Tag Archives: Geeks

Where we stayed in Rwanda

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Here is information on the hotels for the forty TechWomen delegates in Rwanda. Of course, the five local TechWomen Emerging Leaders stayed in their homes. While in Kigali, most of the delegation stayed at the Hotel des Milles Collines (the setting for the story, if not the film location, of the historical drama Hotel Rwanda, about the Rwanda Genocide). The Mille Collines was friendly and comfortable and the food was good. Unfortunately, the hotel wifi was unable to handle so many geeks at one time: it regularly crashed within minutes of the delegation getting back from our daily adventures. Many of us also had to get a new key card every time we wanted to open our Mille Collines room door (six times most days) but the hotel staff were so friendly it was hard to grouse about it. There is live music nightly at the Mille Collines and the hotel is in easy walking distance to shopping.

Several TechWomen mentors stayed at the nearby Heaven restaurant and inn – where one night the whole delegation enjoyed a spectacular dinner and dance together. One mentor stayed with a local family, arranged through Airbnb – and said she enjoyed her experience. While we were trekking to see the mountain gorillas and monkeys, we stayed at the Mountain Gorilla View Lodge. I think some ladies started out at a different hotel and then moved to the Mountain Gorilla View Lodge.

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen Meet Technical Girls of Rwanda

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The TechWomen delegation started today with a visit to the Carnegie Mellon University – Rwanda campus where we talked with the women Engineering students. Lunch was at the wonderful Shokola restaurant – on a covered deck in a garden. This was followed by a visit to the US Embassy for an address by Evan Ryan (Assistant US Secretary of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs).  The TechWomen mentors then spent some delightful hours under a  big tent on the embassy lawn talking about science, technology, and careers with about a hundred remarkable and lively girls from many local schools. In the evening, we enjoyed dinner with dancers at Heaven restaurant – with a night view of Kigali.  Lovely and inspiring day!

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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Amazing Gashora Girls Academy, Rwanda

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The TechWomen delegation spent yesterday at the amazing Gashora Girls Academy (GGAST) in Rwanda’s Eastern Province of Bugesera, about an hour from the capital of Kigali. We learned about these talented and intelligent girls’ education, lives, and hopes for college and leadership in Rwanda. The TechWomen mentors presented to several hundred girls – discussions on careers in technology, engineering, and science, plus workshops on interviewing, blogging, software application development and other geeky subjects. I worked with other TechWomen to present two sessions of the Blogging and Web Research Workshop. We also brought English-language books by and about women for the school library.  I will be posting the list of blogs that the girls promised to write as guests here on Katysblog. It was an inspiring day with remarkable young women.

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Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson

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Silicon Valley Bethlehem and Cable Car

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We enjoy Christmas events old and new here in the Silicon Valley. Our EfM class went to the Bethlehem – Walk Through the Christmas Story together a week ago – followed by dinner at Mio Vicino in Santa Clara.   An unofficial highlight of the show was watching one of the flock headbutting all of the other sheep in turn while the shepherds and angel said their lines.

Last night a group of us current and former-Huawei staff got together for dinner (at Il Postale in Sunnyvale) followed by a motorized Cable Car Ride to see the holiday lights in Willow Glen.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen: Next Steps, Open Source

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We Mentors are sad to see our 78 TechWomen Mentees start their travels home today to their 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East. This has been a life-changing program for all of us.  It will take time to process our experiences and understanding and to decide what to do next. Larissa and I just sadly said goodbye to our Mentee Imen who just started her long trip home to Algeria. Our parting advice to her had to do with open source.

All TechWomen emerging leaders are impressive and accomplished.  This group of 78 was selected from almost 2,000 applicants.  Some of them already know their next steps. Janet (pictured with me above, at the US State Department) is raising four sons, teaching Electrical Engineering at a technical college, and running a K-12 school with 450 students in Cameroon. Busy lady!

Imen spent this month working with Larissa at Mozilla working on open source software. When she gets home, Imen’s co-workers, family, and friends are going to ask about her TechWomen experience – and open source will be part of that discussion. Here are some of the websites Larissa and I recommend for newbies to open source:

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Image Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen’s Last Week in Silicon Valley

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This is the last week for the 78 TechWomen mentees visiting the Silicon Valley from Africa and the Middle East. Next week, they move to Washington DC for meetings with the US State Department, the TechWomen program sponsors. Some of us 106 mentors will be going with them! Last weekend, Larissa, Imen, and I and our families rode the annual Ghost Train at the Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, CA. We also joined the TechWomen farewell potluck picnic at Huddart Park in Woodside.  Imen joined our Shakespeare Reading Group, celebrating Halloween by reading Macbeth.

Today, Imen is giving her final technical presentation at Mozilla, the company which has generously hosted her this month. After our trip to the capitol, we will be sad to see Imen return home to Algeria.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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TechWomen at Twitter

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Twitter generously hosted a TechWomen community event last night at their San Francisco headquarters. Hundreds of mentees, mentors, and guests enjoyed food and speakers, plus lively networking and discussion. Imen, Larissa and I kept losing each other in the crowd!  We enjoyed sending tweets from Twitter HQ.  Twitter even provided a little wooden birdhouse that took silly photos then posted the images in tweets.

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Images Copyright 2013 by Katy Dickinson

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