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OLPCorps Kibwezi Educational Centre, VA Tech, James Madison U., Radford U., Bucknell U.,and Northern VA Community College, Kenya

Personal Experiences:

"One pitch black night, my partner teacher, Bob Braxton and I were "chatting" via OLPCs to Kenyan teachers from accross the Educational Centre Compound. When we decided to walk over to visit the teachers, we gained the attention of dozens of children in the study hall. Because they saw two mysterious colored lights crossing the soccer field and coming towards their classroom. They broke away from their desks and greeted us with shouting and excitement at the classroom entrance. That is why I teach OLPC! - David Norman, 2008 Leadership Team Member

Our Budget

Every group member/work camp participant from Burke has all paid for our own air plane tickets to Kenya in July. We will be staying in tents for one month to help keep of costs down and to avoid mosquitoes.

Our plan for distributing the Laptops

If awarded 100 OLPC, we can divide the computers either into certain grade levels or a computer lab. We will consult with Grace Chege, the Imani Primary School Director. Based on past experience she takes our advice seriously and advices her staff to work with us as equals.

Lessons Learned

We will also have access to an internet cafe in town. One "lesson learned" is that we need to purchase a wifi to celluar bridge, such as the digi wi-point 3G. The only internet service available in Kibwezi is provided by Sarfaricom, a cellular phone provider that sells a GSM card that plugs into standard laptops, but not OLPCs. So our group will need to purchase the bridge in either the United States or Nairobi and the Laptop GSM/sim card locally in Kibwezi and pay for service through Safaricom.This will make updates to the OLPC wiki page possible during the visit this summer.

Points of Contact:

Group leaders
Rev. Beth Braxton, (703) 250-1156, pastor, revbeth at burkepreschurch.org
Mark Reimers, (703) 830-8677, retired forester, kibwezi at aol.com

American Student Participants:
Greg Gates, Student Leader, Sophmore at Virginia Tech, greg.gates at cox.net
Brooke Postlewaite, Junior at James Madison U., postlebd at jmu.edu
Krista Yancey, Sophmore at Bucknel U., krista.yancey at bucknell.edu
Eric Fisher, Senior in Highschool, Robinson Highschool, enfxc525 at aim.com
Kate Tidaback, Sophmore, James Madison U., katidaback at gmail.com
Lindsay Kipp, Junior, Radford U., likipp at radford.edu
Bill Lesser, Sophmore, Northern Virginia Community College, WHLesser4 at yahoo.com

POCs in Kenya:

Samuel Mote is the current director of the Educational Centre. He can be reached by cellular telephone at 011-254-722-239264 or by mail at PO BOX 76, Kibwezi, Kenya, East Africa.
Grace Chege, Imani Primary school teacher, imanikibwezi at gmail.com

Who We Are

The other 17 team members come from all walks of life, including an elementary teacher and a math teacher from Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology.

References:

Kibwezi Educational Centre on Wikipedia
Burke Presbyterian Church
Youtube Video