NEWS & VIEWS
September 2015
If the computers had not been as small as a box of tea they may have come through the Ethiopian customs a little sooner. Lee had specified the perfect computer for the school; small, cheap and consuming very little power yet fully loaded, fast and with ports for everything. The Ethiopian authorities, on the other hand, could not be convinced that this small machine could be a functioning computer.
Eventually, and only a few months late, all the technical equipment did arrive at the Bethany school. All that is but the networking cable. On the way to Bekoji, Birhanu, the director of StandByMe in Ethiopia, displayed tenacity, ingenuity and local knowledge to track down the 350 meters required within the ramshackle huts and shacks of the ‘technical market’ in Addis Ababa. Waiting in the van, the rest of us pondered his prospect, just a little skeptical of the likely success of his enterprise!
What has now been achieved in four days, from a pile of boxes and no electricity, to a smart and orderly, fully networked and functioning computer department is just short of miraculous. The spirit and single minded determination that Matt and Lee showed, not forgetting their willing helpers in achieving all of this was a privilege and a pleasure to witness. It would be difficult to believe how this could have happened in many larger commercial operations. Matt and Lee proving themselves to be the young and very talented computer engineers that we believed they were, may have played a small part in this!Many thanks to Matthew and Lee for your generosity of time, good nature and spirited enterprise.