I didn't know what an actual computer was until I was 11. I am a millennial, only 30 now, but I was one of those people who only knew about the magical computers through my dad's stories and books. In the first 10 years of my life, I grew up poor as a church mouse in a rural area in Vietnam. To tell you how bad it was, I'm a male and only barely over 5ft and 100lbs now. My dad, who was a college lecturer, told us about him learning English and how to use MS-DOS on his 1.2MB floppy disk in the early 1990s -- it was mind-blowing to my 6-year-old brain. Everything you need is in this small package. If you want to delete something, just press a key instead of scratching it! If you want to issue any command, give it all it wants to know and press Enter!
I just had the first blip of making an impact by shipping a free software product that many people find useful which I first shared here. I am quite convinced that people don't just use that software because it is useful and functional to them. Compared to a $300 commercial product that has everything working correctly my free software project that uses $100 worth of hardware is a piece of buggy brahmin shit. People tried it because it gets them inspired. Shortly after I announced, it set up pictures of people trying and making awesome setups on the homepage. I also made a subreddit to share stories and ask questions, and a personal blog telling why and how I'm making progress and what I was really thinking when I made those decisions. I am still very much a real person that has opinions, dreams, and ideals. I haven't turned into an intelligent PR speech machine that says the empty words. That is something a company that sells those products can't deliver compared to a hipster dude living in a hole like me can. I am living in a dream as much as the adopters of my software.
I used to see a quote on a professor's office door when I was an undergrad that said: "People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." I tried to keep that quote in mind whenever I have the opportunity to teach or bring something to someone.
Let alone what they need is NOT computers, it's phones (And more importantly TV and Radio access)
I know a lot of these places can't afford the electricity to run the machines, was this sorted? (And if it has solar, generator or intermittent, then low wattage devices with UPS are needed)
This is a nice story, but doesn't having a computer teachers in communities that can't afford computers seem like a waste of resources?
