We spent much of this week at Tabok National High School in Mandaue City. As always, it was a joy to get to know the students and teachers there! There are many similarities from school to school, since educational policy and curriculum are dictated at the national level here in the Philippines. However each school still seems to have its own unique rhythm and customs, and we enjoy the process of slowly adapting to them as the week goes by.
Drums are pounding here, and I can hear the “1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1” of the dancers as they practice their steps. Yes, it’s the school fiesta today at Compostela National High School, and all of the last minute preparations for the afternoon festivities are in full swing! This afternoon Neal and I will experience yet again the pageantry and magic of the dances in honor of the patron saint of the school. We’ll enjoy the bonding with the teachers here, our family for almost ten years now, and we’ll eat great fiesta foods. It’s a happy close to a productive week of Reneal work!
Goodness, time really flies quickly! We’re already a week into our 2016 Philippines trip! We’ve had a few small glitches, but overall it’s been a great start. The highlight of the week was completing the installation work at Consolacion National High School. We also spent a couple of days at our “home school”, Compostela National High School. It is definitely wonderful to be back in Cebu!
Hello from the Philippines! We had an extremely smooth trip to Cebu, and all of our luggage made it with us. What a nice change from Tanzania! It is wonderful to be back to our second home in Compostela, and we’ve already been able to connect with some dear friends. Jet lag hasn’t been too bad (yet), and the temperatures are a relatively comfortable mid-80’s. We’re still in cultural transition, trying to calm our crazy American overdrive and get into “Filipino time”, but we’ll get there. Phones and internet are set up, the water pressure is good (so far), and no power outages (yet) so all is well!
Suddenly we’re into 2016 and with that, a journey to the Philippines draws near. How different it is these days, when I contrast packing now with our preparations in 2006 as we left for the U.S. Peace Corps. Then we spent hours it seemed, deliberating over each item with things alternating between the “take” and “leave” pile several times. Now? Print out the list, make a gigantic pile that includes everything on the list, and then shovel it all into boxes and duffel bags and carry-ons. It’s definitely nice to be so used to the process now!
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 Reneal IEO Board of Directors met yesterday. We recapped the 2015 Tanzania projects and discussed the 2016 Philippines projects ahead. We are very pleased to end 2015 in good shape financially, well-positioned to embark on the coming year!
We’ve been OOO (“out of the office”) much of the last two weeks, enjoying time with family, so there’s not much Reneal news to report. We’re about a month away from the start of the 2016 Philippines projects, but things seem to be coming together pretty well for that. The next Board of Directors meeting is coming soon, so that’s our main near-term focus.
Most of the last week has been spent enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday, but we’ve accomplished a few things here. I just prepared a draft agenda for the upcoming Reneal IEO Board of Directors meeting and got that sent out. I’ve been doing some equipment testing, and Neal has been working on the low power, low volume, low cost (L3PCV) R&D project. We’re now about 6 weeks out from our departure to Cebu, so that’s on our minds as well. And as always, we’re energized by the people that we meet that share our passion for serving students and teachers around the world!
It’s been a good week here at Reneal headquarters. As always it is nice to be home after a long time away, especially now that the jet lag demons are finally behind us. We’ve been wrapping up the 2015 work, but 2016 is just around the corner so there is a lot going on in preparation for our mid-January departure for Cebu. Reneal is also embarking on an R&D project to develop a low-power, low-cost, low-volume system for future installations, so Neal has been tinkering with that. And given that Thanksgiving is coming up this week, it’s a great time to reflect on what an exciting year this has been and to feel grateful for our partners, supporters, donors, and of course the teachers we work with who are on the front lines of IT education.