Slowly but Surely

Current Situation…
I’m sitting outside enjoying the weather testing these individual solar panels provided by Kliptown. They left us 2 panels to test out. Unfortunately, the manufacturer didn’t respond to our incessant emailing so the kids in our project have missed out on these pretty nifty, green power devices. If I can get a hold of them when I get back, I’d rather invest in something like these than have to continually worry about whether the petrol is making it to the generators.
6 days left. I still need to do my final surveys and interviews for my senior thesis but that’s in the works for tomorrow and Monday.

Katane…
Our most proactive teacher at Katane just told me that she’s designed a program whereby each grade level will learn the XOs on a specific day (grade 4—Monday, grade 5—Tuesday, etc.). Needless to say, I was extremely excited to know that the teacher was taking such a leadership role in incorporating the XOs into the classroom. Moreover, she and I sat down for a good hour working on Gmail and Wikipedia. We searched the 2008 Olympics, that led to Hong Kong, then our discussion went to One Laptop Per Child, and we eventually ended on Cambridge, MASS. She was pretty eager to see how the students could research using Wikipedia.
Just as important, I walked into Katane only to find Frans, our headmaster, wrestling with Gmail. He was pleased to see me, naturally.
The two of them should be receiving emails now, as we’re all coordinating this mini XO camp scheduled for September. Let’s hope this email thing works.

Mmaweshi…
School today was empty, since most of the students didn’t arrive home last night from Johannesburg until too late. So I had a good opportunity to sit with John and explain some of what’s happening. He’s also eager to have this XO camp in Johannesburg. He’s already suggested 4 students who should represent the school and has volunteered to go. He’s without a doubt the most proactive teacher of all schools, in my opinion. I believe Neo in Kliptown should get a bit of info through to him while he’s there.

Driehoek…
I’m still a bit worried about Driehoek for some reason. Maybe I just lack faith in the principal. I’m not used to someone just following orders. Frankly, it’s a bit disheartening. It’s almost as if he’s there only to please me and this project. It’s quite frustrating when the key ingredient to this project’s success is initiative. Time will tell though. Fortunately, Andrew had a chance to make this lock and chain. Let’s just hope it holds our generator until the school is built.

XO Camp…
I sent out some information to both Thulani and Neo about putting this together. I’m hoping the 2 initial projects can set a precedent whereby each subsequent deployment will send their kids to Johannesburg to learn more. This gives some practical application of email (pen pals) and will allow for the information to diffuse much quicker.