“Hapit na” [2014-03-02]

Another exciting week for Reneal IEO has gone by here in Cebu.  We finished up the teacher trainings at Compostela Central Elementary School this week, along with installation of the server computer and 15 laptops at Estaca Elementary, also here in Compostela.  We have some wiring to tidy up at both elementary schools, plus teacher trainings yet to be done at Estaca.  Completion is tantalizing close for five of the six schools that we have targeted for 2014.  But each day we learn the folly of saying “we are almost done…” (“hapit na” in the local language of Visayan).  Invariably there is some new adventure awaiting us when we think we are nearing completion!

One especially frustrating instance of “hapit na” is acquiring parts for our projects.  We brought or shipped in advance quite a bit of equipment from America, but there are lots of odds and ends to pick up here.  Despite our best planning efforts, we keep finding that we need additional items.  This week’s purchasing challenge was finding some kind of covering for the Ethernet cabling that runs from each laptop computer to the network switch.  The cables run along the floor and are a trip hazard; they would also be quickly damaged if not protected somehow.  Neal and I made a trip to the closest mall last Sunday and visited our go-to store, Ace Hardware.  No luck, but the clerks assured us that the larger Ace Hardware at the big mall in Cebu City would have it.  Tuesday was a holiday, so Jade and I journeyed optimistically to the city to get it.  While we did find the additional 600 yards of Ethernet cable we needed, we were again stymied by the covering for the wiring.  (Perhaps this was a blessing, because getting a 30’ length of this stuff back home to Compostela via public transportation would have been an interesting challenge.)  The mystery was solved on Wednesday.  The moment that our friend and master craftsman saw a sample of this covering at Estaca Elementary, he knew where to get it.  It is just the material used to make metal door frames!  He and Neal drove to an aluminum and glass store in a nearby town and picked up what we need.  He has a vehicle, but even so it sounded like an interesting drive with the pieces hanging out the back.

Compostela Central has over 70 teachers, so the principal helped us to organize the teachers into five batches for training; this allowed us to have small groups so each teacher would have their own computer for hands-on practice during the training.  We had three sessions on Thursday and two were planned for Friday.  Between the Friday sessions I dashed back to our home school, Compostela National High School, to see part of the Division-level Pop Quiz activity that was being hosted there.  As I was leaving to do the last training session, I blithely noted to Jade “hapit na” – the trainings were almost done.  Famous last words…   Just as the teachers were filing into the IT lab at 1 p.m., the power went out.  It turned out that the circuit breaker for the school had blown (evidently catastrophically).  A call was made but ironically there was a seminar that day for electrical workers in the municipality.  Fortunately the training schedule was saved when a worker from the utility company came and replaced the old 50 amp breaker with a 60 amp breaker.  Power was restored about 2:30 and the show went on. 

Doubtless there will continue to be those moments when the feeling of “hapit na” turns into more unexpected work, delay, or challenge.  This coming week we will begin follow-up visits to each school, and there are already changes to make and problems to debug.  We still have one complete IT lab to install.  However we are excited to report that equipment valued at over $7300 (either donated or purchased with cash donations) has already been installed in five schools here in Cebu.  This equipment will serve almost 7000 public school students and 240 teachers.  To date ten training sessions have been held with 143 teachers, to share with them the use of this new system; there are additional teacher trainings already on the calendar.  Specialized system administrator training is also being planned for mid-March to share maintenance and trouble-shooting techniques for the low-cost computer system to the IT teachers at the schools we serve.  And on March 15th we will travel with our valued contact from Aboitiz to the town of San Remegio, a community in northern Cebu that was ravaged by Typhoon Haiyan.  We hope to look for candidate schools for IT lab projects, if resources and time permit in 2014.

This work would not be possible without the generous support of Reneal IEO donors.  On behalf of the students, teachers, school administrators, and parents of these schools, we send our deepest thanks.