New M-Lab website!

Pleased to announce the creation of the new M-Lab website. Thanks to Lia at Allia Studio for the initial design. Check it out: mlab.mit.edu

Animal Prints

My last day in Nairobi in pictures.


A cute baby elephant at the David Sheldren Trust


Clumsy little things =P


More elephants...


Classic shot.


Baby rhino! Active little guy. He was jumping around and dancing...


Giraffe Center!


Up super close and personal...


They have purple tongues!


=)


Lions...


Baby cheetahs...


More lions! Oh my.


Yup, little Mathew is trying to pull on the ostrich's feathers. About two seconds after I snapped this picture, his mom, dad, and aunt rushed in and pulled him back -P


Fed this guy some peanuts.


Barack the monkey!


Apparently he arrived at the Nairobi airport during Obama's inauguration


This little guy was so funny Apparently he used to be in the animal orphanage, so he was visiting his friends.


He was perfectly content while peanuts presented, but as soon as anyone tried to pet him, he'd swipe at them.


I think he was my favorite =D


A little off the beaten path... feeding lions!


And again...


And he's a little protective of his food.


Pretty incredible, huh? This would never happen in the US... someone told me if you bribe the guard, you can pet the baby cheetahs, but making friends with a volunteer turned out to be much better =)

Irony in Government

Ah, the Ministry of Health. Uganda is currently fighting for disability rights. The first week I was in Uganda, Fatuma and I went to the MOH for a meeting, but she was unable to get up the disability ramp because it was completely blocked by motorcycles, cabinets, and other random stuff. All said, Fatuma couldn't get by. She would have had to had a wheelchair that was about 10 inches wide to pass by. The people assured us it was temporary and would be moved soon.

My last day in Uganda, we went back.



While there was more room cleared, Fatuma's wheelchair was still a few inches too wide to pass.



There's the respect for the disability issues in Uganda...

There are always challenges you don't anticipate. There is a law that buildings should be accessible, but most of the time, there is no funding for it, and the government doesn't have the resources for or want to pay for it. When the ramp exists, it might be blocked. If anything, it's a lesson in remembering that there is far more to a story that what is on paper. There are challenges in policy, sure, but there are more in attitude, implementation, and sustainability.

Bus Rides & Gulu

Bus rides in East Africa are always interesting. Between the sellers who come up to the bus practically pushing things into your hand and the interesting sites - you know you're in Africa. On one trip - my first bus ride - we passed a horrific three bus accident that left many people stranded. On another, a seller talked for 30 minutes straight about the merits of his herbal toothpaste, soap, and other items - in Swahili. From what I gathered with my limited Swahili, a lot of things had vitamins in them.

All of this pales in comparison to the epic bus ride to Gulu. Northern Uganda is recovering from significant civil unrest that orphaned many children and displaced many more. The place is rebuilding, though, and an economic boom may be in Gulu's future.

This story is fraught with drama and intrigue - why did the bus stop? (Clutch broke. No big deal.) What is in the sac next to the g-nuts (peanuts)? (That would be ants. Mmm... tasty. Apparently not great raw but yummy in stews.) Oh my... what was that sound? (Two live chickens. Yes, on the bus. Apparently being upside down keeps them reasonably calm.)

It has all the makings of an epic tale: Comedy - dozing off leads to jumping out of your skin when you hear SQUAWK and oh look, the mzungu is making faces at the baby.
Beautiful scenery - quaint huts line the road with neatly thatched roofs (although no signature thatch animals like in the UK's little Harry Potter town).

We finally arrived in Gulu and saw the JYRO wheelchair workshop. They are the only major wheelchair manufacturer in Northern Uganda and seem to have a good workshop. They are able to make pieces ahead of time which means that in five days, they can make 1, 2, or 20 wheelchairs. Not half bad.

Here are a few pictures from their production line.



And here is Zulfa (Fatuma's daughter) in our hotel room in Gulu. Pretty sweet, right?

OLPC

There's always a comfort knowing that you have friends nearby. When I was in Kampala Uganda, my comfort came from the OLPC team: Kristen, Jeff, and Victoria. Traveling on your own is exciting. You can plan your own route, take life at your own pace. But, it's awesome to know that somewhere nearby, someone cares that you made it home or that you got over being sick. So, in honor of my OLPC buds, a little info about their project.

Kristen, Jeff, and Victoria are distributing 100 OLPC laptops to the Kampala Secondary School. They have taught the children in P5 and P6 how to use the laptops. OLPC laptops are about the size of your average netbook and loaded with educational materials, games, and Wikipedia. Keeping in mind the situation, the OLPC is designed so it has a high probability of surviving being dropped, is water resistant, and can be used outside.

While it's debatable how good it is to give a child a laptop when she doesn't have basic necessities, the laptop can, when implemented properly, be used to enhance learning and give children the opportunity to explore and learn on their own.

While I was there, I saw two classes. One use the matching game (you can create your own) to practice addition. 5+7 gets matched with 12, etc. There was an odd number of kids, so I partnered with one of them and it was pretty fun. While it was definitely good practice, I'm not sure how much the kids honestly learned, but they did get to practice their addition and work on memory skills. The second class made excellent use of the laptop's capabilities. The students were learning about interest, so first they looked it up on Wikipedia, then they used the calculator application to do some sample problems. I think that shows how the OLPCs, like any tool, can be a great addition to learning if used properly, which is why the OLPC team's work training the teachers and students to use the laptops is so important.



Me and Zulfa (Fatuma's daughter) playing with the XO

Alive!

Crazy adventures and a ton of traveling visiting workshops, NGOs, and MFIs. Very limited internet. More updates to come!

Home Visits: Zenab & P5 boy

The first person we visited was Zenab who has a small business selling tomoatoes and other vegetables in the Kalerewe Market (picture on the left). She is in a wheelchair because she had polio and has had a wheelchair for six months. Since she lives in a swamp area it's difficult to keep her wheelchair clean. Although she has a business and at first glance you may not notice that she is disabled (she scoots around while working), she is segregated from the other sellers. Her area is a blanket clearly distinct and in front of the line of vegetable sellers. Although many of them have shade and a table, she does not. While we were there Fatuma had a chat with the manager (apparently there is some organization to the chaos?) about that. She encouraged him to think of people with disabilities as a responsibility of the community. A very active lady, she would be interested in going into a group with some of the others and expanding her small business.

After visiting Zenab, Fatuma, Steven (Fatuma's driver) and I went to St. Jude Primary School to visit a boy who was in a wheelchair at the school there. Right now the place is completely unaccessible.


In order to even get up the step to his class he needs a bit of assistance. His chair also isn't very fitted. The cushion is good, though, so I suspect he's using that so that he can grow in the wheelchair. He's in P5 right now and seems to be doing pretty well for now, but his classes in P6 & P7 aren't remotely accessible. Fatuma talked to the headmaster about everyone contributing and helping.


Here he is with his class. He generally sits in the back with some friends, but when the kids crowded in the front I insisted on being able to see everyone. The kids were super cute. On the way out we moved at a snails pace with the car because all the kids wanted to wave bye and Steven was driving very carefully.

Fatuma is of the mind that disabilities must be supported by the community and it's admirable that she makes that effort. She was telling me today that she wants MADE to expand to also focus on advocacy in the times where it doesn't have a lot of wheelchairs to build. She had a meeting with the director of Disability Rights Fund. (ironically, located in Boston!) The advocacy would be for making private schools accessible. Public ones are mandated by law to be accessible (although law and reality are completely different), but there is less regulation on the private ones. Here's hoping Fatuma's application is successful! =)


And random: I saw this little guy outside my hostel when I got back from the home visits. I think he was greeting me. Now I just need a banana so we can be friends...