Customers!

ACI opened the internet cafe three days ago and customers are pouring in! Peter tells me this story of a 15 year old boy: He walked in at about 7pm last night, asking about the free computer workshops. He sat down at a computer and Peter logged him in and left. When Peter went back in the cafe, he saw that Paul our security guard (picture below) was talking to him. Peter admonished Paul to stop harrassing the customers, but Paul explained that he was showing the customer how to work the computer. Even though this 15 year old boy is in the school system that has a computer curriculum, he has never touched a computer! He didn't know how to work the mouse and didn't know how to click to get an internet page.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't surprise me. The Ghanaian government has mandated that all schools teach computers. But they don't have computers, so they hand write everything. There are even tech college graduates students WHO HAVE NEVER TOUCHED A COMPUTER. I'm not making this up. People can get a diploma in computers with only hand-writing code, and very obscure, out-dated code at that.

So, I'm really glad that Peter is doing this. We are writing a grant for seed money to start the basketball programming and enhance the computer lab from UN-Habitat. Wish us luck!