Goodbye Cebu [2019-03-14]

We head back to the US tomorrow night, and we’re in the now-familiar final stages: saying goodbyes, getting equipment stored, and packing up.  We are so grateful for the help of Reneal computer technician Lloyd Tuñacao and our college OJT Ervin Formentera during this trip.  While there are always things left undone, they really made a big difference in how much we were able to complete. 

Monday we held our System Administration training class.  We are happy to welcome thirteen new Super Users!  It was a good day, with lots of questions and discussion.  Sir Jade shared the presenting with Neal, but Lloyd and Ervin also taught modules on hardware topics.  We are grateful to Sir Jezreel Buot at Cebu Technological University (CTU) in Carmen for helping to organize the event.

Since the last blog post, we also visited Carmen NHS, Tayud NHS, Liloan NHS, and Consolacion NHS for updates and repairs.  Lloyd and Ervin traveled to Almacen Torrevillas to deliver a servo-motor voltage regulator, and I returned to Compostela Science and Technology to orient the school librarian, Ma’am Ana, on the system.  Neal had one more trip to CTU Carmen for some last-minute additions to Sir Louie’s server there.  So – it’s been hectic, to say the least.

As we prepare to return to the US, it’s a good time to sum up things here.  Our pre-trip expectations for the Philippines were mostly confirmed.  The high school curriculum right now includes no element of computer literacy, so IT teaching is focused only on computer system servicing (computer assembly and disassembly).  Secondly, the Department of Education has been donating large amounts of computer equipment to schools.  Thus near-term, we are not expecting Reneal expansion to additional high schools in Cebu.  Our team has mainly shifted to “maintenance mode” for the existing high schools still actively using the Reneal system. 

The highlight this year was expanding the computer lab at CTU Carmen.  The computers have been very heavily used by the college students there.  Neal also added some new software features for Sir Louie.  This work with CTU Carmen, begun last year, may lead to additional collaboration as they modify their curriculum to strengthen their offerings in programming.  We are also thankful this year that we were able to give our original school, Compostela National High School-Day, a “make-over” that will lead to much easier maintenance and greater flexibility. 

We are happy to report that the UCSAP-Reneal scholarship program is thriving, with twenty scholars and an expectation of continuing that number in School Year 2019-2020.  We met with the students and their parents last Sunday and were very pleased to see the bonding and support.  The UCSAP committee is truly a phenomenal group of dedicated people!

So… for now it is “goodbye Cebu”, and we’ll be starting to look ahead to Tanzania.

 [Photos: Reneal Team Philippines, New Cebu Super Users]