Two days ago the Secretary of Education finished installing our batteries. It only took 8 months of faxes, endless calls, personal visits, and e-mails, and one very important visit from the Secretary of Education himself.

I’d like to think I had something to do with it, but truth is two very important things happened: the boss man showed up and the batteries arrived in country. And yes I did shake said boss man’s hand, kiss his cheek (awkwardly), and tell him our need for batteries. And I also called the guy he directed me to as they were pulling away (his mistake for giving me his business card).

No matter what, not matter how, we got ‘em. They’re locked up outside our lab, powering our computers. And now it’s time to get to work, train teachers, get computer classes actually in the lab, work with youth groups, and start up community courses again.

Yesterday I gave a presentation to the shiny pale faces of the new group o IT Trainees. They were typically eager and information hungry. One of them, Emma, will be coming to visit me today. They haven’t received their cell phones yet, so she either has to find her way to me or  I’ll have to go down and wait for her at the gas station for a few hours, Don’t worry, she has a map that I made for Peace Corps of how to get to my house.

Just to catch y’all up, I am currently doing English classes on Saturdays which is more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I’m also working with the local artisans on their website. I’ll be sure to post it when we untangle all of the hosting and domain renewal issues. We are working on a youth manual for a new national initiative that will be a service learning- IT youth group. For example the youth learn powerpoint and then do an educational presentation in the community. We are also working on a telenovela to accompany the sex-ed youth group, another national initiative.