september update

I have to say, when posts come so infrequently, it can be a challenge to boil a blog post down into just a few points.  There are so many things I'd like to be able to touch on, but this post won't try to hit everything. Read on to hear more about hosting a tech team, the broadening impact of RedProCom, and the recent trip to Michigan.  Prayer items can be found at the end of the post.

Tech Team

Each year for the past three years, I have had the privilege of helping coordinate a service and learning team from South Dakota.  I don't normally have much to do with teams, but this team is different...they always come with some techie members who want to serve with their techie skills.  Even though members change from year to year, the team is always organized by the same person and always comes well-prepared.  They meet several times to discuss development issues and shape their perspectives and expectations for the trip.  By the time they arrive, they are more eager to learn and to form

relationships than they are to be productive with every minute of their time.  They also come ready to be flexible when the inevitable logistical complications appear.  And best of all, this team always comes with a desire to play Euchre in the evenings (is this a Dutch thing?).

When planning for teams, it is often a challenge to come up with activities that are at once important, that make use of the special giftedness of the members, and create a sense of connectedness to the school, its mission, and the people of Nicaragua.  This team in particular wants to spend time in a couple of different ministries.  Two days in Managua were spent at Tesoros de Dios (a school for special needs children and their families) and NCA Nejapa.  The team painted walls and walkways, did gardening and helped with physical therapy.  The techies helped out with testing and labeling wires as well as helping troubleshoot some of the

Labeling wires. Preventing headaches

school's wifi issues.  Then it was off to NCA Matagalpa for the rest of the week.  There they helped with the initial phases of building a new row of classrooms that will be used for preschool and kindergarten starting next year.  In Matagalpa, the techies were once again at it with cabling and labeling.  They also spent a good portion of the time working on a new mobile friendly interface for the school's database program.

To see a few more photos and to read about the visit from their perspective check out the article posted here.

RedProCom Broadening its Impact

In the last post I wrote, I shared that we had just launched a pilot project through the network of Christian school computer teachers that I help facilitate and mentor, RedProCom.  The pilot was initiated to test an inexpensive, credit-card-sized computer known as the Raspberry Pi.  We wanted to see if it had what it takes to thrive in school labs in Nicaragua.  Being inexpensive is one of the biggest benefits

A student Shows off a Raspberry Pi at FLISOL

of this little computer, but it also would seem to fit the context here for its very low power consumption (2.5W), no moving parts, creates very little heat, and is actually designed to teach kids about computers.

We are now six months into the pilot and we have seen some exciting things happening.  Sadracht, the teacher at the school that received 15 pis to use in their lab reports that "the Raspberry Pis were a breath of fresh air," because they are so easy to set up and maintain, and because the students love them.  Sadracht is a non-traditional teacher who allows his students a lot of room to be creative in his classes, and he says that he is very excited to see his students so involved in their own learning.  His students have actually participated in two presentations of their work outside of the school.  One presentation was to the leadership of Paulo Freire University.  The other presentation was done in collaboration with RedProCom at an event known as FLISOL, which comes from the Spanish name that translates to the Latin American Open Source Install Fest.  In both cases, students were so excited that they used their own money to get to the events and help out

The RPC members that helped out.

Both the Paulo Freire event, and FLISOL helped several RedProCom members (those who attended) realize that we have a great potential to have an impact outside of our schools.  I had the privilege of giving a presentation at FLISOL.  It was entitled "Raspberry Pi en la Educación."  I began the presentation talking about NCA, RedProCom, and our motivation for loving technology--a God who created the world with so much potential and who made human beings, the best part of that creation, to take care of and develop it. 

Presenting Raspberry Pi at FLISOL

I shared that the Raspberry Pi, for me, represents an opportunity to develop that immense potential in Nicaragua, where we are quite accustomed to importing pretty much everything from food, cars, and clothes, to software, electronics, and even culture.  If we do it right, the Raspberry Pi enables us to better be who God created us to be--caretakers and creators of new things...not just importers of things others have created.  It could also be a part of making Nicaragua more independent, and even possibly a bigger contributer to creating culture.
A proposal is being submitted now through Edudeo to extend the pilot to include two more computer labs of 25 computers each.  If the proposal is approved, you will hear more about it in the next post.

Michigan

At the end of July I was able to take a bit of a vacation back home in Michigan. 

It was great to be around family and friends and participate in summer activities and weddings.  But this trip was significantly different because I had Breyling with me.  I've been looking after Breyling's schooling for the last year and a half (first in Matagalpa, and now in Managua).  I wanted to give Breyling a chance to see another way of life to hopefully open his eyes to some different ways of doing things.  Anytime you leave your home country and visit another one it has a way of changing your perspective.  Well, we packed the two-and-a-half weeks with a lot of fun activities: boating, Whitecaps, Craigs cruisers, mini-golf, and even real golf (Breyling impressed me by playing all 18 holes and even doing decently well), camping...kind of...at the Conference Grounds, Michigan's Adventure, shooting handguns at Jim Bob's place, driving fast cars (thanks, Dan!), visiting Chicago (SkyDeck, Shedd's, Navy Pier), Silver Lake Dunes with Mike in his truck, and a trip to Columbus to see some of his family.

Breyling on the steps of Shedd's in Chicago.

For those who have been following through email updates, there was some question as to what school Breyling would be going to this second semester.  He has decided to continue at NCA Nejapa.  Since the semester began, he missed 1.5 weeks because he was in Michigan, and another 2 weeks for being sick with Chikungunya.  Last week was his first full week back.  He's now on a volleyball team, which had its first win this past week against a much taller team.  He's also planning to start working at the mechanic shop at the school on days when he doesn't have volleyball.  So things are looking pretty good right now.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for Breyling and myself this semester as we finish up the first half of the second semester.  It seems like the year is moving so quickly.  Pray for a good educational and extra-curricular experience.  Thank God for a good start to this semester, even though Breyling has missed so many days of class!
• Pray for RedProCom as we face more opportunities for growing and impacting beyond our boundaries.  Pray for leadership of this group as they take more and more leadership.
• Pray for Nejapa teachers as they try to bring computers into their classrooms, and for me and the other tech people at the school as we try to lead them in that.  More on this in the next blog post!