Monday, March 3, 2008

The Internet Was Down, sort of...

Our Internet connection went off yesterday (Sunday) around 7 or 8 in the evening. Lars, our Norwegian is the Internet fundi (expert). He has been trying to correct the situation at the router or on the tower this evening (Monday). With a little help from Harald they looked into both locations. We knew we were getting something because the office Internet was still working across campus. But it’s all so very African. (Kama kawaida, there are some Swahili phrases I love - its normal.)

I missed Lars on the ladder at the router which looks to me like a bird house itself. But I got Harald up on the tower trying to explain to Chuma (language school director) that it might be good to have the real fundi (when he comes) clean out the box on the tower. (Read with a German accent:) “There is like a bird’s nest in here. It would be good to take everything out and clean and put it back in.” Since I was standing with all men I asked the question, "If it's working here, why fix it?" Both Europeans and Tanzanians laughed. I was accused of being too African (by the German).

While Lars was on the ladder the electricity went out. But when it came back on it still wasn’t working. Now 3 hours later it’s suddenly working. No telling when it will go down again. While it’s still up I will try to get the photos posted.
Please be patient if you are waiting for a reply from me or looking for another post.

1 comment:

Molly said...

I've enjoyed your posts and pictures a lot, Jan. Thanks for being so faithful to post so frequently.