Finally the moment arrived. Today was the inauguration of the Raspberry Pi lab at Nicolay Government School. Remember, weeks ago I wrote about this project that was initiated by JCI City Plus.

The past two days we went to the school & finished cabling stuffs. We fixed the Raspberry Pis in a cozy enclosure behind the screens. On Monday Pritvi & I spent time installing the little computers with JCI folks till late night. The next day I went there again with folks to finish cabling.

This morning Kishan dropped Pritvi & me at Roche Bois, Nicolay Government School. We reached shortly after nine. A while later Ajay & Nadim arrived. We had a good small LUGM team to check things up. Ajay plugged his laptop & tested the network connections. Nadim went through each of the Raspberry Pis verifying if anything was to be optimized. Pritvi shot everything with his camera. I must say for a guy who shoots over 500 photos in a span of two hours, he is taking photography way too serious (^^,) …

I met Varsha & Asha from the JCI City Plus team and looked at the programme. I was to give a short speech introducing the Linux User Group of Mauritius and how we collaborated.

A few officers from the Ministry of Education had reached by that time. I met & briefed them on the Raspberry Pis and our setup. On the other hand JCI folks were also very busy setting the presentation hall, arranging for refreshments etc. An awesome team work was happening on their end.

Shortly after 10h00, the Hon. Minister of Education, Dr. Vasant Bunwaree arrived. Everyone settled in the presentation room. Ashutosh welcomed the guests and opened the ceremony by a short introduction of the project.

He then invited the project director, Varsha, to provide more details on the project and collaboration of various parties.

Varsha welcomed the guests and detailed the initiative taken by JCI City Plus for the project, “Learning Made Easy”. She referred to her team from Luxembourg who helped them and thanked the various sponsors who contributed in the success of the project. Of course, she also dropped the kind words for Linux User Group of Mauritius ( :

Then Asha, President of JCI City Plus, thanked the Minister, the school’s Head Teacher, all the staff members, sponsors and various groups who helped to make the project stand strong. She also played a short video showcasing past activities of JCI City Plus and the making of project “Learning Made Easy”. Yay! I was in the video (^^,) …

Next I was called to present the Linux User Group of Mauritius. I did a speed presentation on LUGM, held a Raspberry Pi in my hand and explained what it is & what could be done out of it. That was a quick prez improvised on the spot.

The Head Teacher, Mr. Sadasiven Tirvengadum on his end thanked JCI City Plus, LUGM and everyone who helped in making the project successful. He even related how we worked till late night sharing the pizza ( : That brought a smile on many faces.

Finally, the Hon. Minister of Education, Dr. Vasant Bunwaree delivered his speech, commending the work achieved by JCI City Plus and all groups involved.

Next in programme was signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between JCI City Plus and Linux User Group of Mauritius. Ajay & I, being executive members, we signed the MoU in the absence of the president. Later Selven joined to validate the document & sign it too as the acting secretary.

We then proceeded with the inauguration protocol, the minister cutting a red ribbon. I guided him through a demo of the Raspberry Pi and we brainstormed on the various possibilities of low-cost computing. Several other officers from the Ministry of Education joined in the discussion and asked questions regarding the setup.

The event ended with refreshments where I got to meet people who were interested with doing the same in other schools. It was a good time networking with people. In & all, I heartily thank JCI City Plus for including LUGM in this project and sincerely hope we can collaborate on further such projects in the future.