Hello All,
I think it has been almost a month since I last wrote you all. It is incredible how time flies when you keep yourself busy. I am currently sitting in the large and congested Sao Paulo International Airport waiting for my flight back to Asuncion. Yesterday, I took my GMAT exams, which turned out alright. Not the best score in the world, but I am happy with where I stand. Now on to bigger and more exciting things.
This computer project has grown bigger than I ever imagined. We have currently enrolled 86 students (100% enrollment) and have classes Monday to Sunday 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. I could not ask for a better teaching staff. The curriculum that we made for our first set of classes (Clase Básico) was the right amount of material for my students and I believe most the students understand the information. We have now taught 8 classes, each student takes two classes a week for one hour each class. Also, our students had their first exam during the last class this month. In the future, if I ever become a teacher, I believe most my students will think my class is difficult. I gave the students a 67 question exam about parts inside and outside the computer, and they needed a 100% to pass my class. Everyday as my teachers have been leading the classes they have been prepping the students for the exam, and saying Blas "El Loco Norteno" does not accept anything better than 100%, which I like to see the fear in their eyes. The exam was given while I was in Brazil, but my teachers emailed me and told me almost everyone did perfect. Hold on a minute, did you see what I just wrote, my teachers EMAILED me and told me almost everyone did perfect!!! These were people who 1 month ago did not have internet access, email accounts, exams in computer format, and a means of connecting with a foreigner who is in another country. This school is the epitome of how technology can help solve some of the largest problems in the third world… lack of resources of communication!!!
With all the things going well at the school, we have had other phenomenon happen. One that I want to explain, is a story about one of my neighbors. I had this crazy neighbor named Haciento. Haciento loved to wake up at 5 in the morning and drink a bottle of cana (hard alcohol) and then sit on his ass all day and watch the grass grow. When my parents came in town, he was one of the first people that my family met, and I think he scared my mom pretty good. Haciento was about 40 years old and had a wife and seven kids. Two of his daughters were older, 20 and 18, and they have lived in Argentina for about 4 years, so they sent money home to their parents once a month (about 100 pesos or 200,000 Gs or $40). Not a lot of money, but that was enough for the other kids to eat a little food, while pretty much all the neighbors help keep the kids fed, including me. In April, Hacinto's wife was so sick and tired of him doing nothing to help the family, she kicked him out of the house and sent him to Argentina to work with the daughters in a clothing factory. Since April, Hacinto has supposedly been working, but no money has been coming home.
About two weeks ago, the Ministry of Agriculture in Paraguay had a big payback for all the campesinos who planted cotton in the last 5 years. If you could show any receipt that you had bought cotton seeds, the government was going to pay you and each of your dependents 350,000 Gs for each receipt (there are elections coming in the next couple of months, so this is actually a well planned political scheme). All you had to do was bring the receipt in with two photocopies of each person in your family's identification and you would get the money. For those of you who do not know about the Paraguayan political, economical, or agriculture situation, the government is showing the campesinos that they care by giving a little money (it really cost a farmer about 1,000,000 Gs to plant cotton, not 350,000 Gs) and almost all the campesinos that are heads of the households that buy the seeds are currently living in Argentina doing construction (of the 8,000,000 Paraguayan's in the world, 2,000,000 live in other countries, predominantly Argentina). So what does this all mean, government plays nice guy, and the reality is, very few people will see this money because families can not get copies of the father's (head of household) id because he is currently out of the country working and cannot send his id quickly, in a week period of time.
My neighbors had planted cotton last year, and this money would be a huge help to their monthly income. Through our technology school, we were able to call one of Hacinto's daughters and have the daughter make photocopies of Hacinto's and each of their id's, scan it, and email them to my account, in which we were then able to print them off and Hacinto's wife was able to take them to the Ministry of Agriculture. This money was a huge help to this families income, it allowed the wife to buy a cow, which in return will be a huge income generator for the family. Without our technology, none of this would have been possible. About a day after this happened, word got around town on what we had done, but the government had stopped paying for the cotton receipts. Although it sucked that the government stopped paying, it opened the eyes to the people of my town for the next time that this situation happens, the people are now prepared for their family members to email copies of their ids to our community.
This story leads me to my next realization in town. Internet, it really does kick ass, but the problem is no one knows what it is or how to use it, so my community currently sees little benefit. What did I do to try and fix this problem? I went and visited all the high schools and elementary schools in the surrounding communities (about ten schools) and told each student that if you come visit the tech center, I'll sign you up with a free email on hotmail.com. Not to brag, but this idea was genius for two reasons, it has brought more people coming and using our resources and it has shown the people what an actual personal address is (remember these people do not have mailboxes or receive any type of mail). I had to relate it to the people's cell phone number showing that this is their personal information, not another person in the world has this email address, but with this you have the access to communicate with anyone. After setting up the account I had the people email another person in the community to show how quick the mail is sent, and how easy it is to reply. The two cell phone providers in Paraguay also have free text messaging when you sign on to their web page, so I then had each person send a text message with their email account to another person's email, all of this being done free and clear. These are the technical changes that a little opportunity provides to someone who never had access.
In our first month of being open the computer school had sales of 1,750,00 Gs and expenses of 950,000 Gs, providing a net profit of 800,000 Gs. We have expanded our product selection to 12 different services, and the most profitable being computer classes, followed by photocopies of peoples id's. The idea of Skype and internet is catching on slowly, but I think over the long term, Skype will out sell all our other products.
On to other news, things with Tami and I are going great. She finished her college career with the highest grade in her entire graduating class on their final exams. I am so proud of her!!! Her family is doing well and they are preparing for the Jewish Holidays for next week.
That is pretty much my life down South. I hope these Blog's still keep you entertained, so I don't have any stories this month of killing any animals or riding any wild horses, but as I have said before, anything can happen any day down here.
Best,
Blas (Brad)