõed. Põhitööriistana tutvustame taas Google poolt pakutavat Slides’i. Lisaks näitame me põgusalt ka Microsoft Powerpoint ja Prezi keskkondi, et rõhuda eelkõige esitlustööriistade sarnasustele.

Kuna koolitusel osalevad vaid kooli IT poolega tegelevad õpetajad, saame igale neist anda kasutada ühe kaasa võetud sülearvuti. Iga osaleja paneb kokku ettekande vabalt valitud teemal enda õpetatavas aines. On selge, et kõik see on neile uus, mistõttu saame neile õpetada põhiteadmisi slaidide kujundamisest, taustadest, fontidest/suurustest/värvidest, piltide/videote lisamisest jpm. Juttu tuleb ka Youtube´st, seal leiduvatest vahenditest (loe: pea kõik) ning sealt videote akendamisest ning alla laadimisest. Koolituse tulemusena valminud ettekanded kantakse ka osalejate ringis ette, et harjutada Slideshow vaate rakendamist ning ettekande toel õpetamist.

What do volunteers do with their free time?

I am sitting at the porch in Kakamega rainforest lodge and enjoying the sounds of nature. The queen of the night is blossoming and attracting many pollinators with its amazing scent. The evening is amazing, and I am in a good mood. It has been a successful week at work-we have finished with the second digital competencies workshop, and things are advancing. What better way to celebrate it than a weekend getaway from dusty (but still sweet) Shianda. No garbage burning smell, just the fresh scent of the forest and instead of people going crazy about muzungus and money (actually, it is not as bad as described at the preparation workshop), you only have the monkeys, which occasionally might want something that is yours. To add to this, rainforests are my all-time favourite habitats, and I was thrilled when I found out that one is pretty close to us. Well, all of the Kakamega areas used to be a part of a big rainforest, stretching across the continent, but due to human impact, there is only a small patch left, situated 30 minutes from Kakamega town and an hour from our home in Shianda.





This is actually our second time in Kakamega forest. We really enjoyed the first visit and this time brought some more volunteers, Margit and Marten, with us. They were originally supposed to go to Uganda and work with the same digital competencies programme. Still, due to coronavirus, their plans changed, so the Shianda EU muzungu community got two more members for the weekly movie nights and cooking parties. It is great to have people share the work victories and struggles with, especially those working with the same programme to support each other. I helped with a short digital workshop session to Uganda that they are doing, and they will be checking out how the programme at the PAPO computer lab will continue as they will be staying a bit longer than me. And of course, it is nice to have a company to go on weekend adventures with.



Besides Kakamega, we visited the Maasai people, saw the great migration in Masai Mara national park, and made a sunset boat trip on Lake Victoria. Kenya is such a diverse country, and there are so many cool adventures to go for. If not for weekend trips, then nearby towns Kakamega and Mumias offer some fun activities, plus it is also nice to experience the daily village life-go to tailor and fabric shopping, discover new food places, go to a pedicure,(yeah, there are actually beauty salons offering facials and pedicure) or get lost in the cornfields and riverbanks. Life is never boring here, and each new day brings new adventures.

Boat ride on Lake Victoria

We got carried away with kitenge shopping

Sunrise rainforest hike to the top of Lirhanda hill 

Visiting Maasais

St. Luke´s Bumini Primary School

Järgmine kool, mida külastame ning kus koolitusi korraldame, on Buminis asuv St. Luke´s Primary School. Meie partneri PAPO kontorist vaid kiviviske kaugusel asuv kool on ainuke algkool kus koolitusi planeerime. Sarnaselt St. Patricki koolile Ebuberes tervitab meid sisenedes hulgaliselt põnevil õpilasi, jalgpalliplatsil muru näksivad lehmad ning virnades eksamitööd, mis ootavad parandamist.

Kaheks jagatud kooliaasta vältel toimub kokku 6 eksamisessiooni, kus kontrollitakse iga kord teadmisi kõikides ainetes. Seda, mida tulemustega tehakse, me päris lõpuni ei hooma. Pigem võrreldakse kokku liidetult sessioonide tulemusi, et näha muutust, aga reaalsuses on sessioonid erinevad ning seeläbi tulemused võrreldamatud. Madalaimate tulemustega õpilaste vanemad kutsutakse kooli ning peetakse aru põhjuste ning võimalike lahenduste üle. 

Sellele järgnevad järele aitamise tunnid toimuvad varahommikuti alates 6.30-8.00 ning pärast koolipäeva lõppu 15.10-16.30. Kasutatakse ka üks ühele õpet, mis kasvatab koormust veelgi. Kui isegi koormatud õpetaja kümne tunnist tööpäeva on veel kuidagi võimalik hoomata, siis alla kümne aastast last kümme tundi järjest mõttekat õppetööd tegemas me ette ei kujutu. Isegi kui vahepeal on pausid ning saab süüa ja suurel kooli territooriumil ringi joosta.

Intervjuust kolme õpetajaga selgub, et digitehnoloogia kasutuselevõtu seisukohast on kooli suurimaks väljakutseks tehnoloogia totaalne puudumine. Kooli inventari ei kuulu isegi ühte arvutit, televiisorit ega printerit, rääkimata sülearvutitest või projektoritest. Mõned õpetajad on küll saanud kogemusi õpetajakoolituse või mitteformaalse õppimise käigus, kuid kuna praktiseerimisvõimalused puuduvad, siis on need ka peatselt unustatud. Koolis töötavast 23st õpetajast omab nutitelefoni küll enamik, kuid õpetamiseks või õppematerjali otsimiseks neid ei kasutata. Ainukese kasutatava vahendina tuuakse välja Google´i keskkonda, kust üks õpetaja koolile mõeldud riigi poolt loodavad välishindamisvahendid saab alla laadida ja välja printida.

Huvi (lisaks sellele, et „palun andke meile mõni seade!“) tuntakse enamasti arvutiõppe ABC, projektori kasutamise ning ettekannete tegemise vastu. Saame koolilt kinnituse, et nad leiavad kahel päeval aega meiega kohtuda, et digipädevusi edasi arendada. Nopime programmist välja kooli vajadusetele sobilikumad infokillud ning valmistame koolituspäevad ette.

Kokku lepitud päevadel kohale jõudes korralduslikke probleeme ei esinenud. Küll aga puudus esimesel koolituspäeval koolis ja kogu piirkonnas elekter, mistõttu pidime ära jätma tegevused, mis hõlmasid projektorit ning internetti. Õnneks olid kaasa võetud arvutitel akud täis ning saime koolituse ikkagi läbi viia.

Koheselt ilmnes, et ka osalejate oskuste tase on väga erinev. Mõni õpetaja vajas juhendamist kuidas arvutit avada, hiirega liikuda, trükkida. Teine jälle valdas juba baasoskusi, näiteks MS Wordis ja Excelis töötamise osas. Tutvustasime arvuti erinevaid komponente, lisaseadmeid ning Windows baaspaketi programme. Seejärel töötasime juba väiksemates rühmades. Toimusid nii trükkimise, paroolide olulisuse ning loomise, kui ka Exceli valemite ning funktsioonide kasutamise töötoad. 

Koolituse lõpus selgus üllatav tõsiasi, et koolil ikkagi kuskil on, vähemalt teoreetiliselt, suurusjärk 100 tahvelarvutit. Neid aga pole õpetajad kunagi kasutanud. Põhjenduseks tuuakse, et kõikedele õpilastele neid ju ei jaguks. Samuti pole nende kasutamist neile ka kunagi õpetatud. Igal juhul meie tahvelarvuteid kordagi ei näe ning nende olemasolus veendunud pole. Ka ei tundu mõistlik teemat survestada, kuna kui isegi need tahvlid eksisteeriks, siis ka tehnilise valmisoleku korraldamine, et neid kasutusele võtta, koolil ju sisuliselt puudub. Vaja oleks ju pikendusjuhtmeid laadimiseks, internetti uuenduste tegemiseks, inimest, kes neid pidevalt hoiustaks ja hooldaks jpm.

Teisele koolituspäevale kogunesid samad õpetajad, kes esimesel korral. Õnneks oli seekord saadaval ka elekter ning läbi kaasa toodud ruuteri ka internet. Tutvustasime internetis käitumise ning ohutusega seotud aspekte. Erilist huvi ja elevust tekitas petuskeemide ning häkkimisega seotud osa. Tutvuti ka hea otsingu koostamise põhimõtete ning laiemalt, mida üldse võiks internetist leida ning kuidas leitud infot paremini õppetundidesse integreerida. Selleks vaadati ühiselt üle Google poolt pakutav pea lõputu tööriistakast.

Kokkuvõttes jäid õpetajad koolituspäevadega väga rahule. Sai palju õpitut meelde tuletatud ning uut omandatud. PAPO esindaja on lubanud kooli aidata esimes(t)e arvuti(te) hankimisega ning loodetavasti on õpetajatel juba õigepea võimalik omandatut igapäevaselt kasutada ning enda teadmisi juba koolisiseselt edasi arendada.