Computers

Computers...Modern day blessing...modern day curse.
This laptop crashed six time yesterday. I think sometimes I spend as much time trying to solve problems as I do actually being able to use this thing!
Back in the old days missionaries would write a letter and send it with someone headed to the coast. The letter would make its way by ship as it slowly worked its way around the world.
Now we are so used to instant communication that we get frustrated when it doesn't work right away.
When we first arrived in Uganda there was no email or internet access anywhere.
To make a call to the states used to cost $8.00 a minute
Mission Aviation Fellowship set up a way to do email. We would dial directly to their computer which could take for ever to get connected.
Then several time a day they would call Europe and upload and download all messages.
We had to pay for every kb sending and receiving. Plus the long distance calls.

We then purchased a satellite phone in 1997. It would take some time to get it set up outside but we could actually call from anywhere for only $3.40 per minute. This was so great. We would sit outside with several chairs and call or do email.
We sent email this way. $3.40 a minute connecting at 9.6Kbps
We would take our phone outside and set up the antenna to find the right sattelite. We would hook up the laptop and away we would go.
We were the envy of everyone including some of my friends in the Ugandan military. It was just extremely expensive and slow.

There was an internet cafe that opened up in Fort Portal that used three laptops. I would go to the cafe and type my email into the laptop. Then the following morning the laptop was physically sent with a bus to Kampala. They would upload and down load email messages and then send the laptop back.
I could write a message today and it would be sent the next day to Kampala and then a day or two later I could get a reply.
We used to call this the Fort Portal pony express.

Some of my friends were able to set up HF radio towers to send and recieve email. That was cool. As long as the message was small with no pictures you could get messages.

Then the impossible happened ...internet came to Kampala. We were able to sign up for only pay $68 a month for the service plus pay a long distance call for each connection. It was slow but we had internet!
(This is what we used until last month.)
Then the world changed...cell phone towers began to appear all over the country. Everyone bought cell phones.
I could be sitting in a mud hut having a meeting and get interrupted five or six times by cell phone rings. We had to ask people to turn off their cell phones during church. Sound familiar?

Instead of asking what village someone is from people are exchanging email addresses.

Now we have arrived we have unlimited access to the internet for a little over $50 a month. The speeds are so much faster...I am able to connect at 22kbps! Now that is blazing speed for this town as long as the computer doesn't crash.