I've been told that Safari does not render this blog too well. I'm not sure if it's just the blog or the whole website. In any case, I am sure the HTML and CSS in the website validate and the ones in the blog return warnings, but no errors. I've tested IE, Firefox and Netscape successfully. I don't have a mac to test and try and debug with, so I haven't found a solution for Safari. I recommend trying a different theme for the blog (available on the right). I'd appreciate a screenshot or what it looks like, just to satisfy my curiosity.

I just came back from meeting/interviewing with the two women from the Ministry of Education, Cristina and Julia. They are working on a rural education project. Fase 2 will be launched in 2007 and they need someone to help them "think" about technology integration in the project's educational models: Escuela Nueva, Aceleración del Aprendizaje, SAT, and Telesecundaria (if I got them right). Each one is different from the others in many ways, but they are all "proven" models already in place, that have their own curricula. I know about the first three. The consultant should write recommendations about how to integrate technology in different rural curricula.
I'm not sure how far this could go, it would depend on negociations and needs, but I guess it could go as far as rewriting some of those curricula -or units/moduls- integrating technology that will work in different rural settings, writing materials for teachers about tech. integration, designing materials for students... about five months worth of hard work.
They have three different databases with information about which schools have what computers (or if they do), which schools are online and which schools use which method. They need to put all this into one database... something I can't do myself, but need done to be able to do the job if I take it and they take me. I could take it and get a code monkey to do that... that's another option. If I could put together a small team... I should have asked.
They also talked about two other tasks they need done and the same person could address. Now it all sounded like a hell of a lot of work. The project report they are writing for the funder needs a section on community participation. This would require finding out how community participation works, for they know the project has it, but don't have anything written about it. Lot's of traveling again, and of course lots of talking to people. They also need to detail how technical assistance (the teacher training, administrative training, etc. the schools get from regional governments and organizations) work in their project. Another long document with detailed research and traveling in jeep to talk to people in rural schools.
It all sounded like a lot of work but a lot of fun and a lot of learning... until they dropped the word consultancy and asked me how much I would charge for doing all that. My mind was blank. I had not even entertained the thought of being asked that question... idiot. Anyway, I had no idea. I'm not really sure about consultancies, since I want a permanent position, but this could be a great foot on the door to get myself known in the Ministry and around. I have no idea how much I would charge for something like that. I need to run some numbers, make spreadsheet and talk to my manager and advisory board.
I got a call while writing this. Cristina said they could hire someone else to do the two write ups. I got the impression Julia was less convinced about me doing that part. I said fine to the phone call, but now I think I would also like to do that, and even though it doesn't seem that clear, the three could be well connected. For the recommendations I would need information about those two things and more, and no better way of getting it than getting it myself. I still think that is negociable and I need to talk to them about it.
I'll think about it, and heads up for a podcast coming soon if I haven't forgotten my English.

I sit in the living room, connected to my wireless and downloading a couple files from a friend's blog. Audio files are big, and even though a have a good connection for local standards, it doesn't even come close to what I got used to. The dowload speed for each file is 25KB/s tops! How can people with such connections access audio and video on the web? I guess most of them don't have the patience to wait for downloads to happen. Broadband. Ha! One more thing to remind me I am back in Colombia, back in the third world. I wonder how fast are the fastest residential connections around here.

Someone had complained of lack content on this blog... here's some to keep you busy a few minutes... it had been long since the post when I had just arrived.

I arrived home yesterday night. I had a decent flight, with little leg space, and not that much arm space, either. Something I have to thank my 300 pound right-hand neighbor. I do have to say he was a nice friendly fourtyish American (I couldn't place his accent. He lived in Georgia, but did not speak like a Southerner.) He told me he was married to a Colombian, and was visiting his in-laws for a week long vacation, where he would "drink fresh pineapple juice and eat 'arepas' for breaksfas every day." He enjoyed the idea very much.
The other was in his fourties or early fifties and spoke nondistinctively too. He did wear a very distinctive mustache, though, whick have him ghe look of the main character of an eighties movie where an American mercenary goes on some shady business to Bogotá. All the Colombian scenes are all of course filmed in rural locations of northern Mexico, and Colombians speak with Mexican accents. The shady business is never fully explained, but it involves some drug transaction, related to weapon-dealing and lots of shooting, punching and a high speed chase on the dirt runway of the airport. This neighbor was also quite friendly. He asked me about my interests and confessed being friends with an ex-director of ICFES, the biggest educational assessment institute in the country. He asked me if I had my resumé, which I clearly didn't have. We watched a bad Kevin Costner movie, ate, slept, and finally arrived.
A few friends came to the airport, my dad and sister, and then we had a few drinks back home. It was a Thursday and everybody had to work in the morning. There was celebration on Saturday at a good friends house, with good food (some even had taste), and lots of aguardiente antioqueño. Even a bandeja paisa can't help with so much to drink. The next day was lost to headaches and dehydration.
I have been setting things upj since then, seeing old friends... landing.
Today I finally managed to have Internet access from my laptop and that's great, I can blog again, read, connect... lol.
Things are different. Quite alike, but different. Fruit is big and some even tasty again, traffic is chaos, the weather is cool...
In short, it's great to be back.

Oh, and thanks to Yenda for teaching me the title phrase of this blog ;-).