Feliz 2009 a Todos!

So I'm hoping that in amongst those many New Years Resolutions you have made, perhaps even between the 'drink less' and 'exercise more', you have made a mental note 'to do something for a good cause'. Many of you no doubt make great contributions already in a wide variety of ways and may be many have always had it on the list of things to do, so whatever your position, I hope to convey to you a great cause that whatever contribution made will, in a corner of the world, make a difference.

Now some of you may/may not be aware that I have recently come back from a little jaunt through Latin America, well a year to be exact, that saw me as far south as Patagonia and as far north as Cuba and Mexico. An absolutely incredible experience, not just for the beautiful spots I visited but more for the fantastic people met along the way.

Some of you may also have seen some of my photos on facebook and will know that during this experience away I was fortunate enough to live with a small community in the Sierra Nevada of Colombia, a village in the jungle and a good 4 hour hard trek to the nearest cold beverage.

I braved big scorpions crawling down my bedroom wall, showered with furry fat spiders the size of my hand, and shared the jungle with poisonous snakes and all manner of other creepy crawlies (including the lice I discovered on my 30th birthday), had daily cold bucket showers, had no electricity or cell phone coverage, and a 45 minute exhausting climb up to school and back down again every day.....and I loved it! (head lice excluded of course).

Why on earth would I do this do you ask???

Now the reason for me doing all this was to help out this small community by teaching the local farmers kids a bit of English. You are also probably wondering what use they would have for English so far from anywhere but this area is very popular amongst tourists for the Ciudad Perdida or 'Lost City' (see new post) found another days trek away. So now there is a small group of kids in this jungle that if asked how they are (hopefully) will manage to respond in English and (even better) with a broad kiwi accent.

The community here have very simple housing, some with plastic sheets for walls, most with dirt floors and without electricity and don't receive a peso of help from their Government. Yet their generosity shown to me was so incredible that I was simply overwhelmed that people with so little could give me so much. On many occasions I had to decline their offer of killing their prize chicken when they invited me around for a meal!

So finally I am getting closer to my point and hopefully I have set the scene for you to understand why it is that this community needs your help. The school itself receives very little help from the government and consists of four walls, a board, chairs and desks. The standard of their education is very poor and the one teacher tries to keep up to 25 or so kids entertained at any one time. Once these kids reach the age of 15, some stay on the farms for lack of opportunity and some head to the city to try and find work but with very few skills to help them with the transition into the work force and it is at this point here where I want to make a difference.

How can we help???

I discussed ways with the teacher in which I could continue to help the school from a far and we decided that some computer equipment would be ideal to introduce the kids to computing and familiarise themselves with a computer before getting into the big bad world. However, the school is perched in the middle of nowhere and there is no electricity to arrange a desktop. We therefore talked about a laptop which can be recharged at a farm nearby which uses the river for energy. There is also a school about 4 hours walk away that does have an IT teacher that can help with any problems.

So......basically this post is a call to locate a bit of IT equipment that would be useful for the school such as:

• A couple of second hand laptops that have decent battery power. There is no internet up there so no need to have wireless applications obviously. Just the most basic of laptop with a few microsoft packages so they can learn how to type, use a mouse, turn it on and off etc.
• Very handy would be a CD rom to view CDs so welcome would be any copies of things such as Encarta Encylopedia in Spanish, Learning English DVDs, anything fun and interactive that they would learn from (would have to be in Spanish).
• A couple of smallish second hand speakers you have lying around that aren't being used anymore
• A couple of working mouses (or do you use the plural in this sense?!)
• Any copies of programs you might have that could be added.
• A couple of second hand Laptop bags that are relatively lightweight

So raid your cupboards for your old stuff that you have lying around to put on ebay/trademe but haven't got around to, chat to your IT departments at work to see if they are getting rid of any equipment not used anymore or failing that, if you know you don't have or won't get around to donating items then a cash donation would be much appreciated. I have spare accounts in the UK and NZ that if your kind heart wanted to donate a bit so that I can get buying some second hand equipment (should I not track any down via this) and to organise postage to Colombia. I have friends who are guides in the city that are able to cart this all up on their mules so just need to get it to Santa Marta on the coast.

If you are in the UK or Europe and wish to donate it may be easier to make either a cash donation or to send me small equipment (eg CD Roms etc) to avoid major postage costs as the main consignment will come from NZ.

Rest assured that anything you donate will reach this lovely little community and the photos on the next post will I hope, show you the smiles that these kids will be giving once they get to have their first go on a computer that they have never used before.

Plus if you ever get a chance to visit this extraordinary part of the world (see other posts for why you must visit Colombia), imagine how great it would be to walk past the school on your way to the lost city and say that you helped get that here : )

So if you think you can help in whatever way big or small via equipment or even a $10/£10 or more donation (special thanks to my brother Nick for pledging the first donation!) then please send me a message on stephmorison@hotmail.com or facebook and we can discuss your donation of equipment to assess what is needed, to work out delivery of item and my bank details should you want them!

A big thank you for reading this far and considering a donation on behalf of 25 beautiful kids, their parents and the community of Honduras in the Sierra Nevada, Colombia.