Just a few more updates…

In these last few months at post, I will be working with the VSLAs to prepare them to troubleshoot any future difficulties they might have. I have high hopes for both groups, I believe they are motivated and committed enough to keep this idea going and hopefully to spread the word to other groups in Badou. The hardest part is getting things going, but once they're in motion you should feel free to walk away - become a passive observer.

Along with these two groups, we are also closing the pilot info tech class this month. Over the past three months, I've worked with HOUMEY Adodo and TETELESTAI (local NGO based in Badou) on an information and communication technology class. We taught ten high-school students the workings of that great machine, the computer and introduced them to the interweb!! They created emails and FB accounts in order to connect with that vast world that it is the web. I’m actually hoping to find PENPALS for my kids, so if you're interested contact me here, my email, or FB. We've been lucky with the group of kids that we chose - incredibly self-motivated smart kids, with the potential to be pretty great grown-ups one day :) We'll be working on Office EXCEL these next two weeks and then they will face the daunting tasks that are the BAC exams. We have four students that will be taking their BACII ( last year of high school) in order to graduate lycee and into University. Students here will spend months getting ready for this test (as in they've probably already started and the exam isn't until July); the SATs are child’s play compared to these. Anyways, I'm sure they cause just as many breakdowns, but Togolese kids handle it with much more grace than their American counterparts.

Check out my counterpart's blog, TETELESTAI. It is a locally based organisation with plenty of great initiatives concerning ICT promotion in rural areas, youth and gender development. http://assotetelestaitogo.wordpress.com/. They welcome feedback, technical advice, and project ideas.