Lessons Learned

1. It is important to be aware of minor cultural differences. For example, at one point one of us referred to Pastor Barry as “Barry” and the other members of the church were a little put off and didn’t know who we were referring to, since they refer to him as “Pastor.”

2. It is important to bring extra materials and spare parts. We needed an extra keyboard since “i” would show up when we typed “p” for one of the keyboards we had set up. Also, we need a few extra power cords, and we ended up using one of Pastor Barry’s switches in addition to ours, and one of his network cables.

3. Sometimes there are unexpected requests so that you need to be able to evaluate your resources and solve problems quickly. For example, Pastor Barry needed his computer in the adjoining office to also be set up to the network. They also requested that myspace.com be restricted, which was pretty easy to solve.

4. Training and teaching is at least as important as setting up the lab, and definitely the biggest concern of our site was their continued useage and future troubleshooting. Thus, an ongoing relationship with the site is ideal, though that is not feasible with a one-semester class.

Reflections

1. It is really rewarding to be able to use practical knowledge to do something that might actually have tangible, positive effects on people’s lives and in the community. It was also very rewarding to get to experience a different culture and one that has such a sense of community and building community up.

2. We got to know the Pastor, his wife, his kids, several church leaders, a few young people, and Jimbo the electrician, but it would have been nice to get to meet some of the kids that are actually going to be using the labs and talked to them about their usage, and just gotten to know them more generally.

3. The best case scenario is indeed a partnership between the site and the group. In our site, Pastor Barry and Darius, another leader of the church, are also construction workers, so it really was as if we were all working together as a team to make the site a functional reality: we were setting up the computers and installing drivers while they were drilling holes in the wall and mounting cables.

4. We are grateful that we were able to meet Pastor Barry and the other church members. They were very helpful and appreciative of our efforts. We were especially thankful that they made the effort to provide us with plenty of (very tasty) food each day, which really made us feel that we were welcome and accepted.