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Bwiru Internet Cafe Gets Technical Support from Recent Grad
Frank Mitchell
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Actually I am right now [Dec '06] in the midst of text messaging and phone calls with a just-graduated Bwiru boy who has returned to the school to look into why the Internet is down there and to do routine maintenance. It is rare to get a Tanzanian to fulfill this role. Even this young man feels uncomfortable because he feels like a spy and thinks those in charge may also feel that way. So I must be careful, but it is he and other students who have given me the best info about what's happening, and more to the point, what's not happening. Well, moments ago, the student just performed the maintenance and the Internet there came back on after having been down. This is such a coup of information from the first really reliable source. He will write down these steps he took, all at my behest, leave them there and send to me. It remains to be seen if they will be followed but at least now, thanks to a good intermediary, maybe things will be better. This student also informed me that the cell phones of the headmaster and the teacher, head of the Internet, were stolen so that's why my messages have not been received (except maybe by the thieves) and needless to say unanswered. This is the type of "leakage" from an already dubious line of communication that makes getting things done in any timely fashion nigh on to impossible. I shall rejoice briefly at my success only moments old, but will not be surprised if problems arise again soon that I shall be lucky to even hear about, and therefore try to fix, only weeks later. I have one advantage in that my main project, the Internet Cafe there at the school, is one whose problems become rather transparent simply because I stop getting emails from there when the system is down. The assessment on the usefulness of the 700 used text and reference books I have mailed to them, my other main project, is spotty. I have heard that yes they are there and used and useful. I have also heard "What books!" It's a kind of crap shoot. Some days I feel like Theroux's book "From Cairo to Capetown" is correct, then other times I feel this kind of help with people like TEAAers who are continually monitoring and trying to follow up and tweak the system to get the aid to work makes sense. I don't know. All I can say is that I feel on a roller coaster as I try to ride on the Hands Across the Sea Ride. I'm screaming (not literally), crying, laughing. But I keep getting on that ride. I must be crazy or just a kid. A postscript to [the above] email message: The euphoria continues for me. This student Willy is amazing. He spent two full days at Bwiru Boys' from where he graduated less than a year ago. Willy did maintenance on the computers in Bwiru's Internet Cafe (MFIC) including all night the second night. Many students started watching him do the maintenance and three stayed up all night with him (while the electricity was on). These three are now the disciples who I hope will continue to do the maintenance which is so necessary and so neglected over the past year since I visited 11 months ago. Additionally Willy agreed to leave written instructions on how to do the maintenance AND how to reset the routers so Bwiru would not have to call the ISP who rightly did not feel it was its job to do this every time the Internet went down at the school. For your information I enclose the written instructions he wrote up and shared with me. Aren't they really great, clear and beautifully done? Finally, I asked him to survey the different ISPs available in Mwanza to check the prices again, and he did so in another written report. Again, a great job. Willy is now on the bus back home in Tarime for a few days then back to Form V near Iringa via Dar. He asked for no payment for this service, but I happily sent him money before and after his tour de force. Although his father is a true member of the tiny Tanzania, owning the only Internet Cafe in Tarime, Willy is not flush with money so it was pure pleasure to reward him. I think he has a great future. And he may have saved me from having to go over there at least partly to do this maintenance and train others to do it. It just goes to show that occasionally you strike gold. |