When young Kenyan Irene Odera took her aunt to the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi for a job interview, she had no idea that her own life would change as a result. Approached by a marketing officer with a questionnaire, she agreed to do some volunteer data entry, but soon found it to be “a tedious and annoying task … I slowly started devising ways of making my job easier.” Since she had no previous experience on computers, this meant teaching herself how to write macros in Microsoft Excel.

Although data entry did not spark Irene’s enthusiasm, she loved using technology to make work easier and more efficient. She registered with Strathmore University in Nairobi, where she eventually earned a diploma in Management of Information Systems. After that she joined Kenyatta University and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology.

Armed with multiple diplomas and a formidable set of tech skills, Irene had no problem finding work, doing software support for a civil engineering firm. She left that company for Netcom, where she began working for the first time in Oracle database development.

One of her colleagues at Netcom left something in the printer one day: something about Geekcorps. (That colleague, Lawrence Kaaria, went on to do three assignments for Geekcorps.) Curious, and excited about the idea of a change in environment, she checked out the Geekcorps website and registered. That was 2003.

Two years later, she got her assignment: teaching Oracle database development for 30 days in Kigali, Rwanda, for a company called E-Tools. About that experience, Irene says,

“I have always loved to see the look in people’s faces when they learn something new, something that they never thought could be done and that would solve their immediate problems … I was teaching mainly Francophone people [Kenya is an Anglophone country), so language was a barrier but it went well. No one laughed at my jokes but all was good, at the end of the day we understood each other.”

She herself learned some things too, about communication and self-confidence. As a young woman, training twelve older adults—ten of whom were men, in a culture with fairly rigid gender roles and expectations—she says, “I had to work really hard to be taken seriously. I had to be tough when the situation called for it and also be very understanding and not act frustrated when language became a problem.” Overall the experience was a powerful and positive one for Irene.

The positive effects lasted, too. After returning to Kenya in late 2005, she was contacted by E-Tools and offered a paid position back in Kigali. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, and for two months she deliberated: Nairobi, a large and lively city, was home; she had her family, and a full social life. Moving to Kigali would raise the language barrier again and take her far from friends and family. On the other hand, now that she’d traveled and seen other places, home didn’t seem quite the same anymore. Also, professionally speaking, she was ready to learn some new tools and do something different.

Irene, who has not yet declined a challenge, started working with E-Tools in March. She is currently working on a project with the National Bank of Rwanda, using Java and Apache Struts (an open-source framework for developing J2EE web applications), both of which are brand new to her. She is also the Oracle moderator for www.rwandadotnet.com, a site sponsored by Microsoft, E-Tools, and other companies. “Being a moderator means I have to read a lot to be able to answer all the questions posted on the Oracle forum in the site,” she says, which in turn helps her learn even more.

The work environment at E-Tools is quite different from what she was accustomed to at Netcom. The E-Tools office is multiracial and multilingual. Workers are independent and responsible for their own schedules.

When asked if she plans to stay in Rwanda, Irene says, “For the moment yes, but I want to explore, I want to work in other countries especially within Africa … Eventually, there is no place like Nairobi; I love it and I can’t imagine settling anywhere else, but for the time being, maybe the next ten years or so,” she’d like to travel and keep learning new technical skills at the same time. Spoken like a true geek!

Many thanks to Irene for sharing the details of her story with us by email.

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