“Papa, can you hear me?”
You will have to excuse the Yentle reference….
Electricity and connectivity has been something of an issue, but I think we have it worked out. Here is a bit from an email to my mother. This is in response to her questions about Tanzania based on her experience in Haiti a few years ago. It gives ya’ll a sense of the basic issues that have stood in the way of connectivity:
“I chuckled when I read your note about electricity and phone service in Haiti. Here, no one tends to use electricity in the daytime-most places rely on windows and other options for sunlight. Plus, electricity is so high that many cannot afford it. But at night, those who do have it use it and everyone has a lower wattage that comes through. The issue here is rainstorms and other weather that will sometimes interfere. But, lately, [the hubby] and I have noticed that we are not so bothered by it. Because of the trouble with AT&T cell service, we had to buy new phones (that could accommodate international calling and use Tanzanian signals) and chose to do pay as you go cell service while here. You know, there are no phone lines up here where we are living. People get around that by using cell phones. Most use pay as you go options, but there are some reasonable plans as well. We like the pay as you go so that we can more closely monitor what we are spending. The added benefit is that our new phones have a flashlight option-we can always get around if the electricity goes out. The other night, over dinner, we were talking and the lights went out. Since it was a little before dusk, it was getting dark but you could still see. We just sat there and continued to eat and talk. By the time we were done, the lights had come back on. Afterwards, we chuckled at our response. When we first got here, we would have been searching for candles. A few weeks ago, we even used our phone to help us navigate getting back to the farmhouse from the road after a long bus ride in the dark. People walking near us appreciated the additional assistance avoiding unexpected potholes on the road.”
Well, the rainy season is almost over, which means fewer electric interruptions. But you can imagine, there is not a tower close by for industrious types to capitalize on this whole community that wants internet access. We were relying on travel to Moshi for connection, but that can get costly and time consuming (a little over $60/trip for gas, plus internet café fees and bottled water-right around $75 each time). Sometimes we would also use our sponsors’ internet connection. IN general, they have discouraged us from relying too much on internet cafes and we could see the random loss of power in Moshi for ourselves. Well, we decided that as well meaning as our sponsors are we may have to strike out on our own. The last time we got to a café, we did some research on connectivity options out at the farmhouse. We stumbled upon a GPRS system (which is somewhat old technology in the US) where we could use our pay as you go phone company to acquire pay as you go internet. We could also use that company to establish a regular business account as well. We are trying it as soon as we get the special USB equipment to hook out computer into the network. That will be a special trip to Dar….
Electricity and connectivity has been something of an issue, but I think we have it worked out. Here is a bit from an email to my mother. This is in response to her questions about Tanzania based on her experience in Haiti a few years ago. It gives ya’ll a sense of the basic issues that have stood in the way of connectivity:
“I chuckled when I read your note about electricity and phone service in Haiti. Here, no one tends to use electricity in the daytime-most places rely on windows and other options for sunlight. Plus, electricity is so high that many cannot afford it. But at night, those who do have it use it and everyone has a lower wattage that comes through. The issue here is rainstorms and other weather that will sometimes interfere. But, lately, [the hubby] and I have noticed that we are not so bothered by it. Because of the trouble with AT&T cell service, we had to buy new phones (that could accommodate international calling and use Tanzanian signals) and chose to do pay as you go cell service while here. You know, there are no phone lines up here where we are living. People get around that by using cell phones. Most use pay as you go options, but there are some reasonable plans as well. We like the pay as you go so that we can more closely monitor what we are spending. The added benefit is that our new phones have a flashlight option-we can always get around if the electricity goes out. The other night, over dinner, we were talking and the lights went out. Since it was a little before dusk, it was getting dark but you could still see. We just sat there and continued to eat and talk. By the time we were done, the lights had come back on. Afterwards, we chuckled at our response. When we first got here, we would have been searching for candles. A few weeks ago, we even used our phone to help us navigate getting back to the farmhouse from the road after a long bus ride in the dark. People walking near us appreciated the additional assistance avoiding unexpected potholes on the road.”
Well, the rainy season is almost over, which means fewer electric interruptions. But you can imagine, there is not a tower close by for industrious types to capitalize on this whole community that wants internet access. We were relying on travel to Moshi for connection, but that can get costly and time consuming (a little over $60/trip for gas, plus internet café fees and bottled water-right around $75 each time). Sometimes we would also use our sponsors’ internet connection. IN general, they have discouraged us from relying too much on internet cafes and we could see the random loss of power in Moshi for ourselves. Well, we decided that as well meaning as our sponsors are we may have to strike out on our own. The last time we got to a café, we did some research on connectivity options out at the farmhouse. We stumbled upon a GPRS system (which is somewhat old technology in the US) where we could use our pay as you go phone company to acquire pay as you go internet. We could also use that company to establish a regular business account as well. We are trying it as soon as we get the special USB equipment to hook out computer into the network. That will be a special trip to Dar….