New Computers! and the flu pandemic.

Thanks to a generous donation by the ARK computer company in New Zealand, and the tireless efforts of Sara and Cale, my school has acquired 15 new (well new to me) computers, bringing our total up from 5 to 20! Oh Happy Day. The computers arrived on Saturday, and its been quite a hectic couple of days, getting from Wesley College and then setting them up.

I’m fairly happy with the new computers. They are IBMs, with a range from 128 to 512 MB of RAM. The processors are Intel Celerons (1400 MHz) which is a step up from the 1000 MHz AMDs I have in the other computers. Some of the hard drives have been problematic, but I have spares that I can use. I’m thinking of having a computer lab with mixed OSes, meaning the ones that already have windows will keep it, but I will install Linux on the others. That way I’m hoping that my students can figure out how to do general computer tasks as opposed to just memorizing how to do specific tasks. What do you guys think?

In other news, the flu pandemic has hit Samoa with a vengeance. Last week, between 30 – 40% of the students were absent, and on Friday, the government announced that it would cancel schools for this week. Most of the other schools in Samoa followed suit, except for my school system, EFKS. However today there was a meeting of the school committee, and they decided that they should cancel school for the rest of week. This means that I have yet to have a full week of classes this term. I had the flu about two weeks ago, about the same time as my boil. Not just the schools, but all of Samoa has gone crazy with hypocondria. People in Apia have taken to wearing masks.

Here’s some pictures:

The new setup, from the front

From the back

Mid setup

The new system units

The montiors

Tusi, the waitress at CV