SpiTux Project June 2003 Archive
Our Students
Spitak Teachers and Educators That We Train
High School Computer Science Lessons: Boarding School Juniors
and
Seniors
Goodbye Party
June 27, 2003. Anoush is scheduled to leave Spitak.
Veteran Spitak volunteers Karen Najaryan and Valentina
Mouradyan come to Spitak, joined by Anoush's mother Nata, who has
also done a lot for the SpiTux Project.
All the kids come in to
receive graduation certificates for this term. The kids that have been
working as Teaching Assistants, receive an Honorary Mention -- and
books, to keep them busy over the cool Spitak summer.
The Center hosts a beautiful goodbye ceremony, with a few
dozen guests --
kids, parents and friends, -- delicious cakes, and spectacular
dancing. At the end of the day, some more kids
come to the center to say goodbye. We don't cry -- that's
against the rules.
Dancing at the Goodbye Party
In the future, the kids will be working with
Edik and Emilia and Naira.
Mariam will be teaching grown-ups.
We all have lots of hopes connected with the International
Student Camp, starting at the Shogher Center on July 19, and
our other friends, who have voiced a desire to volunteer in Spitak.
SpiTux Photos Arrive
June 26, 2003. We receive a parcel from Yerevan:
1100+ SpiTux photos, taken over the course of the past 11 months,
come to us, developed and real, non-digital, -- as many copies as there are
people in the pictures. We write the names of every SpiTux kid,
teacher, and friend on a piece of paper, and sort through the pictures,
giving everyone their share.
Gagik, Melik, Lala, and Emilia Sorting SpiTux Photos
SpiTux Newspaper #7
June 25, 2003. The new, seventh, issue of the
SpiTux
Newspaper comes out. Editor-in-Chief Gagik Petrosyan and friend Armen
Darchinyan take the paper to the center of Spitak to be photocopied.
Then everyone comes together to fold the paper up.
SpiTux Newspaper #7
Programming Class: Can We go Online?
June 20, 2003. The Programming Group meets to
discuss a possibility of holding an online C Programming course.
If we find the right online materials, we can really make this work!
Kelly Bedeian Visits Spitak
June 18, 2003. IREX Country Manager
and IATP Regional Director Kelly Bedeian comes to visit our site.
Edik shows Kelly around the Shogher Youth Center, leading
her to discover a beautiful carpet decorated with the IREX logo, being
made by the Carpet teacher Hasmik. The Web Radio Group
interviews Kelly. The people working at the site gather for a
friendly discussion bringing forward everybody's
plans and aspirations.
Special Effects for Animation UFO
June 17, 2003. The Animation Group are completing
the work on the UFO, a little animation about extraterrestrial
clay creatures we shot back in May, together with a few kids from the
Pottery Studio of the Museum of Children's Art in Yerevan. Meanwhile,
the Radio group works hard on the sound editing for the interviews
we took on the trip to the village of Arevashogh, and last week's
interviews.
June 14, 2003. Three SpiTux kids: Lala Bostanchyan, David Shiroyan,
and Melik Chobanyan, are in Yerevan on a special mission: to
make an animation together with Street Children from the
New Armenia Humanitarian Support Center
in Yerevan.
In collaboration with Emilia, Anoush, and Haykanush Ananyan, a friend
that came to Spitak once already, the team works hard and produces the story of
Soccer Players.
It is a challenging task: the main problem we were faced with was that the
Street Children had a hard time believing they could accomplish things.
But they ended up doing a marvelous job, don't you think?
Animation Soccer Players:
Made Together with Street Children from Yerevan
Interviewing Friends
June 13, 2003. We receive three visitors from Yerevan: Patricia Boyle,
a longest-term (and long-awaited!) SpiTux friend, Galust Mardirussian,
and Edgar Adilkhanian. The Radio Group interviews Galust and Patricia.
Patricia engages in spoiling the kids with a multitude of chocolates. We
take a stroll around the neighborhood. At the end of the day, three kids and
Emilia accompany our guests back to Yerevan, in preparation for
a meeting with the Street Children, to take place the next morning. In Yerevan,
a great surprise: Galust invites all of us over, and serves a marvelously nutritious
dinner to everyone, at his place -- in view of Mount Ararat!
SpiTux System Administration Team Sets Up Boarding School Lab
June 12, 2003. Two early mornings in a row, we dispatch the
SpiTux System Administration team (kids aged 11, 12, 13, 15, and 17, adn two grown-ups)
to the Boarding School, to set up the computers they received
on the UAF flight. It turns out that a hard drive data cable on one of the machines was defective --
we were very proud to have figured it out! It is exciting to be able to do things like this!
Radio Expedition to the Village of Arevashogh
June 5, 2003. Together with Michael, we depart for the village of Arevashogh, aka Chigdamal. We take the bus, then walk around on foot all day.
After a visit to the village school, we make friends with the local kids, and our party of 16 becomes that of 40. Together with these new kids,
we walk off into the hills, to see a mountain lake. When we come back, with lots of pictures and recordings of various kinds, we eat ice-cream together,
then thank our companions, who all say they will come to our computer classes in Spitak. Each of them is holding a copy of the SpiTux newspaper!
Michael Pelsmajer, Our Guest from Chicago!
June 4, 2003. Michael comes to Spitak, takes over the C Programming class, and also, visits Mrs. Asatryan of Boarding School, and Maro of Association of the Handicapped Nor Spitak.
This Is Real: Computer Lab for Boarding School
June 3, 2003. Anoush accompanies Boarding School Director Mr. Davtyan
to pick up the three computers sent to the school by Steve Shepherd, and
the printer sent by Tim Mouradian, on the United Armenian Fund flight.
Michael, coming to Spitak the next day, presents the school with an Ethernet hub
and a set of network cables.
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