Monday

Visits from some children during the day

Morning - Meeting with  KHouse Alalay personnel including Claudia
Afternoon - Q & A with KHouse Alalay personnel
Translator Workshop (KHouse Alalay personnel) 

Tuesday

Morning - Visit to Mecapaca to see Aldeas Alalay, Simona Manzaneda School and the new telecenter (Kidlink KHouse) in the School.
Afternoon - Workshop with teachers and KHouse personnel.

Contents of Workshop: Response. KidSpace Chats, Comments, Publishing students work Answering questions, concerns

Wednesday

Visiting Calamarca and the premises of the new KHouse. Visiting and seeing Aymara kids working on their WAI first module.

Kidlink KHouse in La Paz

Functions as Internet Café: 18:30  a 21:30
Average: 1.200 Bs. monthly
Offer incentives for those using the Internet café
Selling Candy and snacks
Offer classes on how to use Internet and Office
Rent premises to others for computer classes (Saturdays)

-They are planning to publish a newsletter (every 2 months) with the news about the KHouse
-At the end of their first year they are planning a workshop to document all the particular procedures involved.

Khouse Alalay in La Paz serves:

1) Kids living on the “middle houses” in La Paz (Hogar Marcelina for girls) and Hogar Alalay for boys.
2) Kids working in the street (they work shining shoes or selling candies. etc)
3) Kids living in the streets.
4) Kids from schools where some of the kids living in the Alalay houses assist.

 

TEACHERS:

PARENTS of the kids from the schools:

(WAI = Who-am-I?)

CHILDREN:

MORE ABOUT ALALAY 

Alalay means cold in Aymara.

At first when Claudia started, she didn’t have enough blankets for all the kids, the place was cold and kids said: “Let’s go and sleep in Alalay”

They have 2 middle houses in La Paz. One for boys and one for girls. This is where kids come first when they want to have a safe place to sleep and live. Kids have to follow some rules if they want to stay as part of the community. These are some basic rules like taking a bath, and brushing their teeth, do not steal and things like that. When kids are ready for the next step they are moved to Aldeas Alalay.

Aldeas Alalay means Alalay Village. They have some nice houses where kids live. Aldeas Alalay is in MecaPaca. Nice and warm place. Lots of Sun! They have kids from 3 years up. Children living in Aldeas Alalay can leave if they want, but they don’t. Some of the older kids go to la Paz to study in technical schools not available in MecaPaca. They have on site a room where they bake bread daily  for themselves and the community around them. They have a room where they learn sewing at the industrial level. They make clothes for children living on premises and they sell uniforms to kids from the community assisting to their school. Escuela Simona Manzaneda was built just for Alalay kids. Also kids from the surrounding community assist to the school. Walking distance from Aldeas to serve both, kids from Aldeas Alalay and kids from the community of Mecapaca. They will have vocational classes available in mechanics, cooking, typing, metallurgic, ceramics and computers. They constructed a new computer telecenter in Simona Manzaneda. This would be the Second KHouse in Bolivia. Kids will do the WAI Program out of this telecenter.

A couple of hours car trip from La Paz, you can find Escuela  Rosa Kroever (Calamarka).   This would be the Third KHouse in Bolivia. Kids will do the WAI Program out of this telecenter. About the Calamarca KHouse: Calamarca means "land of Stones". They have beautiful colored stones which you can see everywhere on the new buildings. The village is a town up a hill and it looks like time has not passed. I wondered if they live exactly that way during colonial times.  Most of the residents are Aymara indians.

A  group of people from Germany constructed for them this state of the art computer telecenter. Datacom lowered a high velocity communication cable to the center (for free). they have 2 computer rooms with 10 new computers each.

Susy has them organized and they started this week with Who Am I Program. The kid you saw in the picture was typing "Quien Soy Yo" on the computer. The teacher helpers are Aymara as you saw in the picture. I met 2 girls and 2 young men. They have a technical resource/teacher and I think they have 3 regular teachers. I think all are Aymara and I am definitely sure they speak the language.

I saw some poems done in Aymara by kids and the teachers promised to interpret them in Spanish for me. Then I will translate to English. Susy is into this too, she got a copy of the poems in her hands. But we need them to be interpreted. I learned that the  Aymara language cannot be translated like the others, it has to be interpreted.

I had a training with teachers on Tuesday in the KHouse in La Paz and some of these Aymara teachers were present. Specially one teacher seemed to be very cooperative and enthusiastic with the idea of having Quien Soy Yo in Aymara. But he has not promised anything yet. Although I sweetly pushed him into it :-)  I taught them to use KidSpace to publish , chat and comments so their students communicate with other kids. They seemed very enthusiastic with the idea of doing their publications on KidSpace and maybe this would be a nice way of having some Aymara works.

The children I met in Calamarca talked in Aymara among themselves. It was a lovely sight when they were coming down the hill to the computer center. And they all were singing IN AYMARA!

I did the translator workshop with Susy, Patricio , Patricia, and Ramiro from the KHouse in la Paz.  The idea is that they can teach those wanting to  translate to Aymara.

There is another new KHouse: I did not visit this one, though. It is on the premises of  Institución de Rehabilitación  Remar  (Mallasa). Remar Rehabilitation Institution (Mallasa) I was told they have 4 or 5 computers and they are going to start with the WAI Program soon.