I did my intermediate in Science, bachelors in Management and masters in Information Technology. I first used computer in 1994 when my uncle who ran a long distance call center in Kathmandu bought computer for the sake of providing Email/Internet service. I learnt computer faster in comparison to other colleagues. I didn't know at that time that this tool will become the way of my life.
I joined some computer training institute and did well. Joining an ISP, at being invited by an old friend who we had studied together during our intermediate and who had then become an experienced system administrator, was a turning point in my life. I worked and learned. Now, I am working in a Linux Localization Project and i'm one of the lead developers there. We have recently released the Nepali Version of Debian GNU/Linux named 'NEPALINUX'.
Training of Trainers:
Linux Training of Trainers
UP, Philippines
4th - 16th Dec. 2006
Jointly hosted by :
International Open Source Network, IOSN
InWEnt-Capacity Building International,Germany
University of the Philippines.
A colleague at Madan Puraskar Pustakala, where we work on developing Nepalinux, informed about the training and he further asked if I would be interested to attend. Despite my soon-appearing exam at the college, I agreed. Mr. Yusof, Dr. Alvin and Mr. Eric Pareja who usually hang around #iosn irc co-ordinated to send me an invitation letter and make arrangements for releasing DSA through UNDP-Kathmandu.
The following 2 days I was busy with air-ticket collection, visa application and other arrangements.
My First Overseas Trip Alone:
Kathmandu-Bangkok-Manila. I was afraid cause this was my first travel alone ever. I had a 16 hrs long transit at Bankok airport. Fortunately, I met a Nepali novice traveller just like me and we became friends. Fortunately again, he was also going to Manila, the same place I was going. Half of my tension and nervousness was gone when I knew about this. We landed at the manila airport at around 11 am. This new friend was lucky that he had somebody waiting to pick him up. He walked away almost instantly when he saw his receiver and didn't look back at me even once as he walked away. I was on my own. I bought a telephone Sim card (telco) costing 3$ and made call to the event organizer/manager Dr. Alvin B. Marcelo. He suggested me to get a airport taxi. To my surprise the taxi driver at his mid 50s spoke very good English. Soon the taxi took us inside the University Area. I had never seen such a huge university area. I had to get off the taxi few times to make inquiry before we could finally locate the University Hotel. A room was supposed to be booked for me in the hotel.
The University Hotel:
The room was nice and had three sub rooms. Two sub-room were to be taken by 2 Mongolian colleagues who arrived only 2 days after my arrival. Later I found out that the receptionist had problem identifying the Mongolians' name as well and they had been given a different room the earlier night.
First day of the Training:
Dr. Alvin Marcelo, the manager of the event, whom I had only talked over the telephone from the airport was very kind to pick me up at the Hotel the next day. He drove me to the UP Diliman Interactive Learning Center - the Computer lab -just a few hundred meters away. He further suggested me on taking a short-cut to the lab the following days. As I entered the lab, i realized that I was late. A lady instructor who was already giving linux installation instruction in the lab asked me to introduce myself to the class before having seat. I took the front seat and shook hands with a healthy looking guy who was already seated there besides me. He introduced himself as Mr. Ron. He was to become my buddy for coming few days, until one day he stopped showing up in the lab unnoticed. He was knowledgeable but was not very comfortable with linux system. I helped him with few commands and he quickly realized that I was fairly good at linux..
The lab is something:
The lab was indeed the best lab I had ever seen. I was surprised to see that all 24 "Legend" Systems had been donated by the embassy of China in Philippines. Flat monitor, fresh 40 gb hdd, colorful set of speaker, mouse, keyboard and CPU placed gracefully over the fresh looking computer table within that air conditioned lab all gave a very pleasant feeling. All the system were powered through a build-in UPS which gave beep signal whenever the power cable was unwittingly unplugged by participants. But when I noticed a projector hunging down from the lab-ceiling , I said to myself yes, this lab is something.
Snacks & Lunch Breaks:
Snacks were served twice a day in the room above the lab. The following two days, during the snack breaks I personally introduced myself to every single participants. Everyone greeted me with a smile as I was the only foreign student until the Mongolians came.
During the class instructor Myra had told about the places to find lunch around there and it w
ould cost around 60 peso for lunch. Finding lunch was a challenge for me cause I didn't ate beef and beef being very popular, seemed to be there in all the lunch items that were displayed in the lunch restaurants. I found myself having roasted chicken and rice most of the time.Lots of Instructors:
In the lab, all the participants were handed the objective materials and a set of ubuntu server and desktop CDs. Linux installation and HDD partitioning was very well covered by Instructor Myra. We got to see the lead instructor only on the 2nd day. He introduced himself as Mr. Eric Pareja. He had all the features that a very good instructor needed. A very good knowledge of the system, years of hands on experience, precise, clear and slow speech were the few weapo
ns Mr. Eric Pareja was armed with. I personally have learned a lot from him not just about the computer and computer system but also about the teaching techniques.Instructor Jeff, Ariel were equally good and knowledgeable.
LPI Exam:
When one day in the class we were informed that we are to take the LPI exam at the end of the training, I became little more serious and started following the objective seriously. As I went through the book, i realized that the book content where very carefully compiled and it contained many useful topics.
Thank god I passed the exam.
The Linux gurus:
The training was more of a fast review of everything. It was Training of Trainers after all!. I noticed some participants were really very good and well experienced. I realized how training out side one's own country is important. One starts viewing his work in a different way and starts seeing that there is scope for best of anything... I had a little chat with the philippino linux gurus who made the Bayanihan GNU/Linux. They had come there to give their small speech on Baynihan linux. I introduced myself as one of the NepaLinux GNU/Linux Developer. I went ahead and showed them Nepalinux in my laptop and they appreciated our work.
Trainees:
"At snack breaks and during lunch time, show our international participants your respect and hospitality" these are the words spoken by Mr. Eric addressing fellow philippino trainees. There were altogether 24 participants. I was form Nepal and besides myself, the other international participants were the 2 Mongolians who I shared the big hotel room with. Among the philippino participants some came from far away province.
I found most philippino trainees humble. Most of the participants greeted me with cute smile whenever our eyes met. A fellow trainee Mr. Benny became very close to us -me and the Mongolians. He was the only trainee who had car. He worked as a sysadmin for some other department within the university area. He took us to the city center, the big mall, bay side and the mega mall. He even helped me shift the hotel. Later after training he was to take us to the Subik area and the sea beach and were to have great time together scuba-diving and holding starfish. I am very grateful to Benny for taking us to see sea and other places and so are the mangolians (Dulmandakh and Nunhe) I am sure.
Miss Melissa was the only lady participant. She was cute and fashionable. She was the first lady I had seen who was so good with linux and it fascinated me a lot. She had started working for UP just a few years back after finishing her bachelors. We had a few very nice conversation during snacks breaks. We were to become very good email friends in the coming days.
FOSS Essentials Training 2007
March 17 - 18, we are organizing "FOSS Essentials Training 2007" right within our office premises Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, Patan, Nepal.
http://www.fossnepal.org/?q=node/75
Organized by:
FOSS Nepal Community
Supporting Partners:
Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Singapore
National Information Technology Centre (NITC)
Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP)
The Training will focus on general Free And Open Source Software (FOSS) usage, migration from proprietary software to FOSS, licensing and intellectual properties rights, FOSS development management and various other FOSS issues.
This training will consist of lectures from experts, live practical sessions in laboratories, group discussions and projects. Our approach will be an informal training rather than a formal one. The trainees will get chance to interact with other participants and the trainers to a great extent from our informal lab sessions and group discussions.
