Paul 2, Corey 2, Ashley 1

We’ve had several accidents while here in Sao Tome. It all started with Paul at the grocery store trying to buy a few beers. Here, they stock their fridges with individual bottles well above the max capacity of the refrigerator. As Paul went to grab one, another started to fall which created a domino effect sending a few bottles to the floor; one of which broke. Paul 1.

We went shopping for a pitcher to make our water purification process easier. The best we could find was a carafe which has a glass core container surrounded by a plastic protective casing. As Ashley went to pick it up it fell to the floor shattering the glass core. Ashley 1.

Danielle is working on a mapping project and received about 20 large maps with together make up the entire island. To lay them out Corey, Danielle, Ashley and Chika cleared out our living room. As Corey went to pickup my XO he dropped it on the floor and broke the screen (these aren’t indestructible). I replaced the screen with one of the spare XOs as this is the administrator computer. Corey 1. Mike -1.

Paul owns a motorcycle on island and the other day he asked me if I wanted to take it for a spin. I went around the neighborhood and before long, Corey wanted to try his luck. I asked him if he knew how to drive and he said yes. I told him which lever was the clutch and he responded, ok that’s what changes the gear… I knew we were in for trouble. I showed him the pedal which actually changes the gear and after a few more minutes of training he wanted to go. We told him to give it a little gas as he slowly releases the clutch. Corey hit the gas and dropped that clutch, popped a small wheelie and rocketed away for about 10 feet before the bike tipped over and he hit the ground. Corey got up OK but the bike’s clutch lever snapped off. Within about 1 minute James had someone coming to repair the bike and it was fixed within the hour for a very small fee. Corey 2.

Corey with the broken parts from the moto. He'll try again this weekend.

Last night we wanted to make spaghetti for dinner. In Sao Tome you can’t buy pasta sauce so we got a small can of tomato paste as a base for our sauce. We forgot that we don’t have a traditional can opener so we had to use the triangular end of a bottle opener. As Paul dug into the can, the tightly packed paste shot out all over Paul’s white shirt, Chika’s white shirt and half the kitchen. Paul 2.

Hopefully the rest of our trip will be incident free although we have a long way to go.

-XO Mike

Planning

All members going to Sao Tome have been planning since mid February. There are several groups and initiatives going including my OLPC group, a GIS group, and a community networking group.

The GIS group is led by a professor at the University of Illinois and their objective, as I understand it, is to start the framework of a map database for the government to use as they see fit. This could include mapping school routes, mapping distances to hospitals, mapping pot holes, etc. One member will be with the OLPC deployment and two others will arrive in late July and stay until mid August.

The final group, the community networking group, is led by a second professor at the University, Martin Wolske. This group is comprised of 1 student and the professor and this is a class offered at the University. The class will do projects in East St. Louis and all class members are offered the trip to Sao Tome, however funding is on their own. Their objectives on island will be to setup computer labs, train teachers how to use computers at the teachers college on island, and repair existing labs.

All groups meet every Wednesday to discuss issues that pertain to all: culture, geography, emergency procedures, etc. The scariest conversation was the one where we went over what do we do if STP (Sao Tome e Principe) is attacked by another country or if there is a military coup. To clarify, we DO NOT expect to ever use these procedures but better safe than sorry. Below is a picture of us listening to Paul tell us about the various locations of different things.

Left to Right: Corey (OLPC), Sarah (GIS), Danielle (OLPC, GIS), Daemon (CN), Paul (CN/Advisor)

On Mondays the OLPC group meets with Paul and Martin to plan different parts of the deployment: equipment, lesson plans, etc. I have been researching the various infrastructure needs and concerns over the past few weeks. We are trying to bring printers and flash drives with us to deploy and we will need routers to distribute wireless internet access.

We are putting a lot of thought into everything we do and it has been very stressful for me as I am detail oriented and I like to know every last bit of information. I'm working hard not to worry.

-XO Mike