Phase II Begins!

... so it's probably a good time to report on Phase I.

I arrived in Kampala three weeks ago today. A brief recap of where things were before I arrived: I'd hired my friends Joel & Davis to run a few classes on basic computer usage & basic internet usage in their Internet cafe, and hired my friend Charles to set up a rudimentary computer lab. Twenty students had been through the classes already, and Joel & Davis were in the middle of three weeks of teaching six more students.

Charles picked me up at the airport and took me right to the lab. The entrance to the lab is at the end of the walkway, and that's Charles standing in front of the lab. (Oh - it's not entirely obvious (to me, anyway), but in this blog, you can click on any photo and voila! a larger photo).



He'd secured the lab very well.



This is the lab interior. When Charles showed me the lab the first day, it hadn't been in use yet.



I'd decided to spend the first few weeks mostly observing. The last set of six students was still going through the training, and I wanted to see how they were being trained. We moved the training into the lab. Joel moved his evening Internet class into the lab, and we set up typing software so students could learn to type during the day. (Verdicts thus far: Mavis Beacon, C+; MiracleType: A-).



This photo was taken on a day when the lab was quite full.



The biggest problem we were having is that there are two separate groups of students at the lab: students & teachers at Royal High School, and the students who graduated from Royal in November. Their needs are different: the students/teachers at the school want to learn computing so they can teach better and learn better, but the graduated Royal students want jobs. It took me far too long to realize that the Royal students & teachers can only attend at night, while the graduated students can attend during the day.

So now we're moving into phase two. We've found 14 graduated students who are willing to participate in this program full time. We're going to start a four-month trial: we'll pay their expenses plus a bit more for their participation, get them certified at basic computer skills (certification means a lot in Uganda), teach them how to use the Internet for research, have them learn Moodle so they can develop courses on their own, and have them continue to work on their typing skills - we'll have speed & accuracy Contests in April, with decent prizes.)

That's the current idea, anyway. My plans have been adapting themselves to the local needs day-by-day, so this could go off in entirely unexpected directions. That's fine with me - I'd rather be responsive to what's needed than keep to a particular plan that's not necessary.

Starting tomorrow, we're going to spend the week building out the lab. We'll get ten more computers, making 16 total for now; partition the lab into two sections (a classroom and a study area); move the Big Giant Box out of the corner of the lab (see third photo above - the box contains three one-ton pieces of printing equipment); and a bunch of other things. The week after that, we'll start the classes in (somewhat) earnest.

So. Thus far, it's mostly been one small victory one after the other, though the (literally & metaphorically) truly heavy lifting hasn't started yet. I do have the sense of understanding the slogan "One Day at a Time" way better than I did before.