Basecamp 3 reached
Our 15 laptops for Phase 2 have just arrived in Kathmandu. Many thanks to Art Freeman, Jeff Hancock, Virginia Felton and David Galvin who carried these 11,000 kilometers from Seattle! They were collected today by Chiring Lama and Narayan Bhandari Srijan from HELP who were key members of our Phase 1 trip in May and are driving this project forward on the ground.
Can’t wait to hear about the next phase of their journey to kids in Helambu schools!
Kids on the Grid 
Congratulations to the Mountaineers team for getting all of these 15 laptops across to Katmandhu, through a variety of customs and other security check points. It’s exciting to think that kids in the Helambu area in Nepal will be able to use these to develop new computer based skills. Getting web connectivity may take a bit of time and ingenuity, but the problems can be overcome.
This reminds me that only 10 years ago when I started some research for my book, Digital Nations in the Making: New Technologies and Adult Learning: Experience from Canada, USA and the UK (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1862012741/?tag=tutu22-20), adult educators were experiencing exactly these same connectivity problems and most local council employees in the UK did not even have an email address. The HELP project and Kidsonthegrid are doing a great job! We are looking forward to coming out to Nepal to see what is going on in April 2013.