Floating Hope

Out of curiosity I'm renting a small riverside parcel on one of the Virtual Africa sims. I haven't quite decided what, if anything, to do with it in educational terms but it's interesting as there is more traffic than I usually see -- people pass by on balloon and raft trips and there is a hill just behind the parcel with a hang glider rezzer. I'd only been there 10 min and someone popped down for a chat!

It's a homestead sim so it only supports 20 avatars at a time and I only get 100 additional prims although the parcel itself is 1000 sq m and has a well-equipped campsite with meeting places. Any further building has to be sympathetic to the overall sim appearance and not generate significant lag. Thus far, all I've done is rez a bench, a microscope and a small sculpty of the trypanosome Variant Surface Glycoprotein (everyone takes a molecular model with them on safari, yes?). Doing a display or game related to trypanosomiasis is one possibility.

The parcel is quite isolated and I haven't met many of my neighbours yet; indeed, it's quite possible that some rent simply to support one of the few African non-profits operating in SL. However, the sims are located deep in the edu/non-profit archipelago so it's a good opportunity as well to visit (and revisit) nearby islands to see what others are doing. It also means that I can run an activity in which students teleport to another sim to find or collect something.

The name of the parcel, Floating Hope, seems appropriate as we approach the start of a new year and decade. As ever, you can see a little more if you click on the image.