Mid-trip and all is well [2015-10-21]
So much has happened since the last post, I don’t really even know where to begin. Last week we completed the installation at Ilboru Secondary School and held two sessions of teacher orientation training. This past Monday we started at Enyoito Secondary School and, with the help of a great team, got everything installed in one day. In between, Neal and I joined Robin and Jacque Kimzey, volunteers from Kids on Computers (www.kidsoncompters.org), on a safari to three of Tanzania’s spectacular parks. The four of us also paid a visit to the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) to prepare for an installation later this month.
Ilboru SS was somewhat more challenging because the client computers there are older units that had not been operated in quite some time. Thankfully we had a full complement of support! Thanks to a collaborative agreement signed last year, Habari Node Limited (a local ISP company) provided three professionals (Prosper Jorram, Enoch Israel, and African Massawe) to do the cabling for the lab. A representative from Arusha Node Marie, Monica John, was there to help with that as well. Robin and Jacque jumped right in clearing BIOS passwords, setting the BIOS to boot from the network, testing memory, and getting the clients, monitors, keyboards, and mice set in place. Mr. Thomas, the Ilboru computer teacher, and Asu Sunyodi of African Malaika helped Neal set up the server. We had to run from a generator all day, which added to the challenge. It was truly amazing to watch order emerge from the chaos as the day went on! We finished with most of the roughly 25 computers tested and in place and with the server ready to go. Over the next two days we did have power, so we were able to get the entire lab up and running on the second day and had training sessions with the Computer Student Specialist group and the teachers on the third day. Reneal IEO is so grateful for the support of this team in making the Ilboru computer lab a reality! Ilboru is a school for gifted boys, and we are thrilled that they now have a computer lab to use!
Wednesday the 14th was a holiday, so Robin, Jacque, Neal, Monica, Asu, and I took the opportunity to visit UAACC, an NGO that has served its local community for many years. It houses 21 youth and provides training of various kinds (English, music, art, computer, and so forth) for local people. They have twelve client computers, so we will go there at the end of October to install a server with the Reneal IEO system.
Robin, Jacque, Neal and I then departed on a four-day safari, visiting Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro National Conservation Area. It was an amazing experience, seeing so many different types of animals in their natural habitat. Sadly tourism has been suffering in East Africa in recent years – perhaps the economy, perhaps the concern about Ebola which is an entire continent away – but it is truly a shame that more people aren’t visiting these parks. They are a world treasure being preserved carefully by the Tanzanian government.
Monday we were back to work at Enyoito Secondary School, our third project. Again, with our colleagues from Habari Node Limited, Arusha Node Marie, Kids on Computers, and African Malaika, we made rapid progress. The installation is already complete, so we’ll spend today and tomorrow preparing teacher accounts and meeting with the Computer Student Specialists and the teachers for basic system orientation. Yesterday Robin and Jacque departed for the US, so we spent the day running errands locally. We were sorry to see them go – their help was invaluable! We hope this has laid a foundation for additional future collaboration with Reneal and Kids on Computers.
I think we’ve finally obtained the last bit of equipment that we need to finish our work here. So far we are on schedule, thanks to LOTS of help from the team here. We are so pleased and grateful for the progress so far!