April 30th, 2011
Here’s a short compilation of Solomon, a young guy that lives here in Uganda. I met him about two years ago, and then he disappeared. It turns out he was in Iraq working alongside the US military. That’s a story in itself.
The Keep is the restaurant we started in Jinja, Uganda as a way to support our work on the ground here. It’s also been a great way to network with folks here and connect with individuals and organizations that need our help.
Live music performance really fit the vibe of The Keep. The acoustics in our place are amazing, and it’s an intimate venue. Since we don’t serve alcohol, we also draw those who are a bit more serious about hearing good music.
But the connection with the artists was unexpected. As it turns out the music scene in Uganda is complex and in dire need of something different. Young musicians are drawn more by the promise of big money rather than a love for music. This is spoiling Africa’s deep musical roots, and as anyone that understands professional music will tell you, money is a poor motivator when it comes to producing good music. The scenes is dominated by auto-tune and fruity loops. Poor synth drum loops have replaced the soul-stirring sound of African drums. Twenty-year old synth tracks have replaced background vocals and “real” instruments, not because it’s better musically, but because that’s what “everyone else does” and the music producers (which all charge a fortune for crappy work) just do it that way.
The connection to technology is a clear one. Since a very small percentage of people here have even the most basic computer skills, there are very few knowledgeable producers.
We do computer training to help people get jobs and to change their perception of what’s possible for technology.
Once we started inviting local musicians into The Keep, we found another avenue for training and empowerment. Now, thanks to donors in the US, we’ve got some professional gear and we ratcheted up the quality of our live performances beyond anything available anywhere else in the country.
On my recent trip to the US, my good friend Bruce donated an amazing acoustic electric guitar and my friend John donated a bunch of Shure mics and an mbox. Combined with the camera Syngress donated a while back (payment for filming the author interviews for the final Stealing installation), we’re now recording our live performances to create Live CD’s, video DVD’s and online video copies of their performances. We provide this as a service for our artists to give them a step up.
Needless to say, these services would ordinarily cost more than a young artist could ever afford.
I’m excited about our work in the music community, and I’ve found that there are so many music geeks in the hacker community, and this now makes sense to me. There’s logic to music of course, but good hackers and good musicians understand that there’s an out-of-box thinking that defines true talent in the industry. So thanks to everyone who has donated to help us along. We’re still in the market for good music gear, so please let us know if you’d like to donate your old gear to our cause. We’re outfitting a music studio and we’ve already found a young guy to train as a sound engineer so we’ll use just about any decent equipment you throw our way.
So with that said, I’m going to be uploading lots of live performance videos in the next few weeks which include talented local artists as well as international guests. Thanks again for the support and enjoy the clips.
I’d like to open with a video from a friend of the family, Ryan, who is a really talented musician. But this song is not serious AT ALL. IT’s about pickles and that’s just mean because there are no Vlasic pickles here.
i started up with HFC in uganda and have seen progress, challenges and breakthroughs of all all kinds but still thank full to our God who is the Author and finisher of every thing(beginning and the end). many people are enjoying charity at CTC. mostly Army, and the police department.
thanks to you guys that are making it happen.
Hello, everyone. I just wanted to give you all a long overdue update. I am back in Uganda, and continuing with the work of HFC. It’s a busy time. Let me give you an overview of some of the things that are going on.
Monte Hoover Returns!
We were happy to have Monte Hoover back in Uganda working again with the AOET Rehaboth Integrated School in Bugembe and with the OLPC program he kickstarted last year. I’ll have Monte post about his trip, but from this side of the pond, I’ll make a few observations. First, Monte is a great encourager. He encouraged the students and the teachers and was a real encouragement to me as well. He’s currently picked up a few extra volunteer responsibilities and has been monitoring our inbound email as well as helping out with volunteer coordination.
Monte really did great work while he was here. He connected Internet services at the school, purchasing equipment not only for the Rehaboth School but also for other clients in Uganda. He bought all the equipment necessary to power the computer room including power strips, cable, tools and more, and he did quite a bit of training. Thanks to Monte, the OLPC program at Rehaboth is now online, and it’s our hope that the program will stay “out of the closet” forever. Too many recipients of OLPC grants end up with “closet OLPC’s” due to lack of training and connectivity. Thanks so much Monte!
Wireless Projects
We’re working on some Internet connectivity projects with a new team assistant, Abdullah, who comes to us from Tanzania loaded with gear and network savvy. We’ve purchased a few Bullet AP/CPE’s, a pair of 2.4-5GHz directional grid antennas and a carrier-class quad AP radio unit. We’re taking the Internet service from the Keep and throwing it 5km north to the Nile River Explorers campsite near Bujagali to provide access to the tourists that flock the campsite. It’s a short hop for the gear we have and a small test to see if we can expand our fast Internet service offering to the public, and create an Intranet to wirelessly connect NGOs, companies and government agencies over distances greater than what residential equipment can provide.
Although both are money-making ventures, we’re also looking to provide a critical service to organizations cheaper and faster than the big telcos can provide. Although this will pull our attention away from the grassroots training initiatives, the platform we create will provide a foundation that we can rely on to do more of the grassroots goodness farther away from the big towns, where it is needed the most.
We worked with our good friend Rob to build the tower at The Keep and we’re building another tower out at the campsite. The final result is strong and well-designed (without breaking the bank.. it cost a couple hundred bucks) and we can re-use the steel in other (bigger?) projects if need be.
Work for the Ugandan government
I’ve started working with the Ugandan government and we are providing assistance in the form of knowledge experts for everything from networking to forensics to training. Many of you responded via email saying that you were interested in helping out, and it’s much appreciated but the response overwhelmed us. Monte and I are still trying to get through the responses. If you are able to help us out, please take a moment to fill out one or both of these forms:
The volunteer signup form is here.
And the hardware donation form is here.
Training / Conferences
I’m schedule for a few training events and conferences over the next couple of months. The first will be near Detroit Michigan in mid-May where I’ll be giving the No-Tech Hacking talk. I’ll be in the US for a few days and I hope to bring back some much-needed supplies. I’ll also be teaching SEC401: Security Essentials in Nairobi, Kenya the last week in May. This is the first SANS class ever taught in Kenya, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Derbycon is also coming up and I’ve been graciously invited to attend and speak. The event is in Louisville Kentucky from Sept-30-Oct 2, 2011. Dave and the crew have been big supporters, and I’m excited to be a part of the con this year. For more information, check out the Derbycon website: http://www.derbycon.com.
Supporting the NGO community in Uganda
I’m also doing tons of work supporting the NGO community here in Uganda. I’m repairing tons of computers (mostly Apple Mac repair as we’re the only ones that do it), providing Internet solutions and constructing classroom systems. The repair and Internet solution size is growing very steadily as organizations recruit more and more volunteers and staff members, each with bandwidth and hardware demands. The classroom and training center construction side is slow, but each center we construct provides a decent amount of income to help fuel our other programs and also furthers our goals of expanding IT education as far and wide as we can.
We’re also gaining more clients who are asking for computer support contracts to help with their IT needs. We don’t have many clients right now but we’re dedicated to providing high-quality service for a fair price. This is an obvious benefit to our clients, but it’s also a way for us to train more capable technicians. There are simply too few competent hardware and network technicians. We’re doing our best to change that.
