Past, present, and future [2016-02-21]
This last week was probably the crux of our trip, a week where we combined a new installation, visits to previous installations, and scouting for our next trip. We were both viewing the week with some trepidation, because this was all done up in northern Cebu on a rather tight time schedule with no well-stocked computer stores nearby for emergency purchases. However it ended up going wonderfully and we returned home last night happy and excited for the future.
The towns where we worked, Medellin and Daanbantayan, are not that far from Compostela as the crow flies – maybe 50 miles? However even our wonderful door-to-door transportation service took over two hours each way due to the road conditions and diverse vehicles (with diverse speeds) on the roads. Taking a bus or van that stops constantly to pick up and drop off passengers can take much longer. So although a there-and-back trip is possible in a day, it would be tiring to do every day for a week. Thus we moved Reneal headquarters to the town of Medellin for the week.
As reported in last week’s blog post, the installation work at Almacen Torrevillas National High School went very well. We were delighted to have both direct and indirect connections with some of the teachers there and truly enjoyed the lively orientation sessions with lots of ideas and questions. We finished our work at Almacen Torrevillas on Tuesday but continued to be surrounded by an amazing web of support the entire week – lodging, meals, transportation, introductions, and folks checking in with us. Neal and I have spent a lot of time in the Philippines in the last ten years, but it is still always extra effort and stress for us to navigate the local transportation and food scene by ourselves. I really can’t even imagine how much was going on behind the scenes to smooth the way, but we are truly grateful for everything that made our work stress-free this week!
After the new installation, we next visited the three existing Reneal installations in northern Cebu: Kawit NHS and Medellin National Science and Technology High School on Wednesday and Daanbantayan NHS on Thursday. Kawit and Medellin S&T were straightforward visits. Neal made a few minor updates on the server, and we spent some time reviewing the system resources. We discussed how the school was using the IT lab and answered questions.
Daanbantayan NHS actually has two IT labs running from the server with a total of about 45 computers. We allocated an entire day there because last year we had noticed an odd behavior with the server – periodically it would just appear to go into power save mode. It look a bit like hibernation, but the clients would all hang so obviously it was a problem. Unfortunately though it didn’t seem to display much of a pattern. Neal figured out pretty early on that it was related to the graphics, thanks to a clue that Sir Chester (the IT teacher) had noticed. Happily the problem seemed to disappear after a change in the BIOS to allocate more memory to the display. Hurray! Sir Chester and I also tackled some client problems, and by the end of the day we had everything fixed. Neal solved another intriguing mystery as well. The screen streaming would work with the sys admin account but not with a teacher account. Neal finally had a lightning bolt of inspiration – the teacher menu had an error in the program name! He fixed it and everything worked perfectly on the teacher account. It was a fabulous, fun day of troubleshooting with some truly great IT teachers! We are so pleased with how much the system is being used at Daanbantayan NHS!
Friday brought our first scouting visits of the year. We were very thankful that Sir Jade, Ma’am Nerry, and Sir Chester were able to join us on these visits. It is just incredibly helpful to have them, as experienced users, explain the system and its benefits to potential recipients. We are so grateful to their principals for allowing them to join us for this work! We ended up visiting four schools up north for evaluation. We are looking for 1-3 additional projects for later in 2016, as well as possibilities for 2017.
The scouting scene is complicated by the impending transformation to a K-12 system here in the Philippines (from the previous scheme that ends at grade 10). The very first 11th graders will start classes in June, so there is a whirlwind of activity here to build classrooms, hire teachers, define curriculum, and so on. It will be a wonderful enhancement to education here in the long run and will almost certainly provide better opportunities for graduates. However in the short term, just like for any big change, there are growing pains and challenges as the conversion nears. We too at Reneal are considering how best to support the new “senior high schools” while continuing our support of the existing grades that will soon be called “junior high schools”. Stay tuned as the next project plans emerge! We will clearly have many, many opportunities to serve additional schools – please contact us at contact.reneal@gmail.com for information regarding computer hardware donations!
In what has become a tradition, we ended our time up north with an outing to an exotic and beautiful place. Jade, Neal, and I were joined by two teachers at Almacen Torrevillas NHS for a trip to “Funtastic Island” yesterday, hosted by the municipality of Medellin. It was truly a memorable day, and we have just been overwhelmed by the wonderful hospitality of the Cebuanos in the north!