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2015 in review [2015-12-31]

I just scanned back over the blogs from 2015.  Wow, how to summarize this past year for Reneal IEO?  It was a year of exciting success and daunting challenge, and along the way we had a chance to meet so many amazing new people and to reconnect with dear friends.  Reneal experienced dramatic growth in 2015, beginning the year with low-cost computer systems in 14 schools and ending it with systems in 26 schools.  Neal and I spent almost 6 months overseas engaged in Reneal work.  We are definitely living the dream, working alongside marvelous, dedicated professionals in both the Philippines and Tanzania to bring IT to students and teachers there!

The first two months of 2015 brought significant challenge though as Neal dealt with side effects with a new medication while we were in the Philippines.  We were overwhelmed by the incredible help and support that allowed Reneal to complete the project plan in spite of Neal’s inability to visit the schools.  The 2015 installation work, seven schools in the Philippines and five in Tanzania, ended up an unqualified success.  Team Philippines and Team Tanzania make our work easy!  We are proud and excited that three members of Team Philippines have since been blessed with great new opportunities – Jade and Raul with full-time teaching positions and Jillian with a job in technical drafting.  However Jade continues to support Reneal, doing significant preparation work over this holiday break for the 2016 projects.

There were several firsts this year for Reneal.  Neal developed an easily-copied disk that allows others to build a Reneal server with just a few simple commands.  He conducted the first-ever Reneal server-building class for colleagues in Tanzania, so they can now create new servers on their own.  A lab installation in Cebu was also completed in our absence, for the very first time.  In July, the first annual Cebu Open Source Software Championship (COSSC) gave Cebu students a chance to showcase their skills in several applications.  We also branched out in the types of schools we serve, installing systems at science and technology high schools in both Cebu and Arusha, and at a night high school in Cebu which caters to working students.  Monetary donations and computer grants hit all-time highs for Reneal in 2015.

Lots of things to work on though.  The computer usage level in 2015 in Tanzania schools was observed to be discouragingly low.  We are very pleased that David, our colleague in the Arusha District Office, will be supporting Reneal in 2016 as a School Liaison to assist the teachers in making full use of the computers.  Teacher training will be revamped in 2016 to focus more specifically on the math and science resources available on the system.  Neal will be upgrading the system to Ubuntu 16.04, and we expect 16.04 to be the foundation of our system starting in the second half of 2016.

This coming March Neal and I will celebrate a significant milestone – 10 years since we began our United States Peace Corps service.  Hard to believe it’s been that long, but that’s where it all started for Reneal!  Thanks to help from our generous donors, we will continue to give new opportunities to students.  And we always need donations of computers (either desktops or laptops) and monitors to reach more schools with technology.