Tag: tech

Monday in a Picture – The G3 Summit, or eSwatini Scratch Day

by Kirby P., posted in Monday in a Picture, Peace Corps Swaziland, pictures

In December 2017, fellow eSwatini PCV Deacon hosted a camp to teach girls and young women how to code using Scratch, the visual programming language. This past Saturday, he hosted a Scratch Day competition. The students returned to central eSwatini to showcase their cartoons and video games in competition. The theme given for the competition was solving a problem in eSwatini.

More than thirty students represented GLOW clubs from all over the country. While the cartoons and video games weren’t being judged by panels from Women in Engineering (of eSwatini), students participated in discussions about women and girls in STEM after watching a TED talk from Dr. Knatokie Ford. In another room, students were invited to explore electric circuits in unconventional ways among other things. The students also has the opportunity to participate in a typing competition.

I am happy to report that our students placed third in cartoon design, and won the video game design competition. Their video game featured a girl catching falling good advice and avoiding falling bad advice. Catching good advice granted the player one point while catching bad advice subtracted a point from the player’s score. For their efforts, they won a tablet, backpacks, and a laptop. The above picture shows Deacon (the man behind G3 and Scratch Day), my Scratch-coding students (from our local high school), Mike (the Deputy Chief of Mission to eSwatini), and me.

Be kind to yourself.
Onward.

Monday in a Picture – PCIT

by Kirby P., posted in Monday in a Picture, Peace Corps Swaziland, pictures

During our service in Peace Corps Swaziland, PCVs are encouraged to serve on one of the national committees. The various committees serve different purposes. For example, there is a committee that’s responsible for the editing and publishing of our monthly newsletter, while another committee is tasked with advocating on behalf of volunteers with senior staff. After speaking with some volunteers from previous groups, I decided that I wanted to serve on a committee known as Peace Corps Information Technology, or PCIT. 

PCIT is a three member committee tasked with IT support (for PCVs), social media content creation, and PCV project documentation. While I’m not the most tech savvy person I know, my Google-fu is decent enough to find whatever information I need. This helps when fellow PCVs ask tech related questions. My favorite aspect of working on the committee is PCV project documentation. Whenever a PCV hosts trainings, conferences, or other events, a member of PCIT attends to take photos and/or videos. This media is used in Peace Corps Swaziland social media ventures, multimedia, and other projects. 

Being a PCIT committee member has afforded me the opportunity to see many nooks and crannies of Swaziland with a fancy camera in tow. I’ve been fortunate to capture various aspects of life in Swaziland while honing my photog skills. Maybe Nat Geo will (finally) call me one day to request my services. 

The above picture features myself with the other PCIT members as we were discussing PCIT with other PCVs. This photo was taken by Elise A. 

Be kind to yourself. 
Onward.