What a magnificent week in Musoma for Neal and Reneal IEO! Installation of the IT lab at Paroma Secondary School went very smoothly, with the help of the IT teacher and technician. Neal was able to send daily e-mails with status reports, and I’ll include extracts below to give an idea of “a day in the life” when he is in his element
Neal arrived in Tanzania Tuesday evening at 7:30 Arusha time. It's been an incredibly busy and productive week so far!
Reneal IEO is just a few short days away from beginning the 2013 projects in Tanzania. It’s hard to believe the big day is finally almost here. It’s been such a long road, starting almost immediately when Neal returned home from his trip last year; he got home on October 27th, and the first draft of the 2013 Tanzania proposal was dated November 4th. The last ten months have brought challenges and excitement as we’ve planned and prepared for this moment.
We want to share the profile of someone who has been very important to Reneal IEO and to us personally: Jade Reyes. Jade transferred to Compostela National High School within a few days of when we arrived as US Peace Corps Volunteers. Jade's story illustrates the impact that computers can have on students' lives.
Reneal IEO has taken a major step forward in realizing the 2014 Philippines project plans. Just this week, a donation of 22 used laptop computers was received from a major corporation headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Eight UCSAP scholars graduated from high school in the Philippines in 2013, through a joint partnership of Reneal IEO and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. We are very proud of all of the graduates but we were especially thrilled that one of them, Xaviel Aguelo, was the valedictorian at Compostela National High School.
One of the joys of running a non-profit organization is connecting with other people with similar missions and passion. Today I want to pay tribute to Dr. Betty Halliwell of Books for Peace (BFP). Sadly Betty passed away this week, but the echoes of her work will continue for years to come.
It’s possible that not everyone’s pulse races when thinking about system testing, but that was the exciting culmination of our weekend here at Reneal IEO. We set up 12 used laptops contributed by generous donors and connected them through a gigabit network switch to a server with Neal’s latest-and-greatest integrated software based around Xubuntu 12.04. This hardware and software is
implementation of the 2013 Reneal IEO projects in Tanzania is still a couple of months away, but the wheels are turning to ensure that everything is ready to go.
I’ve mentioned the UCSAP scholarship program in prior blog posts. However it’s different enough from American scholarship programs to merit a bit more detail: why it was started, what expenses it covers for the students who are its beneficiaries, and how it is administered.
