Libraries and Swimming Pools

Wow- I feel like I just lived a month in seven day's time.  Friday afternoon I held a computer repair and computer lab workshop for eight 11th graders who are in the Tech Squad.  We went over some computer lab basics then took apart the computers at the lab.  I even had them take their processors out, which they thought was pretty cool.

These guys were pretty nervous taking the processors out of their computers, but after everything was put back together, all the computers booted just fine.	Troxy laughs as I tell her not to trop the heat sink because all the heat will escape and make Namibia hot.
Eight 11th graders all tearing apart new computers- isn't it a great sight?	MT carefully tries to disconnect the power supply from the motherboard.

These eight learners will be going to Mariental next week to repair two computer labs and run workshops on digital photography and research for the learners at a high school.  They will also be assisting in running a workshop for the teachers, which should be a great deal of fun.

The Tech Squad is a program that budded up on it's own out of the learner's passions and enthusiasm for learning as much about computers as possible.  So far the Tech Squad has setup four computer labs, repaired several more and gone on a few field trips in town.  Next year I hope to get the squad involved in setting up more computer labs in schools by actually tendering for installation jobs from the ministry.  I'll write more on that project later.

After that I took some 9th graders down to the library to help setup for Library Open Day, an event that ended up flowing as smoothly and unorganized as any Namibian event.  The scavenger hunt they setup Friday night was never even used as we ran out of time.  I did have a good time playing with the 1st through 3rd graders and reading stories while they drew pictures.

The idea here was to hide clues in the library books that contained the title and author of another book.  Participants would learn to use the card catalog to find the books and the first person to collect all six clues would be the winner.  I wonder if it would have worked...
Gerard, senior librarian for the Khomas Region, opens the Library Open day event by leading everyone in a horribly off-tune rendition of the Namibian National Anthem.	There were several book readings during the event, this one from a non-fiction book about a Namibian who struggled through the independence.
Some of the little ones who enjoyed story hour as myself and a few of the librarians read books to them while they drew pictures of the stories.	One of the librarians reading a story.  Unlike in the rural areas, even the tiny first graders are fluent in English.

Last weekend up until today (Thursday) I was at Grieters Conference center just outside of Windhoek for the GTOT (Group Training of Trainers).  The GTOT is mainly for the Namibian trainers who will be the language and cultural facilitators for Group 26, arriving next month.

There were about 16 of us volunteers who were there mainly to interact with the trainers and get them used to us quirky Americans.  We all had a great time and got a lot accomplished, including eating very well and very much, swimming and otherwise relaxing.

Beth P, Megan T, Rute and Matt P enjoy the "wading pool"	Carl jumps in for a fizbee- a favorite game for PCV's at Gieters.  The pool was great and I enjoyed a dip every day after lunch
Caught!! Ha!! Jay, sleeping in a session.  Of all people...	The first night I took everyone up the hill to the "haunted house", an abandoned house Jay and I found during reconnect.  We drank wine and told stories in the dark for a couple of hours.  The stars were amazing.
Training at Grieters.  There were about 20 Namibian trainers along with 10 Peace Corps staff and16 PCV's.  We were a happy bunch.	One night the PCV's and trainers stayed up after dinner to discuss cultural issues that we felt were important to discuss with the new volunteers.

Today I have a radio interview with NBC (not really sure what it's about, although I was told it will be a ten-year-old will will be interviewing me) then I'm off to Gobabis to visit Chris P. and check out his computer lab.  I hope to see a few other computer labs in Gobabis before returning this weekend.

Well, that's all on the update front.  More next week.