Hi Everyone!
It’s been a little over a month since we left Kenya, and I have been reflecting a lot on our experiences there. I miss the friends I made there and hope to get to see them again someday. Shifting from Nairobi to Copenhagen was a pretty heavy culture shock. I found myself getting strange looks when I would run across the wide boulevards here, as though I’d never seen a crosswalk! Also it took a while before I stopped addressing everyone on the street with “Jambo”!
One experience that I have been reflecting on is trying to help our drivers and students, the Mouti brothers, find a technological solution to the devastating energy shortages that were threatening to destroy their cyber-café and cell phone businesses in Kibera. The severe droughts that Kenya was experiencing during our stay there not only resulted in regional water shortages and crop failures, they also strained Kenya’s hydroelectricity production. While the downtown region had electricity 24/7, the outlying regions including Kibera were faced with scheduled blackouts three days a week from 6am to 6pm, which doomed any business that relied on electricity to function (cell phone charging, cyber cafes, barber shops, some restaurants, even the local movie theater). We worked with our amazing, charismatic and very fun drivers and students, Fred and Peter Mouti, to figure out how they might be able to purchase a battery charger/power inverter to allow them to charge batteries at night and allow their businesses to operate during the day. Our discussions brought to light a wide range of opportunities and challenges relating to energy in Kibera. If the Mouti brothers could get a loan to install the system, they might eventually have the opportunity to sell electricity to their neighboring businesses, to charge batteries for local homes (apparently many homes in Kibera use car batteries for lighting and even TV), to provide battery charging or jump-starting services for the local mechanics, and to apply for a government grant to install solar panels. On the other hand, investing in this equipment and operating when others couldn’t brought the risk of theft, retribution from competing businesses, and the possibility of having to pay bribe money or get shut down by local authorities.
Since we’ve left, I’ve learned that the power is back up and running around Kibera, but if the situation changes, I’m glad that the Mouti brothers have a backup plan in their pocket- especially since cyber cafés and cell phone shops provide a very necessary service in the community: connecting people to information and to each other.
Working with the Mouti brothers has inspired me to learn more about energy systems in the developing world, and I am excited to have the opportunity to travel to Cairo next month to volunteer for the non-profit group Solar C3.I.T.I.E.S: "Connecting Community Catalysts Integrating Technologies for Industrial Ecology Systems." I will be helping this amazing group build solar water heaters, biogas digesters, and water filtration systems in Cairo's Zabbalen "Garbage City".
Here at Copenhagen Business School I am currently taking classing relating to social entrepreneurship and business strategies in the developing world. Being able to draw on my experiences with SE101 has made my learning experience here much more rich and relevant. I have had a lot of classmates from universities and business schools around the world ask me how they can get involved in programs similar to SE101. If anyone reading this has suggestions for them, please let me know!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Are we so different?
After a one year hiatus from teaching, I was at it again, this time in Kenya. Prior to beginning the MBA I was a secondary school teacher. I chose to leave teaching, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I wanted to do more. I wanted to have a broader reach beyond the classroom and implement positive change in our world. I feel that the SE101 experience has signaled the start of that challenge for me.
On the first day of class, I was amazed how much it felt like the beginning of a new school year at home. I think this is because people have the same basic wants, desires and dreams and that spans across cultures. The students were eager to meet us and to learn new concepts. They were motivated to improve and better themselves and their community. They have a desire to succeed and recognize the need for education and effective tools to meets their goals. These motivations are not unique to slums in Africa.
Halfway through the trip, Nancy asked if I was experiencing culture shock. I thought about it, and responded, “no, I don’t think so, but I think I will when I return home”. This was partially true. I actually began to feel the culture shock in the days before I left. I began to really conceptualize many of the differences between the students and their lives in Kibera, and my life, as I know it in Canada. It is true we have the same desires to learn, provide for our families, and to achieve success in life. The difference is how do we define it and how do we achieve it?
In Kibera there is tremendous opportunity for improvement and what we consider to be very little in Canada has the opportunity to go a long way in Kenya. But it is not as easy as just providing the capital or the resources to implement change. This type of aid has proven largely unsuccessful in Africa over many decades. The people who are going to change the slums are the people who live in the slums. It was Barlet, the director of the St. Aloysius School and a profoundly dedicated and inspiring community leader, who said to me one day, “It is not you or I that will change Kibera and make it a better place. It is these students. They live in the community, it is their life and they are the ones that will change it.”
The value of the SE101 program is that it provides the education and the tools to facilitate the participants to achieving their own goals. I saw first hand the power of education to provide not only the tools, but also the confidence to utilize their knowledge to pursue their goals. Their success is ultimately their own responsibility and within their hands. But we have the opportunity through programs like SE101 to support, educate and facilitate participants to achieve their own their successes. And in helping others find success’s I too have begun to find the success I’m looking for.
Thank you to the wonderful team of instructors at St.Al’s. Brian, Marvin, Jason, Nadia, Mike and Christy for your commitment and passion to deliver the best program possible and to share your own education with others. It was a joy to work with you.
Thanks to the participants at St. Aloysius School for inviting us into your community, sharing your dreams and aspirations and allowing us to learn together with you.
Thank you to Nancy for the support on the ground and of course providing such an amazing and inspiring opportunity for us at Sauder. I look forward to seeing many great successes from SE101 as the program moves forward.
And…. Special thanks to Barlet Jaji, for sharing your passion and tireless commitment to youth and community development. You are an inspiration.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Broilers or Layers?
One of the greatest parts of living and working in Kenya is that no two days are ever alike, and no two conversations are ever alike. Every time you think that you have established a daily routine, Kenyans are quick to throw you a curveball. This makes even the simplest activity, such as going grocery shopping, a challenging and fun experience. There are times when going to pick up a jug of milk becomes a full day activity!
The classroom where I worked was no different. I was working at the Friend’s Church site along with Sarah and Amanda. We had the privilege of working with 3 outstanding Strathmore students, Boniface, Sam and Steve. They had worked with SE101 before, and really helped us along in the moments of pure panic when you realize that you have to teach a class of 30 bright students about the creation of cash flow statements!
One of my favorite conversations I remember having with the class happened when I was facilitating a presentation by one of the students. The student was planning on setting up a small shop to sell chickens, and I figured that this would be a very simple example to present to the class. Everything was going well, until one of the students at the back said “broilers or layers?” This led to a spirited discussion that lasted more than an hour as I learned a little bit more about the distinguishing factors between broiling chickens and laying chickens. For example, you would never broil a laying chicken, because the meat wouldn’t taste good. Also, they mature at different ages, and in order to run a successful business you would need to stagger when you buy your chicks in order to ensure an adequate supply of both.
I never would have thought that a chicken business would be that complicated!
That was just one of the many examples of why my time in Kenya was so great. The people that we got to interact with, and the experiences that we had, will stay with me for a long time.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Oprah for a month
Whenever someone asks me, “How was your trip to Nairobi?” I find it extremely difficult to think of a response that will capture the depth of my experience. I always knew that I wanted to volunteer in a third world country at some point in my life, but I could have never imagined that it would have such a heavy impact on me.
I was teaching at the St. Aloysius site in Kibera along with Mike, Christi and Joanna. Our students were all around the same age as me, so I found it pretty easy to socialize and a joke around with them just like I would with my friends back home. Although there were obvious differences between us, I was surprised by how similar certain behaviors were accross cultures. For example, the students teased each other in the same way, were competitive when playing games, and the girls were often doing each other’s hair or gossiping about their love lives. On the first day of class, we asked our students to brainstorm some of the social issues in their communities and identify where a business opportunity was possible. This activity made me realize that they were not at all oblivious to the issues within their community. In fact, they were well aware of the problems and could provide us with detailed information about the root causes. The challenge became coming up with a solution that would engage the residents of Kibera and allow them to make a profit at the same time. Some students believed that this was impossible to do, and referred to other businesses that had failed while attempting a similar idea in the past. However as the weeks went on, they began to realize that this wasn’t impossible and became very passionate about their ideas – some to the point where they refused to modify anything that was clearly unrealistic (eg: not paying themselves for 6 months in order to have a large positive cash flow statement!), but that soon changed as well.
I really enjoyed watching each group’s progress and each student’s confidence grow after grasping a new concept. Moreover, I was inspired by the strength and positive attitude that the students had demonstrated every day, despite having come from such difficult backgrounds. Through reading their profiles provided by the school I learned that some of the students in my group had been badly abused, had recently lost a loved one, or were raising their younger siblings on their own. However when they came to class they seemed to put all of this aside. Their smiles and willingness to learn would make it impossible to guess the hardships they had once endured. When it was time for the final business plan presentations, I felt like a proud parent watching my group stand up before the class and share their idea! I was so pleased to see how far they had come and it assured me that they had been paying attention during our lessons. After spending three weeks together, it was really hard for me to say goodbye to the students, who had become my new friends.
Since coming back home I have been in touch with most people from my group through email. They have been updating me on their personal lives as well as their progress with the business plan. I have also been fundraising to purchase a waterproof tent that St. Aloysius can use to hold future workshops in, as our classes were held in the backyard under an old tarp (which blew off on the last day!). The trip was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It really opened up my eyes to some harsh realities of the world that I had only ever read about or seen on TV. Having a physical presence in Kenya offered a whole new perspective, and has inspired me to continue volunteering overseas. Joining the SE 101 team was one of the best and most rewarding decisions I have made in my life thus far.
I was teaching at the St. Aloysius site in Kibera along with Mike, Christi and Joanna. Our students were all around the same age as me, so I found it pretty easy to socialize and a joke around with them just like I would with my friends back home. Although there were obvious differences between us, I was surprised by how similar certain behaviors were accross cultures. For example, the students teased each other in the same way, were competitive when playing games, and the girls were often doing each other’s hair or gossiping about their love lives. On the first day of class, we asked our students to brainstorm some of the social issues in their communities and identify where a business opportunity was possible. This activity made me realize that they were not at all oblivious to the issues within their community. In fact, they were well aware of the problems and could provide us with detailed information about the root causes. The challenge became coming up with a solution that would engage the residents of Kibera and allow them to make a profit at the same time. Some students believed that this was impossible to do, and referred to other businesses that had failed while attempting a similar idea in the past. However as the weeks went on, they began to realize that this wasn’t impossible and became very passionate about their ideas – some to the point where they refused to modify anything that was clearly unrealistic (eg: not paying themselves for 6 months in order to have a large positive cash flow statement!), but that soon changed as well.
I really enjoyed watching each group’s progress and each student’s confidence grow after grasping a new concept. Moreover, I was inspired by the strength and positive attitude that the students had demonstrated every day, despite having come from such difficult backgrounds. Through reading their profiles provided by the school I learned that some of the students in my group had been badly abused, had recently lost a loved one, or were raising their younger siblings on their own. However when they came to class they seemed to put all of this aside. Their smiles and willingness to learn would make it impossible to guess the hardships they had once endured. When it was time for the final business plan presentations, I felt like a proud parent watching my group stand up before the class and share their idea! I was so pleased to see how far they had come and it assured me that they had been paying attention during our lessons. After spending three weeks together, it was really hard for me to say goodbye to the students, who had become my new friends.
Since coming back home I have been in touch with most people from my group through email. They have been updating me on their personal lives as well as their progress with the business plan. I have also been fundraising to purchase a waterproof tent that St. Aloysius can use to hold future workshops in, as our classes were held in the backyard under an old tarp (which blew off on the last day!). The trip was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. It really opened up my eyes to some harsh realities of the world that I had only ever read about or seen on TV. Having a physical presence in Kenya offered a whole new perspective, and has inspired me to continue volunteering overseas. Joining the SE 101 team was one of the best and most rewarding decisions I have made in my life thus far.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Students and Friends
As I was preparing to travel to Kenya and teach, I was unsure of the relationship we would have with our students and how they would perceive us. Would they be receptive to what we were teaching, would they respect us, understand what we were teaching? However upon arriving in Nairobi and beginning the program, I realized my concerns were unnecessary.
On the first day of class, it was apparent that all our students were excited to be there and eager to learn from us. They were extremely respectful of us in the classroom and enthusiastically listened to our workshop lectures and participated in discussions. During the first week of classes, the students were hesitant to open up and share their ideas voluntarily, however as we got to know each other better, we found ourselves having to cut off the discussions to avoid running out of time!
The fact that we were foreigners did not create a barrier in developing friendships with the students, but in fact strengthened them. As we shared our different experiences and learned about one another’s cultures through small group discussions and hanging out after class, our friendships deepened. Although we had completely different life experiences we found that we had quite a bit in common.
One specific experience that meant a lot to me involved a particular student from our teaching site that a few of us became quite close to throughout the three weeks. She shared her story with us, and we were able to see where she lived and the building she was planning on starting her business in. This tangible evidence of her goals was inspiring, and as we watched her draw ever closer to them through the business planning processes during our program, we were able to help her expand her ideas as we had a real feel of her dream.
By the end of the three weeks of class, we had become close with almost every student, which made graduation an exciting but also very sad day. It was heartening to see our students be well on their way to starting their businesses. Their eagerness to apply the concepts and knowledge we had taught them and their confidence in their own success made us very thankful to have been a part of the process. It was the last time we would see many of them, so we were not only saying goodbye to our students, but also our friends.
Posted by Sarah Gale
Monday, August 31, 2009
Teaching is Hard Work!
Hi, I'm Les, A Sauder MBA candidate. I was stationed at the ICC site along with two UBC BCom students, Rob and Candy, and two Strathmore students, Celestine and Emma. My experience in teaching in Nairobi has been fantastic. Coming here, I was expecting to have to work much harder to help our students grasp the concepts in a business plan, but what I have found is bright, receptive, eager and hard working students. While their business acumen needs work, they don't have to stretch far to attach their business ideas to concepts like Market Research, Supply Chain Analysis and Cash Flow forecasting. Their abilities make our days more interactive and productive than I ever imagined.
Having the capability is only half the challenge. Cramming the business knowledge they need into 3 weeks means some long days. It takes a lot of practice on their part and flexibility on our part to keep pace with our jammed curriculum. It also took a number of early morning and late afternoon one-on-one sessions to keep everyone up to speed. This individual attention wouldn't be possible without the teacher-student ratio we are so lucky to have. The one-on-one sessions really helped adapt each individual plan to the model we set out in the curriculum. As we said in class, internationally we may speak different languages, but the language of business is international. Building these business plans to a world-wide standard means that our students will be able to plan effectively and look for the right financing should they want to take their ideas from plan to practice. As student-teachers, we were fortunate enough to have worked on the curriculum ourselves, editing and adding to what had been developed in previous years. This allowed us to really support each other while also being able to effectively deliver specialized tutoring.
I feel like my fellow teachers were incredible resources to our students. Candy's BCom focus was on Marketing and she was instrumental in helping our students refine their marketing plans with top notch surveys and analysis and really amazing branding for each plan. Rob's focus is in Finance and he really knew how to deliver his knowledge effectively to the students in a fun and functional way. The added bonus of having our Strathmore partners was not only a Kenyan context, but incredible Accounting skills.
One of the most exciting pieces of this experience is really how much I feel I have learned from my students. They have opened my eyes to life in Nairobi, taught me new ice breakers and helped me see how much of an opportunity there is in Kenya to bring knowledge and skills to the people who can use it most, but who have not been privileged to have the UBC education I have. Helping to support their efforts to create a stronger Kenya for themselves and their future generations is an experience I will never forget.
Posted by Les Robertson
Les mopping the floor of the ICC classroom, one of the daily "teaching duties."
Having the capability is only half the challenge. Cramming the business knowledge they need into 3 weeks means some long days. It takes a lot of practice on their part and flexibility on our part to keep pace with our jammed curriculum. It also took a number of early morning and late afternoon one-on-one sessions to keep everyone up to speed. This individual attention wouldn't be possible without the teacher-student ratio we are so lucky to have. The one-on-one sessions really helped adapt each individual plan to the model we set out in the curriculum. As we said in class, internationally we may speak different languages, but the language of business is international. Building these business plans to a world-wide standard means that our students will be able to plan effectively and look for the right financing should they want to take their ideas from plan to practice. As student-teachers, we were fortunate enough to have worked on the curriculum ourselves, editing and adding to what had been developed in previous years. This allowed us to really support each other while also being able to effectively deliver specialized tutoring.
I feel like my fellow teachers were incredible resources to our students. Candy's BCom focus was on Marketing and she was instrumental in helping our students refine their marketing plans with top notch surveys and analysis and really amazing branding for each plan. Rob's focus is in Finance and he really knew how to deliver his knowledge effectively to the students in a fun and functional way. The added bonus of having our Strathmore partners was not only a Kenyan context, but incredible Accounting skills.
One of the most exciting pieces of this experience is really how much I feel I have learned from my students. They have opened my eyes to life in Nairobi, taught me new ice breakers and helped me see how much of an opportunity there is in Kenya to bring knowledge and skills to the people who can use it most, but who have not been privileged to have the UBC education I have. Helping to support their efforts to create a stronger Kenya for themselves and their future generations is an experience I will never forget.
Posted by Les Robertson
Les mopping the floor of the ICC classroom, one of the daily "teaching duties."
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Teaching in Kenya - the good, the bad and the ugly
Now that the trip is winding down, this is a good chance to reflect on what we came to this continent to do - teach.
A typical day:
At our particular site, located in the International Christian Centre (we called it the ICC), a typical day started when we walked into the classroom at 8:15am. Class has a soft start at 8:30, and officially begins at 9:00. Most days, we'll arrive to find that a few students are already in the classroom, quietly working on their business plans. We help these early birds with their questions as we wait for everyone else to arrive.
Class starts with attendance and some opening remarks - we talk about everything, from an upcoming soccer (sorry - football) game with the other two classes, to an overview of what material we'll cover that day, to some comments about current business topics. Everyone is usually looking sleepy (particularly us instructors, since our guesthouse doesn't offer any coffee!), so we will often do a few stretches. Then the class begins in earnest.
From 9:00 until about 10:45, one or two instructors will cover the day's topic, which may be anything from completing a cash flow statement, to branding your company, to writing your company's mission statement.
At 10:44, everyone's ear is cocked to listen for the moment when one of the instructors will announce that it's TEA TIME! At our site, we have bread, butter, and tea set up for our students. To say the students 'enjoy' their tea would be a gross understatement... they waste no time in leaving their financial statements in the dust as they all clamber around the table for a snack, while shouting and chatting in Swahili.
After tea, we play a game (or more like we try to play one game but it usually turns into four...) to get everyone energized again. Then it's back to the books. We usually spend the afternoon on a new topic, like revenues and expenses, or proper market survey techniques. Everyone is encouraged to get as involved as possible, so we often have students coming up to present their ideas or offer feedback. If it's a particularly complex topic, we'll split into three breakout groups (our group is called the Safari Skewers!), at a ratio of two instructors to six students, to discuss the concept further.
At 2:30pm, we wrap up the class and clean up the room. Many of the students often stay behind until 3:00 or 3:30pm to ask us questions about their business plans. All six of us instructors - from UBC and Strathmore University - meet after class to discuss what went well / not so well, and to discuss the next day's lesson plan. Then it's time to head back to our guesthouse so we can start it all up again the next morning!
Three weeks in a nutshell
It's been a memorable three weeks of teaching. Every day was fun, nerve-wracking, random, exciting, disastrous, and always, always an experience to remember. Here are some of the good, bad and ugly moments:
- The bad: One of the toughest challenges we had - aside from dealing with a lack of electricity and running water on some days - was convincing some of the students that their business idea was simply not feasible. It's a terrible thing to see the light go out from someone's eyes when you tell them they have to rethink the plan that they are so passionate about... but as the days went on, it was encouraging for us to see the students thinking more critically and coming up with creative solutions to make their businesses more feasible.
- The good: Seeing our students become leaders. We hosted an event where all three sites came together to network and play a hearty game of football, and it was heartwarming to see some of our shyest students take the initiative and lead the other students from all the sites in a round of icebreaker games. This was in spite of the fact that on Day 1 and 2, one of our students was so shy, his peers had to physically drag them into the classroom and judo-chop him into a chair before he would stay. Seeing him stand strong in front of his peers on the last day of class, proudly presenting his business idea, was a profound moment - one that brought tears to every instructor's eyes (the guys will complain the room was too 'dusty').
- The ugly: Seeing some of the silly bloopers from students (bloopers that, truth be told, we must've made as well when we were junior students), like accidentally thinking variable cost was actually 'valuable' cost (as in jewellery)... or wondering why they couldn't get customers by "being physically aggressive"... or questioning why they had to make a profit...
To say the last three weeks were a walk in the park would be a complete lie. There were times when we wanted to kill our students... and we're sure there were times when they definitely wanted to kill us!
But as we kept emphasizing in our classroom, we're a family. And so, we were all there for each other on graduation day, when each student walked across the stage to get his or her certificate, in celebration of what they had achieved.
The family doesn't end here - we look forward to keeping in touch with our students, and helping them along with their business ideas.
Posted by Candy
A typical day:
At our particular site, located in the International Christian Centre (we called it the ICC), a typical day started when we walked into the classroom at 8:15am. Class has a soft start at 8:30, and officially begins at 9:00. Most days, we'll arrive to find that a few students are already in the classroom, quietly working on their business plans. We help these early birds with their questions as we wait for everyone else to arrive.
Class starts with attendance and some opening remarks - we talk about everything, from an upcoming soccer (sorry - football) game with the other two classes, to an overview of what material we'll cover that day, to some comments about current business topics. Everyone is usually looking sleepy (particularly us instructors, since our guesthouse doesn't offer any coffee!), so we will often do a few stretches. Then the class begins in earnest.
From 9:00 until about 10:45, one or two instructors will cover the day's topic, which may be anything from completing a cash flow statement, to branding your company, to writing your company's mission statement.
At 10:44, everyone's ear is cocked to listen for the moment when one of the instructors will announce that it's TEA TIME! At our site, we have bread, butter, and tea set up for our students. To say the students 'enjoy' their tea would be a gross understatement... they waste no time in leaving their financial statements in the dust as they all clamber around the table for a snack, while shouting and chatting in Swahili.
After tea, we play a game (or more like we try to play one game but it usually turns into four...) to get everyone energized again. Then it's back to the books. We usually spend the afternoon on a new topic, like revenues and expenses, or proper market survey techniques. Everyone is encouraged to get as involved as possible, so we often have students coming up to present their ideas or offer feedback. If it's a particularly complex topic, we'll split into three breakout groups (our group is called the Safari Skewers!), at a ratio of two instructors to six students, to discuss the concept further.
At 2:30pm, we wrap up the class and clean up the room. Many of the students often stay behind until 3:00 or 3:30pm to ask us questions about their business plans. All six of us instructors - from UBC and Strathmore University - meet after class to discuss what went well / not so well, and to discuss the next day's lesson plan. Then it's time to head back to our guesthouse so we can start it all up again the next morning!
Three weeks in a nutshell
It's been a memorable three weeks of teaching. Every day was fun, nerve-wracking, random, exciting, disastrous, and always, always an experience to remember. Here are some of the good, bad and ugly moments:
- The bad: One of the toughest challenges we had - aside from dealing with a lack of electricity and running water on some days - was convincing some of the students that their business idea was simply not feasible. It's a terrible thing to see the light go out from someone's eyes when you tell them they have to rethink the plan that they are so passionate about... but as the days went on, it was encouraging for us to see the students thinking more critically and coming up with creative solutions to make their businesses more feasible.
- The good: Seeing our students become leaders. We hosted an event where all three sites came together to network and play a hearty game of football, and it was heartwarming to see some of our shyest students take the initiative and lead the other students from all the sites in a round of icebreaker games. This was in spite of the fact that on Day 1 and 2, one of our students was so shy, his peers had to physically drag them into the classroom and judo-chop him into a chair before he would stay. Seeing him stand strong in front of his peers on the last day of class, proudly presenting his business idea, was a profound moment - one that brought tears to every instructor's eyes (the guys will complain the room was too 'dusty').
- The ugly: Seeing some of the silly bloopers from students (bloopers that, truth be told, we must've made as well when we were junior students), like accidentally thinking variable cost was actually 'valuable' cost (as in jewellery)... or wondering why they couldn't get customers by "being physically aggressive"... or questioning why they had to make a profit...
To say the last three weeks were a walk in the park would be a complete lie. There were times when we wanted to kill our students... and we're sure there were times when they definitely wanted to kill us!
But as we kept emphasizing in our classroom, we're a family. And so, we were all there for each other on graduation day, when each student walked across the stage to get his or her certificate, in celebration of what they had achieved.
The family doesn't end here - we look forward to keeping in touch with our students, and helping them along with their business ideas.
Posted by Candy
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