Computer Skills

I was able to get a public car immediately upon arrival in town; however, the wait for the driver to start the trip was over an hour.

When I arrived there were still computer skills students there.  No report of any having left!  In the past, when I have been detained like this, some, even all, of the students have left.

Two of the students that normally come, did not.  Those who were there also expected them and did not know why they were absent.  Those who did come took advantage of the extra computer time and made great progress.

Computer Skills

In 2022 I was invited to Entebbe to help 5-17 Ministry start their classes.  Computer skills was one of the first three classes they offered.  They asked and I agreed to give them my materials and help them get started.  Their ministry is primarily to youth, youth they find wandering around the streets instead of in school.  (Orphans, [which means there is no father to provide for the family, the term is used even if the mother is still caring for them], and the family cannot afford the school fees are the primary reasons I was given.)  Five Seventeen Ministry tries to give their life a better focus, including a spiritual focus, than they will find on the street.

Because of their focus, they did not leave the computer lab set up after class.  Instead, each day I needed to pack up the computers and take them to the office.  The missionary just informed me they had a break in at the ministry site and the computers were stolen.  He did not indicate what he plans to do.  Here on the other side of the country, I have not had any break-ins or any security issues.  Five Seventeen Ministry is continuing with the other (which is numerous) aspects of their ministry.  The Truth is Light ministries have taken note but have not seen any signs of this problem in NW Uganda.  Please pray for 5 17 Ministry.

Computer Skills

The class in Mugujai was larger this week.  Several of the students returned.  The idea of having a computer to themselves has set in, which left the late arrival without a computer.  She seemed to be okay learning from what the others were doing and taking care of her young son.  He is at the age where he fears people who are different.  As a white person serving in black Africa, I am definitely different.  Like so many, she is trying to show him that there is nothing to fear.  Next week we are going to go back to sharing computer time.  Learning from others is good, but everyone needs to have an opportunity to use the computer too.

Connectivity

My newsletter is late in going out to the online community.  I try to send it the same day the paper version is due to be mailed; however, that depends on Uganda’s telecoms providing internet service.  Yesterday it was up and down, mostly down, throughout the day.  Yesterday was also the once a month visit to Arua where the banks with the best ATM services (in my region) are located.  Again, no connectivity, or as the error code put it, unable to contact issuing network.  So many things that I (and many others) take for granted are far from being available all the time to everyone.

P.S. Today the internet service is better.

Computer Skills

My Birijaku computer skills students that did not graduate last year are coming for class now.  Last year they were senior secondary year 4 students.  The ‘O’ level national exam year.  They were using all their time to prepare for those exams.  Now one is preparing to return to school for his S5 year (looking to complete his ‘A’ level exams at the end of S6) but injured himself working to raise his school fees.  He does not want to return to the boarding school until his foot has healed.  He is using the opportunity to work on his computer skills.  The other student is working to finish paying for last year’s school fees so he can find out how he performed on the exam.  He is also using the opportunity to work on his computer skills.  They are both progressing well.

Computer Skills

I have two students from the first computer skills class in Birijaku that are still working on the practicals.  They were both senior secondary school students (S4) last year.  They both sat for their national exams (‘O’ level for the Harry Potter fans).  One is going on to S5, working towards his ‘A’ level at the end of S6, the other must finish paying his school fees before he can get his results.  They are both asking me for extra opportunities to finish their computer skills practicals.  Yesterday, one of them came for a make-up class.  The other was called by the family to help with things at home. 

They are both beginning to understand Excel.  It is good to see them ‘get it’.

VPN

Things are changing again.  This time it is not Uganda changing what sites they will allow access to.  It is the VPN provider deciding that the free version will no longer allow the user to choose where they want to connect (what country they want to appear to be in).  Browsing the internet shows there are several rivals that claim to offer free VPN, but the reality is that they offer a trial period, not a free level of service.  Some of the organizations I connect with on the internet require a North American connection for the services I desire.  Therefore, I need to be able to choose the country my VPN is in. 

Computer skills

No one came for computer skills in Mugujai this week.  Livingstone and I used the time to talk about other things for the ministry and about his upcoming trip to Kenya for the burial of his recently deceased mother-in-law.  Many things to take care of, including how to care for the new well at the farm until funds are available to cement the sides and Livingstone returns to do the work.  That project has prevented Livingstone from helping in the Mugujai computer skills class in recent months; however, it represents a huge step forward for the agricultural ministry that he leads.

After we discussed how to take care of things while he is in Kenya, we packed the computers in a safe place.  The skills center will be set up again when he returns and announcements will be made about the one-week delay in classes.  The culture is accustomed to stopping everything for a burial, so there will be no issues.

Off-line part2

The Mugujai computer that stopped working (previous post) has been fixed.  Not only was it a problem with the Microsoft software wanting to go online, but there was also a settings issue.  After bringing the computer back to Koboko where I can access the internet, it would not even pretend to access the Microsoft (or any other) website.  It was pretending in Mugujai, there just was no service so the image must have come from the computer’s cashed memory.  Somewhere along the way the manual proxy server setting was turned on (in addition to the automatic proxy server setting).  It took time with the trouble shooters, but once the manual proxy server was turned off, using just the automatic proxy server setting, things started to connect.  Once I connected, the software license was validated and now the computer can be used again.  Yes, I tried using the software after turning the hotspot connection for the internet off.  It still works.  But for how long before Microsoft’s software decides it has to be online again?

Off-line

One of the computers in Mugujai has stopped working.  Not because it is broken, or because of a power issue.  This is because Microsoft assumes the entire world is online all the time.  I am using a family license of the Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, …) which I licensed in the US so I would have a legal copy with all the options enabled instead of the outdated, illegal, partial copies common in this part of Africa.  Unfortunately, the software requires the ability to connect to Microsoft to validate the license every time it is started.  Since there is no internet service in Mugujai (technically, it is there but the cell tower is so far away that the signal is too weak and every attempt to access the internet has failed/dropped), it cannot validate the license, so it has turned off all the functionality.  Cannot even type text into a new document.  When will Microsoft realize the world is not blessed with all the advantages they have at their disposal?  It is a simple process to set a switch in the software that says, ‘I have already validated this license when it was downloaded in a location with internet access, no need to access the internet to do it again.’  But they did not do it that way.