Back in Action!

I hope that my lapse in writing hasn’t alienated my few regular blog readers. If you are still out there, I am now back in action and I apologize for the silence. It also seems that a general update is in order.

First, I was in Lusaka until mid December, when my visa expired and the arrangements for a work permit were taking longer than expected. So I retreated to Johannesburg for a little less than a week. My time there included attempts to contact some people I knew in community computer education. After I failed to make contact with those folks (due to my short notice and the upcoming holidays I suspect), I decided to make the best of the situation by sight seeing. I went to see the Cradle of Humankind, where there are caves and a visitor center to tour describing the discoveries of fossils of human ancestors (Australopithecus africanus) in the area. I also had some memorable wildlife viewing at Pilanesberg National Park, including this photo of a group of rhinoceros (rhinoceri?). Rhinos are quite rare in Zambia, but appear to be faring better in South Africa.

I returned to Seattle for a wonderful month of visiting with friends and family. The only trouble was that time just flew and I ended up with many visits and conversations feeling too short to be satisfying. I also didn’t get as much done for my volunteer work as I intended, but had some good meetings with my sponsor and others involved in the work in Zambia, and feel like I have some good goals for my next stint in Lusaka.

As I am writing this I am on my way back to Lusaka to stay for quite some time (probably July on this ticket, with a trip back in the fall likely). I will have a two-part job to begin when I arrive. The first part will be to try to implement some ideas that I have to improve our existing school projects. Looking at my last blog entry will give you an idea of what I think an ideal outcome will be, but my hope is to focus on a few small steps that will smooth the operation of the projects and help the schools take more ownership of the computer programs. I may also help one of our smaller computer projects expand a bit. The second part of my job for this trip will be to fact-find further about the possibility of building a community computer center. The need for computer education and access in Zambia is quite great, and I have a grand vision (which I am sure will need to be scaled down) for a center that could meet some of these needs and serve as a model for other centers in Zambia. I will write about this more as my vision develops further!