Mission: review first week
My first week in PCR was marked by cuts current, and of course the exceptional hospitality of its members, and Burkina Faso in general.
The section on training of trainers in office has been delayed, as 4 sessions took place while he will need at least 8. I offered to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice, a proposal immediately accepted by Mahamadi, Chairman of CPA, but requires an introduction to instructors, who know only Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. These future trainers are 4 neighborhood youth, 17 to 19, who are doing a bit with a computer but not computer. They will have to form part of the local population that has never touched a computer keyboard or a mouse.
present and previous years, training is provided by a young and Mahamadi than twenty years, which is responsible for computer maintenance that manages cyber ACP. This training is conducted in 4 parts: discovery of the keyboard and the Windows environment, discovery of Microsoft Word, Excel, and introduction to web (create a mailbox, etc.).. These two people will no longer have time to provide such training, so they want the youth in question took over.
My program for the coming week is whether Sonabel (National Electricity Company) permitting, to finish forming the 4 youths in question on OpenOffice, talk to them about teaching and develop with them a training program tailored to local needs OpenOffice (the examples I have provided in their exercises are designed to Westerners!). The next step, from the weekend normally, will train members of the ACP web site design, and tell them about computer maintenance (Down with the virus! As I write this message, j 'I started Avast Antivirus on the PC which looks to me the most infested ...).
*****
Response to Fabrice:
not UPS, but it became the top priority one for the internet! I do not know how the material is to hold, it will last perhaps not for long. The cuts are due to lack of rain, the two dams that supplies electricity Ouaga are dry, and there is no connection yet with neighboring countries to import (but it is expected, with the Coast d'Ivoire). According to the national electricity company, cuts are expected until late December! Normally a schedule of cuts per sector is fixed, but it is not respected.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Science Fair Paper Towel Project
Environment ouagalais
Hello!
In this new post I want to tell you a little radical change of scenery that I live in Ouagadougou. I'll start by describing the environment in which I find myself, I'll tell you another day habits, surprising for a Westerner, the Burkinabe.
Mahamadi I live with a home that looks like all those in the neighborhood (Pissy, in the 17th district, south-west of Ouagadougou). A "home" consists of several distinct blocks, without floor (except attic), around a courtyard. Each block has a couple or an adult member of the family (the African family is to be understood broadly: patriarch and his or her wife (s), their - many - son and their wives and children of these, Many also of course). In the yard going about in a free chickens, dogs and goats.
Mahamadi block is about 30 m ^ 2 and has one bedroom + living area (lounge has a small kitchenette with a simple gas stove and fridge - not connected ...). The bathroom consists of a single shower (no shower head hose, as in the locker room of sports!) With cold water only. But it's not a big problem given the climate :-) No furniture or sink. The toilets are in a cabin deep in the court: it is a simple hole, surrounded by a horde of flies and mosquitoes ...
Some houses have no running water, so I see every day people come to the water pump located next to the cyber to fill their water bottles. We had three days off of water until today at Mahamadi: shower bucket of water required! It reminds you of memories of Mary Central Asia?
Power cuts are frequent, as mentioned above: several hours every day in this period. But at least we have electricity, unlike other parts of the city! Neon lighting only, and no public lighting: it is pitch dark at 18:30. However, fans (who sometimes lurch dangerously ...) at all ceilings, and in at least Mahamadi nets to all windows.
More surprisingly, everyone has, and makes extensive use of a cellphone last generation, often containing two SIM cards! The iPod is also furious at the moment. I'll come back next time on television of Burkina Faso, among other things.
level infrastructure, only the main roads are paved (and sometimes very bumpy). Most are in the ground, where tan dust that flies continuously in the air ... like flies. Few cars, mostly to the huge 4x4 (bigger than those seen in France) with tinted windows, and old Mercedes. I have not checked if, as I said Francis, they all have at least 500,000 km on the clock! Almost everyone travels by bicycle or motorbike. Without a helmet, it's too hot! With this form of transport that members of the ACP transport me from one place to another. I also saw a few carts pulled by donkeys. People that carry bulky goods or put them on the rack their bikes, with a balance that is breathtaking, either on their head ... and in this case they run off!
soon for a small paragraph on the habits and customs of Burkina Faso.
*****
Response to Fabrice: I brought
tablets to purify water, but they made me drink bottled water routinely (despite my complaints, because it costs them a lot). Hospitality Burkina Faso ...
Hello!
In this new post I want to tell you a little radical change of scenery that I live in Ouagadougou. I'll start by describing the environment in which I find myself, I'll tell you another day habits, surprising for a Westerner, the Burkinabe.
Mahamadi I live with a home that looks like all those in the neighborhood (Pissy, in the 17th district, south-west of Ouagadougou). A "home" consists of several distinct blocks, without floor (except attic), around a courtyard. Each block has a couple or an adult member of the family (the African family is to be understood broadly: patriarch and his or her wife (s), their - many - son and their wives and children of these, Many also of course). In the yard going about in a free chickens, dogs and goats.
Mahamadi block is about 30 m ^ 2 and has one bedroom + living area (lounge has a small kitchenette with a simple gas stove and fridge - not connected ...). The bathroom consists of a single shower (no shower head hose, as in the locker room of sports!) With cold water only. But it's not a big problem given the climate :-) No furniture or sink. The toilets are in a cabin deep in the court: it is a simple hole, surrounded by a horde of flies and mosquitoes ...
Some houses have no running water, so I see every day people come to the water pump located next to the cyber to fill their water bottles. We had three days off of water until today at Mahamadi: shower bucket of water required! It reminds you of memories of Mary Central Asia?
Power cuts are frequent, as mentioned above: several hours every day in this period. But at least we have electricity, unlike other parts of the city! Neon lighting only, and no public lighting: it is pitch dark at 18:30. However, fans (who sometimes lurch dangerously ...) at all ceilings, and in at least Mahamadi nets to all windows.
More surprisingly, everyone has, and makes extensive use of a cellphone last generation, often containing two SIM cards! The iPod is also furious at the moment. I'll come back next time on television of Burkina Faso, among other things.
level infrastructure, only the main roads are paved (and sometimes very bumpy). Most are in the ground, where tan dust that flies continuously in the air ... like flies. Few cars, mostly to the huge 4x4 (bigger than those seen in France) with tinted windows, and old Mercedes. I have not checked if, as I said Francis, they all have at least 500,000 km on the clock! Almost everyone travels by bicycle or motorbike. Without a helmet, it's too hot! With this form of transport that members of the ACP transport me from one place to another. I also saw a few carts pulled by donkeys. People that carry bulky goods or put them on the rack their bikes, with a balance that is breathtaking, either on their head ... and in this case they run off!
soon for a small paragraph on the habits and customs of Burkina Faso.
*****
Response to Fabrice: I brought
tablets to purify water, but they made me drink bottled water routinely (despite my complaints, because it costs them a lot). Hospitality Burkina Faso ...
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