Saturday June 6, 2009
June 6, 2009
All preparations come to an end so actions can begin. And so it’s time to zip up the bags and just go with what we have. If we forgot something, we’ll make it up with resourcefulness. And so …
Vaccines … checked
Peru country credentials … checked
Passports … checked
Clothes … checked
XO laptops … checked!
Power adpaters …. checked!
Airline tickets …. checked!
Well then …. Vamos al aeropuerto para ir a Peru!
Wednesday June 3, 2009
June 3, 2009
We are trying not to butcher the Spanish language too much. And since “I am …” is something we will say very often, we wanted to get a handle on its grammar.
In English it’s just “I am …” for all things. Like I am a teacher … I am American … I am happy … I am on vacation, and etc.
But since Spanish is a romance language, there are two ways “to be.” (No, not what you think. It’s not the romantic way vs. the un-romantic way. But nice try.)
First, there’s the verb “ser” which is used for those kinds of being that are permanent. So, because “I am a teacher” and “I am American” have a sense of permanence to them, the Spanish version is …. soy profesor and soy Americano.
And then there’s the verb “estar” which is used for those kinds of being that are transient and subject to change. Therefore, “I am happy” means that I am in a state of happiness presently; I may not have been happy yesterday but right now I am happy. It’s a transient state of being. So, in Spanish it’s … estoy feliz rather than soy feliz. And similarly … estoy vacaciones (a transient state of being on vacation as most vacations are, unfortunately) rather than soy vacasiones (being in a permanent state of vacation).
But, if we should win the Mega Millions, forget grammar, we would definitely be … soy vacasiones!!!
Friday May 29, 2009
May 29, 2009
A little reading up at the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) website had Man and Brian heading for a local medical clinic to get shots for Yellow Fever and Typhoid, along with prescriptions for Malaria pills galore.
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/peru.aspx
With these extra protection, we’re armed up for a broad swath of travel throughout Peru; from the Andes to the Amazon, from metropolitan cities to rural villages, from mango to huachinango, from mole negro to pico de gallo. But for even more protection, we plan to have lots of cervezas always within arm’s length.
Friday May 29, 2009
May 29, 2009
Man and Brian’s Una Laptop por Nino (OLPC) field work in collaboration with the Peru Ministry of Education will take them to three regions of wide ranging geographies, climates, resources, and economies.
From the Andean highlands of San Martin to the Amazonean tropics of Ucayali.
From population density of 4/sq.km. to 14/sq.km.
From mining economy to those of logging and agriculture.
Capital city: Cerro de Pasco
Population density: 11/sq. km.
Elevation span: 256 meters lowest, 1380 meters highest
Economic resources: lead, zinc, silver, coal
http://www.regionucayali.gob.pe
Capital city: Pucallpa
Population density: 4/sq. km.
Elevation span: 135 meters lowest, 350 meters highest
Economic resources: wood, fruits
http://www.regionsanmartin.gob.pe
Capital city: Moyobamba
Population density: 14/sq. km.
Elevation span: 190 meters lowest, 3080 meters highest
Economic resources: coffee, rice, yucca, cocoa, tobacco, cebu cattle
Wednesday May 27, 2009
May 27, 2009
This morning, Jamie’s neighbor friend Kate Schaaf came over to play, walked by Man’s office, saw the XOs, and … “Mr. Bui, can we play with the laptops?”
Goes to show how quickly kids are drawn to the XO by virtues of its friendly, welcoming, play-with-me appearance.
Kate and Jamie firing up the XOs in Man’s office
Jamie and Kate playing with PAINT
Monday May 25, 2009
May 25, 2009 (Memorial Day)
Received from the Peru Ministry of Education official credentials for Man’s travel and collaboration with the Director of Educational Technology in the upcoming OLPC deployment.
Passport … checked
Country credentials … checked
Immunization vaccines … next on list. Ouch.
Sunday May 24, 2009
May 24, 2009
Hola … feliz aprender a todos!
With the clock ticking down on our departure for Peru, we’re doubling up efforts to get a handle on some survival Spanish.
Resources we’re relying on for our crash course:
Brian’s high school text book for the past year
Man’s almost daily Spanish lessons during walks in Webb Bridge Park with CoffeBreakSpanish.com podcast on his iPhone
For Dummies? …. perfect, that’s us.
Once we’re no longer Dummies, we’ll try for better grammar
Tuesday May 19, 2009
May 19, 2009
Received from Peru Ministry of Education today official credentials for Brian to come to Peru June 1-August 15 to take part in the Una Laptop por Nino program. Start packing, young man.
Man continues to familiarize himself with the world of OLPC by reading up on articles, blog posts, and discussions at One Laptop Per Child News. He’s also reviewing materials produced over the past year about Peru’s OLPC program. In his digging around, Man came across a good size blog by Carla Gomez Monroy on the pilot rollout in Arahuay in June 2007. Very good background information on the Peru program and the people behind it.
Sunday May 17, 2009
May 17, 2009
Today the XO laptop is put under a “kids test” by our 8-year old daughter Jamie. She wanted to visit one of her favorite game sites, neopets.com. The browser easily found and loaded the site but had large blank blobs on the page where Man suspected Flash contents would normally appear, given the widespread use of Flash by game sites. Man did some research on the OLPC support wiki and learned that the Gnash player (a free software counterpart to the commercial Abode Flash player) included in the browser can support up to Flash 7 contents and will indeed have compatibility issues with newer Flash 9 and Flash 10 contents. This is a major bummer for kids like Jamie who have developed an appetite for advanced sites that rely on the latest versions of Flash and the power of commercial grade laptops. But then, to be fair, kids like Jamie are not the intended demographics of the OLPC initiative.
A little more digging around the wiki turned up the statement ”many flash applications and movies that work with Adobe Flash will not work on the XO.” Oh boy, I hope the folks at Adobe and OLPC can work things out. It appears to be more of a licensing issue than a technical issue. My gut tells me that if it were mainly a technical issue, it wouldn’t be long before the genius technical community have it squashed. Licensing issues, however … now we’re in the realm of corporate lawyers! And to further complicate things, the divergent interests between Adobe, a for-profit corporation, and OLPC, a non-profit organization! But, let us hope.
Thursday May 14, 2009
May 14, 2009
Two XO laptops arrived at our home today from Cambridge, MA, so Man and Brian can begin to familiarize ourselves with the machines and be ready for the upcoming training sessions. We unboxed one of the laptops and had it up and running in about 10 minutes after a quick glance at the 2-page manual. The laptop quickly discovered numerous wi-fi networks in the vicinity and easily connected to our home network upon us entering the WEP key. Onto the Internet we went, visiting several familiar sites to see how they load.
Arriving from Cambridge, MA
Booting up XO laptop in Man's office
 | W. RAUL SAYRITUPAC T… on About Man & Brian Bui |
 | mercerd on Lap of luxury |
 | manbui on Dios es Amor |
 | Caryl Bigenho on Dios es Amor |
| manbui on I.E. 34087 ACO, Paucartam… |
