Home

I arrived safely back in Seattle, in case anyone was still wondering. This is a strange land, but stranger is who I am when here. Everything's more complicated; there are many distractions. Still, it's comfortable and familiar, and that's what I've been longing for. Mt. Si was cold and crisp when I said hello to my old friends cedar, doug fir, and the mountain berries (were there always wild raspberries at the top?).

I'm broke, trying to avoid spending money, and looking for a little work. (Know anyone who needs an experienced network or linux server administrator?) I'm starting to do writing in preparation for grant proposals, meaning I need to do some visioning for the project. I will, of course, let you know when I have written anything worthwhile, and ask for your feedback. For now I am structuring the writing around a new website, presently located here, for which David owes me a narrative history of the project (*cough*), and an ometepe.net dns entry.

There's plenty more than that, of course, but no need to bore you. In a week and a half I set out on the Wonderland Trail. It seems like an indulgent use of time and money, but it's been in the works for so long, and I've been missing the Northwest landscapes so.

That's it, I'll keep you up to date.

The Wire

After enjoying several natural disasters, my time here his coming to a close. Yet, strangely, it seems like things are just beginning for the project.

I did a presentation on Tuesday at the Mesa de Conectividad, a roundtable for entities involved in Internet connectivity in the country. Consequently, several people, including students and schools, are offering their assistance. Of course, this will have to wait until we have more time on the island, and some money to pay folks for living expenses. But when I get back down in December, as I'm planning nowadays, we may well have several interns, some press attention, some funding, and one or two more foreign volunteers. It's a lot to come together in 3-4 months, but we'll give it a shot.

Also, a group in Estelí is planning some pretty cool projects in that department. I may do a workshop for a week or so in February on wireless and/or Linux. Ooh, another earthquake… waiting for it to show up in the seismic monitor. From there, or sometime shortly after that, I may visit a project or two in Guatemala. And by then, I'll probably be broke again, and it'll be the hot season again on Ometepe, so I may head home. But really, I can't plan that far in advance.

Today's task is to work on an up-to-date webpage for the project.