New opportunities through better education…

I have been talking to the teacher every day, several times a day. It is great to be able to communicate with the teacher and to hear the details of what is happening at the school. It is a lot more efficient than what we were doing before.

The teacher told me today that there are 21 children at the school now. He was expecting 19 children, but two new families moved to the community in the last few weeks. He told me, "two families moved to the community looking for employment opportunities and for better education for their children." He also told me that families from other communities have talked to him about sending their children to the school, but their main limitation is that there is not public transportation to the community. I also think that there is a limit to the amount of children the school can accommodate and the teacher can work with.

He basically said that people see the project as a new opportunity for the children. He also added that people not only see it as a new opportunity and better future for their children, but also for themselves.

I can only be excited and pleased to hear about the level of attention and interests that the project has created after only few months of work. Thanks to the teacher, the children and families for the good work!!

We are flying today...

When I talked to the teacher on MSN he told me, "We were traveling by turtle, and we did not know... we are flying today". We have struggled with the connection to Internet since the day we started the project. We have had access to the Internet via modem, which was not enough to keep regular communication with the teacher and the children. The teacher was able to access his email and we chat on msn, but we were never able to have voice or video conversations. In December, the school had an ISDN line installed, but we had to deal with several issues before they could really use the line.

The school finally has its ISDN line working at a reasonable speed (128 Kbps). I have been able to communicate with the teacher and the children today. It is great to see their faces and be able to talk to them. They wanted to know when I am visiting again.

We are all very happy with this new Internet connection. They're happy being able to connect to the Internet and to access information, and to talk to me when I am not there. I am happy because I can have not regular communication with the teacher to know what he is doing and to be able to support his work as he becomes fluent with the technology. For now on, we will be flying!