Updates from August & early September

My apologies ... I am long overdue for updating this blog.  It's been a busy time with lots of things happening.  Here's a quick summary:

Team Members

• Delia Helie, a new Peace Corps Volunteer in Ketane, has offered to help.
• Shaun Ilderton, our I.T. specialist from Durban, has resigned due to time conflicts.  He will be returning the two XO laptops he has.
• Matlabe has started using his new email account.  Please add matlabeteba@gmail.com to your address book.

Fundraising & Donations

• Janissa submitted a grant application to EiF (Engineering Information Foundation).
• We've received a number of personal donations, including several online contributions through JustGive.org and Facebook Causes.
• Janissa set up a Laptops to Lesotho table at a local rodeo and raised $60.
• We received a donated XO laptop (nonfunctioning, usable for spare parts) from an unknown person in California.
• Janissa is working on grant applications to Ananda Foundation and an anonymous foundation.
• Craig is working with teachers in the Cincinnati area on fundraising.
• Diane McWethy is working on fundraising through the Goshen Public Library.

Shipping

• Maureen Powell and her husband carried eight of our XO laptops from the U.S. to Maseru.  They had no trouble going through security and paid no customs fees.  The laptops are currently being stored by Deepak Pullanikkatil of Peace Corps/Lesotho, awaiting pickup by someone from Ketane.

Partners & Support
Initial and/or follow-up contact was made with the following people and organizations.  I'll write more about these in upcoming blogs.

• Jane Hale, Family Literacy Lesotho, & Peter Maphatsoe, Family Art & Literacy Center
• Colleen Smith, MindSet
• Angel Knapp, GrantStation
• Andrew Steele & Bill Thompson, BLOOM Africa
• South African representative of a Swiss foundation which wishes to remain anonymous
• Jennifer, I Love My XO
• Nia Lewis & Adam Holt, One Laptop Per Child
• OLPC News Forum
• Adi Nochur, 1Sky.org

Scheduling

• Matlabe is still working on arrangements to have Dr Kasongo of MS STIC travel to Ketane for a needs assessment for our school network and internet connection (no dates set yet)
• Fortunate is still working on arrangements for teacher training at Kliptown Youth Project (no dates set yet)
• Janissa is making arrangements to travel to Lesotho in November and December (approx Nov 2-Dec 7).  Her brother, Craig, will probably travel with her to help with training.
• Janissa has created a Google online calendar for the public to view L2L events and also a private Google calendar for team members to post their schedules on.

Ongoing

• Aaron is still trying to figure out why the USB modems don't work in Ketane.
• Mapesh & Matlabe are working out contract details and what-if scenarios

Pending
Janissa needs to follow up on fundraising through:

• Deepak Pullanikkatil, Maseru Rotary,
• Cindy, Soda Springs Library, and
• Shawnae Somsen, Soda Springs Public Schools.

Janissa needs to follow up technical assistance through:

• Jennifer Getz, eduWeavers (eSibonisweni)
• Indiana University OHOT (One Here One There)
• Seth Woodworth
• Cilliers du Preez
• Malizo Sinono, GCNS Communication

Brochure & Business Cards

•  Janissa has created a three-panel color brochure you can print double-sided on an 8½ x 11 sheet. The brochure was very well received at its first fundraising event, the Grays Lake rodeo. Contact Janissa if you want to receive a copy of the pdf for your own fundraising events.
• Janissa has also ordered business cards for herself. The minimum order size was 250, so she'll have lots of extras if you'd like to have some. They have the L2L contact info including the new website & email addresses.

We have a NEW Website Address: LaptopsToLesotho.org

Sarah has switched our official home page to a much more memorable website URL:  http://www.laptopstolesotho.org/.  Same look, new address.

We also have new email addresses to go with it:
jbalcomb@laptopstolesotho.org
info@laptopstolesotho.org

Team members:  If you would like an email address through our organization, please let Sarah or me know.

Thanks Sarah for all your hard work!

- Janissa

Microsoft STIC leader to visit Ketane

I spoke to Dr. Kasongo of the Microsoft School Technology Innovation Center (STIC) today. It sounds like he will be able to help us a great deal. In general, he said that Microsoft can help us with hardware, software, maintenance, and advice.

To begin with, he has offered to travel to Ketane to take a look at the school and surrounding area in order to determine what we will need in the way of network hardware and the best way for us to connect to the internet. After he has seen the site, he will write up a 'needs assessment' for us. The network and internet system is something I've been concerned about and haven't been able to get any answers about. His visit will be extremely helpful, and his assistance a great relief for me!

Dr. Kasongo will be contacting Mapesh to arrange the visit. He will be out of Lesotho August 10-30, so I'm not sure whether he will be able to make the visit between now and the 10th before he leaves or whether he'll want to do it after he gets back.

In the phone call, Dr. Kasongo also mentioned that his team has been working with the Lesotho College of Education to develop digital curriculum for science and English studies. I don't know yet what grades they have the materials prepared for, but we may be able to get some for use in Ketane.

It is still early, but I think that Dr. Kasongo and his team will be very good people to have helping us!
 
- Janissa

OLPC XO Laptop User's Guide

There is a 254-page user's guide available for the XO laptop. I have a hard copy (book) of the guide, but it is also available in pdf form. It is very helpful, though mostly basic information. It does explain things like how to access a wi-fi connection to the internet. Unfortunately, most of the information about the actual "activities" (programs) on the XO is just a summary of what the activity does but no real information on how to use the activity itself.

If you would like a copy of this guide, you can read and/or download it yourself from the internet at http://en.flossmanuals.net/publish/PDF/g1g1_2.pdf. The file is 4.6 Mb.

- Janissa

Modifying our Tagline

From all I've read about taglines (the latest buzzword for slogan), they should be short, preferrably 6 words or less, and, they shouldn't use words like 'hope' that are too over-used and not specific enough.

With that in mind, I proposed to the Board that we change our current tagline, "Opening doors of hope with keys to the world" to:

"Providing Keys to the World"

Or, how about

"Children Receive Keys to the World"?

What do you think?

-Janissa

Emails to Fortunate -- Task details

excerpts from email ...

From: Janissa
To: Fortunate
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 10:13 AM

Sawubona, Lumela, and Fantastic!

Before we proceed any further, could I ask you to send me two names and contact information for people who can serve as references for you. I hate to have to do this, but after my experience of trusting the person in Durban, and then having him disappear with two of our laptops, I'm afraid I have to check. That said, I am a trusting person at heart, so for now, you seem very sincere, I am going trust you, and I will assume that your references are impeccable. I will continue to work with you unless I hear otherwise. I hope you understand.

Thank you for checking on HIV/AIDS resources.

I have been contacted by a woman, Colleen Smith, from the MindSet organization. That is all running smoothly, so I will handle that for the time being. I may ask you to take over once we get into dealing with logistics.

Yes, please contact Thulani Madondo. I have attached the email I sent to him. It also contains one of the emails that referred him to me.

What we'd like to get from the visit to Kliptown Youth Project are details on setting up a school network and wireless internet system, observation of classes using the XO laptops, exercises and lessons used by 6th and 7th grade students, and possibly an introduction to basic Linux/Sugar programming. We would also like to have time to talk about possible pitfalls in setting up our program and any advice Thulani can give us.

I would like to schedule the visit sometime in November, because I expect to travel to Lesotho around 1 November and stay until early December. However, I'm not sure what dates will be best for the teachers in Ketane, and we need to arrange the trip based on their availability, not mine.

Let me send the Project Manager Tsela "Mapesh" Mapeshoane an email to introduce you. I will let you know when I hear back from him, and then you two can correspond directly to determine what dates they can travel and how long they can be away.

In my original email to Thulani Madondo, I mentioned that we had little or nothing to pay for his services. However, I am going to try to raise money specifically for the visit to the Kliptown, and I will try to raise enough money to pay for his help and training.

Please ask Thulani if he would be willing to let us visit Kliptown, if he can provide us with what we are looking for, what dates he would be available, and what he would charge to train 3-6 adults.

Please cc: me on all emails you send for the project. Also, please keep a log of all phone calls with the phone number, person(s) you spoke to, purpose of the call, and summary of what was talked about. If there is a charge for the call, keep a record of that too.

I really, really appreciate you taking on this work. It will be wonderful to work with you, and it will free up my time to do more fundraising for the project.

Your email smile is infectious. It made me smile too!

Sala kahle,
Janissa
________________________________

From: Janissa
To: Fortunate
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 10:28 AM

I forgot to send the timetable you asked for. I've attached a pdf I put together recently with tasks and some deadlines for the entire crew. Some of this has changed slightly and I haven't had time to update it, but this will give you a general idea of what everyone is working on.
 
Deadlines for your work:

• HIV/AIDS material - No specific deadline. November would be good, but this can be ongoing.
• Thulani Madondo - Make contact as soon as possible. Once I have secured funding, arrangements will depend on when the trip is scheduled, but hopefully they will need to be completed by late October.

I hope this helps.

Smile!
Janissa

Email from Fortunate -- tasks she will take on

From: Fortunate
To: Janissa
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 2:58 AM

Hi Janissa and thanks!

I am so excited!!!! There is so much to do! All the suggestions you made sound so exciting and something i would do and enjoy doing! I think the best would be for you to send me some form of schedule that you are working with then i can get to work and set my own sort of timetable for these tasks. Most can be done concurrently so that shouldnt be a problem. In the meantime maybe i can go ahead and make contact with Thulani Madondo? Maybe you could fwd me the email you sent him so that we speak from the same page? I would enjoy making arrangements for this visit.

I would also be very interested in searching for HIV and AIDS material for young children, i already have ideas from some organisations i contacted and worked with last year, this is definitely something i would enjoy doing...So i will get to it and let you know if i come across something interesting.

I do not own a OLPC XO.
I see you are learning a bit of isiXhosa/IsiZulu....Thank you for this opportunity to work with your organisation and change the life of a child somewhere :) I like this, you should see how my face just lights up thinking about this project, i am very excited and so happy to be involved.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Fortunate