The harrowing journey along a precarious mountain highway taken by OLE Nepal’s team of trainers and technical staff to reach program schools in Solukhumbu.

“Phaplu airport is closed for upgradation. All flights are now landing on a makeshift landing strip in Kangel, a couple of hours from Phaplu”. The news welcomed me. After having flown twice to Phaplu within the last year, the adrenaline- or rather the thrill- associated with landing on a strip consisting of loose gravel has notably decreased. A makeshift airport. Landing there should be quite an experience.

Our team was to conduct a refresher training, and provide technical support to five schools located in the eastern district of Solukhumbu. Anxious to finish our work there before the monsoons hit, we were all mentally prepared to fly to Kangel.

But our resolve alone, wasn’t enough. Our flight was to be on Sunday, and two days before the flight, that is, on Friday, we got word that throughout the week all flights to Kangel had been cancelled due to impassable crosswinds.

Now, I am not entirely new to the difficulties associated with traveling via air to such locations. My previous two endeavours to Phaplu have taught me that even waiting at Kathmandu’s domestic airport for hours on end does not guarantee take-off. So, in order to be ‘on top of the situation’ and to not let uncertainty dictate our training’s fixture, we decided to take the longer and more taxing land route.

A quick search on Google didn’t bring up much information about the route. Seldom have bloggers travelled that route. One site I managed to find, tried to give me an extremely far fetched idea that at a decent speed, one could reach Salleri within 4 hours. Unconvinced I googled on, and finally came upon something more credible. 18 hours.

I was looking for the thrill of landing at a makeshift airport. It sure would’ve given me a lot of bragging rights whenever conversations turned to air travel. Sure, this 18 hour trip would be something worth mentioning, but it packed more of a thrill than I was looking for. Nonetheless, I was up for it. It was, but a small hurdle.

The very next day, at around 7.30 in the morning, we set off. The Tata Sumo we were bundled within was a sturdy 4 wheel drive capable machine. Soon, we were cruising along black topped roads, exiting Kathmandu valley. About 15 minutes into the ride, the driver stopped the vehicle around Suryabinayak with the intention of buying a few kilos of plastic sheets. He conferred that apart from just driving passengers up to Salleri, he sometimes takes whatever little he can, to sell, to supplement his income. Shortly after loading on the freshly purchased plastic sheets, we were back on our way.

Within two hours, we had reached Nepalthok. The journey till there was surprisingly smooth. And besides, with all of us discussing enthusiastically about our soon to launch program in Bajhang, we had totally lost track of time. Our driver slowed the jeep to a stop in front of an eatery, and we stepped out to have an early lunch as we had a long way to go, and weren’t entirely sure about the frequency of upcoming establishments that offered food. Besides, if we had waited any longer, my stomach’s rumbling would’ve surely surpassed that of the jeep’s engine.

It didn’t take long for us to wolf down our portions of rice and daal. It didn’t take too long for second helpings to disappear either. And once they did, we were back on the road. Before long, we were out of the smoothness that blacktopped roads provided, and had entered the bumpiness of a roughly cut up road. It took a lot of strength just to keep myself from hitting the side of the jeep as it swayed. Along with the rocky-ness, the heat too had greatly increased. Perspiration had started to drip down the sides of my cheek, and I had to risk leaving the hold of the seat in front, to swipe a dab at drops of sweat every now and then. As we continued to travel on, it felt as though the heat too, was steadily increasing. The open windows provided little respite in terms of wind, as the jeep barely managed to pick up speed before it had to be slowed down again.

Then, after a rather sharp turn, we started climbing steeply, on a road that appeared to be covered by a 2 foot deep layer of dust. Immediately, an enormous cloud of dust flew up around us, entering the jeep and threatening to choke us. Instinctively, the driver rolled up his window, and almost immediately, we followed suit by rolling up our respective windows. I turned to look back at the path we were climbing, but could see nothing but a dense cloud of dust following us. This path was of sorts that I had never seen before. It was narrow enough for only one vehicle to comfortably travel on, but had corners every now and then that were wide enough for two vehicles to squeeze by. It offered a sharp fall on one side, and that ever-present 2 foot layer of dust was everywhere. Five minutes into this path, it started to get unbearably hot in the jeep. With the windows rolled up, there was no way for all the stuffy air to ventilate properly.

Another five minutes, and we were all drenched in our own sweat. When the heat was finally reaching an unbearable degree, the driver suddenly made the jeep hug a corner tightly, and shut off his engine. As though he had seen through our puzzlement at stopping at a place where just stepping off the jeep would mean depressing into the thick layer of dust, he pointed into the distance. I looked towards where he was pointing, but could not understand what he had intended to convey. Then, quite a distance away, i saw a cloud of dust rising, and it dawned on me. There was another vehicle coming from the other direction, and this corner was probably one of the few places that allowed two vehicles to pass. The vehicle appeared to be quite a distance away, and whilst we waited, I noticed our stillness had caused the continual cloud of dust enveloping us to vanish. Quite enthusiastically, I rolled down the window and let the hot air flow out, and immediately felt more at ease.

The dusty path continued for another half hour or so. We passed a rather gutsy biker, who despite all that the terrain was throwing his way, was ably wading through the thick dust. He hadn’t bothered to put on a helmet, and when we passed him, his yellow shirt got an entire shade darker, and his mustache, now covered by a thick layer of dust, heavier. Then, we entered more durable roads. Still not entirely void of dust, but more bearable.

A couple of more hours passed on this road, with us rocking front and back, side to side. We stopped at a small town to buy a few bottles of water, and were back on our way. We shuffled our seating arrangement then. I was seated in the middle this time, and though I had tried devotedly earlier to not let the vehicle shake me too much, keeping in mind the comfort of the others, I couldn’t find the strength to do so any more. Mentally and physically exhausted, we rode on. Around 5, we reached Ghurmi, and stopped to get some tea. The quiet little town, owned almost entirely by a single person, provided much to see. But too exhausted, we just waited patiently for our tea, and wolfed down a few packs of biscuits.

The biscuits and tea vanished too quick, and before we had time to properly stretch our sore muscles, the journey continued. The plan was to stop at Ramailo Danda in Okhaldhunga for the night. Daylight was long gone, and a light drizzle had started, when we finally rolled into our destination.

By the time we had found a place to spend the night, and were seated to start our dinner, the rain was pouring down hard. Our driver was concerned as the roads we now had to travel were highly seasonal, and became almost impassable when wet. About 4 trucks that were also aiming for Salleri, had stopped in Ramailo danda for the night, so we drew up a plan to leave early next morning before the trucks set out, so that even if we did get stuck somewhere, the truckers would have to help us out to move ahead themselves. Also, since these heavy lifters molded the wet clay like soil of the roads ahead, and made it difficult for other vehicles to ply, it would be a smarter option to leave before them..

The rooms we got weren’t the most comfortable. The beds were basically planks of wood covered by thin cloths. But my exhaustion got the better of me, and I don’t know about the others, but I slept like a log.

Early the next morning we were up and ready to leave. Whether it was due to exhaustion, or because of the darkness when we arrived, I had failed to notice the views that Ramailo Danda had to offer. A short 5 minute walk around the village, helped me notice the greenery and landscape views offered. Then, we were back in the jeep, rumbling along.

For the next 2 hours, we climbed steadily through areas that amazingly still managed to offer thick clouds of dust despite the showers the previous night. But compared to the day before, the temperature had greatly dropped, owing to the fact that we had gained considerable altitude. We came across a jeep that was heading towards Kathmandu from Salleri, and the drivers stopped for a minute to talk about the condition of the roads that lay ahead on both sides. On the other jeep, I noticed a tourist sitting out on the bed, or -as i like to call it- the pick-upy area. Covered from head to toe by a thick layer of dust, he gave me a big smile, probably not realizing that it was his ignorance related to his appearance that had amazed me and brought on my stupefied expression. I smiled back. He’d probably have a fit whenever he managed to catch his reflection.

Another hour of climbing, and we had reached Patale. This was the highest point of our journey and offered amazing views of Mt Everest, and other famous peaks housed by Solukhumbu. Then, we started descending, and the dry dusty roads quickly gave away to slushy clay roads. The driver continually switched the jeep to 4 wheel drive and then back to 2. We were moving along slowly then. The jeep was dancing from side to side, but the driver was experienced when it comes to these roads. It was a tame dance. At one point though, being the young male that he is, he averted his eyes from the road to a couple of attractive highland lasses who were walking, and the jeep slipped and slided and did a 180. He slammed into the brakes, gave us a sheepish, apologetic smile, and slowly but carefully this time, turned the jeep and started moving again. This had happened just as we were discussing the driver’s focus and dexterity, so instead of being worried, we blew it off in a few guffaws.

An hour or so into descending, we stopped at Bel Danda for brunch. A quick cup of tea, followed by enormous platefuls of Solukhumbu’s famous potatoes, and we were back to slipping and sliding. After another hour or so, once we had crossed Kerung, we drew to a stop. In front of us, a jeep trying to make its way to Kathmandu was stuck and there was a whole convoy of jeeps behind it. All the drivers were out and about. Some were bringing in planks of wood from here and there to help that jeep and the others behind it cross the portion. Others were going at the soil with shovels and throwing rocks here and there. Within 15 minutes they deemed the path travel worthy and had got the originally stuck jeep out and on it’s way. Since our driver was pretty popular amongst the others, we got to use the planks next, and we sailed across safely.

More slipping and sliding. When we finally reached Garma around 11, I knew we were close. My legs started yearning for the freedom it had been denied for 2 days. Within half an hour, we had reached Salleri, where we dropped off all our training related stationary so that it’d be easy for us to carry it up to the training center the next day.

Then for the final stretch! Phaplu! Shangri-La Hotel! From there, all it took was a 10 minute ride. After sharing a few jokes and handshakes, we parted with the driver, and entered Shangri-La. At last, after facing the brunt of various terrains, and sitting cooped up in that jeep for over a day and a half, we had reached our destination. But there was a still a lot to do that day. We needed to draw up a plan for the next day’s training, and shower off all the dust and grime that two days on the road had enveloped us with. However, it was straight to bed that we went as the result of a unanimous decision that we’d all feel better after a short nap.

The road to Phaplu was an enthralling experience. Now, when I think back about it, I am glad I was a part of the trip. The road offered more thrill than I had originally looked for. And yet, like when you get two pieces of cake while expecting just one, it instilled great excitement within me.

Although it may be difficult to give a black and white picture of the impact of OLPC laptops on school children, one thing is very evident – children love to play with laptops, utterly. And this, I think, is the  idea of the program – engaging young minds with a device filled with educational materials.

Software and contents always grow bigger over time. Computer memory always tends to be insufficient. In the remote villages of Nepal, XO1 has proved itself to be a rugged and durable learning machine. Now it is time to give way to the newer verion -XO-4.  There are several major advancement over XO-1, for example, efficient processor architecture, increased processing speed, bigger disk space and bigger memory. But introduction of touchscreen is the most exciting and remarkable difference.

The first fortunate ones to get this new XO-4 laptops will be the students from Far Western region of Nepal, Bajhang. Details at http://www.olenepal.org/donate/.

At OLE Nepal, our team is making preparation to get the contents ready for it, especially EPaath.

Preparations: 

We have completed the most important parts of preparation. The most time consuming part so far has been setting up of build environment to prepare Operating System image for XO1.75. Right now XO 1.75 is what we’ve got and we are trying out everything under it. We hope doing things for XO4 will not be much diffirent as they both have same architecture. XO-4 specification can be found at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-4_Touch. We have set up an ARM environment through software virtualization on x86 machine for preparing the OS image. Visit following links for detail

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_Builder
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/ARM/Versatile_Express

The whole build process is very time consuming. Generating a set of OS images takes over 6 hours. So far we have successfully built OS release 12.1.0 on Fedora 17 (Fedora-17-armhfp-vexpress). We shall be working on release 13.1.0 on Fedora 18 for XO-4. There are strict rules to which platform to choose for a particular release. Visit http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_Builder for details.

We are also trying to get an ARM based system in order to speed up the build process. Building on virtualized environment is very very slow as already stated. “Wandboard quad” and “Utitile” devices are good candidates for this purpose. Due to huge demand, Utilites are low on stock as of this writing and can not be purchased. Paul Fox from OLPC informs that they had been using mother board from Marvell for this purpose. If nothing works for you, you can always build image on your XO, XO4 that is. Visit http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_Builder/Run_on_XO_hardware. It can be little faster then building on virtualized environment. Just that you need to have one extra XO for testing and one big usb disk.

Porting EPaath: 
Porting our interactive digital learning material “EPaath” has been the most challenging and interesting part for me. It involved creating local repository for Firefox and installing vmeta packages through scripts to enable flash and media codecs. Thanks to oob configuration files ( e.g olpc-os-12.1.0-xo1.75.ini). They are very comprehensive and they work great. Thanks to all the help I got from mailing list and IRC at ARM Fedora, Sugarlabs and Sugar Devel. People at mailing list are sometimes rude, sometimes quite but most of the times helpful.

Work in Progress: 

Now some of the most important things we should immediately look into are the translation of sugar and other activities and nepali keyboard driver. We should be targeting sugar version 0.98. 0.98 has added/deleated strings suitable for touch screens. Newer build comes with a lot of new activities. New translation may be required for new activities like Wikipedia and getbooks etc.

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools. (Source: Wikipedia)

We also got hands on the much acclaimed Raspberry-Pi, thanks to OLE Inc in Cambridge, USA. We have tested to see if we could replace our traditional school server with Raspberry-Pi model B. However, Raspberry Pi couldn’t handle the the task when we loaded our digital library E-Pustakalaya on it. Though the page were browsable, the performance was very slow. We replaced Apache with Nginx and optimized Mysql, but still the CPU power was not powerful enough.

We are excited about moving to the new XO-4 laptops for upcoming deployments. XO-4 uses power efficient processor based on ARM technology and has expanded storage space. It has the same sturdy design as its predecessors that have earned a reputation for durability and withstood heavy usage by students in rural schools in Nepal.

In mid-February, OLPC sent us an XO-1.75 which is based on same architecture as XO-4 for testing purposes. We were worried to learn that there was no public support of Flash for this architecture since OLE Nepal has invested heavily in Flash. We have over 500 interactive learning modules develop ed on Flash that children in Nepal use to learn various concepts. Not only that, other educational activities in our digital library, E-Pustakalaya, like the British Council’s “Learn English Kids” and “E-Learning for Kids” are also based on Flash.

(We tried other platforms to develop on, but Flash provided us an environment where we could quickly create interactive activities. Later when we learned that Flash was not being supported by many vendors, we were well on our way to build our framework on it and it was too late to switch to other platforms)

Fortunately, with the help of OLPC we managed to run Flash on XO-1.75. This was a major relief for us. Besides that, the performance of new XOs is extremely better compared to the previous versions. Now we are setting up new build system for new XOs which will be deployed this summer.

We are very excited about the recent agreement with Kathmandu University School of Education (KUSOED) collaborate to further strengthen ICT-based education programs in Nepal’s public school system. OLE Nepal has always believed in expanding the reach of ICT through collaborations and partnerships with governmental and non-governmental institutions. It is a win-win situation for both parties. While the partnership allows OLE Nepal to tap into a pool of talented students to help in the expansion of its program in the country, KUSOED can take advantage of the rich experience that OLE Nepal has gathered over the years in the design and implementation of ICT-integrated education.

The two parties agreed to work together to build on each other’s strengths and experiences towards developing capable human resources, needed to expand ICT-integrated teaching-learning process in primary and secondary schools in the country. It is hoped that the collaboration will lead towards creating a center of excellence in ICT-integrated education within KUSOED. The envisioned center of excellence at KUSOED can play a lead role in the research and design of ICT-integrated teaching-learning practices in the country, and help prepare the human resource required to realize the potential that ICT has to office in improving quality and access in our education system.

As part of the agreement, OLE Nepal will prepare graduate level students to train school teachers on ICT-integrated teaching-learning process, and provide opportunities to trained graduate students to conduct training sessions in OLE Nepal’s program schools. OLE Nepal will also provide support to KUSOED students conducting research in the field of ICT-based education. KUSOED will identify graduate students to participate in the program, facilitate research in ICT-integrated education, provide expert inputs and provide relevant resources available at its ICT Resource Center to expand the scope of ICT-based education in the country.

As per the MoU, OLE Nepal conducted a three-day Training of Trainers (ToT) for eight graduate students from KUSoED on January 28-30, 2013. Four of the trainees later accompanied OLE Nepal’s trainers to Baglung from February 5 to 10 to observe the in-school training being conducted at the six OLPC shared-model program schools.

KU students getting trained at OLE Nepal office

The E-Pustakalaya development team has changed the overall layout and design of the E-Pustakalaya website to make it more user friendly. The landing page now, is more dynamic and displays featured books based on popularity and other variables which can be changed periodically. It also displays recently added books which helps user stay updated regarding the additions. The book cover preview makes the user easier of notice and identify books. Listed below are details of other new features added on the website:

Videos:
All the videos have been sorted into different categories based on the content and, displayed with a preview image and a title. For videos that cover two or more categories are placed in all the categories. A short preface about the videos tell users what the video is about and the view counts help reflect its popularity among the users.

Authors:
Author page allows to view a list of all the authors, their biographies (if available), and links to their books. We are in the process of finding biographies of all the authors.

Book Review:
Other important features in the books section include bookshelf and book review. Users can use bookshelf functionality to prioritize books to read, identify books for future reference or reading, share the book list among friends and other users. Book review feature on the other hand helps users write their views on the book and rate them. Users can use the login feature with their google, facebook or twitter accounts.

Audio Books:
Rato Bangala Foundation has created audio tapes of the English course books used in public schools throughout the country. These audio tapes are highly popular in Dailekh where most primary English teachers have received trainings on how to incorporate these audio tapes into their daily classroom lessons. Through OLE Nepal’s partnership with the foundation, these tapes will be made available in E-Pustakalaya’s portal.

Greetings Earthlings!

If you think you heard a clap of thunder, you are not entirely wrong. High amplitude sound waves do wiggle through the air(all the way to Rabi Dai’s office) when we L-O-L. Ok wait–that’s lame. Let’s try this again.

Hi there!

Let’s start by telling you who we are. This is Kayo. Now it’s Anisha. And I’m here too(Sahara btw). I’m Pratistha and I’m Niraj. Wait what? Guys just stop! Let me handle this. Google Docs can be such a pain sometimes.

Here it goes.

We are the sleepily-arriving, tea-chugging, email-checking, report-writing, keyboard-pounding, XO-fixing, charger-taping, puzzle-solving, book-hunting-and-scanning, then-editing, now-uploading, hard-at-working, philosophy-phishing, pun-intending, joke-making, wildly-laughing, tummy-growling (guys! lunch?), human-be-ing, lunch-gobbling, second-help-ing, survey-checking, while-burping(eww Kayo), field-visiting, wiki-updating, fund-hunting, E-Paath recording, NEXO-testing, NEXS-installing, tea-sipping, cable-crimping, router-flashing, Linux-not/liking, blog-writing, work-loving OLE Nepal Interns.

Book scanning, Puzzle solving, XO fixing, Tea sipping

We are five young interns who have come from different places, for different reasons and for different lengths of time (Kayo’s the big time senior intern). We come from colleges in New England and homes in Tinkune, for a month, for six, for a year. We are individuals who have for the first time, been taken seriously as our ideas have been encouraged, while our report-writing and book-scanning skills have seen vast improvements.

It was the XOs that needed fixing, the E-Paaths that needed reviewing, the audio that needed recording, the google docs that needed translating, the reports that needed editing, the programs that needed brainstorming and the surveys that needed correcting that really brought us all together. The attachment that we then felt towards one another was what grew out of the meaningful conversations and overwhelming laugh-out-loud moments. During our field visits, we were seeing and learning new things together. Living with one another for days on end helped us see each other beyond the work that we did and the opinions that we held. We got in touch with one another’s idiosyncrasies and emotional disposition; we got to know each other in person. Even when we later see one another in the office, we burst out laughing because the familiar faces summarize the wonderful moments shared and the discoveries made.

Aman and Sahara establishing a school network in Dadeldhura

Yes, our experiences here have truly been out of this world. We come from different fields of interest and each of us at some point, experienced things that we would have never had the opportunity to otherwise. Some of us who were intimidated by the tech-savvy ended up fixing XOs and crimping CAT5e cables. Others who had hardly been outside the city had the chance to travel from Solukhumbu and Mustang to the likes of Doti and Dadeldhura; to see the realities of our country, step out of of our comfortable bubbles and remind ourselves what is easy to forget: that the rest of Nepal is a long way from Kathmandu.

We are most inspired by the people at OLE Nepal who are among the rare few that walk the walk. Some of them have a quiet brilliance that shines in their work. Some have kind words and wise ways that help make the best decisions. Some have the child-like sense of humor and wonder that we are often afraid we will lose when we grow up.

It is precisely this collective sense of wonder in everyone that works wonders. People generously open up their minds to one another, sharing ideas big, small and wondrous. Everybody talks to everybody else. Conversations are effortless. We find ourselves talking to adults without weighing our words or filtering our thoughts, an opportunity we seldom got before. When we share ideas that sound ridiculous or impossible even to ourselves, the people listening to us kindly crop out what is too far fetched and ground the rest with their own imaginations into something really doable. With yet more sharing, cropping and imagining and then sharing, ideas become. It is like the office is a child’s mind, with conversations like thoughts inside the same head.

Kayo and Pratistha fooling around in Solukhumbu

The people at OLE Nepal have shown us that regardless of whether we become mathematicians or teachers or movie stars (Niraj?), we can all come together to create something innovative and wonderful, just as the people at OLE Nepal have come together from completely different fields of expertise to do spectacular work and share a common goal. These people are genuinely interested in what they are doing. They are as good mentors as they are people. In ways small and big, from the frequent pat on the back to the thoughtful words of advice, they invite us to walk with them.

Guys! What? I think this is coming together alright. Maybe Google Docs isn’t too bad after all?

For OLE Nepal, interns come and interns go. Over the years, it has seen many like us. But for us interns, there is only one OLE Nepal. We will always look back at our days here with a smile, grateful for having been part of this family. When we do finally leave, we are not really leaving, we are just becoming like distant cousins who don’t see each other very often, but will always be related. We will form a larger network–in other words, an extended family– of OLE Nepal, spreading the word and carrying with us a cause that we will believe in wherever we will go. Our experiences here have given us a better sense of direction. The rare chance to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves is truly an opportunity of a lifetime.

We are five young interns who over our time here at OLE Nepal, have taken many little steps closer to a future that we will someday be responsible for, a future that we hope to become. We are five young interns who have taken one giant step closer to helping build a future that is beyond ours.

Niraj, Pratistha, Anisha, Sahara, Kayo

OLE Nepal Interns:

• Kayomars Bilimoria Puri
• Sahara Pradhan
• Pratistha Bhattarai
• Anisha Shrestha
• Niraj Paudel
• Aman Maharjan (On leave from inception through materialization)