Recently posted by Beth Santos at the end of 10 months at São João school on the West African island of São Tomé e PrÃncipe on Step Up OLPC:
…São Tomé, man. Something about this country, it was like the XO laptop was made specially for them.
The cabinet should be finished next week. I can’t wait to hear about it. I hope it’s nice.
At the teacher meeting, the teachers also took a second to reflect on the past year. They were amazed, really- just as amazed as I am. They said the kids are so computer literate now, after just one year. Many of them use email regularly. Lots of them are very familiar with the Internet. It’s almost shocking how much progress these kids have made. The teachers say that there is a visible difference between students in the computer class and other students at the school. It’s such a huge difference that it impassions the teachers more and more to get enough for everyone else to use, too.
I would not mind seeing five computer programs at five schools. I would also not mind if we could hire five coordinators for these five schools so that we can start building a little economy…and a country-wide initiative. I told the teachers how proud of them I was. They brought the kids this opportunity and they really did it!
During her time at the São João, Beth and São Tomean computer professor Miguel Afonso da Boa Esperança trained teachers and lead weekly Saturday classes for a group of 100 6th graders.