[Olpc-open] Waveplace back to Haiti in 2 weeks, 2 days

[Timothy Falconer]

Hi everyone,

Waveplace is headed back to Haiti to start 5 new XO pilots.

Follow my daily blogging for the next month here:

http://waveplace.org/news/

Subscribe to my twitter feed here:

http://twitter.com/teefal/

Like us on Facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/waveplace


Here's the first blog post:

With flights just bought, we're off to Haiti once again. In two weeks, two days, we'll spend two weeks, two days, starting new pilots: two in Cite Soleil, two in tent camps, one with a youth choir, all of them exciting.
As usual, there's a half dozen snags. We don't yet have the laptops out of customs, which makes me nervous as hell, though our chief partner said, "It'll be fine, book your flights", so we did.

Even if we get the laptops out of customs, we won't know how many of them work until just before the pilots. Even if all are working, we still won't have enough, which means we'll bring twenty ourselves.

Our chief contact at JP/HRO resigned over the holiday break. We'll be talking with her replacement on Thursday, who seems equally enthusiastic, though major changes so close to a pilot start are always fun.

Yesterday an impartial commission announced that Celestin (the unpopular candidate) was actually behind Martelly (the popular one). Preval and Celestin will react to the news after tomorrow's anniversary, which could spark a new round of rioting. We're also hoping the runoff election will be scheduled after our trip.

Pretty much the only certain thing is that we're on a very, very tight budget. We can't rent a car, we can't travel to Léogâne, we can't do much more than walk back and forth to the school. Every dollar counts.

But we're going. Our work paid off. How to pay the bills in March is another question. In February, we'll make a difference.


--
Timothy Falconer
Waveplace Foundation
http://waveplace.org
+ 1 610 797 3100 x33




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