With a little help..

I've been back nearly a month. What have I accomplished? I forget how the days were passed, forget work done that did not result in its own totem, saying, "look at me! I blink!" I'm still so pleased with that blinky, even when it's clearly annoying.

Because there is still no connectivity in Altagracia. The repeater is still not ready, and a tree or two need to fall out of the line of sight. No school has Internet access, but computers are coming down in a few weeks, and part of the infrastructure is in place to bounce a signal down to the high school in Balgüe. There is still no local email system, although progress has been made on that front as well.

On the other hand, the Red Libre de Ometepe, S.A. has paid its first two months' Internet bills, with some cash briefly left over. In the last four days I've accomplished more here in Managua than in a couple weeks on Ometepe. With the help of John Wyss, president of our service provider, we know how to proceed to get our taxes and communications licenses in order. We have an outline of a good plan to get technical oversight on the island in time for my departure. And we may shortly have some geographic data of the island to assist greatly with planning the expansion of the network.

These things should have happened months ago. But this time has given me a chance to adapt myself to life down here, and to establish enough of the network to prove that we're for real. Yes, time has been wasted, but without great loss. Social networking, as noted in a prior post was, of course, key.

From here it gets more real, more serious, and more fun.