Shout Outs!

We cannot fathom that just 4 months ago, the idea of Al Bedaya came rushing through our heads like that gust of wind we've been yearning for on a hot Dubai summer's day. Look at it now!

Who would have thought that 3 university girls would ever pack up their bags and say goodbye to their comfort zones for one whole week (and a day!) to teach a course that they've built from the ground up?

Those 3 girls are now university graduates and we must say that it was probably the most life-changing 4 years of our lives, especially the past month! The friends we made in Kenya are ones we will cherish forever because each and every one of them changed our lives for the better, and we couldn't be more grateful.

Allow us to take the time off for some brief shout-outs to those who helped make this experience a reality when we thought it would be - and stay - a dream.

Our first shout-out goes to the amazing people at Abu Dhabi Oilfield Services (or ADOS, as we fondly call them). Their support and dedication to helping us get and stay on the path of the realization of Al Bedaya is tremendous, and we couldn't thank them enough for their backing. From their support alone, we managed to launch the very essence of our entire endeavor, our www.al-bedaya.org website. That alone was a significant milestone that we were super duper proud we achieved. Thanks a million ADOS! 

Our second shout-out goes to the fine folk at Malabar Gold. As soon as we pitched our idea to them (and at the time, it was still purely an idea) they jumped aboard the Al Bedaya train and followed our progress closely. We are absolutely humbled to acknowledge that they saw the potential in our program which is why they lent us a helping hand.

Our third shout-out goes to everyone at Vertex Trading who stayed by our side at those critical moments to pull out the amazing, oh-so-chic t-shirts that our Kenyan girls are proudly wearing. Never stand between a woman and her own t-shirt design, but the brave people of Vertex Trading took on not only 1, but 3 women who had an idea of what the outcome would be. Let us say this: what was in our heads is now hanging in our closets!

Last but certainly not least, our fourth shout-out goes to all those in CopyMe who graciously printed out 50 course booklets the day before we were to board our plane out to Kenya. Without their support at that critical moment, we would've been left hanging with nothing to explain and introduce to the girls when the electricity would suddenly shut down. Those booklets were a last-minute decision, and having CopyMe print them out was the best decision we could have made.

We really can't believe it. This entire journey has been the crowning glory of our university careers. Who would have known the minute we welcomed our first ever day at ZU would we ever get to visit a country so beautiful that is Kenya? Certainly not us. Yet it seemed to be the natural route for us to take.

People, watch this space. That's all we can say at this point.

Kajiado, Kenya. Day 5

Today was the day we were all dreading - the day our capstone was anticipating but never thought would come. Today was our last day of teaching the girls at the school, and we made sure we kept the best for last!

Today's lesson was titled "Fun Tools" which introduces Twitter, blogs, podcasts, Prezi, video and photo sharing to the class. Everything was stacked against us because we were running out of time to explain all the steps and the electricity kept playing on our last nerves by deciding to suddenly disconnect.

After each class, we made sure to emphasize time and time again that this is just the beginning for them to start their self-education process. We simply gave them the tools and showed them the basics, but it was up to them to write the rest of that story. The girls vowed to keep using our website and to pass on the knowledge to the other students who weren't a part of our class - this is something we're counting on to add to the success of our website.

We were planning a surprise for the girls during the closing ceremony, and little did we know that the girls also had a few tricks up their sleeves! After we taught our first and second classes (and took picture after picture with the girls and gave out our communication details), the school had prepared a lavish ceremony complete with catering, student and Masai dances. This was when we unveiled to them their surprise: 2 brand new Flip cameras that they can use to shoot videos and share them with the world. Now it was our turn to be surprised as we were each given a gift from the students which now hangs around each of our necks.

We couldn't believe that now was the time to say goodbye to all these amazing girls - they have each touched our lives in one way or the other and made us feel at home in a country far from ours. The words of advice we gave them were: dream big and seek out to achieve them, because one day, they will be serving their country.

That's it - the main part of our project and this life-changing journey has come and passed. All I can say is this: thank God for social media because now we can still keep in touch with all our friends.

Here are some pictures of the day:

One of our students, Idhil!

Here they are!!

A small goodbye message from the girls...

...and another one!...

...and this is our favorite!

I guess this is it - we're packing up to go to the safari and after that it's back to Dubai! All we can say is that we couldn't have gotten a better and more enriching experience of Kenya and the Kenyan people if we didn't meet the girls that we met! We look forward to hearing their news in the near future and, Inshallah, we'll try to come visit (or we may get a visit from the girls in Dubai!)

Laptop's gotta be packed now!

Al Bedaya Team - signing out.

Kajiado, Kenya. Day 4

Sorry for not posting yesterday's update - as soon as we reached the hotel we crashed, and before we knew it, it was morning. Plus we were hoping we'd show the girls first-hand how to write a blog post but that never happened, so here it is!

It feels like we've been here for months, if not years! We know the roads and sights to and from the school and the girls' greetings every single morning makes us feel at home in the classroom - we take our shoes off at the door, say hi to everyone, drop our gear, grab a booklet and start explaining today's lesson. The lessons change everyday, but what doesn't change is the girls' drive and motivation to put everything aside and just listen to us as we explained a new set of tools for them to explore.

Let's start from Day 4, Wednesday, 18th May.

Today's class revolved around the "Research" category in which Google, Wikipedia, Biography.com, How Stuff Works and Book Boon were introduced. In every single one of our classes, we stressed to the girls that we're not showing them every aspect of every website; if they want to know, they should explore it for themselves which will only enhance their educational process. If all else fails, we gave them more than one way to reach out to all of us (Facebook, Twitter, email, and through this blog) and ask away to their hearts' content even after we're gone.

In both classes, we split up the students into 3 groups, and each one of us explained her group through the steps and introductions of each website. We then decided to spice things up a bit so we played some word games such as word searches, crossword puzzles and hangman just to make sure they understood the lesson. By the end of the class, the tables were turned and the girls were up at the board while we were sitting in their places trying to guess the keywords!

One amazing story of Day 4 (Day 3 of teaching in Kajiado) was that during breaks, the girls ascended onto the Al Bedaya Team and started teaching them Swahili phrases that should keep them going for the next few days. We broke down barriers by being humiliated at ping pong and getting to know more about the Kenyan educational system from the students and the teachers. The most magical moment was, when we were passing by classes, they'd call out to us and urge us to come into their classrooms and have a chat. What ensued was girl talk that has no cultural nor language barrier. It then became apparent that they too wanted to learn about the Al Bedaya website, so when we told them Yalla, they immediately left their seats, went next door and logged onto their computers, straight onto our website awaiting further instructions. When the electricity went out, it was our turn to start asking them deeper questions about their futures, and we knew we were looking at the next movers and shakers of Kenya. As soon as the power was back on, they rose from the ground beside us and sat at their computers to continue what they started before they were so rudely interrupted.

The more we spend time at the school, the more our lives are being changed and touched by every single student, whether they were part of the program or not, and the more we are rest assured that our website will be in good hands here; that even after we leave, they won't forget what we put together for them.

As a formal farewell, the Al Maktoum Foundation generously arranged a dinner at a restaurant in Nairobi which was attended by Professor George Godia, the Education Secretary in the Kenyan Ministry of Education, the school's faculty, the support staff, members of the Foundation's supporting organizations, and even the drivers!

Check these pictures out:

Undivided attention from the girls

A member of the Al Bedaya Team leading her group through the websites

One word game all filled out in a matter of minutes!

A formal farewell

Professor George Godia giving a speech

Stay on the lookout for a video that covers a portion of today's class - pretty exciting stuff!

We couldn't have worked on a more life-changing and worthwhile project, for it connected us with the girls of the Al Maktoum Secondary School in beautiful Kajiado.

Al Bedaya Team - signing out

Kajiado, Kenya. Day 3

We caused a riot today. 3 girls managed to turn a school upside down. We didn't know it would happen!

Today's our second day on-site in the secondary school but our 3rd day in Kenya overall, but it feels like we're already residents of the country by now!

Our days at the school are brief and numbered. We can choose to get in, teach the girls then leave, or get in, interact with the girls and teach and be taught by them. We chose the latter. As much as we planned our program to revolve around us being the teachers, we're adamant on being the students as well.

The entire team enjoyed today's teaching experience - we split up 2 classes of around 23 girls each into groups and each member gave her group today's lesson (which was conveniently called "Lessons", with teaching websites such as BBC Learning, Khan Academy and Purdue OWL). Each and every student in the classes was so open to learn and explore without reservation the website we put together for them. The prevalent question they asked was ways in which they can continue their education in a place like Dubai and whether scholarships were provided or not. If that's not dedication, we don't know what is.

"You changed the atmosphere of the school," and "you're giving them exactly what they need," were some comments we received from the teachers and administrators of the school. In between classes, instead of chilling out at the teachers' lounge, we chose to go out and talk with the students of the school to get to know them better. We talked about what we wanted to be when we grew up, what we knew of each other's cultures and what both sides are hoping to get out of this experience.

Before we knew it, around 100 students formed a circle in their courtyard and taught us their traditional dances. It was spontaneous - we didn't plan for the girls to bring out their fur-covered drum, start singing and drag us to the middle of the circle to join in on the fun.

We made some amazingly bright friends along the way who we can see will one day build Kenya.

Here's a video of our first day at the class:

Al Bedaya Team in Action from Al Bedaya on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!

Al Bedaya Team - signing out

Kajiado, Kenya. Day 2

What an amazing start to our beginning.

We woke up extra early (to a hotel with no electricity) and left for the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Secondary School in Kajiado, Kenya. We were greeted by the school's 300 students who prepared Quran recitations, dances (by the students and members of the Masaai tribe) and poems to welcome us as their guests.

During one of the dances, it all got a bit too formal for our taste - I mean, we're here to connect with the students not be put on a pedestal, so what did we do? We joined in, but of course! The whole mood was uplifted then and there when we broke down that barrier, and the girls danced their hearts out.

We introduced our program to the teachers who accepted it graciously, and to the students who just dove straight in as soon as our website was running on their computers.

The girls blew us all away by their level of education (I mean, we set a pretty high standard, and they exceeded even that!) and by their determination to learn and connect with the world. The funny thing was, despite Facebook not being part of the program, all the girls created new email addresses solely to sign into Facebook and connect with us!

During breaks, we had a quick chat with the girls to get to know them better on an informal basis. We wanted to know what their dreams and aspirations are, and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Truly inspirational girls with big, big dreams and a very bright future.

What's even more amazing was that the girls stayed after school hours with us just to set up accounts and ask us more questions that we didn't want to go back to our hotel!

Scroll down for pictures.

A play prepared for us by the students of the Al Maktoum Academy in Nairobi

Here we are!

And here's our website!

We couldn't help ourselves. We're teachers now, after all.

The girls exploring the website with the packages we presented to them

Sticking our stenciled-out logo onto their wall while still paying attention to the students' needs

The booklet and the website working together to help the girls out

More videos and pictures will definitely be posted, but for now, we've got an early start tomorrow!

Al Bedaya - signing out.

Nairobi, Kenya. Day 1.

We're finally here - we're in Kenya.

Months and months of planning finally led to the moment we were all eagerly waiting for.

It was always hypothetical, that we'll actually board a plane and travel to the African continent, to a sub-Saharan country. As if the vaccinations didn't already make this all seem so real.

We kid you not when we say that the one thing running through our minds was, "are we really doing this?" from the moment we said our goodbyes to our parents, to our drive to the airport, at the airport's Duty Free, while sitting on our seats, during take-off, whilst having our lunch on the plane, landing in Nairobi, checking into our rooms then finally sitting down for an actual meal.

"Are we really doing this?" soon turned into "I can't believe we're doing this!". It was after we landed on another continent did we start questioning what possessed us to travel as part of a graduation project, but then we were reminded of the reason why we're here: to promote self-education to students through social media.

Booklets were printed out (in case the internet failed us), surveys were created to gather information and to measure our success, syllabi's were compiled to make this legit and a website was launched which will serve as our main teaching tool (check it out here!). Tomorrow, we teach!

Here are some pictures of our Kenyan journey:

Flight EK 719 to Nairobi, Kenya, is now boarding

No turning back now!

Yalla, we're moving!

Bye Bye Dubai

One last look at the Arabian Peninsula...

...As we approach the African continent

First glimpse of Kenya

Landed in Nairobi

Got all our luggage and boxes of give-aways to the students!

 Everyone's been so gracious to us here and the cool weather is a far cry from the dust and heat of Dubai.
Tomorrow's another day with another post.


Al Bedaya - signing out.

The Journey So Far

Ever since we've started working on this initiative, we've been making random phone calls to random people, waking up at ungodly hours of the night (that's IF we slept in the first place) with new ideas we can use for our campaign, sending out countless emails to each other and to our contacts, adding, cancelling, touching up, modifying, amplifying certain aspects of our initiative, and enduring a minimum of 3 vaccinations (with some more added for good measure) in one afternoon. Here's our journey so far in pictures:

We'd crash every night utterly exhausted whilst still making sure we set the alarms for the next day.

Time was not our friend and everything we did seemed like a race against time.

At times, we'd be back at square one asking ourselves, "what did we do so far?", but we had to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and keep marching on
.

Even though we liked to indulge ourselves in a little tirade, we couldn't escape the fact that, no matter how long and hard we complained, we're not solving our dilemma.

As hard as we tried to take time off from working on our capstone and focusing on other priorities in our lives, we'd still think of new ideas to add to our campaign. This turned out to be a full-time job.

This could easily describe our philosophy while working on this initiative. The one thing that's keeping us sane at this stage of the project is that all 3 of us are extremely passionate of reaching our goal to provide a social-media-based education to the students in Kajiado, Kenya.

Look out for posts dedicated to our latest supporters who are on the same wavelength as we are!

This is it, guys - we're really doing this. We're really going to Kenya. Whoa.