12 tuXlab installations in one day – Port Elizabeth
On 13 August 2005, organisations such as the the Shuttleworth Foundation, Ubuntu Education Fund (completely unrelated to Ubuntu GNU/Linux, and PE-LUG came together and installed 12 tuXlabs. I went there on the Wednesday (10’th), to start preparing servers and joining Schalk Engelbrecht (TSF) to assist where I can with preperations.
On Thursday, we went to a school and showed some teachers how to crimp, and how a tuXlab network fits together. The idea was to anticipate as many problems as possible and made sure that teachers from the schools would now what to do when things go wrong. The amount of interest and dedication that the teachers put in has been amazing. There’s a much bigger sense of community and camaraderie than what we’ve become accustomed to in the Western Cape. It really lifted both my and Hilton’s spirits.
Thursday evening, volunteers from the different communities came to the P.E. Teachers center, where TSF has a tuXlab center. We ran through the upcoming event, and elaborated a bit on the history of tuXlabs. A very energetic young crowd.
Saturday was exciting, we came together at the Ubuntu Education Fund office, and even though it was very cold and windy, there was a great turnout. Hilton and I had to scramble between two schools which had some serious problems, but innovation comes naturally and we made things work. By 13:00 all labs were working properly, and everyone was very tired. Everyone went back to the Ubuntu Education Fund offices, where we reflected back on the day, and had some lunch. The evening the Ubuntu education fund guys took us to a shibeen where we met some real interesting local people.
