George Appiah - WEC Volunteer in Uganda

It’s Sunday … Hurray !!!

george appiah — Sun, 28 May 2006 04:50:43 +0000

Where have I been? Where I’m I?
So I’m going to Sweden?
What? Nothing to eat or drink?
Honey? These bees must have been starving.
I wanted pineaple jam, not sugar.

Oh, My Co-ordinator!

george appiah — Mon, 08 May 2006 04:44:49 +0000

My co-ordinator had gone missing for sometime. I looked everywhere, asked everyone. Nada, no one seemed to know his whereabouts.

Finally I found him. And here he is:

Daniel Kakinda, My Co-ordinator

Solar Eclipse Photo from Ghana

george appiah — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 10:52:50 +0000

A ~~loser~~ friend of mine in Ghana sent me this photo of the recent solar eclipse. This was taken with a Nokia 6230i cell phone and sent via MMS over the Areeba Ghana network.

Not too bad, methinks.

Karma

george appiah — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:55:51 +0000

Karma! Karma!! Karma!!! My first experience of Intention-Manifestation. Almost a broke blokee … and rather unexpected …

Flickr

george appiah — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:42:30 +0000

This is a test post from Flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

OKN Workshop @ Lubiri SSS

george appiah — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 03:21:16 +0000

SchoolNet Uganda recently (? hugh ) organised a workshop for the local Knowledge Workers of the Open Knowledge Network on Participatory Rural Appraisal and Evalauations. The purpose of this workshop was to improve the monioring and evaluation of OKN’s projects in Uganda.

The Open Knowledge Network (OKN) is a human network, which collects, shares and disseminates local knowledge and is supported by flexible technical solutions. OKN is not something new. It is a synthesis of tried and tested ideas; building on what is already happening in many different fields and joining up the dots. http://www.openknowledge.net

SchoolNet Uganda is the local partner for OKN, and implements OKN’s activities in Uganda. The venue was Lubiri Seconday School in Kampala.

Here are some photos from the workshop (Sadly, I couldn’t stay on the last day of the workshop, as I’d fallen victim to those mosquitoes again!).

Busy At Work @ SquatLab :-)

george appiah — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:56:28 +0000

If you happen to find me in my house anywhere and everywhere, you would be more likely to find me sitting in one style or another on the floor, than in a chair. I’m on the floor while reading, watching TV (on those rare occassions when I do watch TV) or even while eating!

I don’t know when I picked this habit or where I picked it from. But I kind’a do enjoy it very much. But I never could image this nifty habit of mine would come handy one day

Visit to the Source of River Nile

george appiah — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:03:42 +0000

Recently, after launching Mtandao Africa (formerly ThinkQuest Africa) in one school (hmm, me and names!), we took it easy and visited the source of the Nile River!

It was a wonderful experience to be at the very spot where the water from Lake Vitoria begins a journey of several hundred kilometers to feed the Nile River.

But it was also disheartening to realise how mankind’s wanton destruction and total disregard for natural laws can break the very heart and nerves of Mother Nature. Lake Victoria is indeed drying up (see photos below), hence the serious electrical power problems in Uganda and other countries in Eastern Africa.

Microsoft Partners-In-Learning Workshop at Ngora High School

george appiah — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 01:26:58 +0000

After I returned from Africa Source 2 workshop, I went over to Ngora High School in the Eastern Region of Uganda for a 5-day workshop. It’s a pity how time flies and I’m not able to update this blog as often as I’d like to. There are a thousand and one reasons for this. But at long last here goes the update.

The recently ended Microsoft Partners in Learning Workshop at Ngora High School was one of five (5) concurrent workshops that took place throughout the country. The program is a partnership between Microsoft (through the Partners in Learning Programme) and the Ugandan Ministry of Education, with SchoolNet Uganda as the implementing body.

This forms part of the Education Mnistry’s broader vision to equip every Ugandan teacher with ICT skills by the year 2010.

Click on an image to enlarge

Africa Source 2 – The Free and Open Source Software Workshop

george appiah — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:43:39 +0000

I recently attended Africa Source II, an eight day hands-on workshop aimed at building the technical capacity of folks working with and within NGOs on the African continent.

The workshop took place in one of the most beautiful parts of the Kalangala Island on Victoria Lake in Uganda from the Jan 08-Jan 15, 2006 …. and saw over a hundred participants from all over the continent and beyond.

There were three main thematic tracks, viz …

NGO Migration
Education Migration, and
Information Handling and Advocacy

In addition to these main tracks, there were a plethora of skill-share events, with most of the topics chosen on-the-fly as people demanded them and people with the skills to share were found.

With four delegates from SchoolNet, we thought it wise to split up and get a little bit of a feel from each main track, instead of all four of us being in the Education Migration track.

I followed the Information Handling and Advocacy track. I thought I didn’t know much about advocacy and was going to be a mere observer. OMG … how wrong I was! I ended up being a leading contributor in most of the discussions, especially on ICT tools for advocacy.

That’s a big lesson I’ve learned. From hindsight, I know I could have done a much better job facilitating most of the tracks and skill-shares that I participated in. But I didn’t find myself ‘fit’ to do that when I was applying for the workshop.