Internet Withdrawal

I love the internet, mostly my email. I can live in Honduras and stay in touch with all my family and friends. And take care of most of the business of our ministry and our personal business. Saturday afternoon our internet went down. This happens some in Honduras. I was ok without internet on Saturday. I was even ok on Sunday. Dorian called the lady to whom we pay our internet bill and she said the whole system was down. She said we should have our internet back by Monday afternoon. This lady lives in Roi Tan or somewhere far far away from Santa Ana. She does live in Honduras, but not close to here.

Monday morning, I was starting to get a bit antsy, not having had my email for so long. But, I thought if we had internet by Monday afternoon, I could surely wait this out. I always forget that things take much longer in Honduras than originally stated. Monday afternoon, Dorian called Suyapa again and was told for sure we would have internet back by Tuesday afternoon.

By the time Monday evening rolled around, I was having severe internet withdrawal. I was twitching and jerking. I began making a list of errands that had to be done in town on Tuesday. Errands that could not wait any longer.

As I left for town on Tuesday, of course, I had my laptop with me. I already know most of the places in town that have free internet. I went to Mi Esperanza. I opened my email and found one from my insurance company about a claim. I printed that sheet and filled it out and emailed it back. That was important. And it had had to wait a couple of days. I was sure there was other important stuff there, too. I really didn't have much time because some of my errands needed to be done as well. I was sure I would get home and find our internet had been restored.

Wrong. Still no internet.

Yesterday Marc and I went to the dump to feed the people. We both had our computers in the truck. It was late afternoon before we got to Church's. There was a lot of information I had to sit down and email to our lawyer's office. While I was working on it, I talked to Karen. She said we still had no internet and that she had called the lady. She said I got really stern with her and told her we were going to find another internet provider, immediately. Since she lives in another part of the country, she did not know we had no other option. But the threat of losing a customer sure got her going.

While I was on free internet, I was going to get the information to the lawyer, blog, and start trying to catch up on email. I was not even through typing the email to the lawyer when my battery went dead. Getting that information to the lawyer was essential, but so was my email. I thought I was going to cry, sitting there in Church's, because my battery died.

Marc said he had an hour of power left and 5 minutes of work to do and that I could use his compter when he finished. Twenty or twenty five minutes later I finally was handed his computer. Almost immediately, the battery low light came on. I was not a happy camper.

We found the one and only plug in Church's. We knew our cord would reach, but an employee brought us an extension cord. I could not believe that. We had had ice cream and tea, not even a full meal and had been sitting there in a booth and had plans to stay. That is one of the good things about Honduras. You can sit in a booth or at a table all day long and no one will ever say one word to you, except is there anything you need.

I finished my letter and did a couple of short emails.

Today several different people have been on the phone to the lady in Roi Tan since 10:00, on and off all through the day. Tonight at 8:30 internet was restored. Karen, Marc and I all got on immediately. We have probably overloaded the system.

Tomorrow I will start on this backlog of emails. Promise.

Terri