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Blog

End of an era [2019-03-04]

Thirteen years ago this month, we got on a plane bound for the Philippines as prospective United States Peace Corps Volunteers.  Following training, we moved to the small town of Compostela on the island of Cebu where we were assigned to support Compostela National High School.  We found teachers and students there eager for more computers, so our work quickly focused on development of a distributed computer system on campus.  By the time our Peace Corps service ended in 2008, we had installed over 100 computers on campus.  Each year since then we’ve continued to come back to Compostela to make updates and repairs.  However this last week we made a major change to that original architecture to simplify it for easier maintenance. 

Halfway through [2019-02-27]

Since the last post, we’ve continued our visits to existing Reneal installations.  We spent two days at Cebu Technological University (CTU) in Carmen, and we held teacher orientation training at Cantumog National High School.  We dropped by Calero Integrated School in Liloan to return their server after a hardware fix, and then we spent the rest of the day at Arcelo Memorial National High School in Liloan, the school where Sir Jade teaches.  Now we’ve embarked on a major reconfiguration at Compostela National High School, where we’ll spend (at least) the coming week.  And while Neal and I were away for some R&R, Lloyd and Ervin were whirlwinds: putting additional client computers at CTU Carmen, installing a small Reneal lab in the library at Compostela Science and Technology High School, and doing computer repairs in the Compostela National High School library.

Up North [2019-02-03]

Five years ago, in the aftermath of deadly Typhoon Yolanda, Reneal Team Philippines traveled to Northern Cebu to join with other NGOs in offering assistance to schools devastated by one of the strongest tropical storms ever to make landfall.  In May of 2014, we installed a Reneal system at Daanbantayan National High School.  This was the first of several partnerships in the North that continue to this day.  Reneal Team Philippines spent this last week visiting three of the schools up there to make some major updates and repairs.  It was great to be back!

Week 1 in Cebu [2019-01-26]

We had an exciting start to our time in Cebu, visiting four schools this week.  Three of them were 2018 installations, and for two of those schools it was the first time we had a chance to see the new computer labs.  We are so grateful to Reneal Team Philippines for carrying on the work even when Neal and I are in the US.  Meanwhile in Africa, Reneal Team Tanzania completed a new lab installation at Osiligi Secondary School on Wednesday, our 15th school in Arusha District!

Back home in Cebu [2019-01-22]

Saturday morning found us with boxes and duffel bags lined up at the door heading for the Philippines.  After an uneventful 24 hours or so, we arrived here in our second home of Cebu.  It’s always great to be back!  We’ve had a chance to see many friends and colleagues already, and in the coming weeks we look forward to being together with many more.  We have a busy schedule lined up to visit many of our partner schools for updates and repairs.  Reneal Team Philippines has been very productive in our absence, and we’re especially looking forward to visiting some of Reneal’s new installations that Neal and I haven’t had a chance to see yet.

Thanks A is for Africa! [2019-01-16]

Last August we had the great good fortune to be introduced to Rick Smith from “A is for Africa”, a US non-profit headquartered in Maryland.  The introduction was through Arusha District Executive Director Dr. Charles Mahera, and it happened when coincidentally both Rick and members of Reneal’s Board of Directors were in Arusha.  Now here we are just a few short months later celebrating completion of a joint project to install a Reneal server in the computer lab at Matim Primary School facilitated by AIFA!

Reneal Scholarships: Part 2 [2019-01-05]

Happy New Year from Reneal!  The first blog post of 2019 will be continuation of the final post of 2018.  We talked last about the Reneal scholarship program in the Philippines, now in its tenth year.  This time we’ll be focusing on the Reneal scholarship program in Tanzania.  This program, a long-time dream of Neal’s, finally came to fruition in 2018.  Just like in the Philippines, a few dollars can go a very long way in helping students in Tanzania reach their dreams!  We couldn’t do this without the dedication and hard work of Reneal School Liaison David Nyangaka.

Reneal Scholarships: Part 1 [2018-12-31]

Reneal hit a major milestone in 2018 – we are celebrating the tenth year of the Reneal scholarship program!  The program was born back in 2009 as we looked for new ways to help promising high school students in the Philippines achieve their dreams.  What was striking was that it took so little money by US standards to make a huge difference in the lives of Filipino students.  We are so grateful for our in-country partners who do the hard work of managing these two programs!

Heading toward Cebu! [2018-12-21]

Reneal has had a big year, installing ten new computer labs in 2018 with six of these new labs in the Philippines.  Thanks to some wonderful donations in 2018 (including Free Geek in Portland, OR, World Computer Exchange, Sound Family Medicine in Bonney Lake, WA, Maloney Elementary School in Fremont, CA, and UNeed2 in Tracy, CA), Reneal has had a wealth of computer hardware to share with schools in the Philippines.  We were especially pleased this year that Reneal Team Philippines organized and executed three installations while Neal and I were far away in the US. 

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