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Computing in Rwanda?
gehel asks: "In September I will be going to Rwanda, working for a year in a developement project as a Computer Science guy. I'm leaving with an association that doesn't have much experience in sending CS guys over there, but I'm sure some Slashdot readers have some experience in that field.
For all those who know Rwanda or Africa better than me, or for those who have been working in developement projects: What should I be prepared for? What would you bring with you to go there? How do you think we can bring Computer Science to a developement project in Africa, without creating too much dependencies on the North? What are the typical failures of such projects?"
"I don't know much about what I am going to do there except : I will be based in Kigali. I will be working (at least partly) as a sysadmin with existing computer installations (most probably Windows based), I will do some teaching (mostly in system administration), and I might work a bit to help creating a new radio station. Finally, I'd like to add that I am proud to be doing this as a service for my country."
A few notes from my visit to Ghana:
:-)
1. you and your equipment will find the heat incredible
2. power is unrealiable at best, brownouts and black outs are common and will last from 5 minutes to 5 hours
3. watch your stuff! You are in an extremely poor country and will be viewed as quite rich. Many people will have no problem helping themselves to your 'wealth'. (of course thats true everywhere, but there are WAY more poor people in Africa).
4. DO NOT sit in an office all day, every day, get out, see the country and/or continent. Africa and it people are amazing.
5. Remember, people here are from a different culture, watch what you say and do until you know better.
That should cover the first little while
Gregor
- Be careful of strangers unless in public (e.g., be wary of taxis); see #3 above.
- You will find a lot of hospitable, giving people; they may be a bit offended if you reject their hospitality. This can conflict with #1 here, but that's life.
- Finding a local mentor will help immensely.
- Expect to not be able to find a lot of things you can easily get here, such as PopTarts.
- Talk to a travel bureau about clothing, etc.
Caveat: I haven't been personally, but have several friends who have been within the past year. These suggestions are based on their stories of their trips.Where's your sense of adventure, man?
Hey ! Thanks for the early answers to all of you !
... I've traveling a bit already ... And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna enjoy the people as much as the country itself ;-) The organisation that I'm going with has quite some experience in sending people to the south, so I'm not that much worried about traveling tips.
... and there's probably another view of the situation that I can find only on Slashdot.
I dont really think I'm going there with zero knowledge
I am more looking for advice specifically on CS developpement projects. How to bring technology in a usefull way, or what could be the specific needs toward computers, or what kind of kind of stuff I should take with me beside my laptop and a couple of Ubuntu CDs (or any other distro).
It's not that I dont value your opinion on other matters, it just happends that I already have quite a lot of them
Not saying you should use that particular distro, but one more thing to watch out for.
What should you bring?
The very basics, until you know more. Have whatever you discover you need shipped over. No use hauling around a bunch of crap that you can't use, and needing other stuff.
maybe contact these guys see if they have any protypes to test out
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
there's also
http://www.freeplayfoundation.org/
I own two of their radios, great stuff! Multiband, no batteries required
And maybe visit a few solar dealers, see if you can get some donated stuff, panel or two, charge controller, etc. snag a truck battery once you are there.
Oh ya, good water filter! I use a royal berkefield with the "black berky" filter elements.
The purpose of my trip wasn't really computer related, but here are a few things I noticed.. Power can be unreliable at times, so always take the opportunity to charge your laptop when the lights are on. All of the people that I talked about computers had only seen Windows. That's not to say they wouldn't be interested in open source software, but most of the people I talked to only used computers at internet cafes. Very few had the money to buy a computer of their own. Internet access is slow and expensive.
The people there want to learn about computers, because they know they need to to participate in a world economy. If you spread the word that you were going to teach a free computer training class, you could draw a crowd pretty easily--even if the class was about something simple like surfing the web or using a word processing program.
If the city you're visiting is like Kampala, there will be mobile phone shops everywhere, so you can take your GSM phone with you and buy a SIM card fairly easily if you need a local phone number.
Please do not take this the wrong way. I admire anyone who goes out of their way to lend their skills and talents to people in need, but.,.
Do you know any of the recent history of Rewanda? 10 years ago a large portion of the population was brutally hacked to death with macheties. "computer science" projects are, in my opininon, right at the bottom of the list fo things Rawanda needs. I undersatnd that there is a legitamate need for IT people to support aid agencies, and their work, but I doubt there are any projects that will benifit the people directly.
My 2 pieces fo advice are:
1. learn french. it is one of the most commonly spoken langauges in Rawanda.
2.Read the book "Shake Hands with teh Devil" by Romeo Dallaire
This book provides a brief history of the genocide in Rawanda, as well as valuable insights into how the people live.
Radio is highly influential and accessable in Rawanda. Computers are not. modern technology will likely do little to help the average Rawanden's conditon to improve. Linux will not change their situation. Use your talents and skills to solve problems. Dont use fancy solutions - keep it simple and make it work.
Most of all, good luck in your journey, and stay safe.
2. Computer parts are probably more expensive in Rwanda than at your friendly NewEgg etc, etc. (see 1.)
3. Internet Connectivity is lkely to be way slower than what you're used to. 256 kbps is all that I have here.
4. Try and see if you can get language-localised distros - I know that we've been using localised ones. Fonts and localised FF and OOo supplied by the Government!
5. Be prepared to meet a LOT of esoteric older hardware. Be ruthless - but watch the cost. Think 5 1/4" FDD...
6. Try and put some processes into place before leaving. Talk to some suppliers, see if you can get overseas shipping (if it works cost-effective). Talk to the current datacentre person, see what the situation is like...
Enjoy yourself! Get out of the office, check out the place!
Cheers,
R.
It's spelled RWANDA, (Score:1)
:)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 29, @11:46PM (#13200806)
you fucking illiterate cunt.
It's called a typo, similar to the other mistakes in the post, you fucking unobservant cunt.
(Unless, of course, they're using a Dvorak layout in which case you could be right, though that still doesn't absolve you from looking like an ill-tempered schmuck.
if you have only about 20 litres of water per day you'll think twice before wasting them for taking a shower
See pictures of tits
The same typo every time?
:(
All but one anyway... *sigh*
Not to mention the grammatical error I missed in my own post even after previewing and my failure to point out that the GP is also an ignorant cunt given that spelling "rules" tend to be pretty flexible when translating from languages that don't use a Roman alphabet.
*sob* I can't even craft a proper response to Slashdot flamebait, truly I am a geek failure!
...don't go to Rwanda. There are lots of great African countries, but most of them don't have a recent history of genocide. It was 10 years ago - you think that's a long time - well all the people that did it are still there, the same psychology that led up to the genocide still exists, and most perpetrators were not imprisoned.
You may have "done some travelling" but you're about to choose one of the most troubled and dangerous countries on this planet - its not a week in Mexico.
He's got info: http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/rwanda/ind ex.htm
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
People are saying Rwanda is for the gorillaz, but
Sierra Leone sounds the most nuts:
"Witnesses describe the existence of distinct units known for committing particular crimes, like the Burn House Unit, Cut Hands Commando, and Blood Shed Squad. Some of these squads had a trademark way of killing such as the Kill Man No Blood unit, whose method was to beat people to death without shedding blood, or the Born Naked Squad, who stripped their victims before killing them. The closer ECOMOG forces got to rebel positions, the more these squads were mobilized and sent on operation."
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
most of the African countries have an recent history of genocide.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Off Topic? Whoever modded this, are you stupid, or do you just not know anything about Rwanda? Please, tell me.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/3/151048/0948 First part of a series written by someone who went to Kenya volunteering as a Computer Instructor. (He wrote a full serie, but you'll have to find them yourself, the search page is broken).
Don't worry too much. Rwanda is a beautiful country. The climate is really nice in Kigali. Be sure to plan a trip to see the gorillas. It is quite expensive now for us Muzungus but still worth it I think.
Power is 220v (often running below that). You will need to set the UPSs accordingly.
You won't be able to get too many conponents there so bring the pieces you need or plan a trip to Nairobi.
There is a little talked about wireless internet service from the telecom so ask the IT folks there (There was 1 year ago).
Take opportunity learn French.
Innovate or become obsolete.
The question is, is it worth your life? That is, the development project.
About your CS thing . . . well, CS is CS pretty much anywhere. Knowing what it is your are going to develop would help us to advise you better.
I have been there 1998 and lots of things were different than I would have thought. Feel free to contact me directly (elbrecht [at] informatik [dot] uni-bonn [dot] de), as I will now spare details and stay brief:
- I expected old hardware, but as everything had to be imported, old hardware was rarely floating flea markets like here. I found recent stuff of pricey brands.
- Take a laptop with strong battery if you can, as that is good to work with and cheaper than a UPS. Also cheaper to ship.
- Expect computing stuff to fall under import/export restrictions and regulations (Rwanda is a crisis region). Good luck;-)
- Shipping computers means dropping them. I had the power supply's screws ripped out.
- Most parts you can buy in Kigali.
- People will only have Windows, some will go so far as to "know all you Northeners use it, so we want the real thing, too". If you bring alternatives, make sure it will suit the needs.
- If you have white skin: That makes it pretty obvious you are out of Hutu-Tutsie rivalry.
- Internet was fast (2MBit sattelite in 1998 was great). As was GSM network. But both was considerably more expensive than in Europe.
- Power and water outages were common. UPSs were common, but only lasted minutes.
- People were incredibly nice and a real pleasure to work with!
- Congratulations! You *will* have a remarkably nice time!
You understand that Africa has 800 Million people on a continent much larges than Europe?
You understand that they speak hordes of languages?
You understand that Ubuntu is a word in Swahili which is not even close to remotely spoken in Rwanda?
Just like Spanish is not widely spoken in Denmark?
You understand that it is not all one simple black homogenous mass there?
Yes?
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
Finally, I'd like to add that I am proud to be doing this as a service for my country.
Wouldn't you be more proud if you did this service entirely voluntarily instead of as part of a compulsary military service?
Anyone in the western world with some skills (in about anything) can voluteer to do some work in Africa or elsewhere.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
For the first part, I dont really think my life is in much danger by going to Rwanda ... but we never know ...
... I know, that is not a very precise definition of my job there, but that's all I have ...
I dont really know what I'm going to do there. And I dont think planning too much from here (Switzerland) without knowing exactly what is needed there is a good think.
I should be working for the Presbytarian Church of Rwanda, taking care of their current computers (which dont always run well) and trying to teach them how to take care of that once I'm gone
Do the words "in the local area" mean anything to you? Anything at all?
Where do you get this ridiculous statistic? I live in South Africa myself (not related to the topic, just to establish I do have some (limited) local knowledge).
There are 49 countries in Africa. Several (possibly even most) have had a civil war or an armed uprising against colonial rule at some point in their history. Many of those countries have been relatively peaceful for decades though (peaceful != democratic or uncorrupt, which is not what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying that all African nations are corrupt despotic hellholes either, before I get accused of that).
To think off the top of my head, Sudan, Rwanda, the DRC and Cote d'Ivoire are the only countries I can come up with who have had genocides recently (in my living memory - 80's and 90's).
Certainly Africa has problems, including many nations still at war internally or with each other, but to say that most African countries have a recent history of genocide is both inaccurate and damaging - it paints an even bleaker picture than the admittedly less-than-rosy international image of this beautiful continent.
P.S. All info in this post comes from my memory, since I couldn't find much data from a quick googling that wouldn't require more sorting than I was willing to put in.
Daar is nie 'n lepel nie
So there's a fork among these posts. Political vs. practical. I was in Rwanda a year ago so I'll try to answer your questions and dispel some myths. Rwanda: Genocide - yes, horrible, absolutely stupefying. You'll see remnants and reminders of what happened. But it's over. The people want to move on and build their economy so projects like this are desperately needed. The government, led by former Rebel leader Paul Kagame, has one of the most progressive policies in Africa - built in large part on strengthening the country's future by improving IT infrastructure and focusing on education. They aim to make Rwanda the IT capital of Africa, a hub for investment and IT employment. Kigali is like any other big city, wired to the max, save for the too-frequent power outages. Outside of Kigali the infrastructure is minimal. Butare, home to the National University, has a limited set of computers/IT classes. This is where more investment is needed. I.E - Good for you for going - teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life. More practical stuff - it's among the safest African capitals with a huge police presence. that being said, watch your stuff. Transportation throughout the country is the best in Africa. Buses actually leave on time! Cheers.
Actually Swahili is spoken in Rwanda, as well as many other countries. It is the second most widely spoken language in Africa, after Arabic. Some 50M people speak it as a second language as it is the "lingua franca" in much of East and central Africa. /Nit Pick //Soon to be living in Tanzania
"Cheeze it!" - Bender
I would check out the Swedish African Museums program at www.samp.org their web site is absolute crap, but the director Elisabet has connections all over Africa and she would be able to put you in contact with people who have implemented various and sundry IT projects.
Jacob