Charlie's Turn...

I realized this morning that I have not written about the computer center for a while.

Blogs should be exciting, and we are having plenty of (mis)adventures so there is no lack of material to pull from. The center is doing excellent work, but is likely only exciting to geeks and old Scouters like me. Still, the center is why I’m here, and it fills my days with interesting work, opportunities to meet fascinating people, make new friends, and hopefully make a small contribution to this community that we’ve come to feel a part of.


The building consists of three rooms – a storage area at the extreme left, a small room in the center that serves as an office, a small class room, and soon to be an internet café, (we got the phone reconnected yesterday – can DSL be far behind?) and a large room on the right with 21 networked student computers, an instructor machine, an ancient LCD projector, and a white board.In the time I’ve been here, the center has gone from looking like this most of the time,

to looking like this most of the time.

I know my contribution in this regard is simply being a warm body with the keys to the classroom that happens to be around most of the time, nevertheless it’s nice to see. The kids in the picture are playing games during their equivalent to recess, and head for the center on bikes or on foot whenever they get a break from school.

The plan is simple. Get them interested in computers with games, work with teachers to give them assignments that require looking up information either in Encarta or online, and then fill the gaps with some basic training – either formal or informal like my OLPC session pictured here.

When the interest grows beyond that, offer courses from basic skills to advanced skills.Game console emulators with Mario Brothers and PacMan are getting old, so I have a couple people searching for some simple educational games for the younger kids, and more complex puzzle, mystery, or role playing games for the older kids. It’s hard to find stuff that is not “first person shooter” style or crime based like “grand theft auto” (which I understand is a potential career path here)Adults use the center too, and there are now 2 computer skills courses running on Fridays and Sundays.

We hope to begin offering some evening courses as well shortly, so that people in the outlying areas can get there too, as soon as we can find some funding for instructors. With an annual wage of about $5000 per full time employee, this should be simple, but as usual finding money is a challenge. Beyond salaries, we are hoping the internet café will earn enough to cover utilities costs, so that leaves rent on the center building to find. I met the owner this week – a pleasant lady that believes in the center and is therefore patient, and only charges a minimal amount. Still, it’s another $171 to find each month.

I’m attending a meeting with a potential sponsor next week that could provide about 30% of the required staff funding – so I’ll have to try to remember how to be a project manager and present a customer proposal. The local guys on the ground here are excellent and dedicated, and clearly are in the driver’s seat. I think demonstrating a North American connection will help convince this potential funder that the project is real and worthwhile. I came here with my usual skepticism, but I’ve become convinced over the last couple months. Here’s hoping it goes well!

The soon to be "Internet Cafe"

O.K. – if you’ve been patient enough to read this far, I have an adventure story as a reward. For some reason, it’s a Dianne story – I’m not sure why.

The girl with the touch everything finger is not always aware of what she is about to touch. By way of example, we wandered down to the park entrance last week to see the moon on the ocean. She leaned against a picnic table without looking and put her hand on a beetle that was just slightly larger than my fist.

After she got clean underwear, I was pretty sure she had learned the lesson – there are things here that can kill you if you accidentally lean on the wrong tree, grab the wrong hanging vine, or poke your finger into a coconut hole. The beetle was a big sleepy leaf eater, but next time he might not be.

In her defense, while we both know this intellectually, it is not second nature for us, simply because we did not grow up where this is a concern, and it’s easy to forget to look where you are putting your hand. As the narrator of this story, I don’t have to tell you about my bonehead moves, so of course there are none. :-)

Yesterday she decided to clean a stain in the sink, by putting Javex on it and letting it soak for a couple hours. The Javex bottle has been sitting in the back corner of the counter untouched for a few weeks. Without looking, she picked up the bottle and proceeded to pour it on the stain, when this fine fellow ran across her fingers.

She jumped, he jumped, and he landed in a pool of Javex , which made short work of him.

The picture has the gallon bottle in it for size reference – if you need another reference, he was larger than my coffee mug and would have some of his legs hanging over the edges. Suffice it to say the Javex will likely be needed on another pair of underwear.

I’m not sure, but I think I saw her in the internet café on the Air Canada website. C’mon Honey, it’s only another week or two….