Camara, winners of the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards in 2008, have been carrying out a lot of work on location in Africa recently. Cormac and his team's Blog makes for very interesting reading. Please see the extracts below:


Who lays the bricks? July 29, 2009 (by Eoghan)

Awasa, Ethiopia

I arrived tenser than usual. I think its better to assume the worst than hope for the best. Team morale is fluctuating like the power here. Although Ethiopia produces more power hydro-electrically than it consumes each year, it has been exporting increasingly more to its neighbours. Citizens in Southern Ethiopia have similar names for their politicians and political system as you may hear on the Luas about ours. The rivers are being diverted to the hydro-dams to increase the volume of throughput, yet the extra electrical units are not for local consumption. The result is dry river beds, rolling black outs based on an incomprehensible system of on/off/off/on/maybe/2nd weekend in the month off/ etc and a headache for teaching teachers using computers.

The team runs generators during the off hours and plan their curriculum’s around the on slots. The ratio of volunteers to teachers doesn’t favour the quantities of eager teachers here in Awasa who have signed up. The ICDL and networking team could stay indefinitely. They are split between two colleges, Debub and Zion Technical.

The team is split to take advantage of a good Perkins Diesel generator in Zion College and through fallout of the non-existent delegation in Debub.

The Debub College Principal has been absent with a broken leg, donkey related we were later told. Without him, it was extremely difficult to organise the required electrics for the room. It seems as though every organisation here has an architect of sorts. The head hauncho who arrives on-site and the masses perk up to look busy. If anybody has worked on a building site, the person holding the tube of drawings, immaculately clean hard hat and wellies from the boot of the S320 is top dog and if he/she barks, you better know what your doing.

It seems organisations here are like building sites in their approach to business employment. No deviation can be made to the regular day-to-day operations without that change communicated to and agreed upon by the architect. Unlike at home though, the architects here don’t leave many plans and there is nobody to lay the bricks for them in their absence. If they ain’t here, nothing new can be implemented and the employees follow only what they know. No site manager steps in and starts calling the shots. I can imagine a hotel manager asking for sandwiches to be made, falling ill and coming back after a month to find that only 5 were made as they ran out of butter. We have experienced this trend in hotels, colleges and even in our own hub.

The volunteers will train in both colleges until the end of this week before departing to the capital, Addis Ababa. All agree that the end of the month has crept up on them. Its reassuring for the cynics to hear that some of the team will stay on after the program has run its course to travel north of Addis and others are to explore Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. It is true that Africa gets into your blood. I can only say from experience that Murphy had to be an African and his laws drafted here. Its terribly frustrating and sometimes you can lose sight of the bigger picture as the issues of electrics and governance can temporarily blind you.

Heres some feedback that was collected, it has been written here exactly as it was received.

What was good?

Help me see parts of computer i only know by name
Like practical
Teachers know their material
Understand developed countries
Interesting because trainers work together
Qualifies trainers involves current technology
Surprising!, now i know secret of computes
Advanced from last year, keep it up.
Happy that we learn, even in no light
Learning a bit more Linux
Great course to update knowledge & fix issues on our own labs when we return to work

What needs to be improved?

Longer courses
We want OS on CD
Windows languageCourse outline for town
One topic in lab rather than two
Best if tutors are from the same profession as students
Time is short
Local professionals in the class
More practical
We would like to learn about more network and databases

How will you use training received?

For future career and i will teach others
I will use my computer training in all aspects – to improve myself &others in society
Replicate the course
Going to use it in my school
The course is better than expected, i will apply it in my school
Helps me teach my students
Start new enterprise
Direct relation to my profession


Adama Power Problems: July 13th and 14th (by Hester)
Francisco and I head down to meet the rest of the team in Adama. This is their second week there and they seem to have settled in nicely. There have been a lot of problems with electricity, one day on and one day off in different parts of the city. Since this was known before hand, they had all brought laptops, extra batteries, and a generator (which they ferry between classes).

They have managed to allow for four to five classes to be taught at any time. I am very impressed by their ingenuity and ability to overcome what could have potentially been a nightmare. The two team coordinators, Mike and Karen, are clearly doing a fantastic job and have obviously worked very hard to smooth over any difficulties in organising the training and the logistics at the guest house. They work well with their buddy, Gelana, and the other staff in the hub, who seem to respect, love and fear them at the same time. As a result of this, the team is relaxed and is able to get on with their job of teaching. I receive feedback from them saying, “Mike and Karen are doing an excellent job, except they could do with translators in the class as the language barrier is a problem and that the food takes too long to arrive in the guest house where they are staying.”

The Hub – In week one and two there are classes in Multi-media, Networking, and PC Maintenance. There are around 20 students in each class. In the Hamara Nursing school, they are teaching ICDL beginner and advance courses. In total, they should have around 80 students graduating at the end of the week (already 80 graduated last week). It’s a little too early to introduce Moodle to the teachers, but Ana has been showing Feiyssa’s daughter, Howie, how it works. The hub looks great, clean and freshly painted. There is a mural of Cormac on the wall, which everyone finds very amusing. Eyob showed me the room where thy have been storing the computers, which they have not been able to move onto schools due to either low specs or technical problems. The PC Maintenance students have been working on these in their class and have managed to fix between 10 and 15 so far. After speaking with Ben, who is running the class, he says the main problem is that they have been plugged in without surge protectors.

In their first week, the local TV station came to the hub and filmed the volunteers and students. They were on the evening news for a couple of minutes and there is a longer programme of 20 minutes out later this week.


Friday and Saturday July 10/11th – Kigali/Addis/Rome/London/Dublin (by Cormac)

Going Home

Met briefly with Eddy in the morning to say good bye and pass on my old Camara T shirts (I’m sure they’ll be fine once he’s given them a good wash). Then, before departing for the airport, I went to meet my Rwandan friend but there was little compromise in his heart. Anyway not much I could do about it now – pass it onto to Trisha and Frank to deal with (thanks guys).

Off to the airport for the long journey home - 5 airports in 26 hours – with feelings that contrasted sharply with those of December 2008 when I visited last.

“…………. I can say that after three weeks on the road I can not imagine a better or more satisfying experience than traveling around Africa and watching Camara take root. To see each of the Hubs established (or re-established), to see each of their different personalities taking shape, to meet the staff, volunteers, partners, schools and donors that have all played their part, and to learn something new and different every day – its just the best job in the world!” (Cormac’s Diary - Saturday December 6th 2008)

Africa is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those seeking short term victories or easy solutions. It is not for those looking for a pat on the back from an adoring public or for those who are afraid to fail, again and again. It is hard work, it is frustrating and it sometimes wants to make you cry. But the ordinary people are wonderfully warm, generous and full of life. Their smiles are infectious and their sense of gratitude immense. They deserve so much better than what their leaders give them and I will be back again older and wiser but no less committed to their struggle.