|
|
|
Western District Youth Hall and Computer Center
Journal: Inception and Implementation
July 2000 – January 19 2002
See Pictures from Building Renovation
July 2000 - Several youth and village members suggested that Kolovai had the desire and opportunity to develop and host a district youth hall and computer center.
July 26 - The Peace Corps Volunteer, Paul Neville, outlined a preliminary proposal and presented it to the community/youth meeting in a prepared speech in the Tongan language.
July 27 - A copy of the speech was sent to Princess Nanasipau'u Tukuaho and her husband the Prime Minister, Prince Ata Ulukalala Lavaka at their residence, Liukava in Kolovai.
July 29 - Earned the support of Drew Havea and Arturo Giran of the U.S. Peace Corps.
September 26 - Paul met with Princess Nanasipau'u Tukuaho to secure formal support for the Western District Youth Hall and Computer Center. She was invited to the next youth Meeting.
October 19 - Paul began the arduous process of writing a grant request for the WDYHCC. The proposal ended up being split between Small Project Assistance (SPA) of the Peace Corps requesting TOP$13,420.14 for three computers and remodeling materials (which was approved in full) and American Online / Partnership Program requesting TOG$41,988.00 for six additional computers and Internet access (approved TOP$24,000). This will be the first Youth Center in Tongatapu and the first community/youth based Computer Center in Tonga to offer Internet. It is hoped that the WDYHCC can serve as a model for future Centers with similar goals within Tonga as well as other Peace Corps countries, internationally.
January 22 2001 - A meeting was held to discuss the planning of the WDYHCC construction. An available structure will be renovated to suit the Center’s needs. See Set-up Costs.
January 11 - A concert was held in Kolovai as fundraiser for the WDYHCC. Nearly TOP$3000 was raised.
February 1 - The hired carpenter measured the hall to be renovated.
February 8 - Made the first trip to purchase electrical and carpentry materials. Began building dividing walls.
February 13 - Purchased wood and other materials.
February 21 - Purchased tiles and paint.
February 27 - Purchased more paint and other materials.
March 1 – May 12 - Continued building renovation:
Finished dividing walls
Re-wired building to host a up to nine computers (with easy upgrades for more)
Installed new lights, fans, windows, security and mosquito screens
Replaced old tiling
Painted building inside and out
Erected shelves for book-sharing, games, office equipment, tech manuals
Had tables and chairs constructed to host nine computers
Had another table built for the Youth Hall
Rebuilt sink cabinets
Repaired sink and toilets
Converted urinal room to storage area (built a door and frame)
Constructed a door and frame in a place previously open to the outside enabling entire facility to be locked
Landscaped
Removed trash piles.
March 20 - Paul met with Dean at Systems and Solutions to discuss purchasing and setting up the computers.
March 31 - Final (major) day of renovation. There were up to twenty people helping out. The Center was presented to Teodoro Guambano (the recently installed Peace Corps Country Director) and Drew Havea. Teodoro was impressed and committed any assistance he can offer towards the Center’s success.
April 12 – May 2 - Paul vacations in New Zealand.
May 7 - Purchased materials for final touches in preparation of the Grand Opening. Requested a phone connection from the Tonga Communication Corporation (with a little help from Princess Nanasipau'u Tukuaho).
May 11 - Pahulu and Masiva set a new cement walkway. The painting was completed. The floors were polished.
May 12 - Installed five computers with the assistance of Dean and Howard from Systems and Solutions. Bedecked the Youth Hall with posters, notice boards, books, games, and magazines. The Computer Center looks professional and the Youth Hall looks welcoming.
May 13 - Made final touches on the Grand Opening program.
May 14 - GRAND OPENING! In an event covered by the television stations, newspapers, and radio, main speeches were provided by Paul Neville, Teodoro Guambana, and Princess Nanasipau’u Tuku’aho. Naitoko Akau’ola, Viliami Tu’akoi, Sioeli Akau’ola, and ‘Alaipulotu Pahulu gave supporting speeches. Nanasi cut the ribbon.
May 16 - Paul continues to implement operation procedures including: rules, pricing, accounting, budget, goals and objectives, class waiting-list, class schedules, and announcing the supervisor job opening. The task of evolving and making major adjustments to operation procedures would continue for another three months.
May 20 - A youth meeting was held with twenty attendees. Paul offered words of thanks to all those who had contributed to the establishment of the WDYHCC. Meliame was elected to be the Fakamalu ‘o Latufuipeka Youth Group Secretary. A letter was composed to Kolovai residences in New Zealand requesting a television and VCR for the Youth Hall (no response).
May 19 - Dean from Systems and Solutions came out and installed the networking cables and conduits.
May 20 - Paul begins to write the lesson plans using a few ideas from the Vava’u Computer Center.
May 22 - Commenced the very first class at the WDYHCC, “Introduction to Computers” taught by Paul.
May 26 - In anticipation of the conversion of what was previously the falefakakolo to a Youth Center, whoever was supposed to, stopped paying the electricity bill in March and did not tell anyone, so today the power was shut off.
May 29 - The power is back on. Dave Parsons, the Peace Corps Volunteer, from the neighboring village of Te’ekiu, begins a daytime class and Havili Movete, previously a Kolovai resident now living in Nuku’alofa working as the IT manager at the Tongan Development Bank, begins an evening class.
May 30 - A rule was made against people playing and installing computer games in response to irresponsible behavior as a result of playing.
June 5 - Made a calendar, updated rules and prices, set-up an accounting system, continued composing lesson plans.
June 11 - Began training ‘Elisepa and Jose as Supervisors.
June 13 - Made the WDYHCC logo.
June 19 - Had the septic tank pumped.
Youth continue to come in and harass for free use of the computers.
June 21 - Completed the proposal to connect the Internet to the WDYHCC.
June 22 - Wrote a Press Release for Peace Corps’s Check it Out and TNYC’s Le’o ‘o e Kaha’u summarizing the WDYHCC’s inception, opening, current program, and future goals.
June 26 - Paul meets with John Morris, the general manager of the Tonga Communication Corporation. John agrees to the Internet connection proposal, which includes granting the WDYHCC the discounted education rate for Internet connection (TOG$300, instead of TOG$1000 - the business rate). This does not include, however, the cost of using the telephone, which can add up considerably depending on time spent using the Internet.
June 28 - With the assistance of Tate Goodman, a Peace Corps Volunteer working at Tupou High School’s Computer Lab, there was an attempt to install Windows 2000 Server. It was not successful. The Computers are not currently usable.
June 29 - Tate returns and gets Windows 2000 Server running, but not entirely smoothly. The printer is not working and Group Policies are not downloaded to clients.
June 30 - Without any networking experience, Paul makes attempts to figure out using the Server. He would spend several hours each day for the next four months doing this.
July 5 - Gave Jose and ‘Elisepa a set of keys for the Center.
Many sets of shoes and flip-flops have been stolen from the entryway during the night. The “no shoes inside” policy is no longer enforced although it is recommended to remove shoes and place them just inside.
July 12 - Internet is connected!
July 13 – August 2 - Discover that having Internet makes the Center a hundred times more complicated, technically and operationally - a new set of policies must be created. This on top of the Server still not functioning properly as well as a myriad of other problems. Paul spends most waking hours and several that are meant for sleeping doing nothing but computers.
July 16 - Adam McWilliams and his counterpart from the University of South Pacific came to the WDYHCC to assist connecting each client computer to the Internet (successfully) and share Group Policies (unsuccessfully). We were up until 4 AM.
July 20 - Get the Group Policies to work only if the DNS server address is set to be obtained automatically. The problem is that Internet is not shared in this case.
July 22 - ‘Elisepa and Paul open a joint Checking Account at the Bank of Tonga for the WDYHCC.
Money cards, which basically purchase credit, does not work within Tongan cultural context.
August 4 – August 25 - Paul vacations in Australia.
August 4 – August 25 - Supervisors have problems with the Internet and printers. A visit from a TCC representative solves nothing, but costs TOG$50.
August 28 - Each account is allowed to have access to setting up printers, thus solving the printer issue.
August 26 – September 5 - Worked on getting the Internet back functioning again. There were two problems. One was static on the phone line and the other was on the end of the TCC Internet Server provider, which has had difficulty recently providing service for a high volume of customers.
September 11 - The 6th “Introduction to Computers Class” begins taught by Paul.
September 12 (September 11 in the United States) - Terrorist attacks in America. The Center closes down for the day.
September 15 - Set up E: (file sharing) on client terminals for the student account (sharing Class Practices) and the supervisor account (sharing Class, Operation Managements, and their personal folders).
September 19 - Nimda virus attack infecting and crashing the Server and all computers. Documents were last backed-up two weeks previous. The Computer Center closes.
September 20 - Spent 14 hours deleting everything on all computers as the only way to eradicate the virus. Reloaded all software on Server and one client. Installed Windows on other clients to get them online to the Network.
September 23 - Updated Internet browser to Internet Explorer 6 (which has security against the Nimbda virus) and downloaded recent virus definitions for Norton Anti-virus.
September 26 - With the assistance of PCVs Tate and Neal, from Tupou High School, ghosted all client machines making all systems uniform to each other. Group Policies are not functioning at all now even if the DNS server address is set to be obtained automatically.
September 27 - The Center Re-opens.
September 27 – October 1 - With Jose busy studying for his test, there have been several evenings when the Center was not opened.
October 1 - A pleasant surprise, all the supervisors showed up including our newest, ‘Emalata from ‘Ahau. ‘Emalata is busy with other commitments and only stays with the WDYHCC for a couple of weeks.
October 3 - Dave begins a new class with five students.
October 4 - Paul puts in another fourteen-hour and very productive day at the Center.
October 7 - Printed all pertinent documents for Gini’s visit tomorrow.
October 8 - Gini, the IT specialist from Peace Corps Headquarter in Washington DC made a site visit. She seemed happy with the WDYHCC. Ran virus update and scanned all computers. Had to make several attempts to completely download virus definition and update data on each computer.
October 9 - Paul gave a very successful Internet seminar that lasted two hours and was attended by nine students.
October 10 - Dean came to replace the CPU fan in the Server after it had been sounding funny, as if it were on it’s last legs for the past week.
October 11 - Installed a program called spIE that tracks Internet navigation.
October 17 - Earl, a recently relocated American with 15 years of networking experience, came to the Center and admitted he did not know what the problem was with the Group Policies. He suggested that the problem lies within the DNS server. Created Marketing cards to distribute to potential students who inquire about classes. Ran virus update on Server. Discovered the need to better police Internet privileges.
October 18 - Ran virus updates on client computers. Blocked the Connect account from any computers except the Server. The Connect account is for the limited purposes of establishing an Internet connection with the Server’s modem, Scanner, and CD Rewrite. With restricted functions, only Supervisors (who are limited to only this account on the Server) may use the Connect account. Only Paul currently has administrative privileges.
September 27 – October 29 - Paul works on compiling materials used at the WDYHCC for distribution with other Computer Centers and Youth Halls in Tonga and the Peace Corps Headquarters.
October 27 – Final installment of hardware is delivered. It includes an upgrade of 64 megabits of ram for each client computer, and one Pentium IV (PIV) computer with 512 megabits of ram that will function as the server and an upgrade of 64 megabits of ram for each client computer. We had the idea of ghosting the old server’s hard-drive to the new computer but we don’t even get a chance to try before the new computer power supply melts at Systems and Solutions. It’s probably better (though more time consuming) to make a fresh install.
October 27 – Dean from Systems and Solutions comes out to install additional ram.
October 29 - Updated virus definitions. Paul hosts another Internet Seminar. Computer 4 is not functioning. There is power, but that’s it.
November 1– Dave Parsons begins teaching another “Introduction to Computers Class”. It is determined that the RAM card was put in the wrong way, melting it.
November 2 Dean replaces the RAM card so Computer 4 is now working.
November 4 - The new PIV computer turned on once, but stopped working on a second attempt.
November 12 - Paul teaches another “Introduction to Internet” Seminar.
November 13 - The wrong digital camera arrives. We have to re-order
November 14 - Downloaded new virus definitions.
November 19 - Added new Back-UPS CS 350 and corresponding software to Server, which will automatically shut down the Server during a power outage.
November 29 - Malia Fakava with the assistance of her sister Telesia, begins the, “Introduction to Computers” class and is the first graduate of the WDYHCC to become a teacher!
December 3 - Paul’s brother Brian donates McAffee VirusScan to the WDYHCC just before the demo version of Norton Anti-Virus required payment for updated registration. It takes over 8 hours to install and download updates.
December 4 - McAffee VirusScan does not work on the server. Tried to uninstall, then re-install Norton 2000 demo version on Server, but registry information could not be deleted. Got Norton Anti-virus 2001 from Dean and installed demo version. The free subscription will run out in three months.
December 15 - Downloaded virus updates.
December 17 – January 1, 2002 - Paul leaves for holiday in Niue. The Center is open only sporadically in his absence. The Server begins to act strange. The Start menu does not function and there is an error message that “the registry is full” and policies are not downloaded upon logging in. Dave Parsons has been medically separated from the Peace Corps so Paul is the only palangi working now at the Center.