It is True that “Andela is not easy. Andela is a commitment, and in many ways a sacrifice”

When I first received an email letting me know that I have successfully completed my Proctor Test and that I was invited for an Interview; I got very excited and immediately I started planning my travel to Kenya because I applied from Tanzania. I called a few friends to let them know that I have been invited to attend an in-person interview with Andela and that I was planning to travel to Kenya. However the Andela recruitment team was considerate enough to let me have the interview on Skype of which triggered some fear in me, that maybe I might not do well, but that also went well and I was finally invited to the Andela Cohort 13 Bootcamp!

I went into a lot of trouble to make sure that when the first day of the bootcamp arrives I must be there! I applied from Tanzania, I had to plan where to stay and how to cover my basic needs expenses while attending the Bootcamp. When the day came I met fellow applicants who have also been invited to the Andela Bootcamp, I’m the only Tanzanian in the team, you can imagine how I felt when I saw young but talented and awesome Kenyan participants, it made feel defeated already and thought maybe it was not for me, but I was surprised to learn that I was not the only total stranger in the room, a Ugandan friend also was present, he was also the only one from Uganda. But Steve, a young and extremely humble Kenyan started with a seemingly serious joke about Tanzania, that We use Kiswahili as a medium of communication in all levels of our education system!That was the moment when I started feeling at home and the conversation went on and promised him that I will craft a joke for him before I go back home. However before I could realize Sam, another humble and awesome Kenyan joined my talk with Steve at the same table and believe me I kicked the day off with the right move, and I was not scared anymore.

The first Day started very easy with a “morning warm-up” all fellow participants were engaged in little silly but funny games from the host Andela fellows but I appreciated these games for their contribution in allowing us to start bonding during our first day. Then things started to get warmed up when we were told to go to Prestige Plaza where we held our first day of the Bootcamp, it is within a walk distance from the Andela Kenya Head-quarters. We met our facilitators, Andela Fellows and were introduced to the “Father of Andela” here in Kenya who gave a remarkable intro which personally got me moved and changed me in many ways I felt about the Andela Fellowship.

Now things warmed, we started with a superb subject, “Growth Mindset”, Our awesome facilitators made sure we were all engaged in discussing the topic at hand. We then had a break for breakfast, then continued with a more detailed discussion on the topic “Growth Mindset”. Personally it opened up my eyes especially the way I was thinking about the Andela Fellowship. I realized that it was about making a difference to our communities, using the skills that we will acquire as Software Developers, and that Andela was about inspiring others, the fellowship was not about one being a great coder, it was about how that code affects his/her surroundings with a positive impact.

Now a lot started coming in, a few emails were arriving as the discussion continued, before I could realize my browser was full of busy tabs all containing links to various resources. I have never used slack or Trello board before, but it is now part of my learning process here at Andela Bootcamp. More and more started coming in, we discussed what is Asymptotic analysis, Test Driven Development and Version Control, GitHub, the way we were engaged was very interactive, participant helped create a learning-atmosphere rather than a teaching-atmosphere. We wrote some code for unit testing and that is how things started to get even more serious, because the assignment were time limited, our facilitators observed our participation as well as our activities, everything you do as part of Bootcamp curriculum was under a serious scrutiny.

So far so good but I would like to admit that It is True that “Andela is not easy. Andela is a commitment, and in many ways a sacrifice”