Friday April 8, 2011

Today was very rainy; and lack of sleep, change of diet, weather and a head-ache got the best of me. I spent a good part of the day trying to get the other 10 XOs delivered. They are stuck in Customs. They have been all over the world, it seems, and now, they are so close but I cannot get them. Apparently, they were addressed to my host at the guest house and he needs to provide a tax id number which he does not have. They were shipped with a value of $1800, which triggered a full customs clearance. Had they been shipped for under $1000 (5 at a time), they may have cleared. So now, although computers are not taxed normally, these appear to be listed as commercial. They are asking for an official letter from the sender that would re-route them to someone with a Tax ID number. Thankfully, Kampala University (where I am working) is willing to provide that, but they still need that letter from OLPC. So now, we will be into next week, my last week, and I am so nervous that I won't have them for the students on Wednesday when I am scheduled to teach with them. Who knew! This evening, I taught a small class of college students about the XOs. This was their third lesson with me, and they so enjoy the problem-solving. What is really neat is that the professor who teaches Math before my class (very coincidentally) teaches concepts that are TOTALLY reinforced by my activities. We laugh about how we couldn't have planned it better if we knew what the other was doing! or if we worked it out together! Life has its rewards and its synchronizations, doesn't it. He from Hawaii, me from NY, and the students in Uganda. Nice karma!