Last Friday
So I visited the NAWEC office this week. Nawec is the NAtional Water and Electrical Company, I think, and is responsible for a good number of the frustrations felt by citizens of our fair town. They said that the operating schedule for the public electricity is eight a.m. to two p.m, and five p.m. until three a.m. It's done on Gambian time, so those are very rough numbers, but has been remarkably reliable - within an hour or so - most days.
Today I'm back at my local internet cafe, trying to get some emailing done through a thick web of delays and problems. Now, though, perhaps it's working. I have written a couple of other entries, which I'll upload today, god and network willing.
It's a strange feature of volunteer service, how most of us lose touch with people back home to a significant degree. When I'm in the volunteer computer lab, we often comment about how we love to get emails, but don't write back enough to justify many people writing to us. It's probably a combination of the frustration of the internet here, the difficulties in relating this experience, and in relating to what's going on at home in the same way. All of which is a long sort of apology for not writing to all of you who I should be writing to. It's just such a pain in the ass to do at the moment. With a more regular internet connection, even if it weren't fast, I'd be better. I promise.
The fasting continues. It's gotten harder the last couple of days, the heat is back - we haven't had any rain in maybe a week now - and I'm starting to suffer a bit. Yesterday I played basketball, which seemed like a bad idea and probably was. It's hard to drink more than three or four liters of water and eat enough food in the time before going to bed. Tonight I might stay up late just so that I get super hydrated and full - two full meals I'm hoping. Yippee, to stay up late! And eat!
Two of my schools are hoping to re-connect to the public electricity next week. They both had connections when there was power previously (two years and some back), and just need to be upgraded to whatever Nawec is doing now. The other school is also hoping, but a bit unrealistically in my opinion, as it will likely cost them about 20,000 dalasis that they don't have. But, the world works in mysterious ways.
The internet is as flaky as ever, and I have little confidence this will actually get posted today. I should write an entry that is just a blow by blow saga of connecting here. It'd be interesting to me at least.
Now the lab "technician" is using a hand vacuum to blow air (into the server??), and I'm recognizing that I'm getting a little too caustic to be near human beings. It's time to break fast in a few minutes, and I have to go home. One post published in the two plus hours, so I'll consider that success and come back soon.
Today I'm back at my local internet cafe, trying to get some emailing done through a thick web of delays and problems. Now, though, perhaps it's working. I have written a couple of other entries, which I'll upload today, god and network willing.
It's a strange feature of volunteer service, how most of us lose touch with people back home to a significant degree. When I'm in the volunteer computer lab, we often comment about how we love to get emails, but don't write back enough to justify many people writing to us. It's probably a combination of the frustration of the internet here, the difficulties in relating this experience, and in relating to what's going on at home in the same way. All of which is a long sort of apology for not writing to all of you who I should be writing to. It's just such a pain in the ass to do at the moment. With a more regular internet connection, even if it weren't fast, I'd be better. I promise.
The fasting continues. It's gotten harder the last couple of days, the heat is back - we haven't had any rain in maybe a week now - and I'm starting to suffer a bit. Yesterday I played basketball, which seemed like a bad idea and probably was. It's hard to drink more than three or four liters of water and eat enough food in the time before going to bed. Tonight I might stay up late just so that I get super hydrated and full - two full meals I'm hoping. Yippee, to stay up late! And eat!
Two of my schools are hoping to re-connect to the public electricity next week. They both had connections when there was power previously (two years and some back), and just need to be upgraded to whatever Nawec is doing now. The other school is also hoping, but a bit unrealistically in my opinion, as it will likely cost them about 20,000 dalasis that they don't have. But, the world works in mysterious ways.
The internet is as flaky as ever, and I have little confidence this will actually get posted today. I should write an entry that is just a blow by blow saga of connecting here. It'd be interesting to me at least.
Now the lab "technician" is using a hand vacuum to blow air (into the server??), and I'm recognizing that I'm getting a little too caustic to be near human beings. It's time to break fast in a few minutes, and I have to go home. One post published in the two plus hours, so I'll consider that success and come back soon.
posted by Zac at
9:47 AM
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