Goodbye, Pokhara

This morning at 5:00AM, I got a knock on my door. I stayed at Kiran’s house the night before, and he was asking (per our agreement last night, ‘ask me in the morning’) if I wanted to go on one of his morning walks. Sure, why not? We set out for the mountaintop a few miles away that he frequents and walked at a brisk pace: suitable for a brisk morning, it felt good to warm up by moving quickly. The night sky was full of stars, as the sun was far from up at this point. Because it was so dark, I had to make sure I didn’t step in any drains or piles of trash, which was hard because Kiran was walking at a breakneck pace. Eventually, we reached the plateau on the mountain we headed out for and were rewarded with a great view of pre-dawn Pokhara.

Some others also hiked the mountain to practice yoga. Also pictured: me being too tired to focus the lens.

Afterwards, Jagan and I returned to the Morning Star Academy. We brought with us two computers and two monitors. We let them know that these two computers were just preliminary tester units — because the Morning Star Academy is a private school, they have some funds (albeit limited) of their own to spend on computers. If they want more, they can pay for them (and Kiran, Jagan and I will match them one-to-one).

After visiting Morning Star, we met up Kiran at the Gyan Bhumi public school. This year is the 50th anniversary of the school, so it is a great time for new computers — they are really turning over a new leaf in a number of ways. Thanks to Rotary International, they are building a second floor to take three new classes (eight, nine and ten), the three years of High School in Nepal. These computers will help them teach the new classes coming in next year, which the government mandates have access to computer-based education.

It's alive!

After Gyan Bhumi, Jagan invited me to lunch. We went to his house and had a great talk about the future of this project in Pokhara, other schools to visit, etc. We had one more computer left for distribution in Pokhara, and Jagan suggested the school run by Catholic missionaries, which his daughters (and niece) attended. After lunch, Jagan, Kiran and I set out to visit the school, leaving them the final computer. Their computer lab, which has nearly a hundred computers (the school is very big), is quite outdated and draws a huge amount of electricity. The donation is for their consideration, they will decide whether or not to switch to these computers the next time they draw up their budgets.

Speaking of which, Jagan has two computers in his showroom. He will take pre-orders and let me know the kind of demand he is getting for these computers: they are priced lower than the MSI Wind / ASUS EeePC nettops he is currently selling, plus they use the 945GSEJT chipset rather than the 945GC chipset: cheaper, better performance, more hard drive space, and a third of the power consumption. The village he grew up in is also looking for computers (funded by Rotary, which he is a member of), and these computers seem to be a perfect fit. By selling these computers in his shop, I will get a cut of the profit (which will in turn fund more computers), the technology will get more widespread usage in Nepal, and we will be able to afford larger order quantities (lowering the per-unit cost). Our long-term goal is to distribute computers to each of the nine schools under the watch of the Village Development Committee he is on: ambitious, but hopefully we will reach it one day, giving computers to those who would otherwise not have access. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past week outside of Kathmandu, it is that the technology and the personnel willing to make these dreams a reality exist, the problem is really just funding. Meeting entrepeneurs like Jagan, Kiran, Muni and Mahabir realy give me hope about the future of this project. From seeing the new computer labs in Kaphal Danda and Benche, to the computers running along side the laptops donated by Mr. Friederick’s interim trip in Gyan Bhumi, it really gives me hope that a year, two years, five years down the line, students across Nepal will have the same access to information technology that we are afforded in a school like Hong Kong International. If a school outside of Nangi can have access to the internet before they have access to cars, I believe there is so much potential to be tapped in other areas around Nepal.

Tomorrow morning I’ll hop on the bus to Kathmandu. Two nights there and I leave for Hong Kong. While there is still work to do in Kathmandu, I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who donated to this project. The past two and a half months have been incredible, and I fully understand that it wouldn’t be possible without the help of the people who donated or otherwise helped with the project. I hope to keep things going as best as I can once I leave Nepal (in Nepal and in other locales throughout the world), and the future looks bright — but the reason this pilot program was possible in the first place is due to the generosity of the people who helped out.

That’s all for now.
Charles