Kising'a has a partnership with the Lutheran Church in Sweden as well as Lutheran Church of Peace (LCP) through Bega Kwa Bega and together the three of us have built a nice library/community center in Kising'a. Pastor Wihale's vision was to use the old church as a library and they repaired the floor, plastered the walls, replaced the windows and doors for security, and put on a new roof with metal sheets and cement given by LCP. We have been bringing Swahili reading books the last few years and the Swedish partners have provided many primary and secondary textbooks for the library. The Swedish partners donated a big solar system this year with battery storage and an inverter that converts to 220 Volt AC current for running computers and other devices.
We brought two computers for the library now that they can run them and did 4 days of classes for about 20 young people who have graduated from Secondary school and also some teachers, the agricultural officer, and a VEO (village executive officer). We worked on computers with them for about 6 hours per day for 4 days. The computers had a lot of educational content loaded on them including a collection of offline wikipedia articles, math and science videos, health documents, and more. Sue and/or I have visited Kising'a every year since 2006 and we had more than 1000 photos from these trips in folders by year. People in the village greatly enjoyed looking at photos and seeing those they know, some from 10 years ago. We also brought BBC nature videos (Planet Earth, Africa, Life, and Blue Planet) which have tremendous video. People young and old really enjoyed watching them and there are many hours of entertainment ahead.
Sue with Lucy and Bernadetha at TPH Bookshop in Dar. Lucy and Bernadetha helped us pick out Swahili books for the library.
Sue and Anna stamping books to add to library. Anna is Pastor Wihale's oldest daughter and is the head librarian.
Anna and Sue with the bookshelves.
We taught computer to about 20 students who have graduated from Secondary School. Hosea, the young man standing on the left with the grey jacket, was a sponsored student who taught himself electricity. He installed the solar system and maintains it.
Primary students come every night between 7 pm and 10 pm to read books and work on their exercises. Standard 7 students are preparing for their exams which will determine if they are invited to continue in Secondary School.
We were able to get a cellular signal strong enough for internet but only outside of the building in front of the library. Here we are sending an email from Pastor Wihale and I am holding a copy of the english translation done by the students. Someone got my hat and put it on my head because we were in pretty hot sun which made it hard to see the screen. The best time to check internet outside is just as the sun goes down before the bugs are attracted to the lights.
Watching the BBC Africa video.
We brought two computers for the library now that they can run them and did 4 days of classes for about 20 young people who have graduated from Secondary school and also some teachers, the agricultural officer, and a VEO (village executive officer). We worked on computers with them for about 6 hours per day for 4 days. The computers had a lot of educational content loaded on them including a collection of offline wikipedia articles, math and science videos, health documents, and more. Sue and/or I have visited Kising'a every year since 2006 and we had more than 1000 photos from these trips in folders by year. People in the village greatly enjoyed looking at photos and seeing those they know, some from 10 years ago. We also brought BBC nature videos (Planet Earth, Africa, Life, and Blue Planet) which have tremendous video. People young and old really enjoyed watching them and there are many hours of entertainment ahead.
Sue with Lucy and Bernadetha at TPH Bookshop in Dar. Lucy and Bernadetha helped us pick out Swahili books for the library.
Sue and Anna stamping books to add to library. Anna is Pastor Wihale's oldest daughter and is the head librarian.
The Library
Primary students come every night between 7 pm and 10 pm to read books and work on their exercises. Standard 7 students are preparing for their exams which will determine if they are invited to continue in Secondary School.
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