Camping, outdoor fun, and keeping fit are part of an undocumented culture within BRCK. You see, more than half our team is always very excited when there is an outdoor activity. The Lewa Marathon is a significant activity on our calendar and BRCK has taken part for the past four years. This experience is purely about spending time in the wild. From running the 21km marathon to spectating, it’s a wonderful three-day period. We got to bond with workmates, kids, partners, and friends, all with the goal of conserving our wildlife.

I have been to Lewa twice, the first time in 2018 as a spectator, cheering on my teammates. Little did I know that it would be me the next year. In 2019, I went as a runner, determined to race in the marathon. Yes, you read that right; I did 21km, and I survived!

The trip to Lewa involves several stops, but as Izaak Walton once said, “Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” After a long drive, our team gathers at the campsite to set up camp. When we arrive, some members prefer going for game drives to enjoy seeing the beautiful wildlife. The Big 5 tend to come out in the evening so we had to take advantage. We saw a lion, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinos, among others.  We were lucky to have our colleague Cyrus capture the amazing scenes and moments. The first night is usually relaxed and quiet compared to Saturday evening. This is because the runners need a good rest in readiness for the morning task. We usually have a bonfire set up as it gets dark. 

Doing 21km is not an easy task and takes a lot of preparation. We started practicing in March, with monthly runs in Karura as a team. We encouraged each other on how to go the extra mile each time we ran. The first time we did a 10km run was my wake up call. I ended up walking for 9kms… Things had to change, so I started exercising three times a week. I would also run 10kms every two weeks to keep fit. It got easier with time and by June I was somewhat ready for the task that lay ahead.

My main goal was to finish, because those who had done it before told scary stories about the experience. We were up early on the chilly Saturday morning. I was super excited and nervous at the same time. We got to the starting point as a team and, of course, we had to capture the moment, which in the true sense turned into a mini photoshoot. Those who know me know my love for pictures runs deep. The warm-up dance at the starting line was so exciting and I had to keep reminding myself that I could do it.

Our motto at BRCK is “You Can Do Hard Things.” This was an arduous task, but I was determined to crush this milestone. I love project management, so I always end up dividing my tasks into smaller bits. The gun to start the race went off and I remember having a meeting with myself to affirm that I was competing with no one. I was running for a cause and all I had to do was to get a medal at the finish line. I didn’t start in a rush, I kept my pace for the first 12km and it was amazing. The hills from 14km were not easy, but I was determined to finish, so I kept going.

The organizers took great care of the runners. We had water points every 2km that also had energy drinks, fruits, and a cheering squad and, to be honest, this made the pain a little more bearable. I expected our team to be at every water point, but I was being too ambitious. But when I got to 10km, there they were. When I saw them, I think my energy levels tripled. 

My legs decided to take a break when we got to 18km. 3km at Lewa is like 10km in Karura. I struggled to get to the finish line, it was the longest stretch I’ve ever run. I was tired and drained. The water and the fruits helped, but could only do so much. I did all I could to keep encouraging myself in the last phase, and I walked and jogged concurrently. I kept reminding myself that it would get better and before I knew it… I was at the FINISH LINE, having finished on my two feet and without dying in the process. The most exciting thing at the finish line is that you get a medal, a Safaricom gift hamper, a deep tissue massage and the pride of knowing you finished the race.  

When it was all over, I felt extremely accomplished. I set a goal and I accomplished it, finishing the race in under three hours. Although I would have been happy to just finish, I also had a secondary motivation during the race… to finish before Paul Obwaka. You see, Paul is one of my colleagues and he made fun of me, saying how he could finish before me even if he ran in reverse. But as the saying goes, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” I ended up finishing two minutes before him and best believe I am enjoying the feeling of this moment.    

If someone had told me in January 2019 that I would train and run a half marathon, I would have thought they were crazy. But now, a few weeks later, I know I am addicted to that feeling of accomplishment. 

The hardest part is signing up, but BRCK made that process easy for us. So at BRCK, the thing that can keep you from succeeding is if you don’t show up and put in the hard work. Running and competing in the marathon offers so many benefits, so I will definitely do it again next year. It’s a habit I have added to my list. And if I can run a half-marathon, anyone can.

I struggle to be like Erik and get my images edited and up on Instagram in the middle of chaos.  I come from the days of big cameras, film, darkrooms, and long periods between clicking the shutter and realising a final image.  I like to think about my pictures.  I’m never happy with them and I often return to Lightroom and edit them again and again until I at least don’t not like them.  This process does not lend itself to the instant forms of social media that we enjoy today.  While I continue to work on my publishing speed, I figured I might as well try my hand at a more contemplative photo essay following our journey on Expedition Pemba.

[foogallery id=”4034″]

How well do I know my Swahili language now that I have it as one of the languages that I speak fluently? Pemba expedition has helped me put this on the litmus paper and today’s challenge is purchasing SIM cards for PicoBRCK and SupaBRCK, which are to be deployed at Kokota Eco Primary School in Kokota Island and the Zanzibar weather station.

We seek the help of a local young man to purchase the cards and later came time to load bundles and learn the necessary USSD codes to navigate through the network. He starts giving “Nyota mia moja na sita reli kusajirisha nambari yako kwenye mtandao.” I stare at him having only heard the monetary figures; of course, I can’t afford to miss out the monetary figures given my accounting background.

Ruth (L) and Elizabeth (R)

I request that he repeats the instructions and I understand that he means (*106# to register my new number to the mobile network). I giggle and accept the challenge. Before he leaves for the day, we ensure that we are all set to have the data bundles loaded and that our mission for what brought the BRCK team here is accomplished: to provide reach to content and internet to islands of Pemba that I never knew existed before this expedition.

The boat would take us four hours and another 45 minutes of waiting for a smaller boat to deliver the Kio Kit to the middle of the sea, which now becomes our “parking bay.” The boat ride and the sceneries are amazing and the whole day you forget that dry land ever existed as the sea becomes your new home.

The crew is extremely jovial, singing and humming all the way to Kokota Island. We soon arrive at Kokota Eco Primary School where Elizabeth and Mark get to train the teachers on how to use the Kio Kit. The teachers are extremely enthusiastic and amazed at the difference this brings to their school and, from the look on their faces, they can’t wait to teach the students with the Kio Kit.

An hour after the teachers’ training, they get to use the skills learnt to teach the students with the Kio Kit and broadcast the lesson. Broadcast is a feature installed on the Kio Kit to ensure that all the students attending a lesson are on the same page with the teacher and not busy exploring other features.

Surprisingly they understand how to use the Kio Kit so quickly and are all motivated and looking forward to using it on a daily basis. They each get a printed photo to take home and remember this heavenly transition for the rest of their lives in their small island of Kokota. After a successful day, it’s time to get back to our camp and we have to walk a stretch to catch the boat with water up to our waist and our backpacks on our shoulders. The expedition is real for sure. We enjoy the sunset and the birds fishing and we land back to our camp at 7.30 PM, eager to see what tomorrow has in store for us.

While I imagined it’s possible to have receipts for all the payments made, I get to experience lack of this all through this trip. I also had never had a training session of the Kio Kit before and am extremely honored to be part of the BRCK team. I have a lot of respect for the management team who get to go through rough, strenuous, and rugged terrain away from the comfort of Nairobi to make things happen where no one would consider possible… indeed they were right to have the writings on our BRCK office wall: “You Can Do Hard Things.”

Increasingly, tech companies are moving to Shenzhen, Taipei, and Seoul. At the same time, BRCK is getting itself further and further into the remotest parts of Africa. We are a unique company, and we have a unique perspective on tech that makes life mostly hard, but ultimately fulfilling. We talk a lot about ‘You can do hard things.’ However, now we’ve come to the realization that ‘We make things hard’ is becoming just as true. But it’s our customers that do harder things.

Coming to Pemba has given the team here a glimpse of island life and the challenges that come along with it.

The goal today was to install a small weather station at the lighthouse on Pemba. We’ve installed these weather stations before in various places, including on Mt. Kenya, and this was a good excuse to test the new PicoBRCK V3. PicoBRCK is an IoT gateway and edge node. We’ve been working on this now for a few years, slowly perfecting what it means to connect sensors in some of the remotest parts of the globe.

The weather station we’ve used as the base is mostly unexciting, however, the PicoBRCK is. The V3 now includes remote OTA updates, onboard flash storage, and even lower power usage than before. But what we learned was completely unrelated.

Arriving at the lighthouse, Liz and Birir began to prepare the weather station. The team had shipped some new base firmware, so we needed to do a manual upgrade of the device before putting it online. First thing to do was to download all the tools to flash the firmware, so out came the SupaBRCK and within moments we’ve got the truck set up as a mobile hotspot, a quick skype call back to BRCK HQ and we are off again.

Lesson 1. Third party tools make life hard when you are alone.

We’re more privileged than most. Travelling with SupaBRCK has meant that we’ve had pretty constant access to communication, something that isn’t a reality for most here. Without the SupaBRCK, we would have never gotten the firmware updated, and the weather station would never be up. We need to make our offline tools work for those who are offline. We’ve been building online tools for a while, and in building those out, sometimes it’s easy to forget that you’re a long way from online a lot of the time in remote areas. Sometimes that little bit of information can help you get connected faster.

Once we had the system set up, it was about getting it up and reading real data. Mark, who’s spent a lot of time in Tanzania, was set to talk to Yusef, the lighthouse keeper, to get his blessing. Well, it turns out we didn’t have the approvals we thought we did, and we had to improvise to make it work.

Lesson 2. Flexibility is critical when you are expecting the unexpected.

When we got permission to mount the weather station, we had to work out how to mount it. One of the great things about PicoBRCK is its small size, but the weather station was bigger. We’ve been thinking a lot about different options for mounting the PicoBRCK and the SupaBRCK. However, sometimes in the office it’s too easy to think about standardizing everything, and trying to force our installs into simple boxes. Mounting the weather station involved everything we had in the toolbox, every zip tie we had and scavenging U-bolts from every antenna. Deploying with all eventualities in mind, and the ability for the hardware to be flexible is critical.

We loaded up the daladala’s again with all the gear and people and set off to the new digs, Verani Beach, our home for the next three nights. Everyone got sorted out, went for a swim, and chilled out for a bit. Brandon from the Good All Over team got out the drone and headed out over the ocean.

Splash!

All of a sudden Brandon bolted up and ran at full speed towards the sea, a few people looked up, but no one connected his urgency with the splash of moments ago. Minutes passed and finally the penny dropped that Brandon was chasing the drone as it bubbled towards the ocean floor. Six of us jumped up and chased Brandon down. ‘He’s got it… come the f#$k back!…’ repeated from the shore. We hauled the drone out, and Brandon, exhausted from 300m of race-pace swimming and countless repeated dives needed hauling out as well.

Lesson 3. Keep it simple stupid.

A DJI Inspire drone is an amazing piece of machinery, designed in Shenzhen, the greatest electronics and robotics community in the world. It wasn’t meant to be field stripped on the sandy coastline of Pemba, hundreds of miles from the nearest oscilloscope, but we knew we had only a few hours to strip it down and get all the salt water out of the complicated electronics, bearings, and mechanisms.

We carry a lot of tools with us, but we did not anticipate the 300+ screws of 10 different types, from M8 hex bolts, to M2 pozi’s, and M3 Torx drives. We were laughed at by the guys working on the Land Rover, with their 10mm spanners and a single screwdriver. Tonight we’ll attempt the recovery, without wrongly sized screwdrivers, and see if we can get this thing back in the sky for the trip home.

It’s been an interesting day, full of engineering, personal, and team challenges. We’ve succeeded in getting our objectives done, but we’ve learned a lot today about how to make BRCK products world beating in our part of the world. Why do we use technology designed in New York and London and Shenzhen for problems in Nairobi and New Delhi… and Shimoni?

This BRCK expedition to Pemba has been two years in the making, and in that time my mind has often considered what it would be like for me to come back to this place. When we left over three years ago, it truly was in a blaze of glory.

After accepting a new job in Nairobi, we took a final four weeks on the island to pack up and say goodbye, and somehow that last month seemed like a final Good Riddance from Pemba to us, and the same in return. The transformer in our village blew out, and spares from the Zanzibar electrical company were just not coming. Those hot and difficult weeks were spent running a small Honda generator day and night for power, dripping as we packed and planned. That time-frame saw me arrested by a colleague in order to settle a debt between him and hotelier, a deal which I had negotiated and left them to resolve.

That stressful dispute finally settled, just a few hours from our departure, and us still sweaty from the many trips to and from our house and the port to pack all of our belongings intro trucks, followed by boats, the brakes on my Land Rover seized on the road to my workshop where I was headed for one final goodbye, and I rolled in with the front hub in flames. With the car still on fire, I rushed into the workshop, and grabbed the fire extinguisher, which I hadn’t needed in our five years of life in Pemba, and extinguished our faithful Landy, realizing I’d have to abandon the car for good, still smoldering, and to sweat it out – perhaps forever – in our wake.

I wished good friends farewell, but the island had sent me off in a bitter fashion. First to the seaport to send all our worldly goods to a new life and new adventure, I boarded a plane for the same, and with all the hassles behind me, I was glad to be leaving for sure.

At the port, I remember remarking that this was the last time I’d transport four truckloads of luggage between the port of Wete, Pemba and the port of Shimoni, Kenya. Last Sunday however, after nearly 11 hours on the road to get from Chyulu Hills to Simoni, I found myself packing up yet another jahazi, this time in reverse, heading from Shimoni to Wete. After five years of transporting furniture from Pemba to customers in Nairobi, the process of moving people and cargo through the port was well known. Three years later, I knew the system hadn’t changed, but thought maybe some of the people had.

After introductions and declaring the intent of our journey to the immigration officials in Shimoni, we began the arduous process of stamping passports and collecting paperwork for the onward journey. We had to clear with the Kenya police, the marine police, the customs officials, and the revenue authority. One clearance document seemed to be slipping from our grasp. After waking the relevant officials in KRA, we were informed that the form C32, used for importing/exporting vehicles over the border, had never been used in Shimoni before. In a port that dealt with seagoing cargo, a registered Kenyan car or motorcycle had never been taken through the port.

We were told they could order the forms from Lunga Lunga, about an hour’s drive to the Tanzanian border, but with it already being 10 PM, it wouldn’t arrive until Monday. We weren’t to be dissuaded or disheartened. A long, winding journey to wake up the owner of the only cyber café/print shop in town allowed us to download the proper form from the internet, print off four copies; two for us and two in case some other foolhardy souls decide to follow in our footsteps in the future.

After finishing the passenger manifest and submitting it to the maritime police, the ship captain, Hamadi, and I started the negotiations for the trip. After realizing that they hadn’t brought the size boat we had ordered (jahazis are slightly smaller, wooden sailboats than the much larger Mashua we had been hoping for) and after seeing how much space the kit of a film crew, 16 people, and two motorcycles can take up, we both agreed we were going to need more room or a bigger boat.

The perpetual hassle of trips like these are not without a spot of luck from time to time. Another ship captain who was loading coconuts into his boat at the time was headed to another port on the northern tip of Pemba. After 20 minutes of haggling back and forth we came to an agreement and two motorcycles and eight of our passengers would ride with them, and we would sail together to the port of Vumawimbi.

At 1:30 AM, only about 30 minutes behind schedule, all 16 people, two motorcycles, and all the camera bags, tents, food, and personal luggage were loaded, and we weighed anchor and set off for Pemba. After rounding Wasini island, the small landform off Shimoni, we headed out into the open ocean, navigating by the stars, south to Pemba. About two hours into the journey, the dim, pulsating light of the Kigomasha lighthouse began to shine in the distance. Reassuringly beckoning us to our destination across the channel, from the top of a 120-year-old rickety steel structure, where two days from now we will put in a PicoBRCK weather station to collect weather data from the area.

We pulled into Msuka Bay and into the calm waters and white sands of a quiet Vumawimbi Beach just before sunrise, to find our daladala waiting in the shade of an old muarobaini tree. At 6 AM, the reunions began. Our driver was an old friend of mine that had driven ox carts and lorries to my shop many times during our time in Pemba, bringing trunks and logs to the sawmill, and hauling away finished products to ship to customers, wherever they may be.

After the boats were unloaded (no small feat!) we headed off to Wete by road to clear customs and immigration properly, and to make our ‘official’ arrival into Tanzania. After nearly 24 hours on the road from Chyulu to Wete, we finally dropped our bags at a friend’s house, and dropped the Good All Over crew at the guest house where they’d be staying. Having missed a whole night of sleep, everyone set about getting a little bit of rest – much needed for the saddle-sore motorcyclists and those with knots in their backs from five hours of shifting and straining to get comfortable on bags of coconuts.

A few hours of shut-eye/siesta and recharge, and then up again to tackle the next few days of testing BRCK product in another logistically challenging locale, this time with the waters of the Indian Ocean surrounding us on all sides.

Coming back to Pemba has been like coming home. This time, though, with new eyes, all that is challenging feels like an opportunity. All that is hard rings as worthwhile. My life has had its seasons. I have seen ease and difficulty as it ebbed and flowed. The tide, which inevitably goes out, also comes in again. This time, it brought me with it, and it’s wonderful to be back.

When you hear about breakfast at Mukururo base near Amboseli, what do you think it looks like? Some hyenas eating a lion’s leftovers? Well… I would also think the same, but on 4th November, the view right outside the camp was breathtaking for the team and I bet even the hyenas would agree with me. The sunrise view is one of a kind that reveals the beauty of the African landscape.

This is the second day for us in Mukururo and we have the privilege of setting up a Moja for Big Life at the conservancy. Moja is a product of BRCK which allows users to access free internet through a SupaBRCK. The SupaBRCK is a rugged router, which is waterproof, dust proof, and so strong that you can drive a Land Rover over it several times without breaking it. Yet it is beautifully designed, giving it a superior look with the metal casing making it stand out even in the wild. If the SupaBRCK was human, it would qualify to be a bodybuilder.

We start by preparing pancakes for breakfast right outside the camp using my own Mhogo Foods Cassava flour (a company I run) which is a gluten-free and grain-free flour and the best replacement for wheat. As Ruth and I cooked the pancakes, everyone in the team enjoyed every bite and I realized that their faces are brighter and hangovers are gone. There is something about cooking in the wild that makes you want to stay there and eat till you drop. The antelopes and zebras are just staring at us and I am sure they secretly wish that we could get them a tent and give them some of the pancakes.

After breakfast, we head out to the ranger’s base to set up Moja, with an antenna mounted on the rooftop so as to make sure that the rangers and their visitors access free internet at a wide range. Even before we finish securing the antenna, some rangers are busy enjoying the cached content, while others are enjoying free internet provided by Moja Free Wifi. We train them on how to use the device (which most of them already know) and have lengthy chats with them.

Around 2PM and we head out for a game drive right after having our lunch. The rough and beautiful landscape makes you want to stop after every few meters and take a photo or even get out of the Land Rover and breathe. We finally get to this beautiful view of Kilimanjaro, where we make toast and enjoy our sundowners. When we started the expedition, I thought that we were all going to die… But so far, I have enjoyed every bit of the expedition and I can’t wait to see what is in store for tomorrow.

A question we get asked often at BRCK Education is about data supporting the effectiveness of our work. Potential customers, donors and investors want to know what metrics we use and have to verify that the Kio Kit improves learning outcomes.

The truth is that the Kio Kit doesn’t have any impact on learning. The Kio Kit without education content is just really cool hardware. The metrics buck really stops with our digital content partners and teachers. Whether a school/teacher decides to use the Kio Kit to teach literacy using the Tusome, eLimu or Jolly Phonics content is what might determine the learning outcomes at that school.

The Kio Kit is not at all prescriptive in how we expect all teachers to use it in class. We believe that the Kio Kit is a toolbox with several tools inside it. Which tool is used, when it is used and how it is used should remain the decision of the person who knows the students best: their teacher. In some cases, we have curated a collection of standard content, but when we deploy Kio Kits to the Solomon Islands or Mexico, we have no say in what content the kids there will consume and interact with.

But metrics are important. It is important Kenyan primary schools talk about the KCPE results. It is important that we know literacy levels of students. They say numbers don’t lie, but we all know people who lie have used numbers. If there’s a measurable school reform intervention that worked in inner-city DC, it does not mean it will work in Samburu. This is where metis plays an important role.

It is not just children who go to the school

In Greek mythology, Metis was the personification of deep thinking, knowledge and wisdom. The Kiltamany expedition was 7 days without running water or electricity; a school in the middle of nowhere, forgotten by the government, politicians and most.

Some of the challenges we observed while we were there:

• 4 teachers and 1 headteacher were allocated by the Teacher Service Commission to this school with 8 classes.
• Teachers were from Meru, Archer’s Post, Nairobi. Most were not happy about being posted to such a remote school, far from friends, family, amenities and a social life.
• Teachers were not tied to the local people in any way.
• Teachers were often absent and sometimes drunk during class.
• Most classes we observed during our time there did not have a teacher present
• Students were also often absent. Parents viewed school (especially with such teacher absenteeism) as a waste of time – taking care of the goats was a better alternative.
• Teachers were demoralized by the absenteeism of students, especially the smart girls who were married early.
• Teachers were demoralized by their low pay and were often seen taking calls during class to “side hustle.”
• By 11am, it becomes unbearably hot, effective learning and concentration become near impossible.
• If the borehole of the village dries up, children are sent to get water for lunch from elsewhere. One day, the children waited till 4pm for lunch – for many it was the only meal they would eat.

Some of the challenges were surprising, others are pervasive everywhere in Kenya. What learning from metrics can we apply in a school like this? What we saw working in the school were some excellent instances of local knowledge and community leadership: metis.

Meet Sylvester Lengamunyak, an amazing example of metis. If anyone knows what is needed to transform Kiltamany Primary School, Sylvester does. If anyone is able to connect the dots and make those things happen, he is. If anyone is able to bring all the right stakeholders together, he is.

Sylvester (L) is also a teacher!

While were there, we saw Sylvester:

• Call a meeting of village elders, the school Board of Management and the teachers to agree on the way forward. Each group stood up and owned responsibility of what they needed to do. These agreements were written and signed by all.
• Organize for water to be fetched from Intrepids Tented Camp when the borehole was dry. He had a good relationship with the kind manager there, they also sold us some diesel and checked our tires.
• Organize for boda rides for teachers, volunteers, patients and visitors.
• Organize for 40 women to have literacy and numeracy classes 3 times a week. This involved approval of the elders, their husbands and the school for the facilities.

Deep local knowledge, empathy, passion and purpose are the things that bring people like Sylvester, content like eLimu’s and hardware like the Kio Kit together. It takes a village to gather their collective strengths and knowledge, to strategize and work together to build a culture of genuine teaching and learning.

L-R: Sylvester, Nivi, Edoardo. An important lesson from Samburu: the best herders are at the rear of their flock.

Recommended reading: “Metis and the Metrics of Success” by Ernesto J. Cortes Jr.

We started early in the morning on the third day at Kiltamany and we were all late. As soon as we arrived at school, we started the meeting with the teachers and tried to get a picture of their challenges: what you do like, why you decided to be a teacher, what you don’t like, what are the problems you see.

After few hours we had a meeting with both the community council and the teachers: everything was entirely in Swahili and Samburu language, so I had hard time understanding what they were speaking about most of the time (my Swahili is far from good), but thanks to the patience of my colleagues, I managed to understand everything eventually.

Most of the discussion was almost a fight between community and teachers: each of one of them argued about the role and the other’s responsibilities because of the poor performance of their pupils and children. Long story short, we discovered that according to culture your child either goes to school and performs well, or there’s no need for the child to be in school, so he or she starts working very early in their childhood.

If their children don’t go to school, they will obviously perform badly. The teachers are not engaged because pupils perform badly, if they don’t attend class. If teachers perform badly, then the pupils can’t get a good education and, again, they will perform badly at KCPE.  Here is the loop you can’t escape, unless everybody takes responsibility.

After few hours of discussion, we all agreed to write a list of things that have to be changed and what each of the actors (parents, teachers, community, government) has to do. This was the most difficult (but interesting) part of the day, because it is beyond technology.

You listen, you understand, you write a list of things together with all the stakeholders: the community, the parents and the teachers. You compromise and you build an initial framework you can use to make things work. There’s no technology involved, neither is there a product built. From this point you start to think how technology can improve and make things happen efficiently and faster.

What we realized eventually was the lack of framework that particular school has and the possible downsides of a product like the Kio Kit. If you deploy where there’s no framework, you need to build one together with the community before even thinking about starting a real pilot or thinking about making a difference. This was the most difficult part of the expedition: how can you convince the community to keep their children in the school? How can parents be sure that their children are not wasting time on a poor  (and so useless for them) education?

These two questions made us start thinking how we can improve the user experience and the capacity of our Kio Kit to include what some parents want from the education of their children and how we can better track the results of the pupils learning, eventually sharing those with the parents themselves.  We want to build a product that can adapt to every kind of situation, even when there’s no framework supporting the education system.

In technology projects you must not try to change your customer behaviors, not at the beginning at least, but you must try to properly understand your target before you design the product you want to build. Don’t just think about it, understand it, then design it, then test it and re-design if you haven’t included something. We never thought about an environment like this before, where, for example, the Kio Kit can be shared across multiple classes at the same time or it can be used with an autopilot system because of lack of teachers.

Kiltamany is composed of 10 villages surrounding the Samburu National Park. They are far away from the city, in some kind of deserted landscape, with no piped water and no electricity. Kiltamany Primary School is the only school for the whole community, with around 200 students, scarce chalk and studying materials. Sylvester, a Samburu Junaenda (in his 30s) believes the school is the hope to Samburu people live their lives better, change the way the community think about marrying early age girls and their practice of genital mutilation. In all, offer future generation broader possibilities.

In the Expedition BRCK Team came to Samburu, it was a week of a thousand learnings. I was there just for the last 3 days, and it was already special: feet on the ground, thoughts on the rising possibilities, hope for the future, hands-on, lots of work to be done.

For the three days I was in Kiltamany, there were only 3 out of the 7 teachers present. The School has 8 classes, meaning that on a normal day there is always one class without teacher, and during our time there 5 of the classrooms had no teacher. In spite this, children came every day and were seated in their desks, eager to learn something. Some of them reading or writing, or just doing nothing, until the bell for break ring.

This gave our BRCK team an extra job as we were taking turns to be teachers. It was good in one sense, as it put us in the shoes of the teachers (not exactly of course, as I do not have the training nor the content nor speak their languages). I felt the difference of giving one class with the kids holding the Kio Tablets, and another class with no such resources. On the other hand, it was not ideal, as it was important to see how the teachers behave with the tablets, if they find it useful, handy, and simple and if it helps in class.

Gordon, from eLimu, was showing the kids their new Swahili literacy app, Hadithi! Hadithi!. Bobo, the app character, was created to do a lot of success among the kids. He tells them story, ask them questions, say enthusiastically his Well done!!!  The kids, on the other side, were sited on their desks trying very curiously to get near Bobo, as he was in Gordon’s laptop (as the app is still not in the tablets).  They were very excited to participate. Each time one kid went to interact with the screen was the most amazing part. There was a suspense in the air about knowing what response Bobo would give.

I went to teach in Class 4 without the tablets and it was a hard job. First my absence of Swahili and the kids’ English. I used a lot of body language and made them come to the board to draw some animals they could see around. They drew lions, sheep, goats, elephants, cows, camels, and snakes. Then, I moved to the body parts vocabulary: heads, shoulders knees and toes. They showed to me that they were learning, and that they knew all the words. However, when I asked some other types of questions, the only possible answer could be YES! YES! YES! They didn’t want to get me sad.

When in class 5, now with the Tablets, it was was amazingly simpler. In this class, the children were calling me all the time to teach them something, and they were really excited to get a mzungu teacher. Their English was a lot better so I decided to read with them some English Story Books from the app. Each of them read one paragraph, just as I did in school. I made some questions about the story and asked them to draw what they remembered.

What I saw the teachers normally doing, is ask the students to repeat the words in the story. They can do this well. That’s the way the teachers usually gets feedback if the kids are learning or not. It’s definitely a harder job to check their comprehension of what was said or read, or if they can put it in other words, but to develop this skill is the first step to build a critical mind. I suppose once there is this feature on the app, with proposed questions for each exercise, or the possibility of the teacher to develop their own questions, students will learn better and teacher will find their job easier.

During this expedition, I realized something I already knew but wanted some proof. The impact the Kio Kits are bringing to this community is hard to be measured, but is huge. All the content inside one small tablet, the opening of possibilities in the children’s minds, interactivity, learning by playing games, curiosity, all this with no connectivity needed. Each time, we are learn of our capability to improve society.

Day 0 comes before Day 1, and what a Day 0, traveling to the Kiltamany!

The original plan was to leave for Kiltamany at noon, but that was not to happen. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, passed by BRCK office much later than expected and got the whole building excited. In the process, he took a great photo of himself and our Mark Kamau, with the PayGo/PicoBRCK project, which he posted on Facebook. Of course, BRCK’s Mark suddenly regained numerous Facebook friends, tags, posts and likes – rising to celebrity status. But this meant that by the time Jeremiah, the BRCK Intern, Mark and myself finally rode out of the office, it was 4:45pm! Trying to negotiate the fastest route outside Nairobi, BRCK’s newly, freshly minted ‘celeb’ aka Mark got a thousand times humbled by a no-nonsense traffic cop.

Our surprise guest 😉

Google maps said it would take 7 hours to reach Kiltamany, Samburu County. However, there is a 20km section between Archer’s Post and Kiltamany that weaves through a conservancy full of acacia, lost trails and dry river-beds – an impossible feat in the dark. So we set our goal lower for that day: to reach Bryan’s place in Nanyuki, and proceed to Kiltamany the following morning.

Brian’s Place in Nanyuki

Mark’s hard-driving and google-map-defying navigation, consistently interrupted by homage from Facebook fans, got us to Nanyuki by 9pm. After a night at Bryan’s excellent house in the middle of another conservancy among zebras, warthogs, bushbucks and other wild game, we set off for Kiltamany in the morning just after 7am. The ride to Kiltamany would have been smoother if we had not argued about google maps correctness. Ultimately, there was nothing to argue about once we went beyond existing, data-rich, cell towers!

Inside Kalama Conservancy

We reached Kiltamany Primary school a few minutes after 10pm, and went directly to join Nivi, Edoardo,Elimu’s Francesca. Initially, we distributed ourselves among the 5 teachers classes. Afterwards, Nivi and Jeremiah volunteered to teach some classes, with and without the Kio Kit.

(From Left) Amit, Edoardo, Mark, Nivi and Francesca

My Standard 8 math class was taught by the head-teacher, Mr Elijah. It was a normal well-taught class, to an attentive 12-some boys. The class was quite interactive. It reminded me so much of my primary school days. However, they appeared way behind in the syllabus, for a class sitting the KCPE in a month. My other class was a group of Std. 3, girls, more in the group than boys. It was passionately taught by a Ms Elizabeth.

Teacher Elizabeth’s English Class

With only 5 teachers, it means that the other 3 classes go un-taught at any given time. Kiltamany is about 20kms from Archer’s Post deep, inside Kalama Conservancy, very far from Nairobi. As you can imagine, not many teachers posted there take up their appointments. I can foresee the Kios playing a major role in complementing the work that the teachers do.

Nevertheless, Edoardo and I were delighted by the Kio Kit’s WiFi performance. The almost zero WiFi interference meant that the Kios could be used upto 50m away from the Kio Kit! Streaming on the Kios worked so well from the neighbouring classrooms, giving flame to Edoardo’s ideas of broadcasting to groups, registration of students and the sessions. There is also decent 3G signal at some points of the school, which will ease the task of remote updates. It’s day one, but I think it has been worth it, at a technical level.

We spent the evening sprucing up the camp, taking showers (for some), and helping prepare dinner. Amit wowed us with burgers, fries potatoes and most delicious fried onions – that everyone agrees – belongs to the best Nairobi restaurants, not a camp in Kiltamany. At some time, the Samburu elder guarding our camp left to attend a meeting to discuss a hyena attack, that had claimed the lives of 90 goats just the previous night. They are now back, but there was also a hyena scare near the camp last night, so here’s to hoping that this hyena business has been laid to rest.

Sprucing Up The Tent: Shower Setup

Preparing a most delicious dinner

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