Well I only thought it would be right to send this email out from where I am. Yes, it is 12:30 at night, probably all my town is asleep (most have drunk themselves to sleep after the celebration) but this blog had to be done now. WE DID IT!!!!!! After many long months of hard work. The computer school that we have been dreaming about has finally come to my community. It was a long, rocky road, but we finally made it. I am sitting here in my house, in the freezing cold (hard to believe) using 128 kbps Internet speed on a Pentium 3 computer with Windows XP. I am still pinching myself, and it is not a fantasy. For the past week the computers have been in my site, and we have been dealing with minor problems like illegal software and getting programs to work, but my community is doing it. Today we put up a 20 meter tower, and Internet was brought to my people. I never knew what the affect would be on the people until I showed them the things we could do. Immediately I called my Dad on Gtalk (because it is free and clear) -(Voice Over Internet) and the town could not believe I was talking to someone in the States. Kids were screaming, men bought fireworks, an old guy started calling me "el Segundo Cristo" (the second Christ) almost 400 people have come to my house tonight to see what was all the emotion. I let people use my Skype account all night and mothers talked to their kids that they have not spoken to months. The emotion that I saw in these people eyes is unexplainable, I saw hope, desire, a new found joy for people that thought that the world moves as fast as the sun goes up and down. Just think, 7 years ago these people did not have electricity or running water, and now I am showing them Google Earth and Ebay. Talk about culture shock. I will explain later in detail about the school, but I just had to get this out to you all.
Best
Brad