Arrived

I guess I've neglected this blog of late.

I arrived safely on Ometepe last night, having run into Kim, Ela (sp), and Emily while waiting for the ferry. Everything is just a little different, myself included.

Most significantly, people seem more enthusiastic about the project. They're doing less nodding and taking more action to provide for something that's important to them. I'm not just talking about the hotels; the mayors of both Altagracia and Moyogalpa have gone out of their ways to show their interest in the project. Partly for this reason, and partly because I don't broke any more, I'm more optimistic about the project this time around. I don't have a lot of time--about two months, a break, and about two more months--but I hope that will help keep me on track.

We're (the project fund) mostly broke, by the way. I brought a couple more routers down, but I think we're out or nearly out of antennas. David and I will look for a source in Managua on Monday. There is supposedly some money we can make a bid for, though, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to set up a tower on Sinacapa, near San José del Sur, sometime this year. The mayors should be able to help us find the money.

The goals for this stay are:
- Train someone here on the island
- Get the business squared away (a reliable manager, a business model that's acceptable to the users)
- Start the ball rolling towards the future (Sinacapa, money, etc)
- Get the schools set up (finally)
- Install a few more clients

What order these happen in, and which of them happen at all, depends a lot on a meeting we've planned with various folks for (I believe) the 18th. We'll keep you better informed in the future, and let you know how the meeting goes.

Peter

[x-posted to the freenet list]