Intern Introduction - James

Hello everyone, my name is James Waciira. I am one of the interns who is working to set-up a Computer Laboratory in one of the secondary schools in Kibera, Kibra Academy. Other than setting up of the lab we shall have introductory computer classes for the students before the summer program is over. I am working with the other interns Tim, Karima, Sarah and Tamara.

I have recently finished my course-work at Jomo-Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology awaiting graduation end of July this year (2009). There I studied BSc. Mathematics and Computer Science.

Teaching is not totally a new thing to me, having worked once as an un-trained mathematics teacher for four months during one of my long holidays while at university. And also owing to the fact that I took a Computer class while in High School, it has been a good chance to try and recall some of the things we learned while in school.

This has been a learning experience for me and I dare say for every one of the interns here at Kibera. We not only learn from and about each other, but also from the unique working situation we are in. It has been very encouraging to see students who are interested in learning where students opt to use their tea and lunch-breaks to practice some of the things we teach in class. And also very interesting is how students are keen to try out even those tasks we take for granted while using computers for instance; taking typing lessons while keeping their hands on the “HOME ROW” as they type, or after a lesson in Microsoft Word how they want to explore the various other ways one can format text.

The Children of Kibera Foundation is doing a superb job in making a significant change for the community at Kibera. I am grateful for this chance to give back to the community.