Just recieved a photo of the first five Haitian mentors in our upcoming Haiti pilots. Meet Jean Antoine, Ericlese, Alin, Yves Antoine, and Michena-Edith from Petite Riviere des Nippes. Another 35 will soon join them....
impossible tasks Thu, 11-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Today's the first of daily morning posts I'll write during the Haiti pilots. Exactly eight weeks ago, on my birthday, I woke from a late night of worry and resolve, weighing the realities of an expanded Waveplace plan in Haiti. I dwelled on the logistical, financial, and personal risks, running through the whole thing in my mind. On the surface, for hours, my brain was certain that I simply couldn't do this. Underneath was another truth, unspoken but felt . . . how can I not do what I can? I woke on my birthday, struggled for an hour more,...
10! The laptops are flying. Fri, 12-Mar-2010 (teefal)
The laptops are on their way. Yesterday we got our tracking number from DHL, which has graciously agreed to ship our 200 XO laptops to Haiti for free. They’ll be in Port-Au-Prince early next week. The big question is whether they’ll clear customs before next Friday, and how much we’ll be charged by the Haitian government. Place your bets! We can now officially thank One Laptop Per Child for redonating these 200 laptops to our Waveplace effort from the laptops donated by G1G1 recipients after the earthquake. Their trust in our efforts is both humbling and much appreciated. Special thanks...
9! Hedging our bets. Sat, 13-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Anything that can go wrong, will. Or so say the Irish. In Haiti, I'd strengthen the statement and say, "Every part of your plan will have obstacles, so have backup plans for everything, and backups for your backups." As an example, the Graham & Parks kids didn't bring in their laptops yesterday, so I won't get to meet with them after all. As for the Haiti pilots, the biggest bad news we could get is injury, disease, or kidnapping. Bill, Beth, and I are aware of these ever present risks, though aside from watching where we walk, getting immunizations and...
8! Back in Pennsylvania. Sun, 14-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Five hour drive home yesterday through a lovely Nor'easter. Paula had to drive through sheets of rain and wind, while her scared-to-drive husband stared out the window and communed with the elements. I did manage to get about an hour worth of work done, mostly figuring out how to make Wordpress templates so I can switch from Movable Type for the Squeakland and Waveplace blogs. "The world will turn if you're ready or not." Now sitting on my little couch at home while the girls sleep upstairs. I'm always the first up, which gives me some quiet time. I'd say...
7! Rest. Mon, 15-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday my body decided I needed to catch up on rest. Fully intending to work on courseware, I instead slept two-thirds of the day and walked through the rest in a brainless daze. "Take a break, or the break takes you." The problem with barreling forth without regard to emotion is that you gotta pay the bill sometime. The neglected emotions rear themselves the moment you stop moving, like a leg that fell asleep then later woke up in pain. With ample sleep overnight, I drive to Starbucks this morning to get some blogging in. Taking my first sip, I...
6! Redoubling Tue, 16-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday, almost on cue, came the doubts. As regular as clockwork on any big project, there comes a day just before the end where I become convinced that I just cannot finish. Forward momentum carries me only so far. After weeks of unsustainable rhythm, there comes a time when motivation fails and fear creeps in around my resolve. Paula knows the look; she's been there many times herself with her concerts. "Not enough time to finish?" she asked. "There's enough time," I replied, "just not enough . . . nerve." Yesterday was tough. Struggling to do simple things. I went...
5! Courseware Wed, 17-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday I woke at 4am and worked till 10pm, more than making up for my lackluster Monday. Aside from a trip to LL Bean to get supplies, including a compact water purification pump, I tended to a variety of other concerns I've been neglecting in the eclipse of all things Haiti. With now four days of work left before the plane, I'm confident again, but still stressed. Yesterday's big task was courseware. I finished all ten "Basic Etoys" screencasts (video tutorials) and finished outlining through lesson 3. Making screencasts is an art in itself, which has everything to do with...
4! Setbacks. Thu, 18-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday I spent much of the day rendering the screencasts into the various formats we'll need: MP4, FLV, OGG. Rendering's the kind of thing you do in the background, but it requires monitoring, at least the way I was doing it. All done, and ready to upload, and I discover that a setting in Final Cut was wrong, which means I need to redo 6 of the 10 I'd finished. It's the kind of setback that can really kill momentum if you let it, but there's no time for a pity party here, so I fixed the problem last night...
3! Emotions Fri, 19-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday I woke late, intent to get more courseware done, hoping to get more text to Creoletrans, and had the hardest time getting momentum. As soon as I'd start rolling on the Etoys projects, an interruption would stop me, then again, and again. I call this stage of a creative project the "endgame," when deadlines are looming and total focus and momentum are required. A lot can get done during these sprints, but it takes its toll. As Paula later said, I was a "live wire" yesterday morning, though I did finally get into a rhythm after everyone left the...
2! Family Sat, 20-Mar-2010 (teefal)
This last week was Paula's spring break, her one time off from her grueling sabbatical Spring. The original plan was to take a vacation in our Pennsylvania home, time off to spend as a family and reconnect. The girls got the time off, though without much time from me. As I'm now heading to Haiti for 16 days, which is the longest time I've been away from Isabel, and since Paula is pretty worried about the whole thing, yesterday was about family time, or at least as much as possible given a trip two days away. We visited our friend...
1! Packing Sun, 21-Mar-2010 (teefal)
At noon yesterday we got the news . . . the 200 laptops haven't gotten through customs, which means we won't have them for Matènwa. Good thing about backup plans. I called Beth and Bill to tell them "pack your ten laptops." One potential snafu that had us worried for a bit came from something Chris said a few days ago. She flew Spirit Air and they told her she could only have one checked back because of "the economic embargo". A call to American put us at ease. My mom's old airline lets you take two. Before that I...
blastoff! Mon, 22-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Waking yesterday at 2:30am after five hours of sleep, I showered, kissed Paula, and dragged my five bags to the lobby, tram, and gate. Gotta love the 2 hour recommendation for international travel. I had more than an hour to spare, as usual. The coffee place hadn't opened yet, so I sat in a caffeineless trance for half an hour, looking at all the empty seats around me. On the plane to Miami, I talked with a man going to Columbia who has a textile business there. I showed him Etoys and talked about Waveplace. There's someone he'd like me...
Day 1) "It's centrally located." Tue, 23-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Woke yesterday at John's house to a breezy Haitian morning with roosters calling and forest noises all around. One of the medical team regaled with her tale of tarantula woe the night before. John's wife cooked another wonderful meal for us, then we left for Port-Au-Prince to change money and get last minute supplies. Apparently Haitian currency is a bit of a mess from a naming standpoint. There's the Haitian "goud", which is the official currency. There's about 39 gouds to one US dollar. We changed $300 worth at a grocery store. If all prices were in gouds, things would...
Day 2) First Mentor Class Wed, 24-Mar-2010 (teefal)
The first thing you gotta accept when you're doing something like this: confusion is acceptable. Between the language difficulties, cultural differences, shifting circumstances, and stuff you didn't think of, it's mostly mess, but this is fine. High acceptance, low expectation. The only way to fail is to convince yourself you need to teach everything, they need to learn everything, and that things should go according to plan. To me, plans are a kind of shorthand for things you do when you're not dealing with all the unexpected stuff. Plans are for when you have a moment to think. Plans are...
Day 3) First Children Class Fri, 26-Mar-2010 (teefal)
(from yesterday, no Internet until now) The second best part of this job is handing out the laptops to the children. Watching their eyes as they open them, turn them on, and first start using the trackpad and keyboard, I'm always grateful for the tireless hours that OLPC and the XO community have put into this magical machine for the good of the world. The best part of this job comes much later, when we start seeing a different look in the eyes of the children, that of confidence, mastery, and surprise at what they can do. This is the...
Video : Day 1 : Meeting in Matènwa Fri, 26-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Day 4) No Energy, No Bars Sat, 27-Mar-2010 (teefal)
(post from yesterday ... no internet till now) Power and wireless are problems. Much of yesterday was charge and wait, charge and wait. The solar panels on both buildings are getting an unusually high workout. As for wireless, I wrote my usual blog post in the morning, but was unable to transmit a few kilobytes of text all day, either through the school's wireless or my own USB modem. Luckily we had enough power for both classes, though we had to change between the treehouse and library outlets a few times. I'm thinking the portable solar panel idea was a...
Day 5) Customs, Cold, and Sleep Sat, 27-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Yesterday was market day, as it is on every Friday, when goods are brought from all over to the same market area that we walked to the previous day. In the last few days, I had developed a cold, likely caught from a cute little two-year old boy in Pennsylvania, so I opted out on another walk to market to instead relax and take a morning nap, hoping to recover from my cold. I woke and went to the treehouse to blog and access the situation. Power would be a problem again today and the wireless was intermittent. As the...
Day 6) Marathon Sun, 28-Mar-2010 (teefal)
This Haitian saying pretty much sums things up: "Beyond mountains there are mountains." Once you've overcome one obstacle, there's another to take its place, then another. We'd planned to have eleven full days in Matènwa, enough for the ten lessons with a break on Sunday (today). Once we arrived, we discovered that we'd need to lose a day with the kids, since the mentor classes were scheduled after the children's classes each day. The local teachers were in school with the kids, so couldn't do training in the morning as we usually do. The kids needed to have class directly...
Video: laptops clear customs Tue, 30-Mar-2010 (teefal)
John Engle in Port-au-Prince ushering our laptops out of customs!...
Day 7) Community Tue, 30-Mar-2010 (teefal)
Sunday was our day off, which really means it was our time to catch up on all the things we haven't had time to do, at least in the morning. I spent time capturing video from mini-dv tapes so Bill could edit. While doing that, I imported many photos and blogged. As we seem to only have Internet in the morning, I made use of that now magic state (connection!) to catch up on email and do some research. While working in the library, Robert was organizing his music behind me, playing five seconds of each song, choosing what to...
