February 16 - Support and Work

On Friday we were invited by Mrs. Rhone to come to her office to meet with her and her project manager on Monday morning so they can figure out how to make the most of our time in Jamaica. This proactive move on their part is extremely encouraging. It now appears that we will be able to create a serious partnership between the Berkman Center, the Ministry of Technology, and Cable & Wireless to promote our project. For the Ministry, I believe our forging a relationship with Cable & Wireless was instrumental in raising their level of interest, and rightly so. Having C&W's support gives the project a strong grounding in Jamaica and shows the Ministry another serious potential funder.

Martin Levin, a very successful lawyer who is currently a divinity student at Harvard (and who once adeptly helped to bandage my chin when I fell and cut it), I suspect through a combination of excitement over what he's read in this blog and belief in my father and his visions for bridging the digital divide, has also become a benefactor of our project. His contribution will help to support all aspects of our project and will be particularly helpful in letting us lead workshops and trainings for trainers across the entire island. I can't thank him enough. I particularly like the interactivity that's entering our blog, from inspiring support from Martin, to suggestions that I make music from Ron and a remix of my riddim, to interesting/enlightening comparisons of the situation of women in Indonesia and Japan (from Richard Miller, and ethnomusicologist colleague of Wayne's).

As a result of these developments, we've spent our weekend beginning to put our curriculum down on paper (er, webpages) so that we can be prepared to expand our project island-wide and to train other trainers to help us in this endeavor. Though they aren't "released" yet, you can get a sneak preview here. Also, Wayne's blog from today, though still in blog form, includes what will become a formal lesson.