Week One

Preliminary Analysis of San Ramon

San Ramon is a municipality of approximately 26,310 people, 91.43% (or 24,056) of which live outside of the town of San Ramon. San Ramon municipality covers approximately 427 square km, with around 62 people per square km. Located at 12 degrees 55' lat N and 85 degrees 50' long, the municipality is bounded by Tuma-La Dalia in the North, Muy Muy in the South, Matagalpa city in the East, and Matiguas in the West. San Ramon has a high state of poverty: 76.9% (or 20,153) live in poverty, while 43.8% (11,524) live in extreme poverty. Fifty-eight percent of the population are less than 18 years old. In addition to the town of San Ramon, there are 10 comarcas that are comprised of a total of 75 communities. The primary source of income is agriculture, with cattle-production following close behind. Coffee is grown in the highlands, and basic grains (rice, beans, corn, and some coffee) are grown in the lowlands. Commerce in the municipality consists of 27 pulperias (general stores), 12 bars, 2 distribution centers, 5 bakeries, 1 hotel, 2 mecanic shops, 1 sawmill, and 1 slaughterhouse.

This week I visited the communities of Samulali 1 and Yasica Sur. Samulali is in the lowlands, therefore the majority of adults are unemployed at least during the non-coffee harvest seasons and practice subsistence agriculture. There is little to no access to electricity, cellular coverage, or running water. Each community has a primaria (elementary) school, but students have to go to the town of San Ramon for any education beyond this. The high cost of transportation often deters students from doing so. Yasica Sur is in the highlands, therefore the majority of adults are coffee laborers or farmers. This means that the majority are also unemployed during the non-harvest season. There is little to no access to electricity, cellular coverage, or running water. In both communities, students use rudimentary latrines that are not well-maintained and are not sanitary. Toilet paper is a bring-your-own option. Students have to carry their water for the day in gasoline-style containers. Homes are usually brick, concrete, or mud and stick. They usually consist of one room in which all household functions take place - sleeping, eating, resting, etc. Households have to travel a short distance to a central water pump to obtain water and use the latrine.

When asked if they are interested in learning something about computation, almost all students in the two classrooms I visited expressed strong enthusiasm for the prospect. This was quite encouraging to me. Most of these students have never even touched a computer in their lives. I hope that I am able to see them using these computers before my time is up here.

The town of San Ramon is quite small, consisting of approximately 4 by 4 streets. Everyone knows everyone here, and most people are related somehow to each other. The town is inundated with NGOs, both national and international. I will get a list of all the community organizations by the end of this week. Despite the strong social conscientiousness of the community, there is a lack of inter-NGO participation. It is almost a state of competition between organizations. For example, CESESMA and the UCA-San Ramon are both building telecenters for the rural youth, but they are not sharing resources to achieve this mutual goal. I am concerned that they are wasting time and other resources by not collaborating on mutual projects.

Preliminary Analysis of CESESMA

CESESMA is a medium-sized nonprofit based out of the town of San Ramon. They consist of approximately 20 staffpeople as well as many youth promotores/as. My supervisor is Nohemi Molina Torrez, the subdirector of CESESMA. However, I work more directly with the coordinators of CESESMA. Almost all staff are in the office on Monday, and spend the rest of the week out in the communities. I will be accompanying these coordinators to their respective communities in order to conduct my survey. The San Ramon office is approximately 1 year old. It is a very nice building, but they often experience blackouts/brownouts. Solar and other alternative energies would serve San Ramon extremely well, however cost is always an issue. The staff all have access to computers and email, however the email seems to be dialup and is slow and costly. All staff must travel 30 minutes to Matagalpa to use the Internet.

Approximately 10 laptops donated by the US Peace Corps arrived this past week. I ensured that they are capable of running all necessary programs, of which they are. The PCs have Windows 200 Professional already installed. They have 645,160 KB of RAM, a 1200 MHz Pentium processor, and 37.2 GB of available disk space. The computers need Windows XP Multilanguage and the latest version of MS Office installed - this should take place this week. The laptops will be used to teach basic computation in the rural communities. I believe they will also double as the computers for the San Ramon telecenter. The telecenter will be housed in the front lobby of the San Ramon office. According to staff, the networks are already in place.

CESESMA has submitted a request for Internet service from Enitel, a national ISP. The offer has been pending for at least one year now. CESESMA is unsure of when they will receive this service. They have told me the service will be over a telephone line - I am hoping this does not mean dialup. Satellite/wireless is possible, but is extremely expensive for a nonprofit (US$4,000-5,000). I am considering appealing to the company or to a different ISP for monetary/technical/material assistance.

Until the Internet service arrives, CESESMA will offer classes in basic computation to the rural youth with whom they work. It will be part of my project description to design these courses. I will be researching for Spanish-language resources that can be utilized for this purpose, keeping in mind that the students have never even touched a computer before. I hope to have the courses designed by the end of May. The primary goal of CESESMA´s telecenter is free and open access to computer technology for rural youth. I have ideas on how to make this sustainable, and will offer them at the appropriate time (CESESMA has already expressed interest in any ideas I may have).

UCA-San Ramon Technology Project

The UCA(Union de Cooperativas Agricolas) - San Ramon has expressed interest in my assistance in installing a telecenter. It seems that they already have wireless installed, and should be receiving the computers very shortly. I believe the UCA has much more access to resources than CESESMA.

In addition, I have received support from Blanca Rosa Molina (sister of Nohemi Molina and key official in UCA-San Ramon) in utilizing the UCA for my survey needs. Upon my inquiry, Blanca also encouraged me to become involved in the development of the UCA´s websites (one is informational, the other is touristic). I have not yet been able to find these websites for review.

I will be meeting with representatives of the UCA-San Ramon later this week to discuss the status and potential of my assistance in their technology projects. I will have a preliminary analysis ready by May 6.

Initial Phase of the San Ramon ICT Survey

I am optimistic about the community support for the survey. I need to make a few more contacts this week before I will have an ideal representative base to work from. I will be passing by the local library and mayor´s office to obtain more details on the county of San Ramon - the names and locations of the rural communities and community organizations. I will meet on Monday (April 30) with Nohemi, Guillermo (Director of CESESMA), Donald (Media & Communications), and Harry (Development) to identify CESESMA´s primary needs of the survey. I will meet on Thursday or Friday with representatives from the UCA-San Ramon (Abraham Zeleon, director of Agriculture & Pecuaria, and possibly a few others) to understand their needs from the survey.

I must have a working draft of the survey ready by Thursday. A group of young women and girls will be visiting the CESESMA office for a sewing class, and it would be the ideal time to test out the survey. My primary concerns at this moment are: target population (i.e. how best to do a random stratified selection) and appropriate questions (those that meet needs of each involved party). I have come to the conclusion that the survey will work best if a community organization representative is present - they break down the barrier between me and the interviewee.

In the Next Report

Look for a preliminary analysis of the UCA-San Ramon, more information on the CESESMA telecenter, more information on San Ramon community resources, the plan for the ICT survey, a final draft of the survey, and a report on the test run of the survey.