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TEAA Schools
We old ex-TEA (Teachers for East Africa) folks have put together an NGO called TEAA (TEA alumni) to assist schools in the three countries where we worked. Every so often we drop in to see how they're doing and what they may need next. On this trip my colleague Ed Schmidt and I checked out 13 schools, five of them new to us.
Heroes' welcome from old friends awaited us at Butonge HS, near Bungoma, Kenya where students lined the entryway to the school. Credit belongs to the whole organization, but we are there so we just enjoy it. TEAA jumpstarted their library two years ago, and last year provided some lab equipment. Current project is to get all 18 of our computers operational.
Great leap in school performance in national exams can be seen in the graph at right, below, in the two years since we have been around - maybe a coincidence but it sure looks good.
Dig we must for a better-educated Gunga. A new school in this small town near the lake is known to us because of its principal; see next caption.
Great communicator Okunya Milton served as our link to a school near Migori where he was deputy head. Then the call came from this lakeside community. We provided immediate support for zero-based lab situation, which is why our friend now has a voltmeter among other things. More will follow.
Dressed up at dawn are our hosts in the Migori area, Peter Arunga Indalo and his wife Arita. After dropping us at the bus for our ride to Mwanza in Tanzania, they will visit their daughter at her school, so they are under orders to dress well. Peter and my travelmate Ed worked together in the 1980s on the design, manufacture and adoption of cookstoves with reduced energy usage and improved ventilation.
Why are these men smiling?? The one on the left is happy because his baggage will now be 23 pounds lighter. We are all smiling because we have just spent two hours drinking beer and talking about the future. Taking possession of this laptop is the computer-guy from Bwiru Girls HS in Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania. Also represented is Bwiru Boys, home of the Mr. Frank Internet Cafe, a whole nother story.
Purposeful and competent, the young women of Trinity-Nabbingo stride off into a larger world. Let us hope it greets them well and that they make their mark.
Better building with better bricks, and cheaper too, since the major component is the very clayey soil dug up to make the foundation. Just add cement and bake and you have another innovation at MacKay in Kampala, Uganda, our most-supported school. Please also note the water-catchment provision.
Prowling the aisle in this well designed arrangement, teacher Monika Muyodi at MacKay sizes up the progress of the budding users of office software running on TEAA-supplied computers. Please also see her message below the photo.

From the teacher: Two weeks later we received the following message from Ms. Muyodi. Note: "S3" is the 3rd year of secondary school.

Hello. It's been a while since you left Mackay. I guess I've been waiting for you to send me an email first. Anyway, it's good you came to our school because that alone gave my students the motivation to study the computer. Before that, they didn't want to start learning something new especially when they had not seen anything good come out of computer studies. After seeing you guys in the computer room, they decided to give it a try. Now I have 16 students in S3 that are going to sit for computer exams in S4 finals. I have only 6 students in S4 because of the reasons mentioned above. They had never seen anyone sit for computer exams in S4 in Uganda. Thanks a bunch for your support. Looking forward to seeing you again. - Monika Muyodi, Computer teacher, Mackay Memorial College Nateete
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