Travel notes

What is the place of OLPC in the future of Bangladesh?

I asked this question whenever I could during our trip to Bangladesh to visit Jess's friends Jan 15 - Feb 12, 2010.

Much of the time, I found myself explaining about computers, internet access, and how other countries had used deployments of laptops to primary students to springboard into the digital era. (for slides and captions related to OLPC see http://picasaweb.google.com/jess.ganas/BangladeshOLPCVisit2010#)

Highlights in Narrative

On the other hand, I was extremely fortunate to be able to hook up with some of the leaders, and digital vanguard, who are already contributing to the digital future of the country.

Jess's friend, A.K.M. Wahidi (Wahidi), let us use an apartment that we shared with a teenaged son of his brother, Kasim Wahidi (Kasim). The two brothers are part of a family of 7 or so raised in the village of Sitakundo, which is about 30 KM North of Chittagong.

Wahidi was good at school, and got an engineering degree. After a few years working as an engineer, he got wanderlust, and shipped out in the merchant marine. After 10 years or so, he landed in Brooklyn, where Jess was also living at the time.

Wahidi now lives more than half of his time in Boston, and the other part in Sitakundo. He is strongly committed to education, especially for girls. A few years ago, he built a High School, which the government took over. More recently he has been supporting a primary school, located on the front portion of his family's land. While we were there, he was actively supervising the construction of a new facility for this school.

Observations

Digital infrastructure

===Developing OLPC Deployment