We didn’t win the robotics competition. Not even close. There were all these fancy teams who could afford to buy extra Lego pieces to add to their kit and lived in homes with ADSL, wireless broadband or fibre. Some of these kids had also been learning about this stuff for years, taking part in expensive after-school programs such as Lego Learning and Young Engineers.

So we didn’t win. But we showed up, we showed them the best we could do, and while it won’t get us any prizes, it was a great experience. I met people who, like me, love to geek out. We would talk about facts and other interesting things like coding languages, why diamonds are a false market, and whether or not Pluto is actually a planet.

Mr Tebogo also met some interesting people who were impressed enough with us that they wanted to help our school. Nothing big or fancy coming our way any time soon. But somebody has already donated a few keyboards and special connectors so we can plug them into an Android phone and start working on some simple coding exercises. Which is better than nothing.

Also, I’m learning to enjoy my friends more and more. Baka, for all his teasing, worked the hardest. His ideas were not always the best, but he’d try to do anything, even help with the boring jobs, and kept everyone laughing. Renée’s skills also came into their own with the poster we had to make to go along with our project. She might very well achieve her career dreams.

And Clinton … he’s my boyfriend. I’m calling him that now. We’ve even kissed. Properly. Which is nothing compared to Renée, or even most people, probably.

But Clinton respects my needs and I do really enjoy growing closer to him. He is a wonderful person and I have all these feelings around him, yet I’m comfortable. Like I can be me and he can be him, not trying to be anyone else, yet when we kiss – wow! That’s all I can really say about that. Sometimes facts are not the answer to everything.

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Tell us: Would you describe yourself as a ‘geek’? Why do you think it is important for learners to have access to computers?