The new week begins after
everyone had a good rest yesterday. We’ve been advised that we are going to
climb up a large hill today, which is going to be extremely hot and tiring. In the early
morning, everyone steeled themselves with sunscreen and we carried a full
bottle of clean water with us. Our friendly driver, Ben, left
yesterday and we now have a new driver whose name is Peter. He was driving Ben’s
car but the difference is that he is super SLOW!!! I was in another car and we
caught up quickly even though we had a 20 minutes delay of departure from the
camp. Anyway, once we arrived at the
school, we spent time teaching students Scratch on the OLPCs before lunch time. Again - it was a struggle teaching them this application, as it was not very interesting to them. So we changed course and started some new lessons -- like how to type and capitalize letters. We then got ready to climb the hill after a quick lunch that consisted of a sandwich,
boiled egg and orange juice.
In the afternoon, we tried to get the internet going and register each of the students in to a gmail account. We were so excited and so were the students to b able to participate in the most basic of social media formats - email.
We had a long walk up to the top of a
hill. It was a good workout. However, when we finally arrived at the
top, the internet did not work. We had everything in place, the Cradle Point, the SIM card, the updated laptops, Gnome, Sugar, Clear skies -- but alas no email. It was frustrating to say the least, but we must admit the cradle point routers have been somewhat inconsistent lately, dropping in and out without any rhyme or reason.
We tried to make it work but we failed. Nevertheless, the students at Laparua enjoy the field-trip to the top of the hill. They played with the computers and took many nice photos with them.
When we came back, we then took a shower. (Jonathan
screaming again)
As usual -- Mr. Dentsedt continued to work away on the playset, only pausing for lunch and a mid-afternoon tea. The four Ntugi Alumni he is working with are absolutely amazing and some real progress is being made. To help make things move faster, we were obliged to purchase an electric circular saw and borrow a power drill. This has also required us to borrow a generator from Lewa. Despite the noise, the project is moving along really well. Next up is Andrew and his small team of primary students to paint the mural!!!
