Day 4 got off to a very dodgy start! I’d received disturbing news about my ageing dog Tobey at home – who time is beginning to catch up with him. Luckily after a trip to the vet he seems to be a bit better – which was a relief! However, that wasn’t everything. After almost 2 hours in the Nairobi traffic we arrived at KU only to find that no-one from SEMA Media had arrived and only a few of the KU students were there. Over the next few hours this started to change following a few frantic messages between myself and the leaders of the other groups – who couldn’t attend in the morning but hadn’t made that clear to me. As this was the main content gathering fieldwork day – it was a massive frustration to say the least. However, as the day progressed the SEMS participants, who come from different communities and have to change Matatus several times, arrived – as did the KU students. To make matters worse I was scolded by the tea lady, who herself was an hour and a half late, for sending my students out into the field without the fruits of her efforts. This latter development was as much bemusing as it was amusing. 🙂

After the lunch the guys started to get very creative and I can’t comment on the final content presentation but the effort and enthusiasm to share knowledge with one another and engage in the production of some very creative content planning warmed my heart as an educator and developer of the PEARLS community-based learning approach (see previous blog). In this respect the collaborative dialogic and reflective approach we adopts to the development of a community of learners is beginning to win admirers here. It was this that attracted Fred Ochieng from KU Media and now SEMA Media (having engaged in an earlier workshop) to become a CM4K partner. However, Shikuku (my counter-part from Kenyatta University) arrived he stood watching the participants engaging in the development of participatory photography; audio and video productions and a big beaming smile brought his face to light. He looked at me and said,

”this is learning my friend. Look at how engaged they are and how they enjoy the knowledge sharing. I will take some pictures to show my colleagues….it’s amazing.”

With this my day got even better and certainly a lot better than the miserable start. 🙂