The computer age begins....

It's been a busy few weeks out at the Ishahayi beach school recently. In addition to Mas and Desi coming out and helping the kids learn about sanitation and malaria, we've managed to get enough money together to put a small pump and tank system on the new well. Surprisingly, it is actually cheaper to install a small electric pump run off a generator than one of the old school hand pumps that you often see around here. This means that there will be actual running water in the toilet block and a tap for all the locals to get access to decent drinking water - good news all round.

The main reason for so much activity out at Ishahayi, though, is the new computer room!! Now, it might sound strange that there's a computer in a village that has no mains power, telephone, running water (soon to be remedied) or sewerage infrastructure, but hey computer's are taking over the planet - even in the middle of nowhere. I was intrigued last year at a local high school during exam time they had all the subjects written up on the board - two of them being computer studies and typing. I was surprised by this as I knew the area had no power (even though power lines had been built years ago they weren't connected to anything so they were just being used as clothes lines) and the school had no generator. The Principal's reply was " oh no, we don't do those subject's here... but schools in Lagos must study this somewhere so there is an exam for it. That is why it is marked on the board" I guess he just assumed that he'd never have a computer or typewriter and if the kids really wanted to go on to uni they'd work it out somehow - there plenty of "business centres" around where you can use a computer and print out things you might need. They're quite ingenious little places with a small desk, computer etc normally inside a small shipping container that can be locked for security when the markets close a night. Interestingly the cost of using the facilities comes at two rates: a low rate for when there is "light" (ie the mains power is working) and a higher rate for "no light" (ie when the power's down and you run off a generator - which unfortunately is normally the case)

Anyway, I digress. A number of families in the Lagos expat community (thank you to the Edwards, O,neals, Bartons and Dinnicks) have kindly donated computers and bits and pieces to the Ishahayi beach School, and after a couple of months of trying to get it to all work together off the small gennie out there - we have success!! Our first typing lesson

generator shack ...................... school bldg

Gary, the trusty little gennie
(he runs the church on Sundays too, busy guy)

everyone was rather excited

As most of the kids had never seen (let alone used) a computer the room always gets really crowded so we decided to get a little fan to make sure it doesn't get too hot (a rare luxury)

As the kids had no experience with a computer, the biggest learning hurdle is trying to use a keyboard and mouse. It is natural behaviour to keep your finger pressed down on a key if you want type something (if you've never used a type writer or anything). Thus, the first few attempts on the computer ended up with lots of lines of one letter and a few crashes. I figured it was easier to give them an old keyboard that isn't connected to anything (so it can't do any damage) to test drive and get a feel for how it all works... seems to be going well.

Lady Salami, the principal, came up to me after I'd been showing the teachers how to fire the thing up and start a few things (quite difficult when the English language that has been generated to define computer terms like "click" and "drag" etc has no meaning to them...). She'd been talking to people about computers and had a question for me -

"can I browse?" she asked
"browse?"
"Yes, browse"
"what do you mean browse" - I had no idea what she was talking about
"Can I browse with the computer?"
I was at a complete loss.
"I want to be able to browse on this computer, can I do that?"
"browse?"
"yes, (long pause searching for words)on the Internet!"
"Oh, browse" I felt like an idiot...

Unfortunately I had to tell her that the computer needs to be connected to the Internet via a phone line and there are no phone lines within 15km of Ishahayi and there probably never will be, so unfortunately there wouldn't be any "browsing"...

I'll bet that in a year or two, there'll be a mobile phone tower in the neighbourhood that can hook them straight to the web - bypassing all the crap we had to go thorough over the years of slow dial-up, then broadband and now wireless - they'll jump straight to the chase..