With detail plan and preparation, networking team (Ram Krishna Singh and Basanta Shrestha) boarded Buddha Airways for Dhangadhi on Nov 18th. At Dhangardi, in hazy evening we strolled down in search of iron poles required to hold antenna in place and make them stable. One of the main reason of unstable Internet connections in the existing schools and relay points at Dadeldhuda, we found, was due to the constant wavering of the antenna position. This time, with these poles in  relay points and schools, we wanted to negate this effect to large extent. At Puri Suppliers, Chauraha we bought around 35 ft of iron pipes and had them cut to pieces, of required length. We walked back to hotel discussing next day’s plan.

At Silugadi, our first task was to get new ADSL line from Nepal Telecom Office. Before getting a line, we talked to a NT staff, who had agreed to put relay at his home in our survey visit. But to our surprise and dismay, he started asking for personal favor. We were in no position to meet his demand and instantly started working on alternate plan. Fortunately, near by Ncell tower, there was a FM station, Saileshwori FM, with ADSL line.  We approached them and discussed about possibility of sharing the ADSL line. Station manager was very excited about our OLPC project and  was more than happy to help us for which he thought is noble cause. After meeting, Basanta started his at FM station, and I walked to the Ncell tower to manage a separate power line for our antenna.

Ncell tower supervisor, Besh Raj, was waiting for us at Silugadi tower.  We asked him if he can arrange a helper to fix antenna at Ncell tower. Besh Raj was very amicable and managed one college student Lokendra, who later on turned out to be a very quick learner and remained with us for good 10 days. With the help of Lokendra, we fixed two antennas at Ncell tower, Silgadi one pointing towards Khatigaun Ncell tower and other to Mauwa relay point. Satisfied with day’s work we went back to lodge [Lord Buddha] where we have set up our base.

Early in the morning, Lokendra showed up in the lodge with his friend Basanta and we were team of four. After an hours drive from Silgadi, we reached Khatigaon  and fixed two antennas in Ncell tower one pointing Silgadi and other to Mahadev school relay house. Another major relay point was Ncell tower at Mauwa VDC. After long discussion, we planned to connect Mauwa relay point to Silgadi first, then connect Khatigaon to School Relay house later, and accordingly headed towards Mauwa.

Near by Mauwa Ncell tower, in the direction of Silgadi, there was small hillock which blocked clear visibility of Ncell tower at Silgadi. But we kept working hoping that it won’t affect much. By this time, WFP staff Rajan Khatiwada got so much interested in our work that he started climbing up and down the Ncell tower(which normal people including me would not dare) and fix the clamp and antenna. After completing setup we tried connecting it to Silgadi relay point, but it didn’t work out. Tried all the tricks but in vain. Tired and frustrated we all came back to local lodge “Nawaraj Ko Hotel”. One good thing about this lodge is it’s food. Highly recommended lodge to be in if you ever happen to visit this place.

Next, we sent Lokendra to Silgadi end to fine tune antenna while we stayed back. There was load shedding in Silgadi and couldn’t test connection till afternoon. We fine tuned antenna at both end but still there was no sign of any connection. At this point, we cursed ourselves for not learning  ”Radio Mobile” software and checking the viability of connection in this software before implementing it.

Radio Mobile is a free and powerful tool used to predict the performance of a radio system. It uses digital terrain elevation data for automatic extraction of path profile between an emitter and a receiver. This data is added to system, environmental and statistical parameters to feed the Irregular Terrain Model radio propagation model. Elevation data is also used to produce virtual maps in background. Radio Mobile  can be used to plot coverage and design radio links. It is able to create plot that is as accurate as the plot from expensive commercial packages used by my hardware vendors.

Lesson learnt, from now on, we will make sure that performance and viability of connection of the radio system in Radio Mobile is checked prior to its implementation.

Here we were on the 7th day(25th Nov) of the actually planned 12 days trip with nothing working on our favour. We haven’t connected even a single relay point, forget about the schools. Team members, specially Basanta, was having sleepless night with constant coughing. Frustration and fatigue started showing up in the form of irritation and differences among the team member even in minor issues. In the evening, wearing long faces, we were shambling around the Mauwa tower and approached to near by hillock to have a view towards Silgadi. To our surprise and entirely unexpected, Silgadi relay point and both schools Sri Saraswati & Durga Primary were visible from this vantage point. Suddenly with renewed hope we discussed connecting Saraswati and Durga school with Silgadi via Khatiwada gaon and Bajh ko Mod relay points. With this new plan and little remaining hope, we came back to Silgadi, arranged necessary equipments for new Khatiwada relay point and Saraswati Primary School. We called and explained our new plan to Shiva Raj Khadga sir from Saraswati and asked to make necessary arrangement accordingly.

Next day, before heading to Khatiwada gaon, we fine tuned the antenna, checked and reconfirmed the connection at Silugadi tower. After 2 and half hours walk, we reached the destination. After short discussion and agreement with principle at Shree Devi school at Khatigaon, we used this point as one of the relay point as we had planned the previous day. With clear line of sight and shorter distance, connecting these two points were pretty easy.

After successful connection, I left Khatiwada gaon for Silgadi early in the morning, picked up the necessary equipment and headed towards the “Bajh ko Mode” relay point. By mid day, I was there at the Bajh, but to our utter dismay, there was no electricity in that location which could power our relay point. After much dialogue and considerations among team members and teachers, we decided to use Khema[Principle, Durga Primary School] madam’s house as a relay point. By this time, Basant was working at Saraswati school and had completed installation at his end. With little fuss, we were able to connect Khatiwada relay point and Saraswati school. Heart full of thanks goes to Shankar Khadga sir, principle from Saraswati Primary School, for all hard work and effort he has put in, in installing relay point at Khema mam’s place. Basanta went and connected Durga school to Saraswati School without much complain. Mission accomplished. With this success, we were gaining back our confidence and lost vigor. We had at least something to show and report at office.

Finally, with much relief and day’s work we walked down to the village to watch Bhauwa Dance with free flowing Theula.

With hangover and Bhauwa tune still lingering in our head, we contacted OLE Office, updated our status and discussed about possibility/viability of connecting Mahadev school, with 8 relays in between, to source at Silgadi. After much analysis and consideration, we decided not to connect Mahadev School for timebeing.

There still were some works left to be done before returning back to Dadheldhura. The antennas those were mounted at Mouwa and Khatigaun Ncell tower had to be dismantled and taken back along. The following day we called for WFP vehicle from Dadheldhura, picked up our local antenna mount expert Lokendra from his college at Silgadi and went to Khatigaun to dismantle the antenna. We set out for Dadeldhura at about 3 pm. Our arrival to Tufaan Danda was delayed by an hour because on our way back the road was blocked because of an accident between a truck and passenger Jeep. It was very difficult to figure out whose mistake was it but as it was apparent, the truck had gone out of its way and hit the jeep.

The following days we visited schools in Haat, Hamtad and Budum, updated the softwares on laptops and school servers and maintained their school network.

With the constant expansion of our content and features it is only natural that our system would require further upgrades. We want to make sure that these changes will appear on Jan 1st hence, we will be closing down our regular service for a week (26-31 Dec). This year we have had a lot of feedback from our users most of them have provided us with suggestions about certain features that would add to the overall user experience. We value the feedback we get and we will be trying to include all these features and much more by Jan 1st.

This festive season as Nepalis celebrate Christmas, Tol Lhosar, Tamu Lhosar and the start of Year 2012 we hope our maintenance work will not dampen the holiday spirit.

Wishing and thanking all our users the very best we leave knowing that we will see you all at the start of 2012!!!

http://olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/issue11/OLENepal_Newsletter_SepOct_2011.pdf

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email to newsletter@olenepal.org.

http://www.pustakalaya.org/view.php?pid=Pustakalaya:2679

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

LE Kids provides its users with a multitude of options such as solving puzzles, painting, reading, playing games and listening to songs. All of these choices enable people to learn day to day English. This can be something as simple as knowing English terms for food items sold at shopping centres or teaching comprehension skills with its various read and solve quizzes.

LE Kids also contains two person general knowledge quizzes. These quizzes allow healthy competition among children, teach children (and adults) interesting facts about our changing world and also enable and encourage kids to share their computers. This will be very useful for students in rural schools where even with the generous numbers of XO laptops provided by OLE Nepal there is a need to share. Some of the quiz questions also explain why an answer is incorrect. For example a question regarding the largest lake in the world has as an incorrect option the deepest lake in the world, lake Baikal. Thus, even while answering incorrectly children can learn a new fact as well as understand that there are differences between similar concept words such as ‘large’ and ‘deep’.

My favourite section in LE Kids is the Short Story section. The user has fifty two stories to choose from. Apart from being able to read along with the stories some of them are also interactive. The ‘Spycat’ story for example allows the children to solve the clues that Spycat discovers. This technique allows children to remain engaged with the story and not lose focus.

We can say with certainty that both students and teachers will greatly benefit from LE Kids activities as content to build English language skills is scarce. One can access LE Kids from the E-Pusatkalaya homepage. It is conveniently located in the upper right hand panel of the homepage under the title ‘अंग्रेजी भाषा सिकौँ’ (‘Learn English Kids’ in our English interface). Any one who has tried LE Kids will find it fun and appealing to the intellect.

The full newsletter can be accessed at:

http://www.olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/issue8/OLE_Nepal_Mar-Apr_2011_Newsletter.pdf

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

http://www.olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/issue7/OLENepalJanFeb11.pdf

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

http://www.olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/OLENepalNovDec10.pdf

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

Interns busy preparing laptops for deployment

After having done this for the past three years, the process has become less chaotic than our first major deployment two years ago in 2009. (The 2008 deployment was a test phase where we implemented the program in 2 nearby schools totaling 135 students). Under the watchful eyes of our program manager Subir and our office admin Rabita, the preparation has been much smoother. Our interns and deployment teams are checking on their task lists before they head out to the schools. We even have two deployment veterans Aavash and Prakash coming back to assist us this year.

Laptop bags getting bundled together before being shipped to schools

Soon the laptops, servers, bags, power racks, and other equipment will be shipped to schools on planes and trucks. In many places, the last bit of the journey will include people carrying them on their backs. This deployment marks a special milestone for us. With grade five being added next month, we will have finally reached our goal of saturating grades two to six in all our program schools. We started with grades two and six in 2008, and slowly expanded schools and grades each year to reach this milestone. The content team will have completed the development all the educational materials (E-Paath) for grade 5 English and mathematics by the end of April. This has been a huge undertaking for OLE Nepal. The development of curriculum-based digital educational materials in various subjects for grades two to six has us three years, and the content and process have gone through a number of iterations in our attempt to continually improve based on feedback from teachers and students.

Laptop boxes ready for shipment to schools

OLE Nepal trainers, with help from government trainers, will conduct trainings in all districts on how to integrate laptops and digital content in classroom teaching. Teachers attending this training are English, mathematics, Nepali and science teachers teaching in grades two to six at the program schools who have not received any training from OLE Nepal in the past. By the time we complete this training session, we hope that all teachers who will be involved in laptop-based teaching will have received training.

Specially designed bags for laptops and books

But we are still far from our goal. We will now shift our focus to see how we can expand the program to more schools and reach more students while looking into the possibility of developing contents for more grades and subjects. With an implementation model that has been tried and tested over the years, along with educational content including our vast digital library, and a team of dedicated and talented trainers, educators, engineers and managers, we have the right formula to scale the program to more schools.

Locally designed and built laptop charging racks

* Nand-blasting is a cool technique to install software in multiple XO machines wirelessly from one source machine.
* NEXO is a variation of Sugar build maintained by OLE Nepal, customized for Nepal with local activities and content, such as E-Paath.
* NEXS image is a customized linux server used in the Nepali classrooms, which provides access to a local digital library, and services such as backup for the children’s work .

View to inspire the writers from Nagarkot Farmhouse

As Young Adult literature is a new genre in the world of Nepali literature, the workshop began with the accepted definition of the genre in foreign countries then we discussed what Youth meant in the Nepali context and encouraged a colloquial understanding of our target audience. After summarising the materials OLE Nepal had collected during the seminar on 22nd December (http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/date/2011/01), a slide show presentation of newspaper articles highlighting problems and concerns facing YAs in Nepal was shown.

After discussing several famous YA novels a brain storming exercise was conducted where each participant recalled their adolescence and re-counted a moment in their life which was symbolic of being a YA. Many of the experience involved having suicidal thoughts due to low exam grades (grades being hidden due to tuition not being paid in time), going through a rebellious phase where one starts experimenting with drugs or steals a library book, tales of teenage love and heart break and even a memory of sexual exploitation. These memories were so lucid that they could be turned into short stories all on their own. Another point that these stories proved was that though times have changed, lot of the challenges faced by adolescents today remain the same at its core.

Facilitator Vinaya Kasajoo

Later after lunch participants were shown video clips of R. K. Narayan’s Malgudi Days and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. The Outsiders is generally considered the first YA English novel after the genre had been clearly defined. While the Malgudi Days has a protagonist slightly younger than what is widely accepted as the correct age of the major protagonist in YA genre, it was shown to better understand how characters would look like in a South Asian setting. Further discussions were carried out on how these novels developed the nature of a first person narrator being an adolescent and how this adds authenticity to the genre of YA literature. Finally, the participants broke up into small groups and discussed what themes would be appropriate for their novels. Some of the authors also used the XO laptop to do some reading and visualise how their finished material would look like inside the little laptop.

Ganesh Ghimire of OLE Nepal introducing E-Pustakalaya

Having had a whole night to organise their thoughts, next day brought about a remarkable number of written stories and ideas. Character development, plot lines, style and tones were also discussed. Importantly, constructive ideas were presented to convert the abundant short stories into a larger, coherent novel. Creating a YA novel is vital as there are lots of shorts for young adults to read. However, it is only a novel which can steadily depict the changes and challenges an adolescent faces and teach YAs how to better navigate through these obstacles. This concept of ‘safe landing’ is vital for any work to be considered part of YA genre.

Setting up Projector and XO’s

Apart from having an adolescent as the main protagonist we expect to see the entire spectrum of fiction depicted by the participating authors. In concluding phase I of the workshop the participants were set a target of writing around 100 pages of literary material before the next phase of the workshop. With the shorts discussed the qualitative aspect of the work is in no doubt but a quantitative outcome will only be seen during the next phase.

Phase I of the workshop was highly productive in terms of inspiring the participating writers to want to write for Young Adults, brainstorming themes for their work and making certain that a good support system was created for the participants. Phase II of the workshop will occur in two months time where we hope to read some riveting stories.