STEP UP OLPC

WHAT A GREAT EVENT!!!

2011-12-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

Had a spectacular time at our Martinis for OLPC event yesterday. THANK YOU to all who came and drank in support of our students (boy does that sound wrong to type!). We had a great atmosphere, some great people and huge success all around. Even one of the bartenders bought a piece of photography!

Will check in tomorrow with a summary of how much we raised!

If you weren't able to make it, there's still time to donate via the button on the left side of this page.

Thank you for your support!!

Stella & Dot Joining us for Dec 18 Fundraiser

2011-11-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

Great news! Nicole Hensch from Stella & Dot will be joining us to sell jewelry at the martini fundraiser at Marty's Martini Bar on December 18th!

15% of all purchases will benefit STEP UP OLPC, so bring your cash as she'll have some great jewelry to share.

See her Facebook page here!

MARTINI FUNDRAISER: Sunday, December 18th, 2011!!

2011-11-01T18:10:00.000-07:00

Exciting announcement! Marty's Martini Bar in Andersonville (1511 West Balmoral, Chicago), also known as my favorite martini bar in the world, has offered to do a fundraiser for my laptop program in São Tomé!

The event will be from 2-5pm on SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18th. Just in time for the season of giving :)

ALL profit that Marty's makes will go to STEP UP OLPC.

In addition to martinis, we'll also be selling t-shirts and the beautiful photography that the kids have done.

If you'd like to help plan for the event, shoot me an email. I need all the help I can need to set up, schmooze, collect contact information and sell merchandise!

More soon--for now, SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Thanks, everyone!

Sustainability and Money

2011-05-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

Two important words, of course.

I'm reading The White Man's Burden by William Easterly. In it, he talks about how sustainability can only really be built with personal investment from the people involved. How just shoving money and objects into people's faces isn't going to build sustainable growth.

So then I started thinking about our class in São Tomé and how it would really benefit from a local coordinator who can be trained to understand these laptops, communicate with me regularly and help the teachers out.

At first I was going to find payment for this person though the Embassy of Taiwan. But what if the students funded his pay?

What if we asked each student that wanted to participate in the program to pay the school $12 per year to participate (about 17,000 Dobras, which is less than the price of a beer)? Then, 9 months of the year, a part-time coordinator would earn $100 USD per month from the ~100 students involved. The other $300 USD could go to the school to benefit its own costs (this last detail I'm still unsure about; it might be more prudent to just charge each student $9/year instead).

That way, the kids are invested, as well as their families, without choking up a fortune. There is a local coordinator who is invested and making money, trying to get the program to grow. The teachers are getting extra support and assistance, and the school is making a little bit of money off of it all.

We could also raise money to sponsor those children who are truly not poor enough to afford the class. We could raise $120 per year to put ten students who can't pay otherwise through the program.

What do you think? Is this crazy, or could this work?

CWS = No go

2011-04-27T12:36:00.001-07:00

Looks like no one wants to fund travel. Not even Wellesley's CWS could think of how I could get to São Tomé!

On the hunt again...

Netbooks arrived to teachers today

2011-04-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

The five netbooks I sent to São Tomé arrived today in the hands of our teachers. Just got an email from Nélys, absolutely astounded:

noěs agradecemos...mt...d fundo d coraçaŢo...principalmente eu...NEěLYS.

pra ser sincero eu smpre acreditei k tu enviarias......os computdres..mas k n chgssem taŢo cedo...mas enfim...amei....e estou mt feliz..com tudo isso....imagina soě as caras dosoutros colegas?

bjs....e mt obrigado!

It's a good feeling when you see the work that the teachers have put into this cause. They deserve those computers. Now onto seeing how I can get myself over there to talk with someone about our OLPC program. Wellesley College CWS (Center for Work and Service), here I come!

Guardian Angels

2011-04-21T09:16:00.000-07:00

Today is a new day; I can feel it.

This morning we received three generous donations for our laptop program, one large and one very large. Though all support is encouraged and appreciated, you certainly can't deny that the most generous ones definitely make the greatest impact, and for this I am so grateful.

Thanks to the incredible selflessness demonstrated today, we will be able to buy 75 brand new chargers and 30 power strips (with surge protectors, so they don't blow out again) for our students in São Tomé. We'll also be able to pay for the very expensive shipping that will get them to the students before long, so that they don't have to wait for my next visit to keep things rolling.

This brings me confidence that I can get the funding I need to make the trip to São Tomé again this summer or fall to talk with the appropriate people about growing this program country-wide.

On an unrelated, but possibly quite related, note, it was supposed to be mostly cloudy today with a chance of thunderstorms. However, contrary to the weather prediction, the morning has given way to the most beautiful blue sky. I am eternally thankful for the kindness of people around this world.

Still looking for >$200 USD

2011-04-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Still need over $200 USD just to buy new chargers for our kids (we're ordering 75). This doesn't take the power strips into account. Please donate so we can afford them!!

Thank you!!!!

Now what?

2011-04-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Things are at a hiatus, as usual. My contact at AICEP isn't turning out to be as determined to help me during his busy schedule as I would hope.

I talked with Professor Nélys today. It seems he has talked to both the Embassy of Taiwan and the Ministry of Education. Both said they would follow up with him, and both didn't. The Ministry does not believe that the Embassy will cover costs. For some reason, no matter how much the teachers tell them that it won't happen, they think that they are going to have to end up paying something.

While I think about how we're going to re-approach the subject (and if another trip to São Tomé, and another very annoying fundraiser-- not for me but for my friends and family-- is in order), I've sent Nélys on some research. He's going to find out how many students graduated to high school last year, and how that compares to the computer class, to see if there was a noticeable difference. As the school year this year will be ending in a couple of months, we'll have some hard data about two years of school that I am hoping will point to something.

If not, at least we tried.

Fingers crossed.

PS I met a lovely woman at the recent fundraiser at Hillyer in DC who works for IDB, who was interested in pursuing accountability a bit further with me. I never got her contact information but she assured me she would reach out to me after I gave her my card. If you're out there, I'm eagerly waiting to talk to you!

Bureaucratics Build

2011-03-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

Still trying to get in touch with the Magalhães people OR the Taiwanese Embassy. It's a difficult ride, as per usual. Keep your fingers crossed (and please keep those donations coming in, we have about $555 of our $2,000 goal!)

THANKS!

Fundraiser Report: Thanks So Much!

2011-02-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who attended our fundraiser on Friday-- it was a hit and I was so happy to see so many great faces!

We successfully raised $280 in t-shirt and photography sales as well as a wine + chocolate tasting at the event.

We have also raised $275 in online t-shirt sales and donations so far...which brings us to $555 so far for our efforts!!

Thanks for all of the donations so far-- please keep purchasing t-shirts and sending donations so that we can raise the $2,000 we need for a new infrastructure in our laptop program!

Thank you so much!!

Buy! Buy! Buy!

2011-02-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

T-Shirts are for sale. Click here to place an order! They cost $20 each plus shipping and handling. A steal when you realize that ALL proceeds benefit our program!

They are Praying

2011-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Get a shirt!!

2011-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Now accepting pre-orders for the coolest shirt you will ever receive!!

Only $20ea plus shipping.

Send me an email at beth@bethsantos.com with the number of shirts you would like, the sizes and your shipping address. Then we'll organize payment, likely through PayPal.

STEP UP OLPC event at VOICES

2011-02-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone can make it to our fundraiser at the Hillyer Art Space off Dupont Circle in Washington, DC on Thursday, February 24th at 6pm!

Millions of thanks to the VOICES crew for organizing this. It's going to be a great event!!

Great news!

2011-02-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

Great news! Class has resumed as they have been able to fix the power strips. Still hoping to get some new chargers and some power strips with surge protectors so the chargers don't break...but still, great that class has started again!

Olá Elizabeth
Graças a Deus já reparamos as tomadas.As aulas de informáticas estão a decorrer quase a 100%.
Beijinhos-Miguel.

Need $2,000, stat

2011-01-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Like these, but European

Looking for $2,000 stat to buy new chargers and power strips for the 150 kids in our class. Please donate via link on left OR send a check to the address on the left if you'd like your donation to be tax-deductible.

We cannot continue class without these chargers, so please donate ($5, $10, $100, $1000 or any other amount) today!

Thank you so much!

Classes have stopped

2011-01-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

Great news (sarcasm). Professor Miguel has emailed me to tell me that classes have recently stopped as there are too many broken chargers and power strips to be able to effectively hold class.

Ugh.

Two years in, the computers are holding up great but the chargers and power strips are terrible. Looking for solutions that can keep things going. All of the ones I can think of involve MONEY!

The teachers are moving forward with the Embassy of Taiwan slowly but surely. I feel like I need to go there to talk with the Embassy myself, as the Ministry of Education isn't really doing the job!

Stay tuned for the next episode...

Uruguay: land of the $100 laptop (Wired UK)

2011-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

Uruguay: land of the $100 laptop (Wired UK)

São Tomé Creating Magalhães Factory?

2010-12-15T06:11:00.000-08:00

Read this article this morning-- a little in awe:

http://tek.sapo.pt/noticias/negocios/sao_tome_recebe_fabrica_para_produzir_magalha_1112819.html

Says that the Ministry of Education has gotten together with the producers of the Magalhães (also known as the Intel Classmate, I believe) to start building a factory on São Tomé that would produce these computers, creating 200 jobs and benefiting internal and external markets.

Mrrrr...? Wondering if my email to Magalhães sparked something a few months ago. But I doubt someone as small as myself could have had that effect.

Which means...has this been planned all along and the Ministry has told us nothing of it?

Inquiring minds want to know what is going on and how this is affecting São Tomé's children.

Here's the quick translation via Google Translate:

Sao Tome receives factory to produce Magalhães

Published by House of Bits at 10.24h on 13 December 2010 | 10 comments

The JP Sá Couto signed this week-end an agreement with the government of Sao Tome for the establishment of a factory in that country that will produce computer equipment for the local market and in other regions of Africa.

The protocol was signed between JP Sá Couto, the company responsible for manufacturing the laptop in the Portuguese education supported reference design from Intel Classmate, and Sao Tome minister of education, culture and training.

According to information released by Lusa, works for the new plant to begin in February next year and the structure shall, at startup, at least 200 new jobs. The investment figures were not disclosed.

João Paulo Sá Couto, company administrator, said at the signing ceremony of the protocol that the company will "do a partnership with the Government, where we go from one point to export to other neighboring countries and, ultimately, we will have a platform here contained in this protocol we signed, "detailed news agency.

"We not only produce Magalhaes computers for internal consumption, but also for export to neighboring countries. So we will be promoting their own digital inclusion and also to allow our students to gain future access to various opportunities that the development itself will bring "he added Olinto Daio, education minister of Sao Tome was quoted by Lusa .

Remember that the Magellan, in Portugal, has just arrived in its third generation, launched earlier this month, as the note gave TeK.

By the way, the laptop used in the first cycle of basic education has been exported to countries like Venezuela and is on the verge of becoming also used in schools in Argentina .

GREAT NEWS!!!!

2010-12-01T08:42:00.000-08:00

I know I am speaking too soon. It's been very slow moving and another person's "promise" to follow up soon doesn't mean much. But it still makes me excited:

From Professor Miguel:

Olá Elizabeth
Nós marcamos a audiência com o Ministro,ele orientou a sua secretária para nos dizer que este assunto
deve ser tratado no sector do Planeamento do Ministério de Educação.
Já fomos ao sector do Planeamento,conversámos com a Directora do citado sector,ela auscultou as nossas preocupações;Falamos acerca do nosso programa,da disponibilidade do Embaixador de TAIWAN
em nos ajudar,do objectivo que temos com o programa de informática,etc.
A Directora do Planeamento ficou muito satisfeita em nos ouvir e prometeu solucionar este assunto brevimente.
As aulas de informática estão prestes a iniciar.Estamos a fazer alguns acertos.
Beijinhos-Miguel.

---

Hello Elizabeth

We made an appointment with the Minister [of Education], and he had his office tell us that this subject should be addressed in the Ministry of Education's Planning Division.

We went to the Planning Division, talked with the Director and she listened to our concerns. We talked about our program, of the offer from the ambassador of Taiwan to help us, and of our objective with the computer program, etc.

The Director of Planning was very satisfied with what we said and promised to find a solution to this soon. The computer classes are ready to begin. We're doing a couple of checks.

Kisses-- Miguel

PLEASE keep your fingers crossed-- and if you know anyone at the São Tomé Ministry of Education or the Embassy of Taiwan-- let me know!!

Fundraisers

2010-11-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

Our fundraiser time is approaching.

Meeting with Rafael Costa and the Portuguese Club of Mineola, NY this weekend to talk about doing a fundraiser in January.

Also a big thanks to Siobhan O'Keefe who is going to represent STEP UP OLPC at January's VOICES event.

If you're interested in hosting a fundraiser or just baking some cookies and raising a few bucks for us, please let me know. Donations are tax-deductible-- even better!

A slow process on the Taiwanese Embassy front. Might be best to just give them a phone call today or tomorrow. Otherwise I am afraid of what will happen (or not happen)...

Now to make a press packet that can be used to publicize and fundraise for STEP UP OLPC in my absence.

In the meantime, looking for funding that can get me over there once again this summer/fall. Any thoughts on getting about $2,000 to do that would be much appreciated.

Happy Holidays!

Nicholas Negroponte - The Colbert Report - 10/25/10 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

2010-10-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

OLPC Founder Nicholas Negroponte on the Colbert Report last night:

Nicholas Negroponte - The Colbert Report - 10/25/10 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nicholas Negroponte

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

2010 Election

March to Keep Fear Alive

STEP UP OLPC in OLPC Maps!

2010-10-24T16:09:00.001-07:00

Catch STEP UP OLPC in the OLPC Map at http://olpcmap.net/!

Party? Party!

2010-09-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Looking for some awesome planners who might want to do something good for the world by hosting a fundraising party for STEP UP OLPC sometime at the end of this year or beginning of next year.

Send me an email if you want to join our international team of people who will each plan parties in a different location, to take place during the same week, to raise money for our computer program. And there can be variety, too- from a luncheon to a dinner party to a dance party to a gallery event, to a poetry slam, anything is an option!

Thinking January 13th-16th might be a good date range. Comment or email me at beth@bethsantos.com now!

A note about Haiti

2010-09-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

I don't usually mix business with pleasure, but I work for Waveplace and we recently got an incredible email from one of our mentors in Haiti.

Wanted to share it to see if anyone might be able to lend a hand. A very heartwarming/crushing story about our mentors, who are living in poverty themselves, who are working for free to give their students an education since we don't have any funding to pay them.

Read about it here:
http://waveplace.com/news/blog/archive/000991.jsp

BBC News - Fast Track - Biodiversity and culinary delights in African island paradise

2010-09-07T06:58:00.000-07:00

Interesting comments on São Tomé

BBC News - Fast Track - Biodiversity and culinary delights in African island paradise

New Challenges / Adventures in Finance

2010-09-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

With the school year over and a new one ahead of us, here's some updates on new initiatives/future costs for the continuation of our program in São Tomé.

AIRFARE
For me to get to São Tomé, it will cost about $2,000 roundtrip EACH TIME. That's pretty hefty when you're raising about $3,000 per year and don't feel it's right to use that money all for your benefit.

LOCAL COORDINATOR
New changes are happening in the São Tomé government, but we've gotten interest from the Embassy of Taiwan to build programs like the one in São João in four other schools across the country. This includes installing an internet hookup in all of the locations and training teachers as well. It also means we'll need to get someone local who can coordinate between the different programs. I'm writing this into our funding proposal with the Embassy but it's always good to to think ahead. A local coordinator will work with teachers, help develop the program further, and keep in touch with me and in OLPC. They will be proficient in English (for research and development purposes), a go-getter who doesn't give up easily, and passionate about technology and education. We're hoping to cut a salary of at LEAST $250 per month, which is about $3,000 per year.

COMPUTERS FOR TEACHERS
Thanks to Group Excellence, Ltd, we'll be supplying our teachers with netbooks just as soon as I actually get out to the post office to mail them. We couldn't be happier with this news and are excited to get them shipped out!

CABINET/STORAGE AREA
My friend Faia has finally finished a cabinet for us to house our laptops. I hear it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does its job. And the best part is, the school's principal has requested that the unused cantina in the back of the school be swept and cleaned so that we can put the cabinet in there and maybe even make it a sort of technology room! Pictures to come if I can convince someone to take some.

As you can see, we need a clear way of getting money into this program. Not sure what the answer to that is yet, but speaking to local churches is not a bad idea. I wonder if I can't put on a fundraiser down here in NC (my new home) and maybe even across the USA. We could all party at the same time for the same event, wouldn't that be cool?

Thinking about how we could work this. If you have ideas, share 'em.

10 LAPTOPS FOR SAO TOME!

2010-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

GREAT NEWS! An organization called Group Excellence, Ltd, which supplies laptops to USA students, has just donated 10 laptop computers (non-XO) to our teachers in São Tomé. I can't say enough how amazingly excited I am about this!!! The teachers have been needing these computers for a while now and I am just so happy to be helping them out, finally. The XOs are definitely a little bit small for them :)

Hip-hip hurray!!!

Please keep the donations coming, especially if you're interested in helping me cover airfare (I'm still about $1,900 in the hole). If you do donate to travel, please note that specifically when you donate so that I know where to put the money.

Thank you all so much for your continued support. We're moving slowly but definitely deliberately with our program!

$2,000 poorer, infinitely richer

2010-08-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it through the summer program and things are going well at São João. Professora Arlete just emailed me today with the five winning storybooks that the students created -- and they are adorable!

Now we're just battling the fact that I spent $2,000 that I don't have on flight tickets to São Tomé and need to get that money back somehow.

If you work for an organization that might be interested in footing part of the bill (and future bills, too), please let me know. I have a great funding proposal that I can cater to your needs.

Thanks all. Stay tuned for more news!

Beth

The End / The Beginning

2010-07-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Due to unforeseen events, I'm spending two days in Lisbon. I'm incredibly unlucky and incredibly lucky- pretty much got sucker-punched and, out of nowhere, my amazing cousin, Marina, who already saved me once by helping me to find my lost bag the first time through Lisbon, is now letting me stay with her this weekend while I wait for my flight home to the States on Sunday evening.

My last day of school went great. Class is still continuing for another week so that kids can create stories. Then they're going to have a big party where the kids will vote on the best stories (and the 5 winners will get computers), parents and special guests like the Embassy of Taiwan, STeP UP and the Ministry of Education will come, and kids will get certificates of participation. Yay!

Lesson 10 went pretty smoothly-- about as smoothly as Lesson 9. It seemed like the teachers didn't really grasp the idea of making a game. They got all the steps down- they learned that- but then they would just get stuck being, well, creative. But it's a process and they're certainly getting there.

We had a long talk about the upcoming school year and what to do. We made some solid plans, like:

1x/year- Beth visits to check in
1x/month- Teachers spend at least some part of the class talking about how to care for computer. Kids can write texts about it, do presentations, skits, or even have class-wide cleaning sessions.
3x/year- Meetings with parents- one at the beginning of the year, one in the middle of the year and one at the end (students and government officials will also be invited for an end-of-the-year sort of party)

In terms of content, the teachers have been enjoying picking an activity each class and letting kids experiment with it over the entire class period. I thought it might be fun to give each month a sort of theme- teach three activities and then, in the final week, use the knowledge gained from those three activities to do some sort of project. I brought them back to the malaria project they did last year, having kids write articles about malaria and then go around the schoolyard taking pictures of each other pretending they have malaria and such, then adding them to their articles. Doing things that are interactive like that, that get kids moving around-- that's great.

Got the director to sign a document committing to the salary that each teacher is receiving through the Ministry of Education. That way there's no question about how much they make over the school year. There were questions/doubts (dúvidas) about that so I'm glad we have something solid to look at now.

Also went to check out the cantina where the teachers said there might be room to put the computer cabinet. And uh...is there room or what?! Apparently the school used to have a kitchen but not anymore. So there are not one, but TWO small but gorgeous rooms at the back of the school. They're dusty, but they're locked, and they could easily be cleaned out and used not only as a storage unit but even as a small computer center. It's almost laughable how perfect it is. São Tomé, man. Something about this country, it was like the XO laptop was made specially for them.

The cabinet should be finished next week. I can't wait to hear about it. I hope it's nice.

At the teacher meeting, the teachers also took a second to reflect on the past year. They were amazed, really- just as amazed as I am. They said the kids are so computer literate now, after just one year. Many of them use email regularly. Lots of them are very familiar with the Internet. It's almost shocking how much progress these kids have made. The teachers say that there is a visible difference between students in the computer class and other students at the school. It's such a huge difference that it impassions the teachers more and more to get enough for everyone else to use, too.

I would not mind seeing five computer programs at five schools. I would also not mind if we could hire five coordinators for these five schools so that we can start building a little economy...and a country-wide initiative. I told the teachers how proud of them I was. They brought the kids this opportunity and they really did it!

"No, Elizabeth," Miguel says, quietly. "We did it."

This is not the end. It is, in fact, the beginning of a new chapter. Chapter Two! The teachers are stronger and more comfortable with the computers now. We're excited to see what a second year will bring. We definitely need to get more fundraising going for the little things that we are spending on to better improve class. And we REALLY need to get some funding so we can hire some people and buy more computers.

But we know what we need. And we're going after it.

Aula Como Deve Ser (Class As It Should Be)

2010-07-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we have bad days, that is for sure. But the ratio of good days to bad days is getting better and better. Yesterday we had an amazing class. Today we had an amazing class, too. I'm so proud of these teachers for taking a difficult subject and making the most of it.

Explaining animation was a little bit difficult for the kids (for the teachers, too). Many thought the only solution was to change the color and watch the drawing automatically color-shift. But I explained to the teachers that if the students didn't actually make something MOVE (make a person dance, a sun shine, a car's tires rotate, whatever) they won't fully understand what animation will do. So it took a couple of false starts for the teachers to actually get where they were supposed to be. But then we got some great animations going (videos to follow) and the kids were really proud.

Bunião did the best animation, with my help. He had a man with a gun, with multiple bullets coming out of the gun. Ok, so maybe in the USA this isn't the perfect picture, but we worked with it. I told him, how about we make the gun fire a bullet? So we made a picture of the man with the gun. Then we added a bullet. Then we added another bullet. Then we added another bullet. That way, when it animated, it showed a man with bullets streaming out of the gun. It wasn't particularly graphic- just a stick figure with a weapon (ok, that sounds graphic when I say it like that, but I promise it wasn't anything overwhelming), but Bunião went crazy when he saw it working. I used his animation to show the rest of the class and I think it helped them to understand. From there kids started to get more imaginative, making cars spin, people grow and change clothes, and flowers bloom. It was a really fun day in class.

The kids also paid really great attention. Just like they did yesterday. More kids seem to be coming to class again. I'm so proud of them. One of the girls, who I mentioned the other day, took her computer home again. I saw her take her computer out of her backpack. I didn't know what to do and I mentioned it to one of the teachers.

"Oh," Professora Adelina said. "When James came by at the beginning, he told her that she could keep her computer. That's why she takes it home."

"But only her?" I asked. "No other student?"

"Right."

Apparently before I came along, James and someone else told this one girl that she could keep her computer forever and ever. The teachers stood there in a mixture of shock and confusion. They didn't think they could question James so they just let him do whatever. Well, the deed is done and we can't take this computer away from this girl anymore. But I told the teachers that if anything like this happens again and someone tells them what to do, remember that they are absolutely in charge of their own program. And if they don't feel comfortable being in charge, they can ask me and I will be in charge. Only listen to me, I tell them. If someone else tells you to do something, don't do it if you don't want to because they are not in charge of you!

I think when the teachers first got these computers, they were confused as to what was going on. Ok, so they get a whole bunch of computers...great, I guess, but what in the world are they doing here and why us? Nothing was really communicated to them very well, so anyone who looked like an authority figure they just listened to. I came in at a very opportune time when they were just hoping for someone to give them some direction. And in that way, we have grown together.

After class, we had a repairs class. A couple of days ago we learned how to take apart the computers. This time I taught the teachers how to reflash the computers, the alt+period command to unfreeze Etoys, and a few other things. I'm going to edit the Repair Guide tonight so that more things apply to the teachers as well, so they have them.

Tomorrow Miguel and I are going to survey the space where we're going to build the cabinet. Faia should be done with the cabinet next week. I talked to Faia about how the power strips are breaking. Miguel said that he will fix the power strips himself, and buy outlets that won't break. I trust Miguel to do the job well, not that Faia was necessarily trying to cause trouble or anything, but just that Miguel is more directly connected to this program and it makes more of a difference to him that the outlets work. I told him to go to the store, find out how much outlets will cost, bring a receipt and bring it to me tomorrow when we go to look at the space for the cabinet. Then I will give him the funds to buy the supplies he needs.

The teachers are hoping for laptops that are suitable for themselves. I have two friends that are willing to donate their old laptops to me so that I can send them to the teachers. If you have a laptop that you'd like to donate to this cause, please let me know as I am looking for a couple more (I need between 4 and 5 laptops total). I definitely think the teachers deserve some laptops that they can use for their teaching. This isn't directly related to the computer program but it sort of is. Anyway, even if the computers are used, that's ok. The teachers are willing to pay the shipping if I arrange for the computers. We're going to work that payment out when I get home.

So things are running smoothly, to some degree. Tomorrow is my last day and I already can't believe it. So much to do, so little time. But...the talk I had with the teachers today was just amazing. They really took responsibility for this project. Tomorrow we are going to have a long discussion about how to structure the upcoming school year. Today we had a talk about our responsibilities. My responsibility is to keep coordinating the class and fixing little problems as they come along, and staying in contact with the teachers via email throughout the school year. The teachers' responsibility is to keep the class going and to teach the students how to use the computer (I suggested that this year we focus less on how to use each activity and more on doing different projects that employ the use of various activities at once, that way students can have a more rounded experience. But we'll talk about this tomorrow.). The principal's job is to submit the hours worked by the teachers, which he has been doing, but the only thing is that the teachers don't know how much money they make for this extra class and would like to know so that they can keep track of their finances (this is fair).

The teachers asked me how in many countries these laptops are being used. I told them I didn't know...probably at least 30. Their eyes went wide. 30?! I don't think they were expecting this number.

I tried to explain a little more about OLPC. OLPC is an organization that makes these computers, I said. But they don't teach how to use them, necessarily. They send the computers out and then the country has to develop their own program with them. I am here because many individuals, and individual organizations, feel it necessary to accompany the teachers and give them a little bit more help in identifying how they can best use the computers and then putting them to use. When I first came last year, I had no affiliation with OLPC besides being a sort of "expert" on these computers (ok, so that was a blatant lie- as many of you know, I didn't even know what OLPC was when I first arrived, but the point is I'm an expert of sorts now). Then I joined an organization (Waveplace) that works on the side of developing educational curricula for this laptop. Waveplace is independent of OLPC. But many independent orgs like Waveplace, some in the USA and some in the country where the program was developed, have taken these programs under their wings and have tried to develop them. And this is why I'm here.

The teachers had never really gotten this explanation, and I think it made a huge difference. Last year, I didn't really know what I was doing there either. But now that I have a more established role with this program, I understand what we're doing and what our goals are. Being able to verbalize that was as good for me as it was for them. Now we all are very certain of our history, what we're doing here, and what we must do (roles and responsibilities). The teachers understand that OLPC isn't telling them what to do anymore- it's just them and me that decide things. The computer program is to be their own.

We talked about what the Ambassador of Taiwan said, and the Ministry of Education. The Ambassador wants to donate 100 computers to five different schools. This doesn't accomplish our goal, but it's certainly nice because the computer program can be a country-wide project, which will certainly help our visibility in other places around the world and maybe even in the long term help us get more funding. The good news is the teachers are getting paid extra for their work on Saturdays, so it's not the end of the world if our Saturday classes have to continue for a while. But Miguel looked me in the eye and said, "Beth, you know how people are. We need to keep up with this issue and make sure to follow up with everyone so they finance this program as they said they would."

I told him I agree with him completely, and though I can certainly keep up with things via email and the phone, I will need their help to stop by the Ministry of Education and check in on things to make sure that the Ministry and the Embassy keep talking. The teachers definitely seemed poised to take on this role.

Can you imagine the change that would happen around this country if we could get computer programs developed in six secondary schools in São Tomé? It would be incredible. It wouldn't be perfect, but I definitely think the 100 computers in each school would affect more than 100 students. It might be directly used by 100 students but it will inspire many more. And that will make a difference. Just the idea of being able to do more with your life will make the difference.

I'm sad to be staying only one month. I am going to miss São Tomé when I leave (tomorrow is my last day already). But I do feel that I have accomplished my mission. I've talked to the organizations I wanted to talk to, I've fixed little problems like power strips and space issues, I've gotten this summer program going, and adequately prepared the teachers for the year to come. And in this way I am very satisfied. I know I will be back, hopefully every year se Deus quiser (if God wills) and I can find funding for it. It might be better to come in the winter when flights are cheaper. But I am so grateful for a bright future I see at the São João School, and in these children.

Talking with Jeff at the University of Illinois about the idea of doing a long-term study of these students after having participated in the computer program. May need to be something that waits a year, but it's certainly something that can be done. It'd be interesting to see how these computers affect students' future schooling and careers.

Like a beaming mom, I am proud.

The Culmination of My Life...Over the Past Ten Months

2010-07-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today is the day the ambassador is coming to visit. I'm dressed up really nice. I arrive at school about 10 minutes before 2pm, and most of the teachers and a solid percentage of the students are already there.

I think everyone realizes that today is an important day. I review Lesson 8 with Professora Arlete; she has a few questions that she wants to cover before class starts.

And then class begins.

Today is the polar opposite of yesterday. The teachers are working together beautiful...their teamwork is like magic. The kids are angels. I swear they're all sitting up extra straight today, nearly silent. When they speak, it is to ask a question. We conduct class like this for an hour, until the ambassador shows up.

The ambassador is a wonderful man who I know believes strongly in the power of technology. He likes the computers, he thinks they're cute, he's watching the class and he knows that the kids are enjoying class, too. We only have about 50 students today (out of 80 total or so), and I explain to him that because it's vacation, attendance is a little bit more lax. The students aren't part of the São João School anymore so the students that are here are here purely because they want to learn, and for no other reason.

He seems impressed by this, and things are looking up for us. I'm feeling good about our program, about the ability of the Ministry of Education and the Embassy of Taiwan to work together to achieve something really beautiful with this computer program. The Embassy is considering purchasing 500 computers, but not giving them all to the São João School, but rather 100 computers to five different schools. I explained that it would be necessary to purchase internet, train teachers, and do lots of organizations five more times in order to successfully place 100 computers at five more schools. But it's not impossible.

There are pros and cons about this idea. Obviously our goal is to have enough computers for the São João School and not any other school so that the computers can be used in the classroom, the way they were intended.

At the same time, however, our class has been quite successful, even if it has been severely lacking in computers. Perhaps if we spread out computers among multiple schools, it would spread across the country and have an even greater influence on people merely through its geographic accessibility. I don't know if this is true, but it's a thought.

Though Ned summed it up perfectly- why not let the Ministry of Education decide where the computers go? The program is going through them anyway.

So here we are, Tuesday evening. We have interested prospective funders (praise the Lord!!! Hallelujiah!!!). We have some ballin' teachers that have a great handle on the class. We have a computer cabinet in the works, so that we actually have a place where we can put our computers and their parts. We have a bunch of freshly broken power strips (already), though Professor Miguel tells me he knew that the outlets Faia and Dany had me buy were not strong enough, and is confident that he can purchase some durable outlets and fix them himself. We have the second half of our repairs class tomorrow, and a scheduled meeting on Thursday to plan the upcoming school year. I gave the teachers their certificates today, as well as their payment. I also gave Professor Miguel the certificates for the students.

But one thing we have more than anything is strength. I am confident that this year is going to go even more smoothly than the last. The teachers are confident, they know what they're doing and feel like "experts" to some degree. The only thing I have to do is keep myself coming back on an annual basis- perhaps looking into funding from Rotary or some other organization that can help pay my travel.

Boo-yah, world. Let São Tomé show you all how it should be done!

PS- By the way, the "putting Scotch tape over the jumpy trackpad" trick works like a charm!!!!!

Class - 13 July, 2010

2010-07-20T00:45:00.001-07:00

To get a little insight on what class is like, and our fabulous students, too :)

The Google Game

2010-07-19T18:29:00.001-07:00

Before class begins and for the grand prize of a lollipop, I ask various groups of students to race each other finding answers to random questions I ask, using Google. I asked this group of girls to tell me what the population of Portugal is...and Susie is just seconds away from getting the answer via a Wikipedia page she found on Portugal's geography and demographics.

Politics and Candy

2010-07-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm walking in town and I get a phone call. It's the Embassy of Taiwan. The ambassador is going to come by tomorrow afternoon to watch our class!!!!

This is huge news, as the Embassy of Taiwan is considering funding our laptop program. I mean, this is bigger than huge. This is the culmination of a year of work, and it's all happening tomorrow.

About an hour later I'm sitting in the office of the Minister of Education, a really sweet man who sounded really pleased to hear that the laptop program was going well. His office had cancelled on us about three times up until we actually got to see him, so meeting with the guy was a treat and a half. Roberta (of STeP UP) and I basically explained to him that he has to talk to the Embassy of Taiwan himself in order for us to get funding through them. He's interested in lending us this hand and writing a letter to the Embassy right away, knowing that I'm going to leave the country on Friday.

When I get to school, I meet all of the students in one classroom. We're only getting about 50% attendance these days, because of the fact that it's summer and attendance isn't required, as well as the fact that this is the last week of campaigns (for Prime Minister, I think) and people are literally skipping work to participate in campaigning. I, in fact, got caught up in a parade today while driving my motorcycle to work. Actually, "caught up" is an overstatement, because I literally drove into the parade because I knew otherwise I'd end up like ten minutes late to class. Oh well.

So anyway I meet the kids in the classroom. And I clap in rhythm to get everyone's attention- it works perfectly- and then I grab a piece of chalk and say, "Let's play a game."

I draw the spaces for three words on the chalkboard and start our favorite game in class, Hangman. The kids love this game-- I introduced it to them last year and now they play it all. the. time.

The word ended up being "Embaixador de Taiwan" (Ambassador of Taiwan). Then I asked the kids why I wrote "Ambassador of Taiwan" on the chalkboard. No one knew. I asked if anyone had met a real ambassador before. One girl raised her hand; she had met the Portuguese ambassador at one point. I asked if anyone had met the Taiwanese ambassador before, and there was silence.

I told them that tomorrow everyone was going to meet the ambassador of Taiwan because he was going to come to our class to watch.

I explained that this past year, this class has been an example for how computer classes in São Tomé can work. I explained that the Embassy of Taiwan is interested in not only financing our project, but maybe even other projects in other schools across São Tomé. This means that tomorrow is a very important day, and we need everyone to (1) be there, (2) be there on time, and (3) be on their BEST BEHAVIOR!

This was the theme of the day.

So these are the good things. Class ends up being a disaster in all other respects. The teachers arrive 30 minutes late, then we do an hour of repairs class which ends up leaving the teachers feeling rushed because I had told them we needed about three hours of time and for some reason they didn't seem to believe me, started class at about 3:30, went till 5 and covered the joystick and about three of the first steps in Lesson 8 (or in so many words, we didn't cover NEARLY enough material). I was very frustrated. I spent my time in the back repairing some computers and came in a couple of times to basically glare at the teachers and ask them what the HELL was going on. It seemed that they had no ability to manage the class of 40 kids...even though there were about five teachers there! It drove me crazy. I thought I was working with teachers, and here they are hardly able to manage this classroom. And then they start to teach Lesson 8 and they're doing it all wrong, like, literally teaching the students to do things incorrectly!

When class was over (10 minutes later than normal), I sat the teachers down and basically said "So, what happened???" I told them if class is like this tomorrow, there is no way in the world anyone, let alone the Ambassador, would want to finance our project. It's so disorganized and was just "uma grande confusão"-- utter chaos. Professora Mirian said the reason why it was like that was because the teachers didn't practice their lessons the night before, and they will do this tonight. I told them it's so, so important that class goes well tomorrow, and all the teachers agreed. I think there are a number of things that are frustrating them-- the energy problem certainly doesn't help, as when there is no energy at school, there's usually none at home, so the teachers can't practice with their computers because they don't have electricity anymore. They are also still learning the materials themselves. Professor Miguel insisted that the confusion was just part of the learning process, and that they would get things and be able to teach them better later.

I understand that it's a process, but there's no reason why the teachers can't confidently teach material and manage their classroom. I was livid today watching class go down- teachers standing up there, letting kids go crazy, not able to control them. But I also need to remember to breathe-- these teachers believe strongly in this program, and I know that. The material is new, and there is no rush to learn it. The current students are nearly gone now. The teachers learning the material effectively is better because they will be the ones teaching it to the following 6th grade.

Professor Nélys asked me to teach the class tomorrow while the Ambassador is here so things run more smoothly. I looked him in the eye and said "I can't believe you just asked me to do that." I can't possibly show the Ambassador that we have a sustainable, working program if I am the one teaching it!

As you can see, some frustrations today. But perhaps a chaotic day today was what we needed. It might be a good kick in the pants for the teachers tomorrow. Now I know that they're going to try their absolute hardest to give a good class tomorrow. I'm not sure how many students we are going to get, but they have been told to come to class early and to be on their best behavior, not just by me but by the other teachers. Since it's the summer, I do hope the embassy understands our lack of attendance. But everything else needs to be perfect, just perfect.

Got an email from the American Embassy today-- I asked them to fund our summer program. They received the proposal but it looks like half of the proposal- which consists of my travel back to São Tomé- can't be funded since the Embassy doesn't fund travel. That's all good and well, but it looks like we're back to square one trying to figure out how to get me, the program collaborator, over here for an annual check-in!

Cross your fingers. Tomorrow is a big day for us.

So Proud

2010-07-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

Before class, all the kids are sitting around with their computers, enjoying some "free time" before we start. It's a computer programmer's dream. The schoolyard is quiet and the teachers and students are all sitting around, on benches, on the floor, under trees, using their laptops.

I buy five lollipops from the man selling them across the street. I approach the first group of kids with laptops I see. "Are you guys on the Internet?" I ask.

"Yes, Professora." They say. I tell them that we're going to have a contest to see who can find out what the capital of the United States is. The first person to guess wins a prize.

I find a group of boys inside the classroom and tell them to look up the national languages of Belgium.

And to some girls on benches, I tell them to find out the population of Portugal. As I explain their question, one of the boys runs up to me. "Washington!!!!" He is yelling. "WASHINGTON!!!!"

That's right. The kids are learning how to Google (or maybe not Google, but some sort of internet searching). Ten minutes later, the girls all squeal, "ten million, three hundred fifty five thousand, eight hundred twenty four!"

I pass out my lollipops to the winners. Can't believe six months ago some of these kids had never touched a computer in their lives. And now they're conducting research.

Lesson 7 goes great today. The kids are picking up the material as fast as ever. There were fewer kids in class than normal- maybe 30-40 kids total- and five teachers. We all stayed in one classroom.

I was sorting through all the computers that weren't being used, doing some triage- figuring out which ones had bad keyboards, which had bad screens, etc. We definitely have a few damages but most of the screens are still usable so it's only the keyboards that need replacing, of which there are probably five or six. So anyway, I look up in the middle of class, and I see this vision that just makes me smile.

Professora Arlete is standing in front of class. Her voice is strong and powerful. She's giving students instructions on how to set up the slider, the maximum and minimum values. Then there's Professor Nélys, he's writing on the chalkboard behind Arlete, describing perfectly the process that she is verbalizing. Professora Mirian and Professora Adelina are sitting with the students, checking in to make sure they understand. Every once in a while Professora Mirian lifts her eyes and watches Professora Arlete teach. And Professor Miguel is out of the classroom. I actually don't know where he is, but you can't have everything go perfectly.

Anyway, I think to myself, my GOD I am so lucky. These teachers are not only amazing at what they do, but they're a team. They're working together. It's as if these five teachers have been teaching computer class all their lives!

In many ways, this has been a slow and grueling process. It took a whole year to get these teachers comfortable with their computers and with this program. But then, it's amazing because...it took only one year for these teachers to be so good at what they're doing! The kids are using their sliders to make their objects go up and down. They're asking questions and having problems and the teachers are helping them. The teachers are coming to me less, asking me fewer questions. They're figuring things out on their own. And the best part is, they're confident. I'm loving Etoys because it's giving these teachers some real material. It's harder, sure, and I'm sure they're feeling really tired sometimes from all this work, but I know we would all agree that it's going incredibly well.

And the harder they work, the more they are dedicated to this program. Professor Nèlys came with me to the Ministry of Education today (unfortunately they rescheduled us again for Monday morning, but what can you do). Professora Mirian keeps asking for updates about the cabinet that my friend Faia is making for us (I just finished the design and brought a computer home so he can take some measurements. We're hoping he'll be able to finish it before I leave). And Professora Arlete is just killing it on the lessons. She's driving me crazy with excitement. And she's taking my advice to heart- she's saying things like, "make a design, any design! It can be a flower, it can be a star, it can be a tree- whatever you want!" when before she would say "everyone make a house, now!" OK, so it's not the exact opposite of rote learning, but if only you could have seen her last year, not understanding anything, getting so frustrated, not sure if she was all for this computer thing. If only you could see her now.

And now she's standing up in front of the class and so confidently explaining how to make something move with the slider, and I just couldn't be more thrilled!!!

As you can see, things are going well. They're not perfect- we haven't done any lesson planning for next year, I feel so lame for spending money fixing power strips that in the end are just breaking really easily all over again, and I really wish we had enough computers for everyone and I wasn't leaving so early in the financing process. But for what we have going, I am confident that we'll be able to get through another successful year of laptop use.

Things are slower here. It's taken a full three weeks (15 days) to cover 10 days of lessons. In between lessons we've been doing a lot of logistical work, fixing things, discussing other things. In the end, the extra time has been beneficial to us. It has helped the teachers to let things sink in better. And they are already amazing teachers-- that I did not have to teach them. They just had to learn how to use their already-existing talents in this program.

Sent a financing request to the US Embassy for us to have a summer program again next year. Cross your fingers that it works out, though we probably won't know until the end of this year so we have some time to keep them fingers crossed.

Thanks, Donors!

2010-07-16T01:53:00.001-07:00

In the past week or so, we've raised a total of $100 from two wonderful donors. Just a note to say thank you so much and please continue to spread the word about STEP UP OLPC. Every dollar makes a huge difference!!

Not So Bad

2010-07-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, today was not so bad!

The electrician came by STeP UP. I looked him in the eyes and said, listen, let me take your number and think about this. It seems this idea of using the internet when there's no electricity sounded really good when I thought it'd only cost like $50, but now that it's more like $250 it's seeming a bit like a money pit. I want to be very careful with the money that we spend for this project so I think I'm going to put it on hold until it's something we really need.

And something we really need, which the teachers are pretty passionate about, is a cabinet to keep our computers. I was going to buy something metal but it seems like it might cost less to make something from wood- and then I can design the thing so that it works perfectly for us.

Thinking about a relatively large case (if we lock it up, it'll be so big it'll be impossible to steal, which is the idea since it will have to be in an unlocked classroom) that is sort of like a cupboard with four shelves. The shelves are divided into three- two longer portions on either side and a small section down the middle. The small section will be where we can put power strips (I think I'm going to buy some new- and DURABLE- power strips online or in the States, provided I can get adapters or something) and the larger section is where we'll keep the computers, lined up on their side like books. Each shelf will hold ten computers, which means there will be 80 computers in the front portion, then the cabinet will extend to the back so that it is two computers deep, creating enough space for a total of 160 computers and about eight power strips. Holes in the cabinet will allow wires to run from the power strips so that you could effectively charge computers WHILE they are in the cabinet. Then there will be three large storage areas below where we can put chargers, mice, extra parts, etc.

I'm going to talk to my friend Faia tomorrow about the exact dimensions- I took a computer home so that we can better visualize it.

One of our students also thought it would be good to take a computer home. She's one of our best students and she's a really sweet girl. I know she wasn't trying to do any harm. I was suspicious of her a few days ago because I left her in the computer room by herself and she had a backpack. I knew the temptation would be too much. Today she came to class late and I watched her as she crept to the back and very slowly took a computer out of her backpack. Unfortunately for her, we spent the first hour cleaning our computers (they look BEAUTIFUL now, most of them look brand new!!!) and re-writing the numbers in fresh permanent marker, so even though she has been taking wonderful care of her computer, the number on it was worn out.

I got the marker from the computer lab, went up to her during class, rewrote the number over the old marks and very calmly whispered to her, "Leave the computer here tonight, ok?"

The look on her face was unforgettable. It was full of embarrassment and remorse. I know she won't take the computer home anymore. I know I dealt with the situation really well and I'm actually pretty proud of myself, but I still hate the fact that she won't be able to keep this computer. She's not one to steal things...so I know this computer means the world to her.

Class went pretty well. We covered the first half of Lesson 7 before the electricity went out. The teachers...they are amazing!! They really rehearsed everything last night and were so effective in teaching Lesson 7. I was so proud. At our teacher class, I asked if they wanted to get started on Lesson 10 already or if they wanted to review anything. They asked if we could review Lesson 8. If that will help them to have a class that was as effective as the class today, then sure, we can review.

So that's what we did.

I'll be honest. When I first learned Etoys, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. It seemed hard, overly technical. But I know that content has been an issue for us in class, since we're not able to use the computers in other disciplines yet. And in that way, Etoys is saving us. We really have something to teach, and something the kids are enjoying-- a LOT! Once you get the technical stuff learned, Etoys is a breeze- and such a new and unique way to learn material.

I'm proud of my teachers. They're doing a great job. Tomorrow we have a meeting with the Ministry of Education (finally) and a couple of the teachers are planning on being there. Then I'm meeting with the US Embassy to see if we can get another summer program going for next year. If we can ensure that, man, that would help things out so much.

Things and Lesson 7

2010-07-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Called Roberta this morning to confirm our meeting at the Ministry of Education.

Good thing I did, because it was cancelled and she appropriately didn't tell me.

At STeP UP today I was a little annoyed with her. She thought it would lighten her image to compliment me on my shirt. When that didn't work, she worked a new meeting out with the Ministry- 9:30am on Friday. Then we'll go to the US Embassy shortly after.

The electrician came by today (he also stopped by the school to check out the wire hookup). He wants about 5,500,000, or about $280, to purchase a battery and install this thing. I don't know, is this a good idea? I suppose it would be nice if it worked. I'm getting a little worn of spending money- I already spent money getting the power strips fixed, and they're almost already back to the way they were before. They're just so fragile and they break very easily. When I'm so strapped for cash, every single dollar makes a huge difference.

On that note, we're hoping to build a cabinet where we can keep all the computers. I was going to buy a metal one but I'm thinking making a wooden one might be cheaper. We could put a lock on it. We could decide on the dimensions so that it could be a sort of bookshelf-type chest where you can slide the computers in on their side, so they're not sitting on top of each other. There could also be storage spaces below. I'm going to look into this tomorrow and maybe draft out a design, see how much it will end up costing. Money is so short, I just hope we can get the funding we need for this program to move forward.

Went over lesson 9 with the teachers today. It went really well- everyone successfully animated their creation. Good!

Class with the students was frustrating. The teachers took forever to actually get started, and then the power went out, and I had to do everything I could to keep from yelling, "You see??? If you start class so late, kids will use up the battery life on their computers, and they wont have any charge left in case the energy goes out. And that's what happened!"

Gilson came by today. He's one of our students from this past school year. He's older than some of the others. He hung around class, looking into the classrooms. He asked the other teachers if he could be a part of the class now, even though he hasn't come to any of the other summer classes. The other teachers told him he had to talk to me first. When he came up to me, his eyes were shifty. He had a visible wound on his face. "Can I come back to class?" he asked me.

"Why weren't you in class the past few days, Gilson?"

"I couldn't. I had...training."

I basically said whatever. I told him if he comes to class from now on then yes, he can participate. He took a computer and quietly walked into a classroom. It's good to have him back.

So even though Lesson 7 didn't go well, the teachers actually understand everything surprisingly well. I know people in Haiti had issues with Lesson 7. I think it's because there are a couple of missing steps in the directions and they can get confusing for someone who is new at everything. The teachers and I sat down after class and went over a few things: One, they have got to look over these lessons before class. We talked about how the lessons seem easy when I'm around, and then hard when they're trying to teach it all themselves. I think that's why they're being so slow in teaching the students -- they're still insecure and uncomfortable. So the way to fix that is to get more secure by practicing the lessons themselves at home.

It seems like such a simple thing, but as much as I explain it to the teachers, it still seems like they're not understanding. But today when I sat them all down together they got it. Thank God.

I also passed them a copy of my funding proposal. It's time to get all of the teachers up to date about what's going on, not just Miguel (though he is certainly the leader of the group). I explained to them that if we ever get funding, it's going to depend on them to make sure everything runs smoothly-- that the money gets to the right place, that things develop correctly. I'm trying to get them to take responsibility for the program's development now -- or at least as much responsibility as possible.

Speaking of responsibility, tomorrow I'm bringing soap to school and we're having the students clean all of the computers with damp towels (thank God) to teach them all about the importance of caring for these computers. The teachers have scheduled our repair class for Friday afternoon, as we'll be done with Lesson 10 tomorrow so we'll have time Friday to get started learning to repair.

All in all, things are going well. They could go more smoothly, sure, but I'm grateful for the movement we are making. The teachers are trying so hard, the kids are loving class, and things are continuing in the long-term. And that's the most important thing!

10 Days...CRAZY!

2010-07-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Class doesn't go badly today, woohoo! We did the teacher class first because students are coming to class extremely late (a feature of our summer program, NOT of our regular academic year program) and we don't feel like getting mad at them since it is vacation and all, so we had our teacher class from 2-3:30 and our student class from 3:30-5.

At the teacher class we learn Lesson 8, tests. The teachers are picking up things pretty well. They have a problem with listening -- it drives me crazy -- they'll just drift away into their project and then go "I can't do it" and it will become very obvious that the reason why they can't do it is because they weren't listening when I was explaining. Oh well. The content isn't easy and they're definitely picking it up. I explained the joystick today and was actually pretty surprised at how quickly they got it, after briefly reviewing the slider from Friday. Looks like the teachers just need to simmer and then they're good to go.

Did Lesson 6 with the students. It went well. For some reason the teachers didn't show the kids the "bounce" feature- they're having trouble with this idea of following a lesson plan and not doing things on their own or by memory. This is sort of hilarious because...they basically suck at following a lesson plan...but they are DAMN good teachers. The way they explain things to the students, I can only wish I had explained it myself that way.

We already marked the five "prize" computers so that they never get mixed up with ones that belong to the school. They have stars drawn on them and literally say "Prémio" ("prize") right on the front. We're sort of dangling them in the kids' faces and it's working like a charm. There's been no stealing, the kids are anxious to start writing their stories, and some of them have even started crafting story ideas at home. Thank goodness for contests.

Doing a lot of tying up loose ends and the like during my last 10 days in São Tomé (already, I know!). Tomorrow I am meeting the Ministry of Education with Professora Arlete and potentially Professora Mirian to talk about getting the Ministry to support our computer program and work with partner organizations to get us enough computers for everyone at the school. Seeing Professora Arlete with her students, and now volunteering to come with me to the Ministry, makes my heart swell. It wasn't easy to convince her to give this computer program a chance. She was interested but easily frustrated. She had lots of questions and she wanted to do things her way at the beginning. It took a bit to get her to warm to me. And now sometimes I feel she is my closest ally.

So tomorrow we're heading to the Ministry of Education to have the Talk about the livelihood of this program. Wish me luck.

Other loose ends we're tying up:

Talked to an electrician today about using a big battery to power the school's wifi when there's no electricity. Apparently it can be done and the electrician is going to do some shopping and write me up a receipt before installing it at the school. Yay for being able to use the Internet even when there's no electricity! That's almost as good as getting a generator.
Brought the 30 computers I brought from the USA to school today, as well as various extra batteries, a couple of broken computers and about 30 mini mice. Now we have a very nice pile of 130 computers, mice, batteries, chargers, adapters, power strips and whatever else stuffed under one of the tables in the computer lab (which has about 10 desktop computers arranged along the walls and couldn't be bigger than a closet). So our next solution is to buy a big metal cabinet with shelves so that we can store the computers there. If it's a big enough cabinet, we can simply lock the cabinet and put it in one of the classrooms (which are unlocked) rather than having to rely on it staying secure in the director's office. Will probably do some shopping tomorrow.
Made another appointment with Izilda at the US Embassy to see if they'll pay for us to have another summer program next year (and also pay my airfare so that I can go and check in on things too) for Friday. Wish me more luck.
Going to stop by the Portuguese Embassy to say hello and do some networking, since I used to work at the Portuguese Embassy in the USA.

More things...certificates are all signed by the director and stamped with the school's seal. That's good. Now just to put the names in for the students. Still need to pay the teachers. Interviewing the kids as much as I can for some good videos to get support. Just saw one of my old English students from last year tonight. THAT was a blast from the past!! It was great to see him! Nothing else going on off the top of my head. Life is good and I'm already missing São Tomé!

So much to say, so little energy

2010-07-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

Didn't post yesterday out of exhaustion. It's been a lot of work these past few days, organizing things. Yesterday class went well. Shout out to the Columbus School for Girls who made large print copies of the halo handles for teachers to use in the classroom (see pictures at right). I wasn't able to print them in color, but let me tell you, the teachers here in São Tomé are using them and they LOVE THEM. The printouts have helped us so much to teach a large class. Way to go CSG!

I even had a chance to meet with the Embassy of Taiwan to talk about potential funding opportunities today, and it went really well. The Ambassador is a wonderful guy who really believes in the power of technology, especially in a country like São Tomé that is so distant and removed from the rest of the world. When I got back though, as class was ending, it was a whole different story. We ended up not being able to have a teacher class at all because students kept coming into the classroom making a racket, and the teachers couldn't keep themselves focused- they kept leaving the room to talk to the students and such. Finally at 5pm I just got up and told them I had to go, and left. We would have to have our class another day, because we had just spent an hour doing nothing. So it was a mixed day.

There are students that are stealing computers now. If they are stealing them permanently or if they are just taking them home for the night without permission, I do not know. But I do know that some students are bringing backpacks to school and secretly slipping the computers into the backpacks.

It's a little heartbreaking. On one hand, I thought the students understood that these computers are on loan to them for the school year only, as we need to accommodate future students, not to mention the fact that these students will be moving to a different school system next year with teachers who are untrained in the XO laptop. On the other hand, ugh, it's so frustrating that these kids are stealing the computers because they like them so much. It's so frustrating that these kids are spending three hours of their vacation, every weekday, to sit inside and work on their computers BECAUSE THEY WANT TO!

I had to think of a solution, and it had to work.

When I came to class today, the energy was not working. We were hopeful that it would return, though, so we waited. As we waited, I met with the teachers. FINALLY my missing bag came through on the flight from Portugal today, so I got the teaching materials (and clothes and toiletries) that I was so badly hoping for. I passed those out (the teaching materials; not the toiletries).

I also passed out a handout that I created for the teachers last night, which included notes about teaching these computers. I explained to the teachers that teaching these computers is like teaching an art class- there is an instruction part, but there is also a very important creativity/experimentation part. The teachers here are used to working in a rote structure, which works for them, especially when they've got a large group of students to take care of. But we're trying to stay away from the rote with these laptops. I explained to the teachers the importance not ordering the students to make a specific object or enter a specific number, but to encourage them to think for themselves, to try new things out, to have fun. I also encouraged them to let students help each other- to not stop class in order to solve one student's problem. In class, things worked better. They weren't perfect, and certainly not as efficient as I was hoping, but they were better. It will be a process, I know. But the good thing is, I feel like we're moving a foundation. It's not a temporary change we're making, it's forever.

Finally, I talked to the teachers about my solution to the stealing problem. And my solution was this:

First we gathered all of the students into one room. I have mastered the clapping exercise to make students quiet. I did this last year-- you clap in a rhythm and then the students repeat you, and you change the rhythm a few times and have them repeat you a few times, and then finally you stop and everyone is quiet since they're waiting for the next cue. This is how I manage a classroom of 100 students (though today there are much fewer...but since it's vacation time, we're not too too worried about attendance). Then I tell the students I have something important I want to talk to them about, and I just need five minutes of their time.

They were attentive.

I explained that the computers belong to the school, and that the idea is to use them for years to come. The computers that students are using right now are going to sixth graders next year, and the year after that, and years after that. They are participating in a really important program but in order to keep this program going, we need to take care of our computers. During vacation, we can't take the computers home because they're going to go to next year's students (the real reason is because the students are no longer enrolled at São João so there would be no way to track them if something happened). I told the students that there was something that was happening that was making us teachers very sad, and can anyone guess what it is?

No one could, so I continued. The thing that is making us teachers sad is the fact that there are some students, who we will not name, who have been taking the computers home without our permission. Because the computers belong to the school, taking the computers without teacher permission is called stealing. Some of the kids' eyes widened when I said that word, "stealing". I know they don't mean to steal. I told the students that the thefts are in the past now, but we need to work together to find the computers so we can keep using them. So if any student knows of any other student that has one of these computers, please encourage them to bring that computer back to the school and no one will be punished.

As to the fun part.

Starting this summer, and in years to come, we will be offering a contest for students participating in the computer program. Since we're just thinking of this contest now, this summer it will be a story-writing contest for who writes the best Etoys storybook (stories need to be 5-10 pages with text and drawings on each page, they need to be written in good Portuguese and need to have at least three animations on them). On the last day of class, we will all leave our laptops on the tables and walk around the classroom and look at the stories. Then students will silently vote on their five favorite stories on a piece of paper. The writers of the five best stories will be awarded with an XO laptop, that they will be able to keep--forever.

The kids went nuts when they heard this. FOREVER?! That's a long time.

In years to come, we can keep the five laptop giveaway going. I can see how it could be controversial- awarding this select group of students laptops to keep forever could perhaps seem like some weird gameshow charity. But I think it's quite in line with the original OLPC ideals of individual ownership. It's also a pretty big deal for the students, and an enormous motivator to do well in the classroom and to attend class in order to work on their projects.

And finally, it's a solution to stealing. Psychologically, if students understand that the computers need to be taken care of because they are simply on loan to them, BUT they also understand that they have the opportunity to legitimately own a computer themselves if they try hard enough, then I strongly believe that it will bring an end to the theft. Students are not trying to hurt anyone by stealing- they just want an opportunity. Now this is their chance to get it.

And if they're not one of the five winners, they need not despair- there are computers available for use at the national high school, and there are also going to be 20 computers available at São João for public use-- all people need to do is ask a teacher and, particularly if they are a previous student, they will be welcome to use the computer anytime during the school day.

Class was great today. Students were very excited. They were learning faster. They were laughing. I think this "contest" can be a great motivator for the students, as long as we don't put too much emphasis on it being the sole motivation for learning. Ned and I have also been talking about conducting a sociological study, following maybe 10 of the current students over a long-term period of time to see how the computer program affects them in life in comparison to other students. It would be an interesting idea to use the five recipients of computers as half of these long-term examinations.

Teacher class went well. We covered Lesson 7. When the teachers listen to me, they do great. They get distracted easily and usually one is always absent for sickness or funeral so we move slowly, but deliberately.

Etoys Lesson 3

2010-07-07T14:23:00.001-07:00

O.M.G.!

2010-07-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

I title this post "O.M.G.!", in response to yesterday's "O.M.G.", because it is nearly the polar opposite of yesterday.

In fact, nearly the polar opposite of....noon today.

Ned saw me over lunch. I was a nervous wreck. The iPhone wasn't working, class was not as I had hoped, things were tearing me apart. I could hardly take another minute.

And then, the sky opened up.

Spoke with both UNICEF and Voice of America about funding our program this morning. Both organizations are definitely interested in lending a hand. It will take a lot of pushing, but things are looking up for us. Even the US Embassy might be able to help if I can think of a way to rework the proposal.

So I leave things with a smile on my face.

I get to class plenty late, having been at Voice of America in the afternoon. But the teachers know I'll be arriving later and they know to start class without me. When I get there, I see some kids playing in the schoolyard, but the school itself looks empty. I saw Professora Adelina's car outside of the yard so I know the teachers are at least still here, but where are the students?

Slowly, I make my way into the first classroom.

And there I see Professor Miguel, and a whole group of students, quietly focused on their computer screens. One student looks up. He sees me. "Professora," he says, talking to me. "Come see my painting!"

This is the beauty of Etoys Lesson 3.

I go into the second classroom and it is exactly the same. Except this time the tables are rearranged so they're all facing each other. The students are equally silent, drawing. The class is nearly the opposite of yesterday. It is perfectly peaceful. The students are drawing houses, trees, sky. It is so beautiful and I am just beaming.

Everything we went through yesterday is worth these moments.

When we finish class, I try not to bother the teachers. Ok, so they haven't taught the students to draw their pictures using individual items (pressing "keep" over and over). I mentioned that to the teachers and we're going to do it tomorrow.

We also had one student try to make with his computer when it was time to go home. The kids are still pretty bummed that they can't take the computers home.

But things are peaceful. We're getting more chargers from the STeP UP office, Faia is fixing the power strips, the teachers are teaching class and the students are happy.

Drove home on my motorcycle. Really killed it...felt great. Then I fixed my iPhone. All of the stress from the last two weeks has miraculously melted away.

First day of class, no energy, sigh

2010-07-06T16:41:00.001-07:00

Teachers Teach Each Other Etoys

2010-07-06T13:53:00.001-07:00

Student Interviews, Part One

2010-07-06T13:34:00.003-07:00

O.M.G.

2010-07-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

If I so much as look at another computer I am going to scream.

Unfortunately I have to look at my computer in order to type this, so consider me screaming.

So the things that are most getting to me- totally not OLPC-related whatsoever. Trying to unlock an iPhone that I got for my friend Kilson here. Thought it was unlocked (EVEN PAID A GUY TO DO IT) but alas, it wasn't. So I'm $200 in the hole if I can't fix it, and I've been working on it for like 2-3 hours per day trying to get it working, and it's looking grim. So now not only am I poor again, but I look untrustworthy to him. Grrrrr.

Ok, now for the actual things.

So I spend the whole morning loading Etoys 4 to the computers. The thing that the teachers don't know is that we're eventually going to have to reflash all of the computers, and when we do that, we'll have to reload Etoys 4 again. But there just wasn't enough time to reflash 100 computers this morning AND add Etoys, so I did the quick solution and will slowly reflash in waves, a few at a time. Actually had a decent time this morning- the sun was shining, I was playing music on my computer really loud, some of my students came in and asked if they could play with the computers while I worked and I said fine so I had lots of help and definitely plenty of company too.

About half of our power strips are fixed, thanks to Faia. That was good. Energy was kicking. Plugging in 100 computers ends up being a lot more work than you think, so I really didn't have much time to charge these things by myself, but I was able to get Etoys 4 onto almost all of them.

"Almost" because a lot of the computers are not in the condition they should be in. This is why I started to get a little bit frustrated (or pretty angry) with the teachers. Some computers were missing keys, others had broken screens. I think in the 80 or so computers I worked on, there were at least 5 with screens that were just totally useless, maybe another 5 with keyboard problems, and maybe another 5 that had random problems like dead batteries, or just wouldn't start up right. So that's nearly but not quite 20% of the computers I worked on that have pretty serious problems that render them beyond use, though they do not render them unable to be fixed.

Anyway I got frustrated with the teachers because, why didn't the teachers TELL me anything? And on top of that, telling me things is not the important things. But just like the broken power strips, whyyyy did the teachers not DO anything about it? Why didn't they talk to the students? Why did they not reprimand them for not taking good care of their computers? Why did they not kick them out of the class as they said they would? It's as if these teachers are afraid of taking action about anything. They say to me, "Ah, well now that you're here, it's not a problem anymore, is it?" Why, because I'M going to do everything FOR YOU???

As you can see, I got a bit miffed. But I know these are just steps in the process. I know that. Soon the teachers will be able to do everything themselves. By taking care of things, I am showing them not to stand around when stuff gets destroyed. Not that they are used to being able to do anything anyway, because usually doing something requires money, and money is what they don't have. But at least getting them into the mindset of contacting me or STeP UP would be a great start.

So after four hours of installing Etoys 4, I take an hour-long break and go home for lunch. When I come back, the teachers have all left and the director has shut his door. And locked it. Which means, all of the computers are locked inside. We have wait nearly 1.5 hours for the director to come back and unlock the room for us. He's angry at us for having left the computers in his office if we needed them. Miguel is mad at me for having left the school without telling someone to tell the director to leave the office open (as if I had any idea that the office wouldn't be open all day long). I'm mad because I'm just exhausted of having to take responsibility for everything. And we're all bored as hell as we wait for José António, the director, come back.

So I pick up a piece of chalk and spend 20 minutes playing "Hangman" with the kids, and they have remembered the game flawlessly. They also remember "7 Up" which they request we play after, but the director gets here before we have a chance.

The next 30 minutes is pure chaos. The kids are used to having the computers themselves, so we're not used to having to sort with 100 kids about whose computer is what. So here we are, setting up power strips (turns out one of the power strips that Faia apparently fixed is NOT working), plugging computers in (oh, by the way, only about 50% of the chargers work too), and sorting out computers. The kids are unstoppable, 100 kids just yelling like crazy people. It's impossible to maintain order because my voice is drowned out by the students just yelling. They want their computer, their charger doesn't work, they have no place to plug in, they want to know if they can take their computer home today (a common question).

I lose it. I yell quite loudly, to say the very least, something along the lines of "Everyone sit down and be quiet or we will stop this computer program forever. And I am NOT JOKING!!! THIS COMPUTER CLASS WILL BE OVER!!!!!!" This achieves a manageable level of order. I know the kids are excited. I know they're not used to getting something so valuable, and they're hanging onto them as much as possible. These kids are fighters and I respect them so much for that. They have had lives that are harder than I could ever imagine. But in my classroom, I was not about to accept rowdiness, even over these laptops.

Finally, when the kids have the computers, there is a silence. Only about 60-70% of the computers are plugged in. Some students have to share with other students because there aren't enough chargers, and the computers are out of battery life (though there are more chargers at the STeP UP office, thank God). The teachers have divided the students into two classes, and for some reason divided themselves not in half but in four teachers in one room and one in the other.

But there is finally peace.

Until Miguel comes up to me and says, "So, what are we doing today?"

And I am about to lose my head right then and there. I as calmly as possible say "Lessons 1 and 2 of Etoys." He says, "actually, I'd prefer we not do Lessons 1 and 2, and just do a presentation of Etoys for the kids and talk about what they're going to be covering."

"Fine," I say, leaving the classroom.

And that, my friends, is when the power goes out.

No joke. The power goes out. And then Miguel finds me and says, in so many words, "See, this is why you need to get us a generator."

And I say "You're right. Why don't you guys write up a grant and then we can all go and try to get funding for it?" He nods. I know he's not trying to stick it in my face that I haven't gotten them a generator. I think he realizes that it's not as easy as it seems.

So we spend another 30 minutes giving class until pretty much all of the computers are out of battery life, and then, in amazing order, we are able to get the kids to put their computers in the local computer lab (a closet-sized space with about eight computers in it smushed together) so that we don't have to worry about the director anymore.

And when class is over, I say to the teachers, "Let's have a meeting instead of our teacher class." And we agree that we need it.

These are the things we talk about:

The fact that the computers are in poor shape. However, the teachers have at this point become adamant about letting the new sixth grade students take their computers home, just like this past sixth grade did. With class only once per week on Saturday, the students are doing the majority of their learning from home. Not to mention, if the computers stay at the school, we're going to go through the chaos we had today on a weekly basis, handing these computers out. Here's how we decide to ultimately deal with the situation:

We will have three teacher-parent meetings throughout the school year. The first will be an informational meeting for the parents about the program, and about how students need to take care of their computers. The second will be an evaluation meeting in February to ask parents how things are going. The third will be a final year celebration, where students will turn in their computers and receive certificates, and parents, STeP UP members, government workers and other people will be invited. By involving parents, we can make things more clear.
We will write "Property of the São João School" in big permanent marker on the computers, so that the students have the constant reminder that they will not be keeping them at the end of the school year.
We will dedicate a part of one class per month on how to care for computers. This may mean doing presentations about how to care for the computers (or even what NOT to do), writing essays or even having a class-wide cleaning session with damp towels so that the computers look nicer and less dusty.

Miguel wants to give the kids candy in addition to their certificates at the ending party. I'm not sure why that is the case. He says it will boost morale...but I'm sort of like, what's the point of boosting morale at the END of the year? If we want to boost morale, it should be at the beginning/middle of the year. But on top of that, I don't know if giving candy is the answer. Oh, I don't know.
We need more chargers. I can get quite a few at STeP UP so this is not a problem in the short-term. But in the long term, we have to teach the students how to properly wrap the chargers, and while we're on it, how to take care of the power strips too (like not yanking them). However, I really don't think it's the students that are causing the charger problems. They're simply burning out. Miguel says someone local might be able to fix them. In the long term, this might be a good solution.
We need to plan a meeting with the director so we can talk about payment, these three parent/teacher meetings we want to hold, and next year's selection process. The teachers aren't sure how the director selected this past year's students to participate in the computer class, but they want to have some say in the selection next year, which I think is a great idea.
I brought about 27 working laptops with me this year. 20 of them are going to stay in the São João School on a permanent basis. That way, if former students ever want to come back to São João to use the laptops, they simply have to come to the school, ask one of the teachers and then they'll be able to use them (as long as they stay on the school grounds). As students seem to live pretty close by to the school, I think this is a totally reasonable request and a great way to keep kids interested and excited even when they're not at São João anymore.

That's it for today. My brain is fried. Sometimes I wonder if a computer program should be this much work- if the fact that so much push is involved means that the program is inefficient and, in some ways, unreasonable. There are so many details, always so many setbacks. But I think about the kids yesterday that said they wanted to be computer programmers when they grow up, and I think about how for these kids, it's got to be worth it.

Oh wait, we actually need ENERGY for class??

2010-07-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

So I arrive at the São João School at 9am sharp. We had to call the director on Friday to make sure he'd have the school open for me to install Etoys 4 on all of the computers, so I was pleasantly surprised when the school was open and ready to go.

I went into the director's office and took out the computers among the stacks there. Only six to start, as I only had five functioning USB drives anyway. I brought them into an empty classroom, a small crowd of students that were hanging in the schoolyard following me. I make a mental note to get these computers cleaned up- or, even better, to have the students clean them with some damp rags. Even one of the kids following me asked if the computers could be cleaned, because they're so dirty- that goes to show you that it's not just me being a neat freak. The computers are just covered in dust, so much that they've taken on this really nice orange-ish color. I'm not as annoyed about it as I might be, though- the fact that they are so covered in pen marks and stickers and grime shows that they have been well used, and well loved.

Then I go to grab one of the power strips that the OLPCorps had brilliantly created for the students here. They made just enough for the students- I think there are about 70 or 80 outlets total that I know about. The outlets are a little bit sketchy, to say the least -- some of them obviously do not work, as it's just wire and metal and no plastic area where you plug in. Others are obviously burnt. But I give it a shot, anyway.

I plug the first computer into the first outlet and hold my breath. It works, thank God.

But unfortunately, none of the other nine outlets work until I reach the last one. On the second power strip, one outlet works. On the third, none. On the fourth, two. On the fifth, none.

Maybe I can put Etoys 4 on the computers without plugging them in, I think. But alas- the computers are all completely drained. They all need to be recharged, and now.

And that's when I knew class would be quite different than we expected.

I think I successfully loaded Etoys 4 onto about five of the computers. However, at about 10:45am I ended up calling Dany in a rut. There's no way around it besides getting new power strips. I asked Ned how much it might cost to buy new ones. "Oh, I don't know," he says. "Maybe 300?"

300 means 300,000 Dobras, or about $15 USD, or about twice as much as it would cost in the States (which sounds about right, as things that are imported- or about 90% of all things- are horribly expensive due to importing and customs fees). I think about his power strip which has about six or eight plugs on it. That's going to cost me about $150, just to get enough outlets for all of the students at school.

Dany and I steal all of the power strips from the school and throw them in the bed of the truck. Our friend, Faia, comes too. We go directly to the hardware store, counting how many power strips need new plugs, how many new outlets are needed and how much new wire. We count about 16 meters of wire, 13 outlets (these are the plastic parts of the outlets that are ripped off the power strip, and do not include the outlets that look fine but still don't work) and five new plugs (a number of the power strips don't even have plugs attached to them anymore-- they've been literally ripped off the wire). It all rings up to 775,000 Dobras, or about $39.16 USD. When we get home, Faia offers to fix the outlets for another 300,000 Dobras, putting us at a rolling total of $54.32 USD for about seven power strips with eight plugs on each. I'm quite satisfied with this price- it's almost exactly the same as I would have paid in the USA, maybe even cheaper, and now I'm helping the São Tomean economy so I feel pretty decently good about myself.

But I don't feel so good when there are 100 students facing me and I have to tell them that class is delayed one more day because, not of lack of electricity, but of lack of power strips!

We do get some good interviews with the kids though (although halfway through the teachers let the kids go play in the schoolyard so it becomes super loud and I'll probably have to redo all the interviews all over again...BUT it was cool anyway). I asked them a few questions, including:

1. Their names
2. What they like most about computer class
3. Why they feel computers are important in São Tomé
4. What they want to be when they grow up.

Questions #3 and #4 were particularly interesting. A number of students hit the nail on the head about why computers are important in São Tomé. They didn't say anything about wanting to learn how to type or be good secretaries. They said things like, "Computers help São Tomé to connect with the rest of the world," and "Computers allow us to think in different ways so we can better our community." These are 11 year-olds that are saying these things, it's great!

When I asked what students wanted to be when they grew up, I was expecting a few mixed responses. But the kids had it all figured out. One girl wanted to be an accountant, another, a biological engineer. Two students wanted to be Portuguese teachers. A few of the boys wanted to be computer programmers/technicians. One girl said she wanted to be President. She smiled and blushed, and I told her she can do whatever she wants!!

I was particularly excited to see girls that wanted to be engineers and accountants. I haven't had the best of experiences teaching females- in an English class that I taught last year for students who were in their late teens and early twenties, the females were very visibly disinterested in school. It was heartwrenching to see them having lost their spark for learning. But these sixth graders still have that spark, and they're going onto high school. In many ways I am so happy, so thrilled. But in other ways, I feel even more pressured to keep up with them. To not let them fall through the cracks. To not let the fact that the computers are being left behind at São João hurt them.

I feel like I should go investigate the local high school and see what options there are for computer use there. Maybe I can help them grow their program a little more so students won't feel left behind.

Leaving the school, I had remembered that I rode the motorcycle into the schoolyard (perfectly normal here in STP) rather than pulling over on the road, on the other side of the street, because the road was covered with rocks. Now I would have to pull out of the schoolyard and hang a U-turn without stalling out, getting hit by a car or making a fool of myself.

I made it out perfectly. I'm really getting a hang of this motorcycle, I think.

Little failures turn into little successes.

PS- Went to TAP and apparently my bag is still in Lisbon after all. Long story short, it should be arriving on Friday. Don't ask why they were holding onto it. For some reason they thought I would be back soon and were like, "oh, she can just pick it up on her way back" without telling me. Sigh. Portugal no coração, né?

Lesson 5...hellooo students!

2010-07-02T10:43:00.001-07:00

Today was a pretty successful day.

I had forgotten when I arrived at São João that the students would be here today, not for class but in order to hear how the class would be structured in general. It was awesome to see these students- suddenly I remembered every single one of them, and they were just the same, if not six months older. And at that age, in six months, kids grow! Maybe 10 or 15 of the girls were waiting by the gate for my arrival. When I got there, they stayed by my side as I walked to the school building. It's a little bit of a power trip to have 100 kids look up at you, 100 kids run into the classroom as soon as they see that you are here, ready to begin class. I wonder what they're excited about more- using their computers or having me (read: white woman with funny accent) as their teacher. Well, whatever it is, I'm happy they're here!

Anyway, the kids run inside and we meet for about ten minutes to talk about class. The teachers designate me to be the one to lay down the law. I laugh. The “law” is that for the next month, we're meeting five days per week for about 1.5 hours each day. Next week we're meeting at 2pm but we'll most likely start around 9am on other weeks (we're beginning at 2pm next week because teachers have required exam grading in the morning). I also think that after next week the class will be extended to the regular 3 hour schedule- and we'll do a variety of fun things to break up the time. We're going to be learning Etoys and making storybooks, and at the end of the program students will receive colorful certificates in their name. But the biggest “law” of all is the fact that, this time around, the students will not be able to take their computers home, as per the request of the teachers.

This is because the students have now finished with the sixth grade, which is the last grade at the São João School. They are technically no longer students of São João, and because of this, if a computer goes missing, it will be that much harder to track a student down. For the sake of the continuation of the program, all computers need to be accounted for this summer and in September. So we have to keep them here. In pride, the teachers asked the students to raise their hand if they were continuing onto the seventh grade. Nearly all of the students besides a couple raised their hands. The teachers were beaming. I would love to know if there is actually a notable difference in continuation to seventh grade between students in this computer class and students at São João in general. If there is, that would be a powerful quantitative analysis, I would think.

The good news is that unlike the past school year, students will be meeting everyday instead of once per week so they'll be able to use their computers quite regularly. On Monday morning I'm going to go to the school to install Etoys 4 on all of the computers so that they can be ready to go on Monday afternoon. I'm debating as to if I should reflash them too-- if I don't, the teachers will have to reflash at some point and then they'll have to install Etoys 4 anyway. Some of the teachers may join me in the work, if they are available, but I told them they didn't have to if they had other things to do. I also told the students to think of their favorite parts of the computer and their favorite programs, because we would be recording little films of students showing these different things. Then the films would be used as helpful material for the incoming sixth grade to learn more efficiently how to use the computer.

I am also, as per the suggestion of Kris Haamer, going to be interviewing students on camera and asking them what they like most about the program and such. I'll take little videos of class in action in hopes I can make some sort of fundraising video.

When the students left, the teachers and I settled down for Lesson 5. A few of the students continued to play in the schoolyard- one of them asked to use my camera and I allowed her, as long as she was careful, to take pictures and videos outside while I taught the teachers inside. Lesson 5 is all about the viewer and the very first steps of animating- how to make an object go forward 10 and turn 90 at once, for example. I was pretty surprised at how well the teachers seemed to understand the concept of the viewer- it seems that they had more trouble with the actual manipulation of the touchscreen and buttons (particularly when they had to hold down shift, click and drag something) so things like drawing or just understanding the basics of the supply box seemed difficult for them. But now that they get those things, Lesson 5 was nearly a breeze. The teachers really got it, and they were helping each other. I told them that our class is going to be quite big- they've been dividing the students in half lately with 2-3 teachers in each group- so we need to put particular emphasis on being flexible and letting students experiment on their own, and also asking students that understand the material to help the students that don't understand. That's the only way we'll keep our heads above water with so many students and two teachers.

I'm interested, however, in seeing how things go with so few teachers. I know Waveplace has never taught Etoys this way so if anything it'll be quite an experiment – and certainly an important part of this is learning how to best teach Etoys, particularly under limited resources.

We talked about how we would conduct class on Monday- asking students what they already know about Etoys and then talking a little bit about what Etoys is and what it does, explaining the idea of making storybooks over the summer course, then going into Lesson 1, looking at the gallery of projects, maybe even hitting up Lesson 2 if we have time. Those are the hopes of what we will accomplish.

There are a few obstacles that I am already aware of. The first is that the fabulous power strips that the OLPCorps made are already beginning to fall apart. Only a few of the outlets on each one work. That's not going to be good on Monday, when everyone needs to charge their computers and no charger is available. We also made a stricter attendance policy. I had thought that teachers were keeping track of the students but apparently they weren't. So at the beginning of next year, we're going to request a list of students, write the computer's number beside each student's name, and then keep attendance every class period. If a student misses more than three (or four, or five, I'm not sure yet) classes, then they will be pulled from the computer program. There are plenty of other students that want to be a part of the program and it's not fair to deny them inclusion while their peers are skipping class. I thought the teachers were already taking attendance and such but apparently that is one thing that fell through the cracks, so we're going to pick it up again now.

Roberta and I went to the Embassy of the USA today to talk about fundraising for the program. When they saw the nearly $300,000 price tag (this pays for 1,100 computers, maintenance fees and human resources for the entire school for five years) they shut down. They can only fund projects that are about $5,000 maximum, and they cannot fund parts of projects. Roberta and I are looking into what “full projects” we can do with $5,000. Maybe we can get a library started like the one in Petite Rivere des Nippes, for past program participants to use after they finish their studies at São João. Maybe $5,000 will help pay for a summer program, should we continue to offer that. I'm having a good think about it, because I know there must be something that can be done.

However, it has become obvious that we need to seek our funding in other locations. Ned suggested approaching organizations that have already donated to One Laptop per Child, and showing them how successful São João has been and seeking support to continue its success. This is a great idea that I'm going to look into more.

Dany and I are going to hopefully head to an electrician next week to talk about using a car battery and an inverter to power the wifi when there's no electricity at the school. I would be delighted if we could get that moving before I leave São Tomé. The teachers are hoping for their own adult-sized laptops and I have a few friends who are willing to donate their used laptop computers, install something simple like Puppeee Linux on them and ship them over. I told them that when I returned to the USA I would look into it for them, but that I don't want to rely on other people shipping them at the moment, and they agreed that this was the safest way to do things. I wanted to bring them computers this time around but I already had so much stuff, I could hardly take any more. But they said they would pay the shipping if I mailed the computers, and that I believe I can do.

As you can see, there's a lot to be thought about these days. If anyone has input about anything, let me know. Hope everyone is enjoying July- the US Embassy is having a party in São Tomé on July 9^th (just a few days after July 4, but it's because the Embassy is actually based in Gabon so they need to do their July 4 party in Gabon) for us Americans. I'm actually sort of really excited about it. Our other volunteer, Polly, left us early this morning. It was so sad to see her go! I know she'll be happy to get home though, after living here for four months! Now it's me and the boys at the house again. I'm trying to take extra good care of Ned's kitten, because Polly always treated her so well. Might as well get in touch with my mothering side while I'm here.

Thursday Thursday (Rabbit Rabbit)

2010-07-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Not much to report today. Teachers had a busy exam day so I didn't go into the school, except to return Adelina's computer, which I had quite magically fixed so that it could sense the network again simply by restarting it. It's so frustrating because I know I have restarted computers before that couldn't sense the network and that definitely did not help them, so I of course submit a sort of "help ticket" with OLPC and restarting, as per their suggestion, works like a charm. Oh fudge!

Talked with Dany about the possibility of using a battery + inverter combo to charge the wireless internet at the school. I think we're going to talk to an electrician next week about it.

Made an appointment with Roberta to talk to the US Embassy tomorrow and Voice of America next week about funding our computer programs. Also looking into a few other groups that may be able to help us out as well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Party last night went great. We all had an awesome time, and quite a few of my friends came by (it was really really nice). Even my girl Bianca came, who I hadn't seen since last year!!! Tonight the party continues, as a few of us are going out for Polly's last night. Will definitely be a good time.

Lesson 4...and the teachers are still happy

2010-06-30T10:01:00.001-07:00

After class today, the teachers pull me aside. “We just wanted to say,” they begin, “That...before you came along, we had no idea how to use Etoys. We are learning a lot. It's great!”

I'll be honest; I swelled with pride upon hearing that. It was such a relief to know that the teachers are appreciating class. Today was a particularly difficult day. We covered lesson 4 in Etoys, which I think is when things start to get a little bit complicated. First, I showed them how to save things to the Squeakland Showcase. This took a good amount of time as the internet was really slow. I told them the students wouldn't have to do this, just them. I gave them login names and passwords that they could use, and I said if they wanted to share projects created by their students, they could save them to a USB drive and then upload them themselves, or even login under the teachers' name on Etoys, so that the kids don't have to go through what could be a disastrous few days of trying to get everyone set up in Squeakland (for example, it took a couple of class periods to get everyone email addresses. I don't even want to think about the Squeakland Showcase!).

After that, I told everyone to draw something quick over a period of 30 seconds. The class today would not be about drawing- we already know how to do that. Instead, it would be about how to manipulate a drawing. Three of the teachers drew up nice pictures really quickly. Two of them had troubles with their computers so it took longer. Then as I helped those two teachers with their respective problems, the three teachers would continue to embellish their pictures until they just had to the do the thing all over again because the picture started to get too detailed. Good grief, it must have taken an hour just to get five little drawings made. I think the teachers saw that I was mildly frustrated, but I still tried to make a joke. When it took me literally 60 seconds to draw a flower, I laughed about how I could have drawn a whole garden of flowers by the time they had each finished their respective drawings! They laughed too.

The issue is that the teachers are at this point quite comfortable with the way the XOs and Sugar work. The problem, however, is that the teachers are not comfortable with some mechanical things that Etoys requires- clicking and dragging, for example, or, something that is really hard, clicking and dragging and pressing “shift” at the same time (Miguel was having trouble with this and as I patted him on the back I joked, “I know it's three fingers at once, but don't worry, you'll get it- you do have ten fingers, anyway!” and he burst out laughing). When entering in http://squeakland.org on the Navigate activity, the teachers are constantly adding extra letters, forgetting slashes, etc. Reminds me of the “good old days” when I was first learning how to use the Internet and I was forgetting little details like that, too.

Though this might come in handy when teaching scripting- because now the teachers can relate to the need to have everything exactly right or the computer won't respond correctly.

So once the first hour passes and we have our drawings in order, everything else goes smoothly. I printed the images that the Columbus School for Girls students created- large replicas of each handle in the halo- and distributed them among the teachers. The teachers were then able to write little notes on the page of each handle so that they could remember what each one does and how to use it. Great! By the end of the afternoon, we had forests, gardens, strange and unusual sizes and colors of cheese, houses, roses and squiggles (the squiggles were created by Professora Arlete. She took absolutely FOREVER to do everything – she gets frustrated pretty easily with the computers – so when she FINALLY made the first squiggle I just said “stop it right there, that's plenty!!!”).

Thank god.

At this point it had been about an hour and forty minutes. I asked the teachers if they wanted to continue into the next lesson or if they wanted to rest and go home. They opted to go home. This was fine; we did a full lesson and that is all that was important. For a few minutes, we sat around and talked about the future. This week it's just me and the teachers doing lessons; though because of students' exams we won't have class tomorrow. Next week the teachers need to grade the exams, but there is the possibility of teachers being able to come and do a class in the afternoon, either with just me or with the students. Miguel had told the students to come to class this Friday and we would give them the low-down.

I told the teachers that their homework tonight was to essentially decide what they wanted to do. This needs to have a strong foundation, so if they don't even want to teach the students at all until the fall, we can consider that if we have a plan. Instead, we can spend this summer learning Etoys at a slower pace, and lesson planning for the incoming school year. Or, we can start students up on Monday, keep them for about 90 minutes and then have teacher classes in the afternoon (sort of like how Waveplace did in Haiti) so that the teachers can always stay a step ahead of the students. Whatever they want to do, it's fine by me- as long as they find a solution that works for them.

So that's where we are. They are thinking about how they want to organize their class, and I will support them. They'll tell me the verdict on Friday. I still need to talk to the director about paying (or his lack of paying) the teachers for their work over the school year, but I am hoping that my presence is already reminding him that he needs to turn their hours into the Ministry of Education. The teachers have begun to ask me for their own personal laptop computers. When I talked to them, I realized that it seems that they are not looking for anything special- just something smaller than the enormous computers that are in the computer lab, something transportable, and something adult-friendly (unlike the XOs). I told them the only thing that was holding me back was the shipping fee, but they said they would pay it.

Well, if I can arrange for some donated laptops and then have them pay the shipping, we're golden. So that's my plan right now.

Roberta still hasn't made an appointment with the American Embassy, so I need to get on her back about that to make sure we have time to do it while I'm still here. I'm also hoping to talk to the Taiwanese Embassy, which apparently takes interest in medical and educational projects on the island (and if we have public health curricula, they could definitely pay for that). A few things to do on my list, many of which hopefully will be worked on tomorrow when I have a day off from school.

Polly and I took the motorcycle into town today to meet up with Michelle and Jared, her two American friends, again. Jared is doing his Fullbright on São Tomean history and identity, essentially. It's very interesting work. I just saw the dog throw up a big pile of rice, gross. Speaking of dogs, there is a disintegrating dog in the road over the first hill going into town. I didn't notice it until Polly mentioned it. It's been there for a few weeks now so it looks like a pile of dirt in a dog shape. Nice image, right?

Anyway, took the motorcycle into town, got espresso and pastries, did some tourist shopping, enjoyed the sunlight, and all in all had a great time. Tonight Ned is having my welcome and Polly's goodbye party so a few of our friends are coming by for calulu, an amazing São Tomean stew. The party is supposed to start in about an hour and a half and I'm excited for it! Only a little bit bummed that my supposedly “found” luggage has, in fact, not been found, and therefore I can't look particularly cute because I lack makeup, earrings, a comb, and other previously necessary commodities.

Etoys: Day One

2010-06-29T09:50:00.001-07:00

At 10am I began my walk from the STeP UP office to the São João school. Walking there takes about 30-40 minutes total, and though my bags are heavy I somewhat enjoy it- passing through neighborhoods, a long stretch of bakeries, shops and a garage, the bustling market with many taxi and motoqueiro stands, then waterfront, with old, rusted ships that beached ashore long ago and soft waves lapping at the sand below a short cement barricade. And then, of course, the São João School, a pinkish colored cement building behind gates, outside of which women sell jaca and bananas and cookies and lollipops.

The teachers were inside the school, waiting for me. Professora Arlete wasn't here yesterday but she's here now. Her eyes smile as I walk in. “Elizabeth!” She exclaims. “I am this very moment writing an email to you!” I look at the computer screen in front of her- one of the big clunker computers that are from the early 90s- and sure enough there is an email addressed to me there. Professor Nelys is there too and we laugh as Arlete writes her email to me, in front of me.

When Miguel, Adelina and Mirian arrive, we head to an empty classroom and set up shop. Today, I explain, we're going to learn Etoys. My idea is to have students create their own storybooks by the end of the summer camp. But first, of course, we need to learn how to use it.

Unlike the teachers of other Waveplace deployments, these teachers have been using the XOs all year long so they are extremely comfortable with the way they handle (in fact, Nelys instant messaged me on Microsoft Messenger yesterday, from his XO. I had thought it was impossible and asked him how he did it. “I have tricks,” he had responded with an emoticon smile). For this reason, we literally breezed through lessons 1, 2 and 3 with ease. Even Professora Adelina, who is a bit older than the other teachers, was keeping up quite well.

And it wasn't even that the teachers were hanging on – they were actually surpassing me to the point that I could hardly teach the material. When I showed them how to pull text from the Supply Box, they were immediately asking how they could resize it, change the color, etc. When I showed them the grab patch and the lasso, they used that and then quickly started recording their own voices with the sound recorder, without me even having mentioned its existence yet. In some ways the speed at which they were learning was a negative thing- they seemed to lose interest relatively quickly because this stuff was easy for them.

But, of course, this is only the beginning. There's a lot more than that came from.

Like for example, the idea of creating little pictures to compile into one big picture is new to them. They get it but they still don't *quite* understand why one would do that. When we move to animations soon I think it is going to make a lot more sense.

We are focusing less on “how to teach” at the beginning, and just working on getting the teachers comfortable with the material. The reason why we're doing this is because the teachers have already been teaching this computer class for an entire school year. The material has certainly been different, but I'd like to see what they're doing. With each teacher taking over a group of about 20 students by themselves, I want to see what their technique is and will be. They are experienced so I am hoping for the best. However, I do know that the high teacher/student ratio will be different, interesting, and, well, potentially hazardous. But there's no way to truly know until we get started.

Miguel's computer nearly ran out of battery in class. He went to the office to grab a big long power strip that the OLPCorps had made for them. He plugged his computer into it...but the power strip wasn't working all that well. We weren't sure why. After some shifting the plug around in the socket and a bit of confusion we got it to work relatively well, but I'm concerned that one day these power strips may stop working entirely. And when they do, the teachers are going to have to learn how to make new ones...or something.

The computers are quite dirty and definitely need to be reflashed. Arlete took one of the students' computers out of the director's office as she had left hers at home. It was covered – I mean COVERED! – with orangeish dust from the schoolyard. I told the teachers that it might be a little extra work, but they should wipe these computers clean and then reflash them before the fall. I might actually consider doing that myself before I leave. Even though the students will be using the computers over the summer program, at least there's a smaller chance that they'll mess them up in two to three weeks.

Talked with Roberta today. She said the US Embassy is currently accepting funding applications, which is great news! She's going to call them and find out when we can come over to talk to them. We're working on making the funding application a little bit different for each location we approach, in hopes we can divide the costs and conquer that way.

No word yet on the car battery. I basically need to ask Dany about it right now but haven't had a chance to.

Tomorrow we're starting with lesson 4, which I actually think the teachers are going to like very much, as it has to do with resizing and re-coloring their creations, which is something they've been wanting to do for a while now.

Getting dinner tonight with Polly and some of her American friends in town. Tomorrow is Ned's welcome/goodbye party for us...very excited to see a bunch of my friends again all in one place!

Get This Party Started!

2010-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Stopped by São João this morning around 10:30, after students' exams were over for the day. Four of our five teachers met me at the school and we moved into an empty classroom so we could talk a bit about how we want to organize this summer program.

The teachers explained to me that students are in exams this week and then next week is a sort of evaluation period, so students won't be available for the summer program until the week after that (what I believe will be two weeks before I leave). This is both good and bad news. Obviously I want to spend time with the students and am going to miss them. But at the same time, the later we start, the better my chances of getting my lost suitcase back which had some really nice teaching materials (as well as toolkits that I had bought for each teacher so that they could fix their own computers) that I'd love to use. So in a way I don't mind that we're starting later than normal. I have faith that the teachers will be able to teach their students how to make storybooks in Etoys without me. That will be our goal this summer...to learn the Basic Etoys lessons and to make storybooks. I think it's a worthy goal.

As the students are still in exams, tomorrow I am going to start teaching the teachers. I explained that it will take a few hours each day for multiple days to learn Basic Etoys. I also have faith that the teachers will learn rather quickly, as it's only five of them and they'll be able to gather around my computer and pick up things pretty fast. Etoys 4 has been translated into even Portuguese than Etoys 3, and the teachers are overwhelmingly grateful to see that change. I also passed around a few materials I printed for them, including the ten Etoys lessons that I translated into Portuguese (as well as a fresh copy of the Troubleshooting Guide); an XO manual which is essentially a translation of the ominous (and entirely in English) Help activity on Sugar, translated by a noble and secret source; and a guide to Etoys created by the Squeakland group and used in Brazil.

There are no words to describe how happy the teachers were to see lesson material in Portuguese. All they could say over and over was, "Oh, this is so much better. Oh, this is so much better!" I know they've been dodging the hurdles of English throughout the entire school year and I know they will be grateful to get a little break in their own language.

They also seem excited to learn how to use Etoys, which has been a sort of dark corner for them, especially since Etoys 3 was not as Portuguese-friendly as Etoys 4 (like for example, the little bubbles that pop up to tell you what each button means are now in Portuguese and not English, thank God!). I showed them storybooks that students in Haiti made and the teachers definitely seemed interested in the idea of their students making similar ones. I also told them that we're going to head to a few bigwigs- UNICEF, the UN, the Ministry of Education, even Voice of America and a few banks here in São Tomé- looking for donations to see if we can get enough computers for the whole school. They nodded their heads enthusiastically, especially Miguel, when I explained that I'd like to eventually get rid of our Saturday classes over the school year and just start using the computers in the classroom. That is my dream. Dona Roberta at STeP UP has been helping me re-work my funding proposal so that we can go together to these organizations and make our requests. We also thought it'd be a good idea to have a sort of "open house" for potential funders to come and watch a class in action, to see how it's going so well, and to then attend a Q&A session afterward.

A meeting also needs to be held with parents of our students. Unfortunately, even though students have been told that they need to turn their computers in at the end of the year, they have been slow to believe it. They have been using the computers all year, anyway- it's not easy for them to think that they will actually give them back after all this time! Because of that, we've had a couple of computer brutalities- a torn off "s" key, a ripped off antenna. The teachers want to have another meeting with the students to talk about computer care, to tell the parents that the students have to return the computers at the end of the year and to build a better system so that students really do take care of their computers throughout their "loan". I suggested the idea of building a sort of computer library like our Waveplace mentors are doing in Petite Riviere des Nippes, in Haiti. That can allow students to continue the learning even after they leave São João. The applied technology school that STeP UP is hoping to build would also be a solution to this, as students would be able to continue learning with computers after their time in the XO laptop program.

I asked the teachers how energy was at the school. They said it is better now than it was when I was here last, but it's still not perfect. I brought up Mike Dawson (OLPC Afghanistan)'s suggestion of getting a car battery to hook the wireless router to, so that students can at least use the internet even when there isn't electricity. Then the battery can be plugged into the wall and recharge when there is electricity so that it can be used later. Their response was much like mine when I learned about that idea- GENIUS! We're going to look into it right away.

I also asked teachers about payment and if they were getting paid okay by the Ministry of Education for their extraordinary hours. They sort of grew quiet and hung their heads. Apparently they have been submitting time sheets to São João's director, with their signatures and all. At first the director passed them along to the Ministry so that they would be paid, but lately he hasn't been doing it so the teachers have not been getting the payment they earned. We're not sure why this is the case and the teachers asked me to talk to the director so I'll do this in the next couple of days. We wonder what could possibly make this man not want to pay the teachers- perhaps he's just being lazy and will get around to it. Perhaps he's slightly, well, jealous that they're getting extra pay (since they're putting in extra work) and he isn't. Whatever the reason, I'm going to find out and hopefully fix it.

It seems the teachers are pretty stable on their own but definitely are benefitting from me being back and checking in on things. I wish I could replicate this model in every country in the world. So far I think it is working extremely well and I am so impressed with the teachers' dedication and interest.

We'll see how Basic Etoys lesson 1 (and hopefully 2) go tomorrow!

After class just had the most wonderful day in São Tomé. A little rusty on the motorcycle but-- it's like riding a bike (but then again, it is a bike!) and I'm feeling quite comfortable with it. Polly (another STeP UP volunteer) and I went into town after lunch with Ned, bought some jack fruit (jaca, em Português) and just hung out by the ocean and watched the horizon. We saw that the cathedral was open and decided to be tourists and check it out. As we approached the doorway, we heard voices. I thought maybe there was a ceremony going on. We entered and saw all the pews pushed into the two side chapels. Then, in the central nave, was a group of guys PLAYING SOCCER INSIDE THE CATHEDRAL!!! I had never seen anything like it in all my life. But it made sense- it was cool in there, there was lots of space, it wasn't being used anyway...why not? Hilarious though. Only wish I could have taken a picture.

Then we met up with my friend Kilson for beers as the sun began to set. Tomorrow we're going to a restaurant that is apparently very popular in São Tomé but I have yet to go there. And on Wednesday, Ned is throwing us a little welcome/goodbye party (welcome for me, goodbye for Polly). I'm already falling in love with São Tomé all over again.

Day Two and Feeling Good

2010-06-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

The five USB flash drives that I purchased for my teachers are stuck somewhere in Boston or Lisbon in my checked baggage, among other small things like that for class. I say to myself over and over, “At least it wasn't the computers that were lost. At least it wasn't the computers.”

Today I scrounged around in all my bags and ended up finding a perfect total of five used but still functioning emergency flash drives that I had hidden in various bags in case of emergency during our time in Haiti. Thanking my lucky stars right now as I reformat them and put on the materials that were on the other prepared drives.

Had a great talk with Ned over lunch today. STEP UP is hoping to build an applied technologies shool where students can go to learn how to fix computers, create solar energy and other things that can help them get a leg up in a developing country. This school could have an incredible symbiotic relationship with the laptop program at São João. Students that go on to this applied technologies school could learn how to better fix the XO laptop and build up quite a little market in computer repair. Students who participate in São João's program who may not have otherwise had an interest in school or technology may now want to attend a school such as the one STEP UP wants to create. There are just a wealth of good things to talk about if this pulls through.

It's Sunday so between the laptop over-thinking I have also been laying on Ned's dock, soaking in the sunshine, then sitting on his porch and watching the waves. It's been a quiet day but a good one. By tomorrow morning I will be fully prepared to visit the São João school, see the teachers and get ready for a great week of planning, organizing and learning. This works out quite well, since tomorrow is Monday and there's no time to lose! Also hoping to talk to Roberta at STEP UP about speaking with UNICEF, the UN, USAID, etc. Will probably send her a copy of my funding proposal to see what she thinks.

Until tomorrow-

Made it, Finally!

2010-06-26T13:31:00.000-07:00

Well, a lost bag, a mix-up at the check-in desk in Lisbon and a canceled flight later, I have finally made it to São Tomé!

TAP USA and TAP Portugal had trouble communicating with each other, and the message about my laptops had somehow not traveled from the former to the latter. I had smartly (or perhaps luckily) decided to check in a whopping four hours ahead of time, and well worth it- it took nearly two hours of Skype calls from my computer to TAP USA, a really frustratingly busy supervisor at the check-in desk to Portugal and a series of frantic emails to finally get my computers on the plane.

Of course when midnight (departure time) rolls around, the flight is cancelled due to technical difficulties!!

So now I have a lost bag, a tired ego from fighting with the TAP Portugal officials, and a 24 hour flight delay. Things turn out for the best though- I'm put up in a beautiful five-star hotel in Lisbon, I make a few friends with some Portuguese political campaigners and therefore have dinner buddies, and actually spend a really nice day being a tourist in Lisbon (and showering, arguably the best part).

When I finally arrived in São Tomé, the adventure was not quite over. Waiting at the baggage claim for nearly two hours, my São Tomean friend Kilson came up from behind and surprised me. It was great to see him (and have an extra pair of hands). He's also a smooth talker, which was exactly what I needed as I approached customs.

The uniformed men were kind but firm. They asked me what was in the boxes. I told them I had educational materials for the São João School.

"What kind of educational materials?" They asked.

I took a deep breath. Kilson began to explain, having actually taught a class with me last fall. "They're small computers made for children."

"Yes," I jumped in. "They're used so they have very little value, but they are specially made for children and donated by Americans to be used at the São João School."

"Oh, so they're like the Magalhães?" One of the officer asks, referring to the XO laptop's Portuguese cousin, as we take a computer out and show him.

"Yes!" Kilson and I exclaim in excitement.

"Well, in that case," the officer continued, "they stay here."

Oops. Wrong answer, maybe. But that's ok- I had a backup- a letter from the Embassy of the USA with the official embassy seal, as well as various other letters from donors and other people involved in the program. I showed him the letter and repeated again. The computers are already used, they're not worth much, they're donated to the kids at São João, it's a program that is supported by the embassy, etc. etc. The officers tell me to leave the computers then and the embassy can come and pick them up.

I reminded them that the nearest American embassy was in Gabon, on the mainland. He took the letter and went to his supervisor.

When his supervisor came over we explained again. Then Kilson said the magic word. "They're gifts," he told the supervisor. "We already have a program going and now we're just expanding it. The school isn't paying anything. They're gifts."

The supervisor puts the computer back on our carriage and says nothing. "Let's get out of here," Kilson says urgently, "fast". We break for the door, knowing there's only a short amount of time before maybe the supervisor changes his mind.

Dany, Ned's (the director of STEP UP) driver and my friend, is outside the airport waiting for us. Miguel, the head computer teacher, is there as well. Both of them were there yesterday morning too, before they learned that the flight had been cancelled. It's a sigh of relief when we finally get back to Ned's house, a breeze coming right off his dock onto his porch and windows.

We open up the boxes of computers and they have made it without a scratch.

Too...tired...

2010-06-24T03:50:00.000-07:00

Lisbon. I know this airport too well.

Didn't really sleep on the plane, due to my inability to put my seat back because of the size of the woman sitting behind me. SATA also successfully lost one of my bags- basically the one that had all the clothes, presents and toiletries in it! So I have a bunch of bags filled with computers to keep me going...but I will get there dirty as all hell and not having slept in three days.

But then again, this is where all the really great stories come from!

I'm also very lucky, as my cousin, Marina, works in the lost and found in Lisbon, so she's been helping me look for my luggage. Imagine her surprise when she saw me- I didn't even tell her I was coming because I knew I was just passing through and felt bad that I wasn't coming for a visit! She's always pretty collected though, so after her initial shock it was back to normal.

Can hardly keep my eyes open, and still have a solid 9-10 hours before checking in. Trying to find a cute little spot where I can plug my computer in and watch movies all day (thanks Polly for the genius suggestion).

See you in São Tomé, hopefully with all my [now four] bags in tow!

20 minutes to showtime

2010-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's 5:40pm and I'm leaving my dad's condo in Newburyport, MA for the bus station so I can catch the 6:30pm bus to Logan. When I get there, Nuno Puím himself, the director of SATA (USA branch) will be waiting for me so that we can get those computers on the plane.

I'm not worried about the travel from Boston to Portugal; that will be easy. I am a little bit worried about going from Portugal to São Tomé, because I have a lot more luggage than I was expecting. One of my suitcases heavily surpasses the 50lb weight limit that there will be in Portugal. I'm not sure how to avoid it at this point. SATA needs me to have my computers in boxes, and TAP needs me to have my computers not in boxes but in suitcases. So...I put computers in boxes and those boxes in my suitcases and when I get to Portugal there will be a *LOT* of rearranging (including stuffing computers into my carry-on laptop case and my purse and the like to reduce the weight of Mondo Orange Suitcase).

So tomorrow morning, I'll be the girl in Lisbon airport hanging out in the women's restroom with open suitcases all over the place, shifting computers from one bag to the next, and trying to make about 30lbs disappear into thin air. I've made it this far; I refuse to believe I can't do it. Who cares if science is against me?

Will report more tomorrow morning. It's going to be a wild ride- that we cannot doubt!

See you on the other side of the Atlantic-
B

Two Days!

2010-06-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

Trying to "hot wire" a few of these dead firmware XO laptops. Two days until São Tomé and things are really pulling together. Don't have the basic Etoys learning puzzles that I was hoping I would get from Waveplace. Thinking it might be necessary to live without them, or to do something else this summer with less of a focus on Etoys. Hmmm....

Anyway, if you know anyone who would like to donate to the cause, we are still wholeheartedly accepting donations (now and for the years to come) so please contribute if you can.

Thanks much!
Beth

9 Days!

2010-06-14T06:31:00.001-07:00

Can't believe we're almost in São Tomé! Just heard about some people doing the exact same thing as I am but in Kenya (100 laptops, looking for 500 more). Hoping for a great networking and VISITING opportunity. Would love to see what they're up to!

IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-09T08:33:00.001-07:00

Beth and 25ish laptops are going to São Tomé!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU TAP, SATA AND EMBASSY OF SÃO TOMÉ FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP!!!

Checking off the shopping list

2010-06-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

As of today we have exactly two weeks to showdown.

Some issues with the Ambassador of São Tomé to the USA (whose name I will not mention) who told me he'd write me a letter that I can present at customs to prove that the laptops are donations, but now has gone back on his word. Luckily I have some backups- three letters written from various people involved in the "laptop receiving" process. I'm also hoping that one of my friends can come to the airport when I arrive and explain to the customs officials what I'm doing.

Miguel recently emailed me telling me that a whole bunch of the students' chargers were not working. Luckily, we have a lot of them in the STeP UP office and he was able to go there and pick them up. Woohoo!

The teachers have taken the computers back from the students temporarily while they go through final exams and before the computer classes start. Not sure how I feel but I'm happy that the teachers are taking an initiative that they feel responsible for.

Other things on the "to do" list:

Find fundraising options for my project, potentially involving other people who will help to fundraise for us
Print out a bunch of learning materials I have assembled in Portuguese over the past few months so that teachers can have them
Sweet-talk Staples or some other place to print out 120 color certificates for our students in São Tomé when they finish the summer program
Finish translating the Etoys lessons in Portuguese, get Etoys games and translate them too so that we can have some Etoys fun this summer
Re-write my funding proposal and print it, to give to UNICEF and the Ministry of Education
Make said appointments with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education
Find E-books for children in Portuguese, if possible
Figure out how to get my luggage onto my TAP flight in Lisbon without paying enormous fees (got it waived in Boston but Portugal will be a whole other puzzle)
Potentially download Quicktime Pro (or something else that works in .ogg format) so that the kids can make their own movies that can go onto their XOs
Get some last-minute funds
Look into hiring someone full-time in STP who can take care of things while I'm gone. A mentor of sorts??
Stress like crazy
Be super excited to head back to São Tomé!

If you can help with any of these things, please do let me know.

Customs, shipping, fees, oh my!

2010-05-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Just got a very generous donation of 15 XOs for our São Tomé program. Now we'll be bringing down about 23 XOs for our students to use in São Tomé. But how to avoid high heavy baggage fees and customs??? I have no idea.

Does anyone have advice as to how to get waived in paying baggage fees or customs for a "charity" program such as this, or in seeing how something like DHL would be able to ship for free?

Any help would be so very much appreciated.

STEP UP...Parkville?

2010-05-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Working with the Parkville Senior Center to potentially put on a penpal partnership between students at São João and Portuguese-speaking seniors here in Hartford, CT (where there is a strong Portuguese and Brazilian community).

Will keep you all posted with more news as it comes along.

Linking senior citizens with sixth graders...oceans away. That's what we do at STEP UP OLPC!

Looking for used laptops (not XOs)

2010-05-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

The teachers at the São João School are hoping for some used laptops (not XOs) that they can use to help train students. Overall, I'm looking for four to five of these computers. If you have one that you are willing to donate, please please get in touch with me!

Thanks all so much! The tickets to head back to São Tomé are set for June 23-July 23. Very excited to head over!

Beth

Waveplace/OLPC Realness Summit

2010-05-01T06:20:00.001-07:00

I'm presenting so come check it out!!

---

Waveplace is pleased to announce the OLPC REALNESS SUMMIT.

No hype, no bashing, no wireless, no room service. Just straight talk about what works, what doesn't, and why we do what we do.

WHERE: Maho Bay Camps on the island of St John, US Virgin Islands (steps from the beach)

WHEN: May 28, 29, 30, 31

HOW MUCH: $300 for four nights, including lodging

Twelve invited talks and discussions, three a day, from five continents and the Caribbean:

* WAVEPLACE: Tim Falconer

* OLPC: Adam Holt

* SUGAR LABS: Bernie Innocenti

* ASIA: Mike Dawson from the OLPC Afghanistan

* SOUTH AMERICA: Marta Voelcker from Brazil and Carlos Rabassa from Plan Ceibal, Uruguay

* AFRICA: Beth Santos from the Step Up OLPC (São Tomé and Príncipe)

* EUROPE: Christoph Derndorfer from OLPC Austria

* CARIBBEAN: Lunise Cerin from Haiti, formerly of USAID and Save the Children, and John Engle of Haiti Partners

* NORTH AMERICA: Christine Murakami from Columbus School for Girls, Ohio

All of this will be happening at the same time as our St John mentor workshop and pilots, which take place over ten days (May 24 to June 2). We'll be training 40 new mentors, many for Haiti, and working with 60 elementary children from the islands three schools. So all summit attendees will get to see XOs in action, with mentors and children working together. You can also sign up to take the full ten day workshop, which would make you eligible to travel for Waveplace to one of our upcoming pilots.

We're very excited about this event! I hope many who love XOs from around the world can attend so we can compare stories and solutions.

Find out more and register at http://realness.org.

Please help spread the word by forwarding this announcement to people, groups, and mailing lists you know.

XO LAPTOP PILOT GOING GREAT! � HaitiPartners.org

2010-04-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

XO LAPTOP PILOT GOING GREAT! � HaitiPartners.org

Summer Program Here We Come!

2010-04-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Looks like our summer program is potentially on, starting 28 June and ending 23 July. However, might need money for flights- about $2,000- plus extra money for program organizing.

Please keep donating to STeP UP OLPC so that you can help us with costs and supplies! See previous posts for things that we need- a couple of USB drives, notebooks and pencils, MONEY....

Beth

Check out our Feb 28th article in the Union Leader!

2010-04-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Union Leader, The/New Hampshire Sunday News (Manchester, NH)

New Hampshire Sunday News (Manchester, NH)

February 28, 2010
Tiny country, big project

Page: 06

Location(s):
NH

Estimated printed pages: 3

Article Text:
Staff report

Beth Santos has big dreams of making a difference in a very small place.

The place is the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Principe, a little known, two-island nation off the coast of West Africa that was a popular layover spot for 17th-century slave ships heading to the New World.

Santos' dream is to raise money to buy 500 additional laptop computers so she can return to the former Portuguese colony this summer with enough computers for each of the approximate 600 sixth-grade students at São João Secondary School in São Tomé, the capital of the island nation that is about one-third the size of Rhode Island.
It's a daunting challenge, but the former Durham resident and 2008 Wellesley College graduate is up for it.

"It's getting people (in São Tomé and Principe) interested in a new way of thinking and getting them excited about education. ... It's also giving them an interest in helping their country ... and develop problem-solving techniques" that will help them tackle issues of poverty, low literacy and developing a sustainable economy, the 23-year-old explained in a recent telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where she now lives.

"They are trying to figure out how to stand on their own two feet. It's going to take some time. But the kids we have right now ... are the people who are going to be improving the country. We need to start with them," the 2004 Oyster River High School graduate said.

Santos spent two months in São Tomé last fall as a volunteer with STeP UP, a non-governmental organization formally known as São Tomé and Principe Union for Promotion.
Her job was to train teachers and students to use the 100 computers that had been donated to the school last summer by the non-profit group One Laptop Per Child. When Santos arrived at the school in October, the so-called "XO laptops" were sitting in a closet unused.

She took them out, gave them to students and encouraged them to take them home. She began teaching computer classes on Saturday mornings that became so popular, students who didn't have a computer would say they did just to get in, she said.

"Everybody wanted to be in this program," Santos explained.

Santos, who speaks Portuguese, also translated the computer's user manual from English into Portuguese so teachers could use it after she left.

The problem is there were only 100 donated computers for a sixth-grade class of 612 students, Santos said. Without enough computers for each student, teachers were limited in what they could teach, she said.

Santos has been trying to raise money to buy the extra 500 laptops since she returned home to Washington in December.

The computers cost about $235 each. (Visit http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com for information on how to donate to this project.)

Santos said computer literacy could make a huge difference in the economic development of São Tomé and Principe, a poor nation whose inhabitants are mostly descendants of slaves, and whose economy relies heavily on cocoa, coffee and fish.

Copyright, 2010, Union Leader Corp.
Record Number: mandc5-5tcfeh4mwwo94hcndke

Gravana Program

2010-04-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Thinking about a gravana program to get kids using their laptops for a month in June/July.

Here's what we need to budget:

Teacher payment
Payment of someone to prepare breakfast for kids in the morning (would be a nice addition)
Spare computer parts and tools
Notebooks, pens for all students
Used netbooks for teachers?? USB drives
Use of the school building
Squeakland educational materials

Guessing this will probably end up being around $4,000 total.

Let's see if we can make it there so we can run a great summer program for the kids!

Sooner than later?

2010-04-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

-
In Haiti right now- beautiful country. Thinking of heading to STP sooner rather than later.

I was originally planning on going over in September but now I thought it might be nice to do something in June. It can be the end of the school year and we could also have a summer program going where I teach the kids Squeak/Etoys (thanks to potential support from Squeakland).

This is what we'd do:

-2-3 week course on Etoys
-Check-in with teachers, see how everything is going
-Introduce Ebooks and other teaching materials
-Give a couple of classes on how to fix computers (bring tools)
-Help reflash computers for next year??
-Bring any more computers that I have acquired over there

It'd be a lot and I'd maybe do it all over a month. But I think it could be really great for us.

I'd love to see some funding come in so that we can purchase enough computers for the rest of the grade, but I'm not confident that we can get that happening by June. We can, however, build on what we have. I am thinking of using money that we've raised to pay teachers over this month and hold classes. I'm scared to use the money we've raised because I know people wanted to use that money to buy computers, but simply put, we don't have enough money to purchase 100 computers, which is the purchasing minimum. So maybe using that money toward keeping the program going over the summer is better....

Not sure. Thoughts would be good. Not sure if the Union Leader article was ever published. Should look into that!

Another Great Donation!!

2010-03-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just received another very generous donation!! We're doing great-- keep those funds coming!!

A Message from Kadma

2010-03-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Professor Elizabeth,

I was very happy with what you sent me.
This time I'm only going to use my computer at home and at school.
I don't have anything I can give you, but I do send you a kiss.
Thank you.
Kádma.

Let's help more kids like Kádma. Please donate to STEP UP OLPC today!!

Kadema and Bruno Get Computers!!

2010-03-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

Kadema and Bruno receive their computers thanks to a few fabulous donors, our delivery girl, Polly, and a whole lot of "umph"!! This is Bruno's first computer. He just got put into the program for the second semester because of our new donation.

Thanks to everyone for your donations. Please keep them coming so that we can get more computers for students like Bruno and Kadema.

Beth

Paid!!!

2010-03-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

The teachers have just finally started to get paid by the Ministry of Education for their work!!

CELEBRATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update from Miguel

2010-03-09T05:07:00.000-08:00

Polly, an American volunteer doing some work with STeP UP, has just arrived to São Tomé and Kadema has now just received her computer!!!! YAAAAAY!!! We did it!!!

On a less bright note, apparently one of the computers has an irresolvable problem and our friend, Elves, who has agreed to fix them is being a flake and not showing up when the teachers call him and ask for his help. It's frustrating the teachers and they're not sure what to do. I wonder if Elves is paid and if paying him will help, or if I should look for someone else, or what.

On that note, there are so many unemployed people in São Tomé that you could easily pay someone for their work, and pay them well, without adding too much to a grant application. Hmm.

Anyone have advice on the subject?

The Most Fun Thing That Exists

2010-03-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

Was talking to Mirian today, one of the teachers, on MSN Messenger.

I asked her how the classes were going over there and she said they were going well. The students get more and more excited everyday. Then I jokingly asked her if the teachers were sick of class yet.

This is what she said:

"Not yet. I think it's a bit difficult to get sick of these classes. Working with a computer is the most fun thing that exists."

That put a smile to my face and I hope it does to yours, too.

Interesting article in OLPC News today

2010-03-01T09:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.olpcnews.com/people/olpcorps/was_olpcorps_2009_an_olpc_fail.html

Was OLPCorps 2009 an OLPC Failure?

When Beth Santos presented at OLPC Learning Club DC about her OLPC San Tome experience, her description of the OLPCorps deployment had me asking one very intense question:

Beth Santos: OLPCorps savior

Was OLPCorps San Tome a failure?

When Beth first went to San Tome to volunteer with Step Up, she didn't expect to work with XO laptops. She just wanted to help the São João school. On arrival, she found XO laptops stored in a closet, unused since the OLPCorps volunteers left.

This should not come as a surprise. We predicted thatabandoned XO laptops would be one legacy of OLPCorps. Technology adoption, in any culture, requires enthusiastic supporters with a long-term commitment to change. By parachuting in volunteers for a few weeks one summer, OLPC was setting up OLPCorps to have a temporary impact at best.

Beth's surprising opinion

After Beth finished her talk, I asked her if she thought the OLPCorps program was a failure, especially since she found few XO skills or OLPC knowledge in the community when she arrived. She surprised me by saying OLPCoprs in San Tome was not a failure because they did the groundwork that made her experience possible.

OLPCorps found the local organizations, like Step Up, schools, and people that would be excited about an XO laptop deployment. They also did the initial hardware setup and XO familiarization that allowed the school to accept the XO laptops in the classroom.

But OLPCorps San Tome was not there long enough to get the XO laptops into the classroom during the school day. It took a follow up visit by Beth to get actual educator adoption and student ownership. It took at least six months of daily in-person interaction to effect change at Sao Joao

are

XO deployment critical success factor

Kim Toufectis asked Beth a great follow on question: what skill or knowledge did she bring to San Tome that was a critical success factor? While Beth didn't think she had any unique advantage for XO deployment success, I believe she had one that's the most needed in any XO deployment: determination.

She had the will and the drive to make things happen. She wasn't going to let 100 XO laptops languish in a closet even if she didn't have a clue about OLPC or one-to-one pedagogy. She's a go-getter and OLPC San Tome was lucky to have her.

She also proves that if OLPCorps is to be a success, it needs to invest in communities with the right volunteer for the long-term. It needs more Beth Santos to stay on site longer.

USB Ethernet Adapters on sale now!

2010-02-22T08:40:00.000-08:00

Now actively selling the USB Ethernet adapters that I got from OLPC.

See the Craigslist ad here. Email me for more info or to buy one. Also consider donating more money than the $25 since it all goes to a great cause!

OLPC Learning Club / The Program is Great / Monies

2010-02-22T08:03:00.000-08:00

So much news this beautiful Monday morning!

OLPC Learning Club

Hit up the OLPC Learning Club in DC this weekend. It was an amazing experience meeting so many passionate and interested people. Media master Luke even gave me tips on how I can fix some of the broken computers in São Tomé, and where to buy replacement parts for things like Kadema's screen so that those computer can be used again. I also know how to fix the key on some of the computers. Hurray!!

It looks like when I get back to São Tomé, I'll be doing a few things, including:

Bringing more computers
Conducting a computer repairs class with teachers (and perhaps some of the students too??)
Getting kids in the old program to make a video together on how to use the XO for future sixth grade classes

I'm very excited to get these things going, as it will definitely make the program more sustainable in the long run.

All in all, the meeting in DC was great and I'm very excited to be constantly surrounded by so many truly inspirational people. On a more personal note, Wayan at OLPC News has piqued my interest in a subject called Information Communication, particularly in the area of international development. There's a talk at American University tomorrow that I'm very excited to hit up.

The Program is Going Great!

Got another check-in email from Miguel today. Last week I had asked him to talk to the teachers about how the program is going and to evaluate everything for me. The last thing I want to do is be this Western-educated white woman with no knowledge of how things are in São Tomé, waltzing in and trying to convince these people that computers are the way to go. The point of the XO is for people to develop their own learning in a way that lets them cater the experience to their own culture. So I wanted to make sure that was working.

Miguel said he read my email word-for-word in front of all the teachers. He asked them how things were moving for them. The vote was unanimous- the program is going great and the teachers strongly believe that this is exactly what São Tomé needed as a way to improve the education process that they have going there. The teachers also said that they themselves are very much enjoying the program, too.

In terms of ways to improve what we have going, Miguel suggests we get in touch with the São Tomean government as we look for support for the program. I agree with this, and think a few meetings with the government will be very much in order when I come back, so we can clear a few things up.

Miguel also says that the teachers still have not yet been paid by the Ministry of Education, though the director of the school insists that he filed the necessary documentation and it's only a matter of time until they get paid. Oh how I hope that this is true and that there isn't corruption happening there. Otherwise, I will pay those teachers myself, goddammit...or maybe, very cautiously, use donor money (with appropriate permission)...as the program can't go on without the teachers being paid. The only huge issue with this is that of the big S word, sustainability.

I am so happy to know that the program is going well.

Monies

The famous Luke told me at the OLPC Learning Club that the large supply of USB 2.0 Ethernet adapters I have in my room can be sold for $20-$25 a pop as a fundraiser to support our program. I'm going to try selling one on EBAY and one on Craigslist and see what happens if I explain the program and try to get people to donate more than the $20-25 requested. I'd love to be able to make a small fortune with them in order to put it toward our goal. In fact, three people at the Learning Club bought Ethernet adapters...so I've already made about $60 thanks to them!!

Ned at STeP UP has been my saving grace- his financial people in DC have made it so that any donations going to STeP UP with "OLPC" in the memo will be stowed and recorded separately. This is great for us, as it's difficult for me to keep track of the money myself. Now whenever I get a donation in my name I can just cut STeP UP a check and the system works for me.

That's everything for now. Looking at a couple of potential private donors. Met a great new friend yesterday that works in the Reagan building here in DC. He's like ten steps above me in terms of the "giving money" process...but he gave me some really good insight about how a small initiative like mine, part of a small organization in even a smaller country, can vouch for funding. Thanks Jonathan!

Hope all is well with everyone. Be sure to check out http://www.travelgogirl.com when you get a chance. It's a travel blog that I started, we have some amazing writers on it, and we're trying to boost our readership! And click some ads while you're at it. The more money I can make with this (so far I think we've made about seven cents on our advertising), the less I have to worry about making rent this month, the more I can focus on OLPC. So really, taking care of me is directly related to the education of about 500 sixth grade students in São Tomé (right?).

Peace to all.

We're on Facebook!

2010-02-18T09:13:00.000-08:00

Come be a Facebook friend to STEP UP OLPC!

Spreading the Word!!

2010-02-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

1. Check us out on the OLPC Blog!!
2. Check us out (soon) in the NH Union Leader!!
3. Check us out with the Prime Minister of São Tomé, whose audience we have next week as we try to take this program one step closer to him!

I thought we'd hit up the PM to see (1) if the STP government DOES have any money on hand to work this program (for sustainability purposes, it's not the best idea to have the USA constantly sending in funds) and (2) to see if they can work the shipment of these computers once we have them because that's going to be a really tricky issue. Really, just having the PM on our side at all is a great idea, so thanks to a freelance journalist I met who does work in STP and is going to be talking to the PM next week, we now have a great audience for the program!

Laptop #8!!

2010-02-12T14:50:00.001-08:00

Just got Laptop #8! Thanks so much to Marc from Kentucky!!!

?!?!?!?!?

2010-02-12T06:35:00.000-08:00

I'm going to say this very quietly in case it doesn't work out but...

...we might have some journalist interest in our project!!

Also, it seems like the teachers are a bit low on morale these days. I feel bad to make them constantly keep me updated with what's going on at the school-- I feel like it might take Miguel a while to type up the summaries. Any ideas as to how I can give him a little boost? Maybe a care package of sorts, payment, something...?

Money Money Money, and other things

2010-02-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

Grantseeking for Dummies

Heading to a Grantseeking Basics class at the Foundation Center's DC office this Friday. Hopefully it will get me out of this deer-stuck-in-headlights feeling and help me identify some potential donors for our program.

VOICES
Financial donations and laptop donations have all come to a lull. We're hoping to raise money at a small hip hop event in April or May called VOICES, or Voices Organizing for International Change, Empowerment and Support. They put on music and film events every month while raising money for non-profits around the African continent. I'd like to see if I can't get the Ambassador to come join us, as well as other members of the São Tomé community here in DC (small as it may be).

Ex-Pat Help
My friend Sosimo, who is São Tomean and works at Voice of America, is going to get together with me for lunch one of these days so we can brainstorm our options. I keep trying to work myself into the Lusophone community to see if there's money there, then suddenly get pushed out again. I'm hoping to get back in the game soon. Failure is not the falling down but the staying down, right?

Haiti Deployment

Despite a very selfish yet still slight jealousy that Haiti is getting all the used XOs, a fellow Wellesley alum recently contacted me about a Haiti deployment being developed with OLPC and Waveplace, a nonprofit in Boston. Sounds like a really great group that wants to do some amazing work for the people of Haiti. I myself have been learning French (one step closer to Creole, right?) and would love to go down and help with a deployment in the next year or two.

That's news for now!

$7 away...

2010-02-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Got seven bucks? Help buy our 8th computer for São João!!

Or make a bigger impression by talking to your company, local news source, or other organization and see if you can help with a donation of ten or more computers.

News for the day:

Right now we're looking for media attention. If you know of anyone interested in following our adventures, or if you want to write/blog/video about it on your own, please get in touch with me.

Might be doing an event in April at the Hillyer Art Space near Dupont Circle. Will keep you all posted on if it's happening!!

Got another email from Miguel. Things are going well and kids are still creating their email addresses. It looks like the classes are now being divided between kids that have email and kids that don't, so that the kids without email can create their own accounts. I'm not sure what the kids with email are doing. I would hope that they are working on a new project, but Miguel hasn't given me much detail.

The kids are continuing to write me emails and respond to everything I write. It is adorable. And also very tiring because I feel like I need to respond to each and every one!

That is news for today.

B-Sizzle, aka Timestopper, aka Maximum Beth

$20 away...

2010-02-04T21:11:00.001-08:00

Today we're $20 away from having enough funds to buy our 8th computer.

Help us cross the line today and make a donation!!

Press Release!!

2010-02-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Click here to download the press release. Would love your help sending it out to everywhere and everyone!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Contact: Beth Santos, beth@bethsantos.com, 603.661.1273, http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com

Middle School in São Tomé e Príncipe Begins Computer Program; Lacks Funds

A new computer literacy program headed by a young New Hampshire native is putting one of the earth's smallest nations on the World Wide Web.

On Saturday mornings, 100 students and five teachers at the São João secondary school, on the small West African island of São Tomé e Príncipe, cram themselves into a single classroom. Students sweat bullets in a room that often has no electricity, spending four hours typing on bright green energy-efficient laptop computers. The supplementary class is headed by 23 year-old teacher Beth Santos and São Tomean computer professor Miguel Afonso da Boa Esperança. After receiving 100 laptop computers through MIT's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, São João chose 100 sixth grade students to participate in a developmental milestone for the school and the country.

Through 100-computer deployments all over the world, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) aims to supply laptop computers to schools in disadvantaged countries. The computers are fully equipped with a camera and microphone, wifi access and a Linux-based operating system called Sugar. Yet the laptops come with higher expectations than just developing skills in word processing, photography and research science. It is the hope of OLPC that the computers will nurture students' sense of creativity and discovery, promoting an interest in education that will expand country-wide. The computers are highly personalized to reflect the progress of one individual student's advancing use, allowing students to take them home and share them regularly with family and friends.“These students are so excited to learn, it's amazing,” Santos says. “Kids regularly come to class that aren't even ours. They're blatantly lying to us in order to get a chance to participate.”

The program has made headlines across the island in both media and government sectors. It has also accrued interest in Portugal (of which São Tomé e Príncipe is a former colony) and OLPC's hometown, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where OLPC's own have lauded the São João school's success.

However, the school is desperately short on computers for its sixth grade class, as the initial donation of 100 computers is significantly less than the size of the current sixth grade, which is 612 students. For this reason, the computers cannot be utilized during class time, because they are not accessible to everyone. “We so desperately want to be able to use these computers the way they're supposed to be used- during all disciplines, every day of the week,” Santos says. “Right now the program is great but it's lacking a very fundamental element because there is just no funding.” Once the school acquires enough computers for its students, the computers will be redistributed to the next sixth grade class for as many years as possible.

Santos and Esperança both hope that, with enough computers to serve the sixth grade – a critical year before a transition to high school that only some students make – more students will be eager to learn, to become educated and to improve the circumstances of an impoverished country.

Back at home in Washington, D.C., Santos is working to bring more computers to the São João School. When she's not busy seeking corporate or foundational sponsorship, Santos coaches a high school crew team and is editor of Go Girl Magazine, a blog for independent women who travel. She also receives enthusiastic emails from her students on a regular basis – emails from children that, at the beginning of the school year, had never touched a computer in their lives. “Every time I get an email from one of them, I get excited all over again,” she says. “Hardly anyone at that school speaks a word of English. Now they're connecting to each other and to the world outside. They're realizing that there is so much more out there.”

For more information about the program or to make a donation, please visit http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com. To learn more about OLPC, visit http://www.laptop.org.

Press

2010-02-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

Here are some of our media mentions:

Background
University of Illinois Bloggers
(They made the program happen in the first place)

Print

See our February 28th article in the NH Union Leader

Links about Beth and the program

The São Tomé Blog cites the Santomean OLPC Project (01/25/10)

http://saotomeblog.com/education/olpc-project/

A Saigon-based OLPC Volunteer who came to my talk in Cambridge had some really great feedback about the program and my talk (12/31/09)
http://saigonolpc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/sao-tome/

The Presentation I gave, via the OLPC Wiki (12/30/09):
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Olpc-in-sao-joao--sao-tome.pdf

A really kind blog that gave great mention to our program in São Tomé and just what we're trying to do (12/27/09)
http://plakboek.livejournal.com/tag/olpc

Some internet talk about the program (12/27/09)
http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/pipermail/oz-teachers/2009-December/019965.html

A February meeting announcement at the Washington, DC OLPC Learning Club. I'll be heading there on February 20, 2010 to talk with volunteers based down here.
http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/february-young-olpc-entrepreneurs/

Film

Caroline Meeks of OLPC posted a few videos from my talk on December 30, 2009 at the OLPC offices in Cambridge, MA. Watch them here:

http://qik.com/carolinemeeks

Feliçitação

2010-01-31T15:46:00.000-08:00

Woke up Saturday morning to a handful of emails, all sent at about 5am our time. Looks like the students had class on Saturday!

This was my favorite email, received from one of the girls, Diana:

She says, "Dear Elizabeth. I'm writing you this message to thank you for everything that you did for us. Diana"

I would like to pass on the thanks to everyone who has been a part of this project, whether in STeP UP, São João, somewhere else on the island, OLPC, New Hampshire, California, Connecticut, Latvia, London, Afghanistan...all of the people around the world who have given me financial, technical, pedagogical, conversational and emotional support. Your compassion does not cease to work wonders.

Beth

Another One Bites The Dust

2010-01-31T15:38:00.000-08:00

Actually, nothing bites the dust besides the slowly diminishing number of laptops that we need to get for São João!

Thanks to Lisa's generous contribution, I have just been able to purchase another used XO laptop for the kids at São João, for about $45 less than the cost of the computer sold brand new!

Please keep your contributions rolling in. If your place of employment does a matching program or is interested in doing a corporate sponsorship program, please be in touch. At this point I am looking for any funding I can get. I also have a beautiful funding proposal and no one to send it to!

Thanks so much to Lisa and to everyone out there donating and taking steps to make São Tomé (and the world) a better place for its children.

Got Another One!!!

2010-01-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Look how happy I look with another beautiful XO laptop!!

Thanks so much Dick from San Jose, CA for your donation. It is so generous.

Let's keep the donations, the finances and the emotional support coming!!

Money??

2010-01-29T06:56:00.000-08:00

Finally finished with an inquiry letter and funding proposal...but not sure where to send them.

If you know of foundations or organizations that could give funding, please let me know. Also if you are willing to do a little bit of work yourself in sending out the proposal to the right people, you would really be lending a massive help. You can download the inquiry letter here and the funding proposal here.

Thank you!

Beth

PS No class last week due to a parent/teacher meeting. Hopefully will hear about how this week goes soon!

Another Donation!!

2010-01-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

The boxes are coming in...and I couldn't be more thankful.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Look, We're Famous!

2010-01-20T08:27:00.001-08:00

Read about my experiences meeting up with the OLPC team in Boston to talk about São João:

http://saigonolpc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/sao-tome/

Check out Adam Holt's meeting notes here, that he posted to the web in real time: http://meeting.olpcorps.net/olpc-meeting/olpc-meeting.log.20091230_1828.html

Also, view my PowerPoint presentation online!
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Olpc-in-sao-joao--sao-tome.pdf

Another Laptop Donation!

2010-01-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

It's when I see the big brown boxes sitting on my doorstep in Washington, DC that my faith in the world is renewed.

Have just received the third used laptop donation from another generous Give One Get One owner. This brings our current donation status to four computers!

I am almost finished with my grant proposal. With this I'm hoping to get donations in larger quantities (or the finances to purchase them). If you know of any organizations that might be interested in seeing a copy of the proposal, please let me know.

To past and future donors: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank You, G1G1!

2010-01-12T06:54:00.000-08:00

Though São João came in later and was never quite able to benefit from the Give One, Get One Program (where members of the public could purchase one computer and donate one at the same time), we are pulling in a small benefit now. Members of the public have been donating their previously owned computers to us.

The stories coming from these computers are beautiful. Some have simply been unused. Some were Christmas presents. And some were from deceased relatives that were deeply invested in the OLPC program and passed before it was able to take full force.

For these people we fight to learn!

Also thinking of developing some sort of "sponsorship" program so that people can donate a certain amount of money per month (think Children International or Save the Children) to finance the use of a computer. Then the student can email to them or blog with them and send pictures every once in a while. $23 per month could get a brand new computer into a child's hands in less than one year...and that's the same cost of Children International, no?

Update from Miguel: Class is going well (it started up again on January 9) and students are learning to create their own email addresses!

Meeting with OLPC, Program Movement, a New Year!

2010-01-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

Had a great meeting with some of the OLPC people in Boston about a week ago. They gave some fabulous feedback about the program and we're very excited to keep it moving.

From there, one of the meeting's attendees suggested I post requests for computers on the OLPC donation wiki. It has been a great success- at least three people have gotten back to me with computers they want to donate! I can't wait until I have them in my hands so that I can tell the kids!

Mirian, one of the teachers at São João, emailed me yesterday. The teachers are continuing the computer classes but have decided to switch up the students for the second semester. I think this is a fair decision as there just aren't enough computers for everyone anyway, so at least a little knowledge is better than nothing. I am proud of the teachers for discussing a potential decision together, reaching a conclusion and carrying it out. In the end, it is their program-- and what they do is their decision!

This is what I told them. My job now is to just give them as many resources as I can.

Please keep those donations coming.

One Small Step for OLPC-Kind

2009-12-29T04:18:00.000-08:00

Just won an ebay auction to get Kadema a computer- AND got it at a huge discount- $165!

Like I promised, the first computer is going to her. It's a small step...but we're getting somewhere.

1 down, 499 to go. Please keep donating and sending in your ideas and support. I am so grateful for everyone who has done so much already.

Beth

And back in the States

2009-12-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

Back in the States. On my last day in São Tomé, Voice of America came by to do a little special on our computer program. It should have broadcast yesterday over the radio waves though I never had a chance to listen in.

Although I'm back and taking a breather over the holidays, I'm still extremely energized to see what we can do to help these kids out. I'm thinking it might be impossible to gather 500 computers from one organization or company...that maybe asking five companies to each do a sort of "sponsorship" of 100 computers will be better.

Meeting with some OLPC people in Cambridge on the 30th. Hoping to share what I've got and get a little feedback then.

Paul will be in São Tomé soon. I hope his transition over there can be smooth and will keep posted how things go there. Also excited to hear from the teachers about how the program is going.

Peace and happy holidays to all.