End of a Busy Week

I came to Yaoundé this week on business. Some time ago a former volunteer donated a large number of old computers to Peace Corps with the understanding that they be parcelled out to volunteers who could use them in the field. Several other volunteers had already taken some of the machines when my APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director, a.k.a "Boss") told me I could have some of them them. Volunteer Lauren, who teaches English at a lycée (high school) in the Adamoua province was to take five, and I would take the rest. Since she is not a computer geek like me, she needed help setting up the machines. So, I came on Monday and spent the week going through the old PCs, monitors, and other assorted hardware figuring out what works and what doesn't installing software, etc. I finally finished her machines and sent her off yesterday.

Today I boxed up my machines: I'll be going back to post on Monday with a total haul of 12 computers, 9 monitors, and several boxes full of processors, power supplies, cables, keyboards, mice, CD-ROM drives, hard drives, and various other junk. Most of the material is older - the machines are all Pentium IIs, but in our situation you have to take what you can get. We mostly use Windows 2000 and Office 2000 at the University so a PII with 128 MB RAM is good enough. Not all of the machines work, but we can either repair them or strip them for parts once I get them back to school.

I am also hoping this will help me get some teaching done as well. My dean agreed to let me take three or four of the new machines and set them up in our library in my own mini-computer lab. Since I was not able to finish my computer classes, I am going to offer to give the students independent lessons, either in small groups or in individual tutoring sessions. Most Peace Corps volunteers spend a lot of their time trying to make lemonade out of lemons given the limited resources we have to work with, so I'm hoping these machines will help me mix a bit of my own. Now, if only SONEL can keep the lights on for a few days here and there I'll be in business.