the second week has come and gone. can't believe how fast time is passing by here in kenya. i've been getting more opportunities to talk with the students, not just when helping them during lab hours, but during breaks, and after class. actually, i got to show off our 6.470 website to erik and mark yesterday. i told them how i was involved in a web programming class/competition during january and showed them the expresso music site. they were really impressed with the functionality, as well as the graphcis, design and layout. as much as i wanted to take credit for the designs, of course i told them out my good friend anton nguyen was the mastermind behind all the good looks. ( good job anton! )
eric actually showed me a site he developed that was completely done in php, javascript and css, all by himself. it was really good, although he told me he wished he had better to design skills to create a better user interface.
it's really interesting how the education system here works. many of the students in the class are actually a lot older than i am. that's because when the students here graduate from high school, they ususally wait about two years before entering college/university. some get a 'diploma' after high school graduation, but most of the time they sit around and do 'nothing'. something to do with the past, to do with history of how things ran years ago. i'll definitely have to learn and find out more about that.
i really like the students here; very smart, motivated, and nice individuals. i can already see how much they have changed. the first week, everyone was quiet, and just dead silent. this past week, we have students participating, asking questions, getting their hands dirty with coding, and just really have opened up to us. that was actually one thing we talked about yesterday when we went to visit the Google office here in Nairobi. we were chatting with some of the googlers about the aiti program, and how it was a great opportunity for students here to learn mobile programming and then go off to develop their own applications, and even possibly starting their own companies. we also noticed how many of the students don't really speak up, or have the confidence to express themselves, maybe afraid of being wrong, or just embarrassed. there seems to be many changed to need to be done...the students are obviously very smart, now it's just a matter of bringing out other sides of them to the table.
after the google meeting, we enjoyed a night of chiense food. it was hao chi, and brought me memories of back home in hawaii. it was kinda expensive, but well worth it. and tonight we had japanese food, which was oichii as well. we gotta stop eating out too much, or we'll go broke soon. oh, and today was my first ever football game in africa. kenya vs. mozambique, and kenya took home the win!!!! it was crazy. the journey to the game was crazy as well. we had trouble finding the stadium cause we had no idea what van to take, or how to get to somewhere. but when we just made it to the stadium, we got to witness kenya score their first goal, and then it was all uphill from there. it was exhiliriting, really excting. i was cheering and dancing with the kenyan fans. i must have been very entertaining for them, being the only chinese guy in the stadium, cheering for kenya.
anyhow, tonight was a great night. michael told us we HAVE TO WORK OUR BUTTS OFF TOMORROW!!! that means i need to master java DB, create a lecutre on sql, and start mastering SMS technologies. fun fun fun. anyhow, should get some sleep; too much excitement and crazyness for one day.
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