From the airport in Nairobi, I reached out to the ambassadors asking for their experience in the thirty days working to bring our observatory to life.
This just in from Zacharia Mjungu, a teacher at Ailanga, one of the astronomy ambassadors. Edits are in [brackets], per his request.
“Here is my story I can tell, for the past one month working in the observatory. It has been a great opportunity to me that everyone was involved … given [a] chance no matter the background or whatever the case may be. I came to realize that learning is a process that need[s] to be practiced day by day as we have been doing under [Kai’s] guidance.
Through [his] perspective “we are all learning together, no one knows everything” especially [concerning the] universe, and the perspective of allowing anyone to ask questions. “No such a thing is a stupid question, only stupid people who don’t ask questions,” Kai would say.
At first it was hard for me (maybe for everyone else) to catch up with the process but as [the] days [went] by, I came to realize that it was a right thing to be involved fully, [for] no one else was to do it for us. Instead we were part of the process (we are still doing it) not just for Kai, but l felt it was our responsibility and everyone who is willing to learn, teachers and students all together.
This really opened up my mind to see things in different angles and realized that through astronomy we can build the best educational system in our country and make great critical thinkers and achieve more in everything. I have a lot to tell but this is what came to mind and I think the most important part of all we have accomplished in one month is “TEAMWORK SPIRIT”. We worked together as a team. (Pardon for my English) you can edit it. [Much] more to learn.”–Zacharia