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Endings and beginnings [2014-04-05]

We are right about the halfway point in our time in the Philippines this year.  This week was significant in that we finished up the installation and teacher trainings at the last of the six schools in our original project plan.  It’s been a huge amount of work but with the help and support of so many people here, we have met our initial goals for the 2014 trip.  It was also a week filled with joy as we joined in several graduation and recognition ceremonies marking the end of School Year 2013-2014 here in the Philippines.

Our last installation was at Bagalnga Integrated School here in Compostela.  Bagalnga IS was originally an elementary school but is being expanded to include a high school.  The American slang term “boondocks” is an apt description for its location (the origin of “boondocks” is actually the Tagalog word for hill, “bundok”).  It is a few kilometers from the main road, far enough to prevent many kids from getting to the main high school in town.  Thus adding a high school to Bagalnga IS gives local students a chance to graduate from high school who otherwise might not have had the opportunity. 

Bagalnga IS was thus high on our list last year for school to equip with an IT lab.  We did most of the installation last week, and it was a particular thrill for me that my brother visiting from Nebraska was able to join us the first day.  Monday this week our team went back to route the last few cables and get the teacher accounts created.  We held teacher orientation trainings there Tuesday morning.  It was an eager and interested batch, and we look forward to more time in the future with them.  Tuesday afternoon I finished up the last teacher orientation training session, this at Sapak Extension High School.  Overall this year we have held 15 sessions at the six schools, in which we provided teacher orientation training to 192 teachers. 

We returned to Carmen National High School on Wednesday.  These follow-up visits will constitute an important part of our remaining time in the Philippines.  These visits give us a chance to discuss problems and questions that the IT teachers have and to add new enhancements to the system.  One very exciting recent addition to the Reneal IEO main server is the RACHEL package (http://rachel.worldpossible.org).  We heard about RACHEL from a kindred non-profit, Kids on Computers (http://www.kidsoncomputers.org).  RACHEL provides a wealth of resources to schools even if they do not have an internet connection.  We look forward to making the rounds at the six schools during the summer break to continue enhancing the system with RACHEL and other new features.

Thursday our good friend and colleague from Aboitiz arranged a meeting for us with the ICT coordinator at the Mandaue City Department of Education Division Office to discuss possible candidates for 2015 projects.  It looks very promising that there will be an opportunity to visit and evaluate some candidate schools in Mandaue City later this month.  We also continued to gather data for one or two additional installations this summer in northern Cebu.

Interspersed in the week’s work were as many graduations and recognition programs as we were able to attend.  Regrettably we missed some due to prior commitments, but we did our best to join in these festive and joyful events.  Seeing the bright young faces of the students as they end their high school years and begin their lives ahead never ceases to motivate us to work harder to provide technology in schools to help open new doors for them.  See our “How to Help” page to learn more about how you can join us in this effort.