I'm afraid I've gotten terribly behind on keeping this blog up to date. Without Julian here, it's been tough to keep up with everything that has to be done (work in Lwemodde and Malembo, errands in Masaka/occasionally Kalisizo, and the blog) and so this seems to have fallen by the wayside. With that being said, it's time that there was a proper update about the status of internet and computers in Lwemodde.
We were shipped computers on July 2nd and are awaiting their arrival at the FSD Office (it's a little disconcerting that part of the mailing address contains the phrase "Across from the DFCU Bank and above Pride Microfinance," but it seems to have worked for others in the past). We placed an order for two netbooks (http://www.everbuying.com/product409483.html) costing $121.49 USD each from a Chinese site called Everbuying.com. Had everything gone as planned, we would have had the computers right now, but due to a lot of logistical problems, that ship date was delayed to July 2nd. (I think I've spent a total of eight hours on the phone with different customer services, and exchanged a total of 87 emails with customer service representatives, but the short version is that we began the ordering process while Julian was still here, and then it took two weeks for them to finally put it through, and at this point the shipping was also messed up so the packages are shipping via flat rate shipping instead of DHL. If you're considering using Everbuying for something in the future, we wouldn't recommend it despite their computers being incredibly cheap.)
So, at this point, shipping was predicted to take between 18 and 20 business days, meaning they should arrive by the 29th. As of yesterday the package arrived in Kenya, so it's looking doable. I'm getting incredibly nervous though that the packages won't arrive before my last day in Lwemodde on August 2nd. For the time being, I've been teaching people how to use a computer with the laptop I brought: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085RV13U. Most members have never used a computer, and those who have have used exclusively really old PCs, the kind that tend to be a dime a dozen around Kampala.
Our internet service comes from Airtel, a phone company, and it's incredibly slow (usually between 0 and 10 kbps, which means you generally have to count to 5 waiting for a page to load, depending on the contents of the page). However, hopefully once we hook up a satellite dish facing the cell tower we'll be able to increase the speed significantly. (Mahadi is on his way to Kampala today, so hopefully we'll have a satellite dish ready to install on Monday.) The device itself that provides internet is a USB stick that you can either insert into a computer or onto a USB port on a router, which is what we will eventually do.
With internet and my laptop, I've been teaching people about basic internet functions, getting people used to touchpads and typing (which is something I've realized I take completely for granted. People are the most basic sort of finger peckers, namely the type who aren't used to the QWERTY arrangement and so they have to visually search for each letter.). This has basically been setting up Gmail and Facebook for all different members, and then also working together on a web site for the Lwemodde Youth Group. It's amazing how many little tips and tricks, like double clicking and the shift bar, that I find intuitive and people just learning computers don't. If you want to check out our web site in its early stages, here you go:
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