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Back in our second home [2015-05-17]

Well, in just under 24 hours, we traveled from home base #1 in Fremont, California to home base #2 in Compostela, Cebu.  Priscilla Batty, Reneal IEO Board Member, picked us up at 10 a.m. Thursday for our flight out of San Francisco International Airport.  We traveled light, although that’s a relative term:  two duffel bags, one balikbayan box, and our daypacks.  The flights were close to on-time and everything went smoothly.  We arrived at Mactan International last night at midnight and got to our apartment in Compostela right around 1 a.m. Saturday morning.  What a joy to be met at the other end by friend and Team Philippines member Raul Lorenzana! 

It is so wonderful to be back with Neal feeling 100% again.   When we left in early March, he was still struggling with some medication side effects.  It was a challenging time for both of us, and we are both thankful and relieved that we are back again with no lasting issues.  However we do intend to ease into our work a bit more gradually this time!  We’ve returned to very hot weather (90’s with high humidity), so adjusting to that after some unseasonably cool temperatures in California will take a few days as well.  Tomorrow we hope to map out our schedule for visiting the 14 schools in Cebu with the Reneal IEO system.  We have a matrix of tasks already prepared, mainly updates but a few bug fixes and some troubleshooting of dead hardware.  This week we’ll work with Reneal IEO Intern Jade Reyes to update the system administration training files, and we’ll work with Jade and Ma’am Nerry Bugtai (IT Teacher at Compostela National High School) to figure out scheduling for the training.  We are very excited to see all of the IT teachers again, they are such a GREAT group!

Yesterday afternoon we met with friend and colleague Sandy Famador.  Sandy is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Cebu City, and she and Neal are kindred spirits when it comes to software.  Sandy works very hard to expose her students to the latest in technology, although that is challenging in an environment of few resources.  She was fortunate to receive one Raspberry Pi unit from a former student, and she told us about her research lab where her students must crowd around the table to work with that single unit.  Neal brought along his Odroid on this trip, so he showed that to Sandy and she was dazzled – we’ll leave it behind when we depart so her students will at least now have two units to work with!  She also has a small research grant to evaluate the use of drones in identifying and diagnosing mango tree diseases and pests, and Neal is excited about helping evaluate hardware for that.  Sandy is a real inspiration to us in her quest to provide excellent education and research opportunities for her students.  It’s people like Sandy that make the work of Reneal IEO so rewarding and exciting!