Lee Thorn - Jhai - planning in a village +

Dear friends and board,

I hope this finds you and your families, well.

I got to Laos on the 16th evening and have worked too much since. It is now Sunday the 20th. It is wonderful, nonetheless, to be in my second home. It is hot, but not too hot most of the time .... and there seems to be increasing economic activity in Laos. Vorasone and I have spent all of our time together since I arrived, working. Vorasone escaped today to his farm to plant trees. I'm writing you, then going back to sleep. ;D Here's my brief report on the project most of you have been following for years.

1. Hardware/software/connection

First, all the IT components, including three JhaiPC3.0s and two ReMeDi telemedicine appliances arrived safely. My room is full of computers, 3 connected. We are continuing testing on appropriate connectivity here for the telemedicine system. We have tested connectivity in Phon Hong successfully using a WinPhone which has sufficient bandwidth for our purposes. I hope to change to 3G when it is fully available in Phon Kham and other villages, probably a Unitel/VietTel connection. We are exploring all connection options within context of bandwidth, consistency and costs, so connectivity in this village remains a research area for us here still, but that was expected. Connectivity in all rural areas must be considered very carefully and deeply.

2. Planning and development in, with and for Phon Kham and all Vientiane Province

a. Session

Vorasone and I did with help from Eric Seldin who was shooting video, a long first planning session with the heads of the various community, health and education groups within Phon Kham, the site of the first pedal powered computer. It was quite successful and it was absolutely wonderful to see and work with these folks again.

b. Outputs:

*the village will take responsibility for the education/livelihood aspects, including permissions and most business aspects.
*The health ministry people and villagers are keen on doing a sustainable demo/system shake-out at the clinic in the village as well. This clinic serves many thousands of villagers in 18 villages.
*We also met with the head of the Health Ministry for the Province. It was very good to see Dr. Souphathay again. He pointed out that the need for telemedicine in even more remote areas than Phon Kham is quite high. We agreed that shaking out the system in Phon Kham and at the Luxembourg hospital is a good idea. We also agreed that two particular other villages in the Province, both remote, would be our next priority.
*We return to the village on Tuesday with two business types - one who has done for-profit ICT centres in Africa and Southeast Asia and the other, a teacher who, after our training and with his simple, brilliant idea, has promoted parent-supported community ICT facilities in schools throughout Laos. They, community representatives in Phon Kham, and Vorasone and I, will work through a do-able plan for the kids and adults of the community by Thursday. It will be housed in a building we built some years ago with the community.
*Finally - and most cool - we began the hand-off of video equipment to 3 young people, 2 young women and a young man, who will be trained by Eric from Tuesday to Thursday - with virtual follow up. These young people will document activities - especially those related to ICT in the village - for one year. Their footage will be edited in US for distant learning and marketing uses by a seasoned professional editor with the advice as required of distant learning specialists in US and, I believe, Viet Nam and Laos.

Please note that the combination of all the activity that this small community is taking on using ICT is unprecedented worldwide.

It reminds me what true cooperation can do. What I mean by 'true cooperation' is that work where all the workers bring their whole selves to the table. While facilitating one part yesterday I found myself jumping in the air as I listed constituencies: ... and how to get things done we must acknowledge and work with all facets of our community's people. People from this community (jump), people from the other 17 villages (jump), our family (jump), our school workers (jump), our health workers (jump), our selves (jump), Jhai (jump).

Well, the old guys laughed at me because ... well, I am an old guy and they related to what I was saying and all this jumping looked a little silly. Then folks talked - many at once - each representing a slightly different take on things - and we all listened to one another with all stops off. And then the magic happened. Vorasone told all of us from then on the conversation was about responsibility. We knew he meant that we will decide responsibility by who, when, where, how, with what resources. This happened all in a beautiful cacophony. It was then I knew we definitely, WE definitely - even you, were going to do this thing.

Today we rest from this. While riding back at midnight last night, Vorasone said something that was reminiscent of a wise saying by Einstein, "If you have not made lots of mistakes, ... let's face it, you have not done much." We have made lots of mistakes and will continue making some. That's what humans do. But we'll get this thing done anyway ... and the 'we' becomes less and less 'me' ... in each of us.

Well, I am not going to make the mistake today of not taking it easy. ;D

yours, in Peace,

Lee
--
Lee Thorn
chair, Jhai Foundation
I tweet @leethorn_jhai
Way cool .... see 30 sec video of
2003 JhaiPC bicycle-powered set up at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiZa_A0QrtQ

350 Townsend St., Ste. 309
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA
+1 415 344 0360 (office)
+1 415 420 2870 (mobile)
lee@jhai.org
www.jhai.org

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