#volunteeriesc

As we stepped into the classroom Tuesday morning, thirty-four large brown eyes peered shyly in our direction: thirty-four of over five hundred children of Sto. Niño elementary school in the village of Tanauan. Although they were technically on school break, these children were sitting in neat rows, curiously observing us whirl around the room setting up the projector, plugging in the speakers, short circuiting an extension cord (oops!), flipping through notes, and blowing up the beachball. It was finally happening. 

“All right everyone,” Lucille and Zipporah called out, “stand up now and move your chairs to the side of the room.” A minute later, all the children were standing in lines. 

“Now put one hand out, then the other one, now flip it over, and then the other one,” Zipporah said, demonstrating the steps of the Macarena. At this point the group was smiling...

“... and the last step is this...” Zipporah shook her hips around in a circle to a shower of giggles.

Through a little bit of craziness in the morning, Aziz’s introduction to the parts of the computer was a hit.

“So hey kids, this is the screen,” he pointed to the 2-in-1 classmate PC’s monitor.

“What do we use this for?” inquired Aziz, looking up at the class to see what they would respond. Filipinos are very quiet natured: most of them shrugged, or shook their heads I don’t know…

To help out, Aziz continued:

“Well, it’s very shiny. Maybe you can use it to put lipstick on?” he said, smiling.

Almost instantly, the class burst out in laughter, covering their mouths in modesty.

To help their direction for the week, each group of seven or eight student groups picked one project slip. Each had a topic, such as “Places you would like to visit” or “What do you like to do during school break?” For the next week, they will be using this subject to put together a presentation using all the software we will be teaching them.

Pretty soon after we handed out the 2-in-1s, the children had already figured out how to connect to the internet, go on YouTube, and start programs such as “The Magic School Bus Game”, and also to crash the computer with the “Tux Type” learn-to-type app.

To get their attention back, Lucille and Zipporah introduced them to the camera app.

“Guys, open the camera and take pictures of all your teammates!” Lucille instructed. Soon after, they had found the video button, and just like any child of the human race would do, made faces while giggling at each other, replaying the videos again and again.

By the end of the morning, the children were getting quite antsy. In one corner of the room, Jenny was poking Romeo, in the other corner, Randy Boy was slumping in his chair, placing his pink name tag on his forehead. He had quit paying attention for the moment, and was fixated on me. Every time I tried to raise my camera to snap a photo, he ripped the name tag off with the most mischievous grin, then placed the slip back on when I lowered the machine. This continued for a minute or so, until I covertly took an LCD instead of viewfinder shot and nailed this photograph. I suppose they still have one or two things to learn :)

On our last team call, we had a big problem: Lucille had received a bunch more Intel paraphernalia: speakers, keyboards, and more! It was basically enough to fill a whole other suitcase. “How am I going to fit all these things,” she sighed. #firstworldproblems. In the end, she did what she could and is the first one of the team who is on her way while the rest of us frantically pack and check things off our list…

Bug spray, Intel sunglasses, Hydration tablets, check, check, check. When it seems like we've thought of everything there's always one more thing we forget to pack.

Like any other trip, I’ll probably forget something, but hopefully it’ll be: "I forgot a hair tie," not "I forgot my passport!"

Shoot... did I pack enough underwear? Maybe one more, just in case...

At some point you just have to stop and look up, make sure you've got your wallet and passport. The rest is replaceable.

Like me, most of my team members have been packing in the past week, running around to stores to buy that last item for our IESC (Intel Education Service Corps) trip to the Philippines.

We've gotten our vaccines, rounded up equipment, gear, made lesson plans, and asked for tips from the past two teams who have gone before us. We're 100% ready, confident (right?), and excited to go. But also a little nervous, mostly about the little things. But what if my bag weighs 50.5 pounds, I hope I don't have to pay extra!

Over the next two and a half weeks, I will be covering the IESC project where six Intel employees including myself will be traveling to the Philippines to educate in digital literacy and inspire children whose whole world was literally uprooted 2.5 years ago by Typhoon Haiyan. Since then, Intel has sponsored to rebuild their school building in Tacloban, and we’re the third group going back to give them technological immersion and digital training.

Lately, Intel has received a lot of negative media with the layoffs affecting employees worldwide, but the company still finds it important to support this type of high social impact project. My team and I are ecstatic about being able to participate. While we’re on the ground, I will be publishing stories, pictures, and media via the following outlets:

Tumblr: http://iescphilippines.tumblr.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ihtoth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ihtoth

Blog: http://www.ildikototh.com/index.php/category/iesc/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ihtoth/

Here are team Wandzil’s members:

Wilbert Go (Minnesota, USA): Technical expert

Aziz Bandeli (California, USA): Project Manager

Nora Moolenkamp (Oregon, USA): "Onboarding Project Manager" who will not be able to travel with us, but all her contributions to our project are very much appreciated by the team

Damir Bajramovic (California, USA): Technical expert

Zipporah Stephen (Swindon, United Kingdom): Trainer

Ildiko Toth (Oregon, USA): Social media expert and blogger

Lucille Held (Arizona, USA): Trainer

Why Wandzil?

Wandzil is a derivative of the word "Wand", a word this team coined in their first meeting, and is an accurate description of the team's chemistry, enthusiasm, passion and their commitment to make a difference to the global community.

Can you guess which set of gear belongs to which person?

A

B

C

Answers: A - Wilbert, B - Ildikó, C - Lucille