The story so far ...

I have been in Bonga for a few months now and although it is a tough placement it is also a beautiful and amazing place. The college where I live and work is on a hill about 40minutes away from the town. It is surrounded by lush jungles and on many occasions monkeys can be seen in the trees, along with the other animals you will find throughout the college such as goats, chickens and cows. As you would expect the power station struggles to keep a regular supply of electricity to the town. This also affects the water supply and on many occasions I have had to use rain and river water for washing, cleaning and drinking. The food that is available in Bonga is also very limited. Meat is very hard to come by and also very expensive. All vegetables are supplied by Jima as Bonga only produces coffee. My choice is onions, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes and cabbage. Pineapples, avocados, bananas and mangos are also readily available

The college itself houses around 1600 pupils and over 100 teachers, many of which are part time. Standard class sizes are around 46+ pupils. At the minute there are only 17 workstations provided for the students however with the help of KImbells and Miniframe I do hope to increase this number significantly. The IT department is also extremely limited in both ability and resources. I am meeting regululy with the Dean of the college in an attempt to resolve this. I am also doing my best to train my counterpart to prepare him for the big tasks ahead. Sadly things here move slowly and in order to fit in with the colleges work ethic Iv had no choice but to slow down to a snails pace of what I am used to back home. I feel it will take many months before the IT staff can begin to really take charge of the current IT system here, however with some determination and persistence I am certain it is not beyond them.