They are Praying

Just had a great convo with Mirian today, one of the teachers at São João.

She told me that the computers have lots of problems -- maybe 17 of them are broken and they are trying to fix them (screen problems and keyboard issues), not including broken chargers and power strips -- but they are fighting to keep class going with everything they have.

I told her about our fundraiser next Thursday in Washington, DC and she was very excited to hear about it.   She said that all of the teachers there will be praying that we make a lot of money for the program.

I've been thinking that we might need to train a local techie in São Tomé, as well as a coordinator. I think we could get away with training a techie $100 per month or something like that. The coordinator would probably need to make more, about $200 to $250 USD per month. An annual budget of $5,000 for these human resources is something we could potentially work with-- if not seeing if the Ministry of Education can provide.

A meeting next week with the Portuguese Trade and Investment Office is in the works. Lots of prayers to go around over the next week for a good turnout and good things to come from Beth driving all the way up the east coast to New York!

If you haven't spread the word yet, please come next week to the STEP UP OLPC fundraiser at the Hillyer Art Space off Dupont Circle in DC. It's on Thursday, Feb 24th at 6pm and it's free with a $5 suggested donation (and lots more suggested donations). We'll also be selling STEP UP OLPC t-shirts, photography done by the kids and we'll have some great music and food.

The Facebook event can be found at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197461426935361

Please come.