Laptops for Dhanushkodi : The Trip - Day One & Two

I have just returned from my trip to India. It was an amazing experience helping all the children in Rameshwaram learn about computers, and by doing so, give them a small insight into our world.

This is the first school that we visited.

The first day in Rameshwaram was the most action packed. We arrived by train at 4 am and rested for another three hours at aunt Malli’s house. We then took off to the first school with our laptops in hand. We took on the biggest school first.The school was Kamarajar School, and for the first day we just gave a short presentation to introduce ourselves and explain what we were going to do. For the time we spent there we met over 100 children and told them what we were going to be doing over the coming days, that is over 100 in a school of over 2000 children.

Introducing ourselves to the children.

Later, that same day we went to a second school, only to learn that it was closed. We also visited many local politicians and told them what we were doing, to get approval for future projects from the townspeople.

The school's principal.

On the second day there were massive blackouts through out the town so we had to hold off on our plans for that day. Luckily the third school, Yagappa Community School still had power left. We took in groups of eight kids at a time, and taught them, individually, how to navigate the Windows Explorer, and taught them the basics of typing on Microsoft Word.

Me teaching some kids from the third school.

One of the most surprising things I found during our teaching sessions was the enthusiasm of the children. Unlike in America where going to school feels like a chore at times, here the kids were eager to learn and were really smart despite being in such poor conditions.