One of my latest endeavors has been to build a computer lab in the Primary School not only for the kids and teachers but also for everyone in the village who wants to learn how to use a computer. My initial attempts to motivate the leadership in the village weren’t all that successful. So I used the carrot of two donated computers (my old laptop and a old desktop from my parent’s office, thanks again rents) if they would raise the money to prepare the room. It needs a desk, chairs, surge protector, fan, and needs to be sealed because in Samoa if you don’t have air conditioning the next best thing is to seal the room with cardboard and keep a fan on max speed whenever the computer is on because the humidity does bad voodoo to electronics. That was my offer and suggested that they do some sort of fund-raising to acquire those few things, not that it was a big deal but I was trying to find a way for the community to have ownership of the project.
To my surprise, during the meeting of parents (almost like a PTA) and the school committee they decided to have a Bingo to raise the money. Bingo here is like a national past time. It is played almost bi-weekly by people of all ages. They then debated about how many, what kind of games, what the prizes would be, and which families would be responsible to bring which prizes. I am basically a Bingo virgin. They went on about 4 ons, 6 ons, Specials, Jackpots, Bonuses for over an hour. I was confused the whole time. But it all worked out as you can see from the pictures. Because the school draws kids from my village and the next it was deceptively large. It was during this afternoon that I lost my Bingo virginity.
The normal prizes consist of laundry powder soap, laundry bar soap, body soap, Top Ramen packets, rice, sugar, mosquito coils, etc. And the Specials, Jackpots, Bonuses have the stuff mentioned above plus boxes of cup o noodles, eggs, big bags of rice, and someone was supposed to bring a teapot but they dropped the ball. Exciting stuff.
All in all we raised 850 Samoan tala or about $220. I have to say I was blown away. It’s way more than a few of the things we need cost. To add to that I just got a grant approved from the Australian High Commission for school furniture that I was unsure about. So there has already been some rumors about wanting to buy some other computers and I have a contact through other Peace Corps Volunteers of a computer store owner in New Zealand who will ship us deeply discounted computers. If that happens it would work out better than I ever thought it would.
My plan is to have different classes during the week mostly for school age children but also for kids my age and adults. If anyone is interested in donating any computer related equipment or software it would be much appreciated and well used. Please contact me by email first and I will give you my mailing address here.
To my surprise, during the meeting of parents (almost like a PTA) and the school committee they decided to have a Bingo to raise the money. Bingo here is like a national past time. It is played almost bi-weekly by people of all ages. They then debated about how many, what kind of games, what the prizes would be, and which families would be responsible to bring which prizes. I am basically a Bingo virgin. They went on about 4 ons, 6 ons, Specials, Jackpots, Bonuses for over an hour. I was confused the whole time. But it all worked out as you can see from the pictures. Because the school draws kids from my village and the next it was deceptively large. It was during this afternoon that I lost my Bingo virginity.
The normal prizes consist of laundry powder soap, laundry bar soap, body soap, Top Ramen packets, rice, sugar, mosquito coils, etc. And the Specials, Jackpots, Bonuses have the stuff mentioned above plus boxes of cup o noodles, eggs, big bags of rice, and someone was supposed to bring a teapot but they dropped the ball. Exciting stuff.
All in all we raised 850 Samoan tala or about $220. I have to say I was blown away. It’s way more than a few of the things we need cost. To add to that I just got a grant approved from the Australian High Commission for school furniture that I was unsure about. So there has already been some rumors about wanting to buy some other computers and I have a contact through other Peace Corps Volunteers of a computer store owner in New Zealand who will ship us deeply discounted computers. If that happens it would work out better than I ever thought it would.
My plan is to have different classes during the week mostly for school age children but also for kids my age and adults. If anyone is interested in donating any computer related equipment or software it would be much appreciated and well used. Please contact me by email first and I will give you my mailing address here.
Village matais (chiefs) counting the bread. My host-father is on the right. Nothing like Bingo and Pall Mall Menthols.
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