Computers 101 for Village Kids

On the fourth visit to Essam, we repaired the merry-go-round and Solomon and I presented at the PTA meeting. During the repair phase, I didn’t feel particularly useful standing around while Seth, JJ, and Solomon tried to fix it, so I decided to give the children a crash course with the unknown and exciting machine commonly referred to as a ‘laptop.’ It turned out to be more of a pop-culture music class. School had ended, but a few were hanging around, so I marched into an empty classroom with my machine to see who would be interested in learning. I shouldn’t have been so conspicuous. Density is an interesting thing. ‘A few’ students scattered throughout the schoolyard turns into ‘a plethora’ of students when crowded around one desk. It was me and over 20 kids straining to see the screen. I had previously intended on having them type their names onto the screen and try moving the mouse, but with so many it was impossible. Instead I decided to show them how to change the desktop background from a farm scene to a beach. The general response to this was:
“IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Which I assume can only be interpreted as an expression of general amazement and wonder, akin to the outburst I heard when I turned the computer on and it lit up. Next, I showed them some programs, but they only got excited about the music and pictures. I can’t imagine why. Text documents are startlingly exciting.

They told me I must play a song for them so after careful consideration I chose “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. They loved it! They closed their eyes, swayed, and snapped to the beat. They begged me to write the lyrics down, which I did on a piece of my notebook paper. They especially liked the part that goes: “sun, sun, sun, here it comes” because it was easy to remember. We listened to it three or four more times while they sang along to the words on the paper. Imagine 20 children from the African jungle singing the Beatles… amazing. They liked “Stand By Me” as well. However, when I attempted to introduce them to Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You”, they stared at me like I was from outer space and asked for ‘the sun song’ again. Next I showed them pictures of their school and village I had put on my computer, as well as some videos of them playing on the merry-go-round.

To make the video presentation more educational, I decided to explain how it all works. I told them, “The sun has energy, which shines down and gives energy to the plants. The plants grow and make food, so the energy is in your food. When you eat the food, the energy goes into you. When you play on the merry-go-round, the energy goes from you into the battery, and is moved into a lamp that lights up so you can study at night.” One boy looked petrified and timidly asked, “Is that why I get sick? Because it is sucking the energy from my stomach?” It was really cute and actually very insightful. In the end, some of them became more fascinated with my hair than the computer.