Despedida

My despedida, my leavetaking party, has just finished. The rum ran out, and the ride down the hill was leaving, so everyone up and left at once. It wasn't overly emotional, but it felt good.

Everything is reasonably in place. We don't have service in Altagracia, but a contract will be made with the dueña of the land where the Altagracia repeater is for one year at C$300 (U$19), with six months up front. Mauricio, our "administrator," is taking over the show, collecting payments, buying receipt stationary, and so forth. The contract with our Internet provider will be made soon, and payment begins February 1, mid-way though my absence.

This is the first proofing. I intend to be a part of this project for some time to come, but I need to remove myself as soon as possible from the day-to-day operation. We'll see how the mess holds together . One must have faith enough in what one creates to set it free :)

Tomorrow to Masaya, Thursday to San José. I'll be returning Friday night at midnight, on American from... probably from Houston. Flight 1221? I very much look forward to seeing you all again.

Planning and Extortion

It's been a few weeks since I posted. They've been busy ones.

I wanted to get the Altagracia repeater online before I return home at the end of next week. Was held up for a while by lack of transportation, specifically transportation for a couple solar panels that wouldn't destroy them. And some by-now reliable irresponsibility on the part of the person who had them. Still, I made a go of it.

The owner of the land where we have the masts and such ready for the repeater decided (or, her husband decided) that, since this project has something to do with gringos, and gringos are made of money, they would demand about $30 US per month for access to a 5' x 5' patch of their wheatfield. In fact, that money has to come out of the pockets of islanders. $30 a month might be the average income of a farmer on Ometepe, for reference.

I'm meeting with the various users who were to be dependent on the repeater. We'll talk tonight about how we want to handle the situation. It looks highly unlikely that there will be anything installed in town before I leave. So, it just remains to make sure that the three hotels and three private users that constitute the "low-hanging fruit" of the network are well-accomodated and happy.

My mail server appears to be down again. Don't know what's going on. Hopefully folks will get it back up again soon, but I might look into alternative hosting when I get home.

In a little over a week, I'll be sipping beer in the pub with some of y'alls.