Convention Time

Sorry for the long break with the blog posting. It’s been a super busy week and now I feel like the non-stop action is finally catching up to me. I’m not feeling so great today so it’s been a nice catch-up day. So now I can finally catch up and fill you in on everything that has been happening over the past few days! Most of the week days since we’ve been here have been spent working at the DOST campus and preparing for the recommendations for our project work. I mentioned in an earlier post that my small sub-group is focused on providing recommendations for what we need to have in place from a technical/support standpoint to enable the growth of STARBOOKS. There are currently around 3000 STARBOOKS kiosks around the country disseminating science & technology information to students and they would like to grow even more over the next few years – to allow students all over the country to have access to this information, either online or offline if they don’t have internet access. Over the course of this year, the team has conducted conventions to bring beneficiaries and learning partners together. We were invited to the first convention for the southern Luzon cluster (which includes the metro Manila area, but also many other provinces to the south of Manila..many in very remote areas and islands) on Thursday and Friday. The convention brought in teachers and librarians from school districts utilizing STARBOOKS. Many shared their stories about how access to science and technology information has allowed their students to accelerate their education. There were also learning partners there, who were the companies and institutions providing material for STARBOOKS and also donating machines to schools. It was a very inspiring event and I was so happy to be a part of it. I was even asked to give a speech to the group (along with Malwina and Dmitry) about the work we are doing and about educational systems and challenges in our respective countries. I am in awe of the work the STARBOOKS team does to ensure that science & tech information is accessible to students, especially in very remote areas. The team has had many deployments where they had to physically carry these kiosks over mountains and through rivers. This is not an exaggeration…some of the schools are so remote and the students have never even seen a computer in their school. It’s really amazing work and I’m so proud to be a part of it. The 2 main people we are working with, Alfon and Mavie, are a husband and wife duo who actually designed the concept of STARBOOKS (it was Alfon’s thesis) and they have seen it all come to life. They have 2 children and everyone jokes that STARBOOKS is their third child…they are so devoted to the work and it is really amazing.

Anyway, we had a great time meeting many people at the convention and taking an unbelievable number of pictures with various participants! And we also had the chance to do a lot of exploring around the area with DOST Director Richard. The convention took place in the Manila Bay area which is about an hour from our hotel so we stayed there overnight on Thursday (which gave us the opportunity for some bonding with the team over karaoke and balut which is probably the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten but I’m proud of myself for at least trying it!). The hotel is right in the heart of the historical part of the city…it was close to the Manila Bay and across the street from the US Embassy. And close to Intramuros which is the old Spanish walled city within Manila. So over the course of Thursday and Friday, apart from the time spent at the convention, Director Richard took us on a tour of Intramuros, took group photos in Rizal Park, went to Ocean Park, had a coffee at the old Manila Hotel (an old, grand colonial style hotel from the US occupation), and finally shopping and dinner at Barbara’s which is a heritage restaurant in Intramuros. Whew, it was a busy 2 days but I enjoyed every minute of it. The information we learned at the convention will certainly help as we finalize recommendations for the agency, and it was also wonderful to experience the historical and cultural tours around the area.

From the convention: