[OLPC_Boston] Small Solutions and the XO on the road in Africa

[Sandra Thaxter]

Greetings all,
     Africa is a place to fall in love with - its natural beauty and the
warmth of its people.
     I have visited schools and orphanages, met with teachers, pastors,
social workers, widows and many children. The resources for education are
limited.  The children are eager to learn and their countries need their
participation.  We have driven many kilometers up mountains, yesterday on
the back of motorbikes to reach schools and orphanages. Traveling anywhere
in Africa is a challenge. The vehicles they have here are very tough.

     We have two XOs I brought with me. At the schools or orphanages we
engaged the students in some XO activities - a group at a time (groups of
about 8 students often).  They all gathered around as you will see in the
photos upload to our webiste.   And they learned very quickly, tackling
Maze, the Memorize, and at USA River they had figured out how to make music.

     Yesterday I was able to present the XO features to a ministor of
education who believes that this would be the right use of education ICT
funds. We plan to have a meeting and I will follow up with him.

    Please look at our website for updates.  All the internet connections
here are so slow, that it is difficult enough to send email and even more
difficult to upload photos to the webiste.  But please check the website as
I will continue to try and post information.

 www.smallsolutionsbigideas.org

-- 
Sandra Thaxter
(cell) 1-617-320-1098
personal email: sandra at thaxter.net
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