Wandering warthogs in the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

Yesterday, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club (HGAC) visited the Center for Global Health’s East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation.   About 20 of us made the voyage, initially gathering at JokaydiaGrid and then travelling together as a group.  This was the first HGAC trip in a long time, and it was wonderful to see so many familiar friends as well as some brand new faces.

We started on the HypergridUpper region of JokaydiaGrid.

Gathering on JokaydiaGrid

From there, we all jumped directly to the home of the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation.  It’s a detailed environment that recreates the wilderness of East Africa and lets visitors explore a local village, slum and rescue center for children.  Visitors can communicate with computer-generated members of the local community (NPCs) in order to achieve objectives, learn about diseases and how to avoid them, and even take medications from a first aid backpack as a cure for when things go awry.  Combined with engaging quests and fun activities, it’s a wonderfully designed immersive learning environment.  The lead designer Rachel Umoren (also known as her avatar Rachel Gloedu) is a pediatrician specializing in neonatology at Indiana University, and she was kind enough to meet us during the tour and help show people around.  Thank you again, Rachel!

Rachel Gloedu, the physician behind the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

Immersive Learning on the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

One of the many immersive learning scenarios on the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

One of the interactive NPCs in the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

A whole village of NPCs in the East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation

Due to the large-ish number of our group,  we overloaded the simulation a bit and some of us had difficulty hypergrid jumping into the region.  Perhaps our HGAC tours should be renamed “Stress Test Tours?” 😉

After a while our group unfortunately got split up, and some hardy adventurers gathered with me on my Pathlandia Grid.

Gathering on Pathlandia Grid

From there I brought folks on a visit to the Speakeasy club on Littlefield Grid.

Littlefield is a very active grid with a creative and welcoming community, and every Saturday night at 11pm EDT they have a live DJ performing at Speakeasy.  When we arrived the show was just starting, and the place quickly filled up with people.  Good conversations and excellent music made for a fitting end to our tour.

Arriving at the beginning of the Speakeasy event on Littlefield Grid.  
By the time I left, the club was packed with about 25 visitors!

Thank you everyone who joined us on our excursion.  I hope you all had a good tine, and I’ll definitely be organizing another tour in a couple weeks or so.

 If you’d like to join us on an upcoming tour, be sure to join our HGAC Google Group Mailing List for announcements.  

Abd uf you’d like to follow in our footsteps and explore on your own, here are the Hypergrid Addresses of all the places we visited on this tour:

Pathlandia Grid
Hypergrid Address: pathlandia.dlinkddns.com:9000:Pathlandia

East Africa Traveler Safety Simulation
Hypergrid Address: globalhealth.bio-se.info:9000:Traveler

Littlefield Grid
Hypergrid Address: lfgrid.com:8002:Speakeasy

JokaydiaGrid
Hypergrid Address: svc.jokaydiagrid.net:8002:hypergridupper

Don’t know how to Hypergrid Jump?  No worries, it’s easy!
Here’s how to make a Hypergrid Jump in 4 easy steps:

1. Open your World Map in your viewer (I highly recommend Singularity).
2. In the text box next to the Search button, enter the Hypergrid Address.
3. Click the Search button and wait for the map to move to the destination region.
4. Click the Teleport button.

Take care,
-John “Pathfinder” Lester