Well, what did we do this weekend?
It was completely about the kids.
Friday - we set up a test for outdoor movie night, using an old beat up projector and a white sheet, we prepped for next week. We also had the 2 kids of friends staying over for the week while their parents were in a remote location.
Saturday - being that water is tight, my son and his guest, and I setup a water pump with hoses to move water from one tank to another to give us more drinking water for the next few weeks. Then we found some sticks and whittled them down for roasting over the bonfire. We took our bonfire setup and moved it (the bottom half of an old 55 gallon drum with a wheel hub in it. The benches I made years ago out of a tree that fell during the wet season on our property. Kendal made home made marshmallows (none in the store at the moment) for smores!!! YES, HOME MADE MARSHMALLOWS!. I printed up a few small trickets for prizes on the 3d printer, fixed a shower head. We had over the high schoolers for a 'hang out' night. And also several adults. Oh yes, I made a gigantic bubble wand and some home made bubble juice for big giant bubbles! Trying to resolve ALL leaks in the house because water is short, I printed out a small plastic gasket/washer for the shower head and fixed that as well. (turned out it didn't work, so I ended up using a store bought one, but hey, it was worth a try)
Sunday - we had friends over with little kids, so we blew bubbles. I had to print some bubble wands out on the 3d printer for the little ones to play with. Did a few magic tricks, etc.
Overall, this weekend has been really busy with fun stuff. My 3d printer I brought was a small kit (the QU two up) that I had to build myself. Today I had a few kids over who had been learning how to use Blender and showed them the printer.
I bought a few inexpensive tech gadgetty things on furlough and brought them back. Why? Because when I saw how the kids were using the arduinos, the 3d printers, the drones, the robotics at the maker faire on furlough... my first thought was 'the people at Ukarumpa have GOT to see this.'
Sometimes by living here, the kids grow up not knowing what they want to do. There isn't much tv or movies, there isn't much outside contact, (there is some but not as much exposure as in the U.S.) .... and the kids aren't always sure what they want to do.
So show them robotics, show them 3d design, show them 3d printing, show them quadrotor drones.... and maybe some of them will get an inkling of what they want to learn in college!
And plus it is fun for me to learn and play with too! Still, all in all, with all these gadgets, I have under $500 invested. I wasn't going to spend a thousands so I got the 'missionary' version of these things.
For me, when I was a youngster, someone showed me something that affected the path of the rest of my life. And I've been forever thankful to that person. If I could do that for one other kid here, it would be something I'd enjoy.
