December « 2009 « Hackers For Charity

Christmas in Kenya!

Did you make a donation, support the cloud or subscribe to Informer? If so, you made a huge difference to widows and orphans in Kenya, East Africa! We traveled to three villages in Kenya this year to hand out some life-changing Christmas gifts. You don’t want to miss this great footage!

Our sad little Christmas tree

We were missing a Christmas tree this year. It’s just not something Ugandans need. So when we saw a guy walking the street selling little Christmas trees, we couldn’t resist. Have a laugh at our sad little tree.. and have a few “ho-ho-ho’s” at our expense. =)

The HFC Internet cafe is the heart and soul of our work in Uganda. It will provide a stream of income that allows us to build community centers where the poorest of the poor can learn computer skills which will lift them out of poverty. Upstairs, we will incubate our community center in a group of small training rooms where locals can begin computer training at a tenth of the local price (just enough to cover operating costs).

But we’re in way over our heads. We’ve signed a six month lease, and we dont’t have the money to properly outfit the center. This is your chance to get personally involved in what we’re doing. We need donors to step up and purchase the equipment we need. Like the donor cloud (on a bigger scale) we will “brand” the items you buy with a personalized message. We’ll be making up permanent plates that will be permanently affixed to each item you buy, leaving your own mark on our work in Uganda. Thanks for helping us out and stepping in the gap for the people in Uganda that are in such desperate need!

Note that we’ll be updating this page (unless no one donates! :-() with more items. We still need to price kitchen appliances, a coffee bar, and ice cream machine (I can dream, right?)

These are the lounge chairs for the cafe. We’ll use them at the XBOX and Wii stations and in the courtyard (eating) area. Each chair is $105 each. We suggest buying them in pairs. Handmade in Uganda using local materials! Also listed here is a center table we can use for drinks/etc in the gaming areas. Each table is $45. We suggest buying them in pairs.

These are the picnic tables we’ll use in the courtyard (eating) area. Each chair is $100. Handmade in Uganda using local materials!

These are the bar stools we’ll use around the cafe, especially at the Wii gaming area. Each chair is $50. We suggest buying them in pairs. Handmade in Uganda using local materials!

This the couch we’ll use inside the cafe in the lounge areas, and at the gaming stations. Each couch is $137.50. Handmade in Uganda using local materials! Also listed here is a center table we can use for drinks/etc in the gaming areas. Each table is $40. We suggest buying them in pairs.

This is the type of table we’ll use for the computer stations. They are very strong, all-steel construction at the base. Each table is $140. Handmade in Uganda using local materials! This is a great investment for those that want maximum exposure with a plaque, as we have lots of room for the plaque on the table.

The Nintendo Wii is a key draw for the tourists. A Wii package including extra controllers, cables, chargers, etc will cost $475. We will brand the console and all included controllers if desired. This is a very unique draw. Not only will “Nintendo Wii” really sweeten our advertising, but people playing the Wii are always a spectacle (I mean draw). There are no real game systems in town.

We (Wii?) really need extra controllers (and insurance for everything in range of a thrown controller). $170 will donate four Wii remotes and a 4-remote charger. We’ll brand each controller, if desired.

We would like to use flat-screen HDTV’s for the gaming stations. We could use projectors, but bulbs are hard to find, expensive, prone to damage and difficult to install. We need $1200-$2000 for each TV, which we’ll buy locally (with warranty). We’ll spend what you send. A larger donation results in a better/larger TV. This is one of the premium branding opportunities as we will place your message on the screen saver and in the game consoles for maximum exposure. We need two TV’s total.

This is a big donation. $3000 will buy a table of computers (one DELL Optiplex PC, 1 nComputing X550, 6 Benq widescreen monitors, keyboards, mice, power regulator and UPS. This is a big branding opportunity, as we’ll brand each desktop/screen saver just like we did for PAraben in these pictures. These tables will be used for Internet surfing and a center attraction for the cafe. Purchase does not include the table.

For $300 you can buy a single Internet station in the cafe. We will brand the workstation’s desktop and screen saver if desired. We must wait for 6 people to donate workstations as we must install per-table.

For $500 you can put in an XBOX 360 (arcade) system into the cafe. This is a major draw for the cafe, and will really bring in the tourist dollar. We will brand the console and all included accessories and controllers, and will change the dashboard images/avatars to reflect your brand, if desired. Did I mention this is a MAJOR tourist draw? The only games in town are 10-year old VGA computer games. When tourists / missionaries come through, their kids will go nuts to spend money on these systems, jonesing for a few hours of XBOX Live!

We’re really going to need extra controllers. For $205, you’ll donate 4 XBOX wireless controllers with chargers. We’ll brand each controller if desired.

This Christmas, I find myself thankful for so many things. This is not an all-inclusive list. If you’ve helped, but you’re not on here, it’s because I have a poor memory. Please don’t take offense if you’re not listed. You know what you did, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t for recognition anyway. On to the rather lengthy list. (My thank-you pages tend to ramble…. Remember the thank-you page for Google Hacking? That broke records.) In no particular order (except the first two), I’m thankful for:

God’s grace. At a relatively young age (35 IS YOUNG!!!), I felt a calling, something I always thought was reserved for the elderly and the missionaries. Not only did I feel called to Uganda, but my wife and children felt it as well. We followed, and God has provided (most clearly through the use of people as he’s done for millennia). We’re safe, we’re healthy and far from living as if we’re destitute, He’s provided a gorgeous home, a wonderful support system and most importantly: grace. We’re all getting along as a family, in one accord (not a Honda) and excited about what lies ahead.

My family. This goes without saying, but I am truly thankful for each and every one of them. My life would be drastically worse if not for all of them.

Our parents: They hold down the fort while we’re off saving the world and stuff. The things they find themselves involved in surprises me, but they’ve taken care of us and alleviated a lot of frustration. They’ve also kept us out of the path of angry debt collectors more than once, and they sent a way cool care package with the last team visit.

Our friends: Whether it was sending encouraging emails, sending packages (or stowing them in traveler’s suitcases!), calling, writing, or whatever, we really appreciate and miss each and every one of you.

Our “Long Journey” supporters: These folks pay in one-time and monthly donations so our family can live here in Uganda, do what we do without drawing a salary from HFC. This keeps our organizational expenses down and allows us to focus on or work. It’s really bad form to name people in this category, because everyone from the smallest to the largest donations make a real difference.

HFC financial supporters: Whether working as individuals or as a group, donors have bought T-shirts and stickers, used our donor cloud and sent PayPal donations that make what we do possible. Some highlights… “S.N.” has been our largest personal  contributor for a long time (nearing $10k), and he keeps on giving, and remaining anonymous. Paraben’s IPIC conference attendees donated nearly $4k over the past two years. “Craig” from the two-letter company made a $3k+ personal donation. Marcus Carey raised $3k through his DojoSec conference. Allen at http://n2netsec.com has contributed over $3k and rumor has it there’s another contribution coming. There are too many contributors in this category to list them all. I’m grateful for each one, big and small.

Tim Rosenberg: He came with Dwight (both from http://whitewolfsecurity.com) on a trip this year, and now he’s one of our biggest advocates. He does so much it’s impossible to list it all here. But I can sumarize. He’s sent loads of gear (stuff he donated, stuff he ordered, stuff from others) to us in Uganda. He’s organized not one but two trips to Uganda next year. He’s run down some sticky administrative stuff back home. He’s spoken about us at length in several public forums and conferences, giving up a slot to talk about himself. Oh, and he’s single-handedly donated most of the gear we’ll use for the Internet cafe. And I’m summarizing.

Chris Duke (www.gonavis.com) has shipped so much stuff to us, and endured so much pestering that he must be some kind of saint. He’s pocketed the expense for the majority of our shipments, and he just keeps serving. We wold be in deep financial and logistical without him.

“Dean”: Dean donated 50 laptops from his company, and still remains anonymous. The laptops staged St. John’s and will flesh out our cafe.

Keith Parsons: Keith donated 30 laptops and a heap of wireless gear. These will also be used in the cafe. I had no real idea what to do with all these laptops and all this gear, but there was a Plan. The Internet cafe came along and everything started falling into place.

Concetta Deleos: Concetta has been voluntarily handling our T-Shirt sales and distribution. This is one unpleasant time-consuming, unforgiving job, but she’s churned along much longer than I wold have. T-Shirt sales account for a large portion of our revenue, and I couldn’t have done it from Africa.

Glenn “Eck” Eccard over at http://ecktechs.com/blog/2009/12/11/hello-world has been doing lots of things for us, especially in motivating others. He’s on fire.

Zate has done a phenomenal job using his skills for us. He spear-headed the forums (writing lots of code from scratch) and is working on the HFC site redesign.

James Ruffer came out of the blue and offered to write us an iPhone app! Then he made an Android app! Sweet!

Sean Morrissey’s helped out with lots of things including site design and feedback/testing on the iPhone/Android apps.

IndySec (http://bit.ly/5oyQrb) blew the top off our donor cloud recently! I’ve never seem so much activity on the cloud, and thanks to them, HUNDREDS of families will be fed through our food for work program in Kenya.

Brian Baskin and Jonathan Bennett have been long-time friends, but they just keep pitching in with their skills when they’re needed. Brian’s helped with all things game-related, especially with my kid’s happiness and the cafe, and Jonathan’s admin and network skills are ensuring that the cafe will really crank in that Mzungu dollar.

The Hackers For Charity “volunteer list”: (http://groups.google.com/group/i-hack-charities-volunteers) This is the HFC “Street team”. When we run into a problem, or have a need, this team responds in force. It’s only a Google Group, but it’s so much more.

Twitter and Facebook friends: An extension of our “street team”, these folks are always there to spread the word, lend encouragement, or mobilize to nudge billion-dollar corporations on our behalf. ;-)

We had an awesome team of friends visit from our church back home. It was so amazing having them here. It really made our month. Thank you guys for bringing the care package and for spending some time with us!

When we receive shipments, they’re anything but mundane. These shipments are the lifeblood of our work here.

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s 150lbs of geek goodness. Chris Duke at Navis shipping (www.gonavis.com) came through again, sending us this shipment without asking for a single penny from us. I don’t know what we’d do without him! Let’s take a look inside…

Jim Manley (TXB) convinced Sun to donate keyboards and mice for the Sparc’s at Peter’s Primary. They’ve had Suns sitting there unused for who knows how long all because they were lacking keyboards and mice.

When Tim and Dwight came over in August, they really had a great time mapping everywhere they went. But when Tim left with his fancy Blackberry, the GPS goodness vanished. I tried my iPhone only to discover it wasn’t a "real" GPS. So Tim sent this puppy over and lookie thar! All them satellites be trackin! Now I gots to put mahself in sum sceery far-off place and geotag muhself.

Dean sent over 50 P4 laptops this year but he could only scare up 20 or so power supplies. Well, he scrounged aroud and found 18 more power supplies! Those power supplies and those laptops are headed right into our Internet cafe / training center!

Whitewolf is kickin’ butt and taking names for HFC! Tim sent this monster stack of books for our training center. We’re going to have a real library! This will make a huge difference, and if gear like this keeps coming in, we’re going to be a huge draw not only for the disadvantaged that coldn’t normally afford training, but for the colleges and other advanced education facilities. From what I hear, most college ICT graduates never even touch a computer before graduation. Our center will kick theirs in the butt. In the best possible thank-you-headmaster-for-the-money-for-charity kind of way.

The rest of Tim’s goodies from this package. An SOG knife (that went right on loan to Joseph, our guard who is now gun-less and working for use directly) and a VERY cool DELL solar charger. This thing will charge just about anything without relying on our oh-so-spotty power.

So many friends came together to help us out. Every single one of them Ugandan. We lost our American friends. Many hands made light(er) work. Enjoy the pics of our place. Did I ever mention that we’re paying $150 a month less than the other place? Crazy awesomeness.

Fred and Trevor (left), Godfrey (center) and Dennis (up top) help load the truck. AOET was kind enough to lend us their MASSIVE truck for the move.

Fred dances with Licorice.

S’mores and Licorice (yes, we desperately miss certain foods) are forced to like each other. We’ll give them some privacy and home for some baby goats.

The truck in the driveway.

That’s the shadow of our truck. You can clearly make out Fred’s head as he rides on top of the truck. That’s just nuts.

Fred chilling in the backyard of our new place.

Makenna walking posey, the Palmer’s small goat.

The painters at work in the living/dining room. The yellow is the "before" color, the green the "after".

Another shot of the painters.

Our front porch shows some kind of explosion.

The kids room being organized.

The view out the kid’s door.

The view out the porch window.

The next day. The living room’s looking nice.

Jenny chilling in her mess^H^H^H^H room.

The living room. We love that hommocky looking sofa!

Jen’s putting together a nice reading area in our room. Cozy.

The "before" kitchen.

A day. It’s not spectacular, but rather average. It’s yesterday.

6:00am: The goats are going insane, and it sounds like they’re just outside our window. They’re trying to mate. Well, at least the male is trying to mate, but as Alfred says, “He’s not serious”. And he’s too young to make things “work”. Jen, Declan (bad dreams / thunderstorms / weird animal noises) and I try to sleep through it.

7:00am: We give up and get up.

7:15am: Declan alerts us that the (supposed to be outside) dog snuck onto the front (covered, furnished, for humans) porch. I unlock the door, and the dog is so excited to see me, she runs to me and starts peeing as she’s running. I clap my hands to tell her to stop. This scares her, and she runs away behind the couch and (still peeing) runs laps around the porch, knocking things over (peeing on them just out of sheer terror at this point) and runs to the screen door, where she lays down and shows me her belly (which she thinks I’ll rub). That would be cute if not for the golden fountain that by now was defying the laws of physics. A dog this size can not possibly hold this much urine.

7:20am:  Frustration wins out over love. I wake Jenny up. It’s “her” dog and her mess.

7:30am: While the family starts making breakfast, I sit on the couch with my laptop. I catch up on emails. I draft a plea for video training content. I work on paperwork for our tax exemption on imports. (A letter from Whitewolf for their donations, a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury requesting exempt status, a letter from AOET describing what’s needed, what it will be used for and how much stuff is coming).

10:00am: I realize I hadn’t eaten breakfast. I go in search of eggs and cheese for an omelet. The cheese is Paramount brand, and it’s the only cheese we’ve found that tastes remotely like real cheese. The problem is that all the expats seem to know about it and they horde it, making it nearly impossible to find. Just thinking about it makes me happy in that weird way that only good cheese can. I open the fridge. No cheese. I find eggs though, and it looks like Kate made whole wheat bagels. SCORE. I cut the bagel then realize we don’t have a toaster. The kushy life in Njeru was rented. Rented furniture, rented appliances. This house is great, and while I have no real complaints (we’re paying $150 less a month now!) I feel like we’re starting all over. We’re almost back to the early married days of living small. No problem. I strike a match and light the broiler in the oven, managing not to blow myself up. I toss in the bagel, and light the stove for the eggs. I crack the eggs and they don’t. They’re hard boiled. We’re out of unboiled eggs. FAIL. I open the fridge to see what my options are. There’s mayonnaise. It’s not ours, but it smells OK. I make egg salad and for a moment I almost miss the days of a simple bowl of cereal for breakfast. Then I realize how far we’ve come in six months and I’m happy to be eating something other than beans for breakfast.

10:30am: Ronnie calls. He’s our “cargo agent” at Entebbe. Well, he’s not really an agent. He’s just a guy that works at the airport who told us he was our agent. But we’ve pulled three shipments through him already, so I guess that makes him an actual cargo agent now. He tells us a shipment has arrived for us. It contains keyboards and mice donated by Sun for Peter’s Primary, power supplies from Dean for the Compaq N610c’s he sent, and a big package from Whitewolf with lots of books and other goodies. He tells us to come and get it. There’s no way. A hike to Entebbe is a weekend gig, and we have to travel in broad daylight to cut down the risk from all sorts of.. risky things. He tells us he’ll clear the shipment himself.

10:40am: I get back to work on emails and letters and pleas for help.

10:50am: Ronnie calls again. He says there are taxes of 450,000/= ($225) on the shipment. I tell him that’s crap. Not on keyboards and power supplies.

10:55am: I get back to work on emails and letters and pleas for help.

10:57am: Ronnie calls again. He says there’s a really big nice knife in the box. “like ones for a soldier”. Tim sent an SOG knife. I wondered why that was a big deal. I told him it was for our guard. Ronnie seems satisfied.

10:59am: I get back to work on emails and letters and pleas for help.

11:00am: Ronnie again. He tells me he can give the customs agent 150,000/= ($75) and the taxes will go away. I ask if I can get a receipt with my bribe. He doesn’t understand. I tell him no. I insist that my letters will be finished and submitted and we’ll have a tax waiver.

11:02am: I can the emails and the pleas for help and focus on the now-extremely necessary tax-exemption letters.

11:05am: Ronnie. Again. He says we need to pick up the shipment or we’re going to have to pay storage. Crap. He says he can pull the shipment if I wire him the money for handling and clearing. I ask about the taxes and he tells me, “The taxes are gone”. I don’t ask. I tell him I will wire him the $200 or so for handling and clearing. I’m sure someone somewhere is getting a kickback, and I’m pretty sure Ronnie’s getting his piece of the action, which is fine. Our stuff gets through when Ronnie’s handling it.

11:10am: Back to the letters.

12:30pm: Lunch time. Kate made a very nice lunch. No scrounging in the fridge. SCORE.

1:00pm: Fred’s cleaning the HFC truck (there’s no other HFC work to do, and he insists the truck “looks bad” so he takes the initiative). We’ve borrowed a vacuum, but the cord’s too short. I make an extension cord from some scraps from the St. John’s install.

1:15pm: Ronnie calls and asks how the transfer’s going. I tell him it will be tomorrow. He says tomorrow is too late, and that the transfer takes time and we’ll be charged storage, and..I tell him I’ll wire it today.

1:30pm: Since we’ve moved from Njeru, Fred and Dennis need a place to stay. We elect that it’s time for Dennis to be on his own. As much as we love having him around, we’ve put him through plumbing school, and his dream is to have a plumbing business. We’ve set up his business, and now’s the time to start him on his own. We pay him three months salary (for no work) and help him set up his small office in town. Today we’ll go and look at a place for him to stay. It’s the first step towards freedom and self-sustainability for him. I shower and get ready for the day.

2:30pm: We pick up Dennis in town and he shows us his office. He’s painted the inside with paint left over from painting our house, and the table and chairs we provided make the place look like a real office. He’s so proud and we are too. I head to the bank to wire Ronnie his money.

3:00pm: Fred, Dennis and I head to Njeru. I stop at the bike place to check on my bike repairs. The bike looks good to me but they insist I try it out. I do. It feels good until the front wheel does something “weird” and I go over the handlebars. Actually, “over” isn’t the word because I wasn’t going fast enough. The wheel turned ninety degrees, I came up off the seat, pitched forward, and came chest-down onto the handlebars. The bike crumbled and I did too. There were about fifteen workers around and they all reacted in the typical way, peppering me with “Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry”. The more embarrassing (or spectacular) the injury, the longer the string of sorrys. I maxed out at like ten sorrys per person, for a grand total of like 150 sorrys. A personal record.  Outcome: scraped knuckles, a wicked hickey on my chest, and lion scratches on my leg (which sounds better than a bike accident in a parking lot) and a bruised ego. The bike is checked out, and appears to be fine. (Operator error?). I pay the bill but leave the bike for pickup tomorrow. I can’t get out of there fast enough.

3:15pm: Ronnie calls, and say he doesn’t see the money. I try to explain bank routing. No good. I tell him to check tomorrow.

3:30pm: We show up at the rental place. The power is out but it “will be on later”. They “lost” the electric bill proving the power was paid for. We move on.

4:00pm: We head up the hill to the Njeru place to pick up some stuff we left behind. On the way up the hill, we see Meshack, the owner of our favorite shop in Njeru. We give him a ride and he invites us into his home. His home is beautiful, and alive as he and his wife wait for his son and grandchildren to arrive from New York. He offers us tea, and we talk for a while. Dennis mentions that we’re driving around looking for a place for him to stay. Turns out Meshack’s sister-in-law Edith has a nice room across the road. Meshack’s grandson escorts us down to the bottom of the hill to find Edith.

5:00pm: We eventually find Edith, and as we’re preparing to leave, Meshack’s relatives arrive, and the market starts bustling with greetings and well-wishers. The greetings take a while (just the way it is) but eventually we roll out.

5:30pm: We arrive at Edith’s place and find the room. As we’re passing through the midget-sized door in the gate, something happens and I stand up into the door frame as a pass through it. There are five or six witnesses and I get about five sorrys from each, which means the injury is much less serious or much less spectacular than the bike injury. I’m convinced of this until I feel my scalp crawling and know it’s bleeding. But the place is perfect. There is (working) power and water, a locking door and a secure compound and she’s asking 30,000/= ($15) a month. It’s a bargain. Dennis pays and we head back down the hill to drop off Edith and Meshack’s grandson.

6:00pm: Josh, the young guy that found us the property on Lubas is helping out with a youth conference at Nile Baptist Church in Jinja. He mentioned wanting to play movies, but he had no projector. I offered mine. Dennis and Fred offer to come along and we head to the church. I figure an hour and a half is a small price to pay for everything Josh has done. We set up the projector and Fred’s netbook with an external DVD drive. Then I realize I forgot the RCA audio cable to connect to their sound system. I drive back home and get it.

6:30pm: I arrive with the cable. Setup complete.

7:00pm: They put in “Indescribable” with Louie Giglio (good choice) and play it. No one’s really paying attention. Louie talks way too fast, and most of the meaning is lost on them. It’s a real waste of time.

8:00pm: The pastor asks if we can play another movie. After checking with the guys, we agree. Then the pastor tells us the movie will start after a preacher goes for 45 minutes or so and they all eat. I offer to drive Dennis and Fred back to Njeru, breaking all the rules about driving at night.

8:15pm: I stop at the all night outdoor food joint on Nalufenya, near main street and we load up on bachelor food: chapati, “egg rolls”, casava chips and pies. Completely unhealthy but somehow justified.

8:30pm: We stop at Igar for sodas. The guys deserve it. It takes long. Fred tells me that it’s no good to be out at night. He says that around the holidays people get kinda crazy and will try to steal your stuff, get rides in your car so they can rob you, kill you whatever. I’m encouraged by this.

8:50pm: We arrive at Njeru. I thank the guys profusely and head back to the church.

9:00pm: Joseph (our guard) texts me and asks me to pick up batteries for his flash light.

9:15pm: I stop on Main Street to get batteries. I meet Ali, our language teacher and have a nice chat. He leaves and I get my batteries. On the way back to the car, this really cracked out guy approaches me. Here we go. He sees the cross on my neck and tells me he’s Muslim but wants to switch. He asks if I can drive him to the hospital because all of his kids are in the hospital and his wife is back home. I ask him why he’s on Main Street at night if his kids are all in the hospital. He says he’s not Uganda, he’s Ethiopian. That makes no sense. His eyes are everywhere. It’s creepy. He’s up to something, or he’s just weird, or he’s the worst criminal ever, or maybe possibly he’s telling the truth. He tells me it will just take a minute to drive him to the hospital. Then his tall friend comes up behind him, looking extra creepy, with the same crazy eyes. The hospital is just around the corner, he tells me, “that way”. He points in the complete wrong direction from the hospital. I ask him why his wife is in the hospital. He tells me it’s because she’s sick. Whoops. He can’t even keep his own story straight. His wife’s supposed to be back home. I give him my apologies and get into the car. He walks away. As I start the car, he comes back and knocks on the passenger side window. “The hospital is too close,” he tells me. “It’s a very short walk,” he yells as I pull away. I wonder later if I missed an opportunity to make a difference in a life. I probably did. Call me a wimp.

9:30pm: I arrive at the church in time to start “Second Chance” with Michael W. Smith. It’s all about urban tensions in the US. A decent enough drama contrasting white mega churches and black urban churches. It’s decent if you keep up with it, but no one is. Everyone’s talking and eating, and the sound is terrible.

10:15pm: I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. I ask Josh to keep an eye on the equipment. I tell him it can’t be replaced. I explain that the projector goes in a protective bag and then in the protective box. I explain again how the projector can not be replaced. He seems to get it. (But the next day when the gear is returned I find the projector is tossed in the suitcase uprotected, lens cap open. Guh).

10:30pm: I am still trying to leave, but I’m being greeted and thanked by pastors and others.

11:15pm: I finally make it home. Jen’s waited up and I collapse into bed. I really want to stay up and chat. But…. I… just… can’t seem…to…

Update: Updates are in Red below.

Summary:

• CBT Nuggets account manager responds with the suggestion we buy their $24K NAS.
• Glenn sends a letter to the CEO of CBT, and Prep Logic.
• Tutsplus looks amazing, and their terms of use allows download and free use. Anyone up to getting a subscription and scraping their sites? I can pay the $9.
  
• Johnny emailed vtcusa@vtc.com about a partnership.
• Johnny emailed iman@trainsignal.com about a partnership.
• Arenlor’s “taking” totaltraining.com
• Barak Sofer (the founder of http://www.free-training-tutorial.com says: “You have my approval to download and use my site in an offline version in Uganda only. I don’t allow do distribute it anywhere else. Is it fine with you?” Is that alright? That’s AWESOME! Thank Barak! =) OK, we need someone to grab free-training-tutorial.com. Any takers?

As many of you know from our previous posts, we’re opening an Internet cafe and a training center. We’re really short staffed, and although it would be great to have trainers, it’s easier (for now) to set up CBT and video training stations.These training stations will give us a stream of sustainable income for our organization and also provide a much-needed training opportunity to help locals get a leg up on poverty.

There’s a ton of really good computer training courses on the Internet, and I want to try to get as many as I can for our opening in February. Our first focus is on free training courses, but with our bandwidth, I can’t run them from the Internet. I need to have them copied and mailed to us.

That’s where you can help. What I need is for a small army of people to swarm the net in search of training courses (Office, Graphics packages, just about anything).

We need to:

• Find sites that offer training
• If free, search for a terms of use prohibiting downloading
• If terms restrict downloading, send an email explaining what we’re doing and ask permission to download for our training center
• If pay, send an email requesting free use in our community center
• Download (if allowed or you can’t find the terms) the content in a format that’s usable on a non-Internet connected machine.
• Email me for a US-based shipping address for the DVD’s. Our friend Ashley is coming in January. She can hand carry them in time for the opening in February.

Here’s a rundown on the sites I’ve already found, and the status of each:

http://www.free-training-tutorial.com: This site has tons of Flash videos, and supporting word docs. I need the content of the site including all the associated office documents. Updates: Jamison is working on this site. Are we violating a terms of service? The owner says we are. Work halted.

http://www.learningelectric.com/terms.htm: This site has limitations on copying. Email sent.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org: I contacted them and they gave us permission to use their content: http://video.gcflearnfree.org/Downloads/DVD. Sam is downloading and mailing this one.

http://www.cbtnuggets.com/webapp/videos: Updates: Glenn contacted Korey, the account manager at cbtnuggets. The response in a nutshell: copying their videos is strictly prohibited, and they suggest we buy their NAS at $23,999.00. We will pay a tenth of that price to stand up our whole cafe!! This first email isn’t a promising step towards helping the destitute, but Korey’s doing his job. Glenn emailed the CEO.

http://www.preplogic.com: Updates: Glenn emailed the CEO. Brilliant. Whether it’s because they have big hearts or sense a great marketing opportunity, a CEO is much more likely to make big things happen.

http://www.trainsignaltraining.com/free-video-training/ Updates: emailed iman@trainsignal.com

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/general.html

http://www.lynda.com/home/otl.aspx: This site has a few freebies, but the “subscription” side is staggering. I’d like to pitch a free subscription and / or the ability to download for offline viewing. I’m willing to pay for a subscription is we can offload the videos. Updates: Glenn emailed co-founder Bruce Heavin.

http://www.palaestratraining.com/freevids.htm: Another staggering selection, many require subscription.

http://www.techtransfer.berkeley.edu/videos/: I know, not tech, but could be useful.

http://www.totaltraining.com: Huge selection. Again, we’ll pay. Can we download? Arlenor “taking” this one. Any progress, Arenlor? Until Arenlor gets back to us, let’s assume this one’s untouched. We need to know terms of service, if a letter’s been sent, etc.

Addition: MIT’s YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT. Ross says “MIT’s stuff is already available for download, from their site (I guess that means distribution is fine?): http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htm”

Addition: Net Tuts: http://net.tutsplus.com Ross says “The effects and techniques demonstrated in tutorials on the Tuts+ network can be used in whatever manner you wish without attribution.”

Addition: http://www.vtc.com has lots of video training courses and few free videos. Johnny emailed sales@vtc.com.

Update: CP is mailing us a collection of 1000+ security conference videos from Defcon, Shmoocon, Phreaknic, Notacon, etc.

So that’s a starter list. There are many more.

When it comes to convincing these companies to help us out, we need someone with the gift of (e-)gab to help them get past our “hacker-ness”. We’re looking for partners to offer their training to make a difference in people’s lives. It’s that simple. Here’s some text you can use in your email pitches:

Hello! My name is ______. I am volunteer working for a group called Hackers For Charity (http://hackersforcharity.org). Our founder, Johnny Long, has relocated to Uganda, Africa with his family to help some of the world’s most disadvantaged citizens learn computer skills which can help shatter the cycle of poverty. Computer training in Uganda is VERY expensive, and one thing we’re trying to do is make high-quality training like yours available to anyone that wants it. To that end, Johnny is opening a training center to make high-quality computer training available and an Internet cafe to bring in tourist money to fund more training centers. The cafe/training center opens on February 1st, and we would like to partner with you to mke your training resources available to those that could not ordinarily afford it.

Your courses are an amazing weapon in the battle against poverty. Every student that takes the courses here in Uganda will get jobs that keep them out of poverty’s grip. Our goal is to provide that education free of charge, to anyone that wants to take it. Your website has many excellent resources, but bandwidth in Uganda is VERY limited (less than dial-up in most cases), and Johnny is having trouble properly accessing your content from Uganda at those speeds.

I’m writing to ask permission to “copy” your website’s content to a local server in our community center. Our goal is to keep your resources intact, including all disclaimers and advertisements, and will gladly generate a press release (if you desire) that will announce your partnering with us, and offer any other recognition you may desire.

I hope you will consider partnering with us in this way. Thanks for your consideration, and your interest in helping us break the cycle of poverty in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions.

You can read more about us on our website at http://hackersforcharity.org.

Thanks so much!

If you send some emails, find another site or make progress with a site, post a comment below, and I’ll update this post with our progress.

Thanks guys! This will make a real difference for us in terms of training and boosting the reputation of the cafe, which will drive income for our centers and other programs!

We had a surprise visitor yesterday! Charles bussed all the way form Nairobi Kenya (13 hour ride!) to visit us. He had read some of my books, and decided to come “nextdoor” to pay a visit. It was a complete surprise, and very humbling that he would come all that way without any real prospect of actually seeing us. We were incredibly busy (it was moving day for us) and the visit felt rushed, but it was refreshing meeting with him. He left us a very kind donation and a great card. Here’s a picture of us outside the new cafe property. Thanks Charles!

Today is moving day! We move from Njeru into Jinja proper. We are moving into our dream house. I mean that. This place is so stunning and such an amazing gift from our already-missed dear friends the Palmers. They gave us first “dibs” on the rent, which probably irritated some people who have been here longer than us. If you’re one of those people, we’re really sorry.

Let me show you around a bit. I’ll take more pictures as the week goes on. Oh, and I’m posting more pictures because we have a “real” Internet connection at the house. The Palmers Skyped from here. SKYPE, for cryin’ out loud! I think we have a full 64k ADSL connection. I just drooled.

A wide shot from the driveway. The treehouse in is in the background and the boy’s hut is there on the right behind the trees. Lake viktoria is 1/2km behind the treehouse.

The boty’s hut. It’s a bad name because a "boy" doesn’t live there, Fred offered to stay there to be closer to HFC projects. But everyone calls them "boy’s quarters" or some such thing.

The incredible treehouse. This thing is just amazing. It’s got trapdoors and rope ladders and three swings , multiple levels… just amazing. Our twelve and thirteen year olds are even digging it. This 38 year old kid digs it, too. I want to go all Swiss Family Robinson and just live there.

This is a little shade hut on the side of the house. When we moved in, it was infested with spiders. Like all arachniphobia infested. Alfred took care of that on day one.

Turning just a bit to the left from the shade hut, you can see our side garden and a bt of the house.

Did I mention that the treehouse was amazing?

This is the back of the house. You can see the huge screend-in porch. The porch looks ot on the back yard and the AMAZING treehouse. Yes, I mentioned the treehouse again.

Another shot of the side garden, but with Dennis, who found lemongrass. Not only does it repel mosquitoes but it makes a really killer cup of tea. So that’s it for now. These pictures are amazing, but I really miss our friends the Palmers right now.