Anyway, here's his post:
08/07/09
I apologize for the prolonged silence. The power was out for several days which made it impossible to use our borrowed modem. To summarize the last few days is pretty easy: spades. Lots and lots of spades. It wasn’t like we were completely resting on our laurels, on Tuesday the manager of the NGO that we’re working with (Madagascar School Project) had a meeting with the Bishop of the district and the Theological College. We were all crossing our fingers as we had just learned of some bad blood/politics that had emerged since our arrival. Apparently, the Headmaster of the school run by the Anglican Church (St. Pauli’s) has grown increasingly hostile against the school that is run by our Canadian partners (MSP). We had always planned on giving computers to both schools but we guess the headmaster is concerned because now many resources are going to go to the MSP school (power lines, internet for the server, etc). It’s not an issue of “zero sum” resources as nothing is being taken from him by the college (the MSP is paying for the materials), we believe it’s an issue of prestige since both are primary schools and kids have to pay to enter St. Pauli’s, and kids can get into the Luva Su (MSP school) for free (need based, MSP has arrangement with city chief who has list of the poorest familes, also, the teachers and mothers in the area are recommend kids that are most in need). The Luva Su teacher is bar none the better school with superior teachers, equipment, and English training than St. Paulis. We think the rector is jealous of the now added benefit the computers provide. So yeah, we’ve learned about all of this from our friends Sam and Violette (Sam teaches English and Greek at the Theology College, Violette is his Malagasy wife (and IS AWESOME!!!) and Kathy. During the outage it was unclear what was going to happen since the Church could easily kick MSP off or starve it of necessary resources to negate the computer deployment. Luckily, on Tuesday we learned that Kathy had an excellent meeting with the Bishop who is hoping to turn the College (and its surrounding land) into an education center for the area. He seems to be completely on board with getting power to Luva Su and for the computers to go to both schools. It feels good to have a purpose. Today we held our first teacher’s training. It is surreal to have to explain to people how a mouse works, or the concept of “clicking” or holding a button while using the mouse. Mike, Kate, and Mary all explained that during their training in Rwanda, the teachers are the most difficult to instruct while kids pick it up relatively quickly. I will be interested in seeing what their concept of “quickly” is as today was certainly a trial of my patience (of which I have none). When they got to games I was a little perplexed at how entertained they were at some of the maze & memorization puzzles, but then I realized that this was probably their first experience with “video games.” During our power outage Mike told me about an acronym that the OLPC people told them during their training and that was TIA: “This Is Africa.” This became true, not with teaching people how to type, nor how to click, right click, drag, windows, etc…the moment came towards the end of our meeting when I looked into our kitchen because I heard a noise and saw multiple rats on our counter-top. This was at around 3pm, with sunlight streaming through our house and a clean kitchen. Rats. I grabbed our broom (which we paid 50 cents for from the local “broom maker”) and scurried through the kitchen thwacking them out our door. Two escaped, but I managed to keep one pinned with the broom and stomp on the bristles. No joke though, these rats can jump…When one was running from me it jumped against the wall that it had ran to and jumped about as high as our stools in the kitchen of the house. I was so furious that they had the audacity to come into our kitchen in mid-day. We had seen the signs of the little bastards before and have taken precautions (keeping all the dishes clean, putting food in top shelves, shoring up holes in the dressers with aluminum) but today was simply ridiculous. They’re also in our ceiling. From time to time we’ll hear them scamper around up there. Once a fight broke out or maybe one of our monstrous spiders bit them because we heard some noise and bunch of “squeeking” above us. I taped over some holes that I think they use to get in, just to see if they gnaw their way through. Then I’ll know where to put the traps once we get them. I also took a shower this morning, I feel like bringing this up since I have yet to discuss our little system. Since we don’t trust the water, we boil several pots full of water and mix it with our already sanitized water in a bucket. Then we stand in the bucket and scrub clean head first to feet. At first it seemed a great chore, but I’ve grown accustomed to it relatively quickly and now feel like I’m bathing in luxury. I wake up a little early every other day to put some water on and get to the shower/bucket first. Tomorrow we’re doing some more teacher training. *note. While writing this email in our main room, another rat scurried through the room. I cannot wait to hear those traps snap shut!!!
120709
Getting a bit more lax at this, I apologize. Our power has been up but we have been lazy at getting the modem. Things have definitely spiced up around here. We did teacher training all last week. It is amazing to see how excited they are about the computers. They now want us to help them with their English as well as the computers. We were wondering where we would get the time, but I advised that this could be a good opportunity to include English training in our letters of recommendation from the Madagascar School Project once we leave. Thus, if anyone was thinking of a Fulbright program or any type of teacher program (Americorps, Teach for America, overseas, etc) this could be a big opportunity. “training the trainers” is nice phrase for a resume. So we got some language training books from Sam and have made a bunch of vocabulary cards (specifically for computers, Screen, Keyboard, Mousepad, Left Click, Right Click, Power, etc) that we are going to incorporate into our teacher training for next week. I can’t wait. We also went to the school to do a test run with the students. That was freaking crazy. Like seriously, a mad house. It was good, however, by offering us a chance to frame a learning program. “Paint” is not only fun for the kids but is excellent in teaching them basic mouse functions and our “Speak” program which helps with typing (it says whatever you type, so the kids go crazy and teachers like it because they can encourage the kids to type all the English words they know and the speech lets the kids know if they did it right). Yesterday we slept in pretty late and lazed around reading our ever diminishing supply of books. I’m about half way through “The Clash of Civilizations” by Samuel Huntington. Dad, you HAVE to read this book. It’s everything that you believe and a little bit more. Mary and Kate hate it and hate the fact that I’m reading it. Huntington is anathema if you’re a liberal international affairs major. After a late start, Mike and I went to one of the shops and bought some Coke and Rum then met up with the girls at the “football pitch” (soccer field) to play Frisbee. I have not had a touch of alcohol since Dad’s birthday party so last night was truly joyous. We cooked up our last batch of noodles, (always awesome when you eat rice everyday!!!) a delicious fresh tomato/onion /habanero sauce, (actually a bit more like a broth, but whatev’s) watched some Battlestar Galactica on my computer, and once supper was complete we broke out the rum and listened to music (I burned the cowbell CD onto my computer before I left) and played a very interesting hand of Spades. Tell Grandpa Elmer that when I get back I want to play Spades with him and he’s got to teach me Pinnacle (or however you spell it). Maybe I’ll try to figure it out online….
08/07/09
I apologize for the prolonged silence. The power was out for several days which made it impossible to use our borrowed modem. To summarize the last few days is pretty easy: spades. Lots and lots of spades. It wasn’t like we were completely resting on our laurels, on Tuesday the manager of the NGO that we’re working with (Madagascar School Project) had a meeting with the Bishop of the district and the Theological College. We were all crossing our fingers as we had just learned of some bad blood/politics that had emerged since our arrival. Apparently, the Headmaster of the school run by the Anglican Church (St. Pauli’s) has grown increasingly hostile against the school that is run by our Canadian partners (MSP). We had always planned on giving computers to both schools but we guess the headmaster is concerned because now many resources are going to go to the MSP school (power lines, internet for the server, etc). It’s not an issue of “zero sum” resources as nothing is being taken from him by the college (the MSP is paying for the materials), we believe it’s an issue of prestige since both are primary schools and kids have to pay to enter St. Pauli’s, and kids can get into the Luva Su (MSP school) for free (need based, MSP has arrangement with city chief who has list of the poorest familes, also, the teachers and mothers in the area are recommend kids that are most in need). The Luva Su teacher is bar none the better school with superior teachers, equipment, and English training than St. Paulis. We think the rector is jealous of the now added benefit the computers provide. So yeah, we’ve learned about all of this from our friends Sam and Violette (Sam teaches English and Greek at the Theology College, Violette is his Malagasy wife (and IS AWESOME!!!) and Kathy. During the outage it was unclear what was going to happen since the Church could easily kick MSP off or starve it of necessary resources to negate the computer deployment. Luckily, on Tuesday we learned that Kathy had an excellent meeting with the Bishop who is hoping to turn the College (and its surrounding land) into an education center for the area. He seems to be completely on board with getting power to Luva Su and for the computers to go to both schools. It feels good to have a purpose. Today we held our first teacher’s training. It is surreal to have to explain to people how a mouse works, or the concept of “clicking” or holding a button while using the mouse. Mike, Kate, and Mary all explained that during their training in Rwanda, the teachers are the most difficult to instruct while kids pick it up relatively quickly. I will be interested in seeing what their concept of “quickly” is as today was certainly a trial of my patience (of which I have none). When they got to games I was a little perplexed at how entertained they were at some of the maze & memorization puzzles, but then I realized that this was probably their first experience with “video games.” During our power outage Mike told me about an acronym that the OLPC people told them during their training and that was TIA: “This Is Africa.” This became true, not with teaching people how to type, nor how to click, right click, drag, windows, etc…the moment came towards the end of our meeting when I looked into our kitchen because I heard a noise and saw multiple rats on our counter-top. This was at around 3pm, with sunlight streaming through our house and a clean kitchen. Rats. I grabbed our broom (which we paid 50 cents for from the local “broom maker”) and scurried through the kitchen thwacking them out our door. Two escaped, but I managed to keep one pinned with the broom and stomp on the bristles. No joke though, these rats can jump…When one was running from me it jumped against the wall that it had ran to and jumped about as high as our stools in the kitchen of the house. I was so furious that they had the audacity to come into our kitchen in mid-day. We had seen the signs of the little bastards before and have taken precautions (keeping all the dishes clean, putting food in top shelves, shoring up holes in the dressers with aluminum) but today was simply ridiculous. They’re also in our ceiling. From time to time we’ll hear them scamper around up there. Once a fight broke out or maybe one of our monstrous spiders bit them because we heard some noise and bunch of “squeeking” above us. I taped over some holes that I think they use to get in, just to see if they gnaw their way through. Then I’ll know where to put the traps once we get them. I also took a shower this morning, I feel like bringing this up since I have yet to discuss our little system. Since we don’t trust the water, we boil several pots full of water and mix it with our already sanitized water in a bucket. Then we stand in the bucket and scrub clean head first to feet. At first it seemed a great chore, but I’ve grown accustomed to it relatively quickly and now feel like I’m bathing in luxury. I wake up a little early every other day to put some water on and get to the shower/bucket first. Tomorrow we’re doing some more teacher training. *note. While writing this email in our main room, another rat scurried through the room. I cannot wait to hear those traps snap shut!!!
120709
Getting a bit more lax at this, I apologize. Our power has been up but we have been lazy at getting the modem. Things have definitely spiced up around here. We did teacher training all last week. It is amazing to see how excited they are about the computers. They now want us to help them with their English as well as the computers. We were wondering where we would get the time, but I advised that this could be a good opportunity to include English training in our letters of recommendation from the Madagascar School Project once we leave. Thus, if anyone was thinking of a Fulbright program or any type of teacher program (Americorps, Teach for America, overseas, etc) this could be a big opportunity. “training the trainers” is nice phrase for a resume. So we got some language training books from Sam and have made a bunch of vocabulary cards (specifically for computers, Screen, Keyboard, Mousepad, Left Click, Right Click, Power, etc) that we are going to incorporate into our teacher training for next week. I can’t wait. We also went to the school to do a test run with the students. That was freaking crazy. Like seriously, a mad house. It was good, however, by offering us a chance to frame a learning program. “Paint” is not only fun for the kids but is excellent in teaching them basic mouse functions and our “Speak” program which helps with typing (it says whatever you type, so the kids go crazy and teachers like it because they can encourage the kids to type all the English words they know and the speech lets the kids know if they did it right). Yesterday we slept in pretty late and lazed around reading our ever diminishing supply of books. I’m about half way through “The Clash of Civilizations” by Samuel Huntington. Dad, you HAVE to read this book. It’s everything that you believe and a little bit more. Mary and Kate hate it and hate the fact that I’m reading it. Huntington is anathema if you’re a liberal international affairs major. After a late start, Mike and I went to one of the shops and bought some Coke and Rum then met up with the girls at the “football pitch” (soccer field) to play Frisbee. I have not had a touch of alcohol since Dad’s birthday party so last night was truly joyous. We cooked up our last batch of noodles, (always awesome when you eat rice everyday!!!) a delicious fresh tomato/onion /habanero sauce, (actually a bit more like a broth, but whatev’s) watched some Battlestar Galactica on my computer, and once supper was complete we broke out the rum and listened to music (I burned the cowbell CD onto my computer before I left) and played a very interesting hand of Spades. Tell Grandpa Elmer that when I get back I want to play Spades with him and he’s got to teach me Pinnacle (or however you spell it). Maybe I’ll try to figure it out online….
(massive editorial snip)
Anyway, love you all. Hope you guys are having a good summer and have fun at the property! P.S. On Friday, a rat ran out from under our gas stove while Mary was cooking. She screamed and ran out of the kitchen, I ran in with the broom telling Mike to shut the doors after me. I got in a few good wacks with the broom as the bastard CLIMBED THE WALLS. With the doors shut I found out that the only way they can get out of the kitchen is through a hole in the ceiling. So after hitting him a few times, he scampered into the cabinet that holds our propane tank, when I opened it (it’s at about shin to mid thigh level) I only saw the propane tank but after a few seconds I realized it was underneath it, when I moved the tank it started to go out from under it startling me at which point I dropped the tank pinning the rat. Needless to say, I finished it off pretty gruesomely. Only afterwards did I think about the mess such an act could cause but luckily nothing came out of it and the clean up was as simple as sweeping the body outside for the feral dogs to eat. All in all, one kill without traps. Tomorrow will be the big day when we get the traps. Truly looking forward to it!
Sounds like you are having a good life experience.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine having to teach people basic things such as how to use a mouse and basic computer function concepts. I guess kids learn fast though.
Helping to build the world up and having a positive impact on the world.