29 May 2006

Again I am posting an older picture, just to have something to put on the website. This is shortly after getting my motorcycle and is taken outside the compound of a friend. As you can see, the kids are quite excited - I am not sure whether it is by me standing there or by the bike. But I am enjoying my mobility.

This past week I started working on the VSO computers. I was a little saddened by what I saw when I first saw the first three computers to arrive in Bolgatanga. They are computers that were donated by schools in the UK. You can probably guess that if primary schools can't use the computers, they can't be very good. They are older models. Many will not have CD drives. They are slow with little memory and small hard drives. The challenge initially might be to get them up and running and stable enough to start training.

I also went to a Teacher's College in Navrongo to work in their computer lab. Someone in Accra had donated 16 computers, brought them, plugged them in and left. Eight of the computers would not boot. They were all Pentium machines. None had CD drives. The best part about them was the monitors. The instructor told me that some of his classes are as large as 60+ students. Sharing 16 computers would make instructing difficult. Doing it with 8 means little hands-on time for anyone. I did suggest that he remove the non-working PCs from the desktops so that students wouldn't be frustrated or distracted by them. That will also free some space on the desktops for the 8 or so people gathered around each computer.

There is corn, beans, green pepper, tomato and groundnuts planted in the compound now. The groundnuts have already started to come up. I have never seen them grow so will be interested to see what they look like, both as a plant and as a crop. There won't be a lot of anything, but it will be nice to have something growing there. I meant to take some photos of the compound this past week but was not feeling so well and didn't take the time. It will be more interesting when the plants have started to grow anyway.

It is hard to believe that May is already over and I am almost here for four months. It doesn't seem that it has been that long. At the same time, it is hard to remember when I wasn't here too. The temperatures are much cooler and it is comfortable for sleeping at night now. I have finally put up my mosquito net. I have not had malaria, that I know of, but I have plenty of insect bites. The mosquito here are not so large and noisy as Canadian ones, so I don't even know when I have been bitten until I start itching.

Take care, all. Have a good week.

David