hello again, this time from buenos aires. i see it has been about two months since my last journal entry. now is the time when i can't decide whether to stop and talk about those two months, or scrap the two months and talk about the last couple days in buenos aires. funny how i seem to face this problem every time i sit down to update my website. i think i am supposed to start with now, but i'd rather work on the backlog.

unbroken bike		hiking cintsa		a mouse		uruguay

these, then, are the headlines from the last two months:

The children in the rural Cwili settlement of eastern South Africa have a new toy. It is a big blue metal box, and it juts out of one of the community center’s brick walls. The box is safe to climb on, is completely storm- and tamper-proof, and has a speaker that plays music from time to time. What is more, the box houses a small computer and the settlement’s only live internet connection.

for me, at least, it was easy to romanticize the idea of an african safari. i pictured guns and dust and lizards roasting on open fires, and lions eyeing me over gory impala-guts. it was the discovery channel by day and the wild bunch by night.

i find the following statistics very interesting. it's strange how the context makes them interesting. the content comes from this post on Rajesh Jain's website...

If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

Download doc / pdf

Português: Para os Monitores da informática que tem alunos que falam português, esses materiais o ajudam organizar e ministrar as suas aulas. Os ficheiros incluem um guia para organizar lições, exercícios e exames, uma lista de vocabulário para traduzir entre inglês e português, e um certificado para dar aos alunos que concluírem o curso. Tudo foi realizado por Amy Thekdi quando ela era voluntário do Corpo da Paz em Cabo Verde. Todos os materiais tem um versão em portuguesa e outra inglesa. Estão disponíveis em formato de Word .doc ou Acrobat .pdf; ambos estão comprimidos. Pode utilizar o programa gratuito WinZip para extrair os ficheiros. É um recurso livre que possa distribuir e copiar a vontade. Para o nosso bem comunica-nos o quanto esse programa lhe serve e envia-nos sugestões para
passíveis melhoramentos.

English: For those educators teaching computer classes in Portuguese, the following teaching materials will help organize and administer a basic 70-hour course. The available files include lesson plans, tests and exercises, as well as a Portuguese-English vocabulary list and sample graduation certificate. All files are written in both Portuguese and English. They can be downloaded in Word .doc format or in Acrobat .pdf format; both are compressed into .zip archives. All materials are being made available on this website in the hopes that it will be of use to educators in Cape Verde and other lusophone nations. They may be used and distribute free of charge; however, please let us know if and how you are using it!

Download doc / pdf

Português: The Cool Book é um livro para alunos de informática. Escrito em português, The Cool Book ensina as noções básicas dos computadores, com diagramas e lições sobre a história de computação, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Windows 98, e Iternet e Email. È um trabalho realizado por Amy Thekdi e Patrick Coonon, dois voluntários do Corpo do Paz em Cabo Verde. Agora, está disponível nessa website para ser mais uma ferramenta de apoio aos formadores da informática. É um recurso livre que pode distribuir e copiar a vontade - só pedimos que avisam-nos o quanto este material está a lhe servir bem coma sugestões para possíveis melhoramento.

The Cool Book está disponível como documento de Word .doc ou como Acrobat .pdf . Ambos estão comprimidos. Pode-se utilizar o programa gratuito WinZip para extrair os ficheiros. Ao fim desta página há a introdução oficial do livro:

English: The Cool Book is a 108-page computer manual, written in Portuguese, that teaches students basic computer skills. It was written by Ami Thekdi, with assistance from Patrick Coonan, while they were volunteering with the Peace Corps mission in Cape Verde. The Cool Book is being made available on this website in the hopes that it will be of use to educators in Cape Verde and other lusophone nations. It may be used and distribute free of charge; however, please let us know if and how you are using it!

Major topics covered include: The history of computers, Computing basics, Microsft Word, Microsoft Excel, Windows 98, and Internet and e-mail. The Cool Book can be downloaded in Word .doc format or in Acrobat .pdf format. Both versions are compressed - use the freely available WinZip or a similar such program to extract the .doc or .pdf files. The official introduction in English and Portuguese is included below:

Wizzy Digital Courier provides offline Internet to African schools. Using a camera provided by bridges.org, I spent the past few days making a short video documentary of the project. If you have RealPlayer installed, you can view the documentary (a series of five 90-second clips), at

http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?story=920

More information on the initiative can be found in the this article, or at the Wizzy Digital Courier website. The trip to Khayelitsha is described in my journal entry site b.

KwaZibonele Primary School struggles to pay its monthly electricity bill. There is no telephone line, no wireless network, and no satellite uplink. Internet access, it would seem, is impossible. Yet, each of KwaZibonele’s 1050 students has a private email account and the opportunity to surf his or her favorite websites.