T-8

A really short post, as I’m leaving for the embassy to get visas.

A new post over at OLPC News courtesy of yours truly! The underlying theme: HELP (s’il vous plaît).

We met with OLPC LCDC (the DC learning club) last night. These guys are awesome; I can’t really put it into words. Incredibly helpful, with tons of knowledge and expertise to spare. We’ll continue to be in contact / involved with them, as well as OLPC News, during the deployment; keep your eyes open for cross-posts and unique analysis over there.

Days left before we leave for Kigali: 8. Days needed: about 100.

For all my panic, I don’t think we’re hugely underprepared, except we are. I don’t think I could ever feel prepared enough for this, and I don’t think we could ever be prepared enough. I’m trying to learn all I can, particularly on teacher training. I’m not the techiest person on my team, and I feel hugely lacking there – but that’s fortunately the benefit of a team: you don’t have to be good at everything. I’m focusing on pedagogy, teacher training, and cultural “stuff”.

Je suis la seule francophone de l’équipe, et je ne suis pas très bien. J’étudias la langue depuis sept ans, mais je n’ai pas de grande vocabulaire technique, et je deviens nerveux quand je parle aux autres. Nous verrons comment je ferrai. J’ai entendu bien des «podcasts» (je ne sais pas le mot juste) en français pour améliorer mes compétences écoutants. Zut alors.
(I’m the only French-speaker on the team, and I’m not very good. I’ve studied the language for 7 years, but I lack a decent technical vocabulary, and I get nervous when I talk to others. We’ll see how I do. I’ve been listening to a lot of French podcasts to improve my listening skills.)

We’re hopefully going to have a professional solar install, or possibly grid energy. Either would be awesome, but I am not so optimistic it will be in place when we get there. Again: we’ll see.

I’ll post a revised schedule of our in-country timeline later. I know it is essentially meaningless, as there will be 800 issues, problems, or changes once we get there. No matter – as one of my professors always said, “It’s not the plan; it’s the planning.” (Note that this aphorism was generally in regard to national security decision-making, so its applicability is dubious.)

To the Malagasy* embassy!

*the denonym is Malagasy. There’s no such word as “Madagascarian” or any variation thereof.