Now I'm teaching computing!

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Well the last thing I expected when planning to come to Cambodia was that I would be teaching computing but that's the way it has turned out. Just before I arrived, a group from a high school in Australia had been here and they had brought with them to donate a number of laptops that were no longer wanted. When the director leaned that I was a computing teacher, he asked if I could organise some basic computer lessons for the orphanage children.

The laptops were all in different states of organisation in terms of software; most were Windows PCs but there were also some Apple Macs. I spent about the whole of last Sunday checking them all out to see how many I could use with the kids. They all had some old contract anti-virus programs on for which we don't have or can't afford the contract so the first thing I did was delete those and then install AVG free on them all. They all had Windows XP but a number needed quite a few updates such as service pack 3. We had hoped to be able to start lessons on the Monday but in the end I just did not have quite enough time and there was also a power cut on Monday morning.

Eventually by the end of Monday I had 7 Windows laptops ready for use with a class so we sorted out a timetable for the rest of this week. I am still teaching the monks' English class from 1pm till 2pm each day so on the Tuesday I had one computer class in the morning and another in the afternoon. After the afternoon class I then cycled over to the orphanage for a couple of hours before dinner. This then will be the plan for the rest of this week and if all goes well we'll try and get 3 classes per day in next week.

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Photos

Cambodia in the wet season
Flooded farmland near Takeo

Cambodian buildings
These roof ornaments are very common

Rain
A typical afternoon pourdown at the orphanage