Sunday, October 29, 2006, Dharamsala. (Day 4 of the workshops)

Although better than yesterday, I still feel not fit to make the walk by foot. I ask a taxi, but am referred to the taxi booking station. Many people around and but none seem to get permission to taxi me. Günther arrives just before I get a signal to follow one of the man. We both try to follow him between a mesh of cars. Finally we get in a cab and take the road to Upper TCV.

At the place the taxi's and Rickshaws set you off, we have a point where we buy Chai (Indian tea) and for some a chepatti. The one taking pictures is Stan from New-Zealand.

 

Today is the day to set up a mesh network. Elektra is the expert and leads 6 groups through the installation of a Linksys WRT 54GL accesspoint. She carefully tells where it is important to take special care so you would not ruin a device.

 

 

Lunch is around the temple of the TCV. There are so many stairs to take that I have to take a breath halfway up. I accuse the infection and the high altitude for this discomfort. The first picture is a view from the place where the classroom is. Note that we have to take the same stairs as the one the Dalai Lama went a week ago. The temple is under the trees at the far end at the right hand side.

Behind Phuntsok, the manager at TCV, you will see that the slopes are still steep.

On our way back to the classroom, we have to go down and cross the sportfield. Looking back halfway down, it is good to note that there are no handrails at the stairs, nor is there a fence along the high terraces.

The second picture shows the stairs to be taken before stepping on the sportfield.

 

From the point where the pictures just above were taken, one can see the building of the classroom (to the left, with the green roof). Note the mace of stairs. This is typical for the whole of the premises of TCV.

While the lock is taken from the gate to the classroom some children challenge in a game of "I am itching".
After the lunch we continue the work on the mesh. Shortly after Sebastian notes from his monitor the all nodes and PCs are on the mesh. Because I was working on uploading files to the wiki site, I had not done the installation. With the help of Elektra, I am also a node in the mesh within ten minutes. The trick was to install the OLRS (Optimized Link state Routing protocol) software, available on www.olrs.org. Elektra has contributed to this piece of software, so it is now working excellent.  
On my way to the common hall, I am invited to participate in an interview of a small radio station run by Kloshi a member of FreiFunk. After me two girls from TCV are interviewed.  
The next interviews are from Manipur, India and from Pampam Luithui.  
Back in the restaurant I meet Frieder Brunner with his daughter. They have used this Sunday to climb a mountain. She is a good target to show how you have to order your dishes. In addition to the menu, the boy hands you a stapled set of reused papers with a carbon paper below the top sheet and a pencil. You have to write down yourself what you want to order.....