Itch Free and Smiling

(this is an apology picture for the last post..sorry!!)

Well Vik, That picture is a sore sight for sore eyes!!!! Hope that nasty rash clears up soon. Love Aunt Rosie

Interesting and Uncomfortable
I recently acquired a lovely new addition to my world, a temporary resident i hope. Below are the pictures from my mysterious jungle rash that creeps into all corners and is instigated by heat and humidity, meaning it was feeling like an grandson after Thanksgiving dinner at his Italian grandmothers house.

Leah: thanks enormously for the note. I had a wonderful Valentines and fortunately i got to spent it with someone, not just pillows and blankets. I would live to hear about the BIG paper, the DECIDER. I support your perspective, thumbs up or thumbs down, it all about the larger learning experience. I'm getting a dose of that as well observing and participating in a mentality some call fatalism, something that I'm beginning to think is reaching to many other peoples not just secluded islands and day to day gatherers. Very interesting to flash between long term consideration and today's concerns. Seems like those without a calender laugh more. You should check out this author - Tom Robbins - hes an interesting and fun author. Love you.

VIIIKKKKTTTTOOOOORRRRRR!!!!
Its me! I haven't hit the old blog in a while and am splashed with joy and love to see your pictures and hear your stories. Hope you had a good v-day, I held a lovefest for single girls to assuage some of the brooding that seems to sweep over my kind on this day. We got a huge snowstorm and everything was canceled, so we went sledding and I made my room into a sheet fort and we all sat in there and drank hot coca and read children's books. Everyone felt loved, even the random guy that followed us into the fort- nevermind who he is, just share the love! I am about to plunge into study jail where I will remain until tuesday when I have to hand in my senior midway so they can say 'hmmm, interesting." or "sorry sister!" Should be ok, I have too much privelage to complain about a stinking paper!
I am reading Dante's Inferno for my class- evokes a firey and twisted movie in my mind. But it is even more interesting to think about someone pulling all of their conceptions and their societie's connections to Divine space out of the imagination and into the elevatated public eye, for one of the first times. Humans are so weird, we invent, channel, respond, recreate.... articulating and living in a world that no one is sure exists entirely. We move towards and away from desires, virtues, needs that we may well have made up- we even try to convince others that we have found reality and the proper ways to interact with it. We all want to survive and be remembered, or to preserve or move the world forward. Where do all these yearnings come from? How do we shape and become shaped by the way that we interact with them? How does that effect the stories that lay through and around our people tales?
There are days when these questions are entirely irrelivant, perhaps among palms and children's hands you have found some quiet truth about love and peace.
Sometimes I can't help but wonder....
I love you, did you get our package?
leah

Lending a Hand with Computer Basics

Over Christmas i had the opportunity to do some fundraising (bingo's) and purchase two computers from a local High School. On January 1st we (the village) received the goods, 2 Compaq Pressario's in decent condition and i set them up in the Mayors office adjointed to my house.

Since then the office has been alive with kids, mostly grades 8-13, some older but none younger (not due to lack of interest by the little ones, they had to be excluded from the program for the time being), learning how to type and use the basic Microsoft office programs, i.e. Word, Powerpoint and Excel.

Nights are shifted between the boys and girls, at the parents request, and run from 4-5 and from 7:30-9:30 at night. In a few weeks i hope to add a program for the 8th grade kids in Samalaeulu's Primary School, to allow all of them to get their hands on the key board.
As foreigh as Computers can be for new commers these kids are really picking it up fast. We use a basic typing program, Typer Shark, practice mouse skills with Solitare (its working), and i've been making simple lessons (fonts, sizing, tables, pictures, spacing) for Word and PowerPoint, soon Excel.

Having access to computers outside of the school setting is very reare in Samoa, not only because of the lack of machines but more so because of the deficiency in educators and maitenance knowledge. Computers left in this climate without a fan or AC actually get moldy and die very quickly. When a school or village gets some machines they are very relictant to use them and dont know how to set up a good climate to ensure longevity. A current PC volunteer has just been assigned to act as a regional coordinator for the island of Savai'i, to help increase village's knowledge. Also, the most recent capacity building group (teachers) was mostly IT specialists, placed in schools with computers in order to get their progams running.

The future of my small lab will hopefuly include growth. Currently the time kids have is very limited and the numbers in attendace keep growing. Short Term may include some fundrasing for more machines, (maybe with some help from home???) which can be bought used and relatively cheap from NZ. Long Term is leaning on a program set up by the Ministry of Communication who has been setting up Communiaction Centers on both islands. These include computers, fax, printers, maybe a projector, and focuses on linking villages to the internet. This looks promising for us but wont happen until late this year, Sept. or Oct.
Let me know if you are interested in supporting this program, either by fundraising or sending over used machines (laptops are the easiest), and i'll get the info togeather, costs/needs.

Enjoy the pics below.