The second computer shipment arrived for Lamu this evening. It was quite amazing. The computers arrived by a truck with its trailer filled with sand to protect the computers on the treacherous road up to Lamu. They were then unloaded by hand and put onto a ferry. It was 
incredible to think of the journey these computers had made to finally arrive here. 75 computers arrived having travelled almost 5000 miles through the Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez canal, the Red Sea, the road from Mombasa to Lamu dock and finally this ferry journey across to Lamu. And they all worked!
incredible to think of the journey these computers had made to finally arrive here. 75 computers arrived having travelled almost 5000 miles through the Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez canal, the Red Sea, the road from Mombasa to Lamu dock and finally this ferry journey across to Lamu. And they all worked! I interviewed one of the local head masters and he removed any doubts I have about this project.
He was paasionate 
about education and urged Camara to continue what they were doing. His view was that technology literacy is as important as traditional literacy and numeracy and that it was crucial that the children of Lamu kept apace with that.
about education and urged Camara to continue what they were doing. His view was that technology literacy is as important as traditional literacy and numeracy and that it was crucial that the children of Lamu kept apace with that. At this stage every school (8 in total) on the island of Lamu has a Camara computer lab. The intention is to get all the schools to work together, share resources and to come up with a long-term plan to maintain and sustain the program. Once you have a group of schools working together it becomes much more affordable to establish a maintenance plan. For example, each school can contribute about 100 euros per year to a central fund that employs a local expert to maintain the computers. This is the model that Camara will try to adopt as it moves forward. Cluster schools together and encourage them to put this kind of maintenance plan in place.
The picture here shows the computers being loaded onto the boat before heading for Lamu. The schools had got together and 'chartered' the local ferry service to transport the machines to the island. Once the computers arrived onto Lamu island they had to be transported by hand cart to Lamu Academy which was the agreed distribution point for all the other schools on the island.
The electricity supply is very erratic on the island so surge protection and ideally UPS systems are necessary to protect the computers. I was amazing to find that many of the labs on the island had invested 
in individual UPS systems for each computer!
in individual UPS systems for each computer! Its quite extraordinary to see the local commitment around the computer labs and really does convince me that the Camara project is going places.
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