We Have Internet!!

We finally have Internet access in the computer lab of Shalom!!!! Can you believe it!? I have been waiting for this moment for 4 months now, and WE HAVE IT!! It all started when Tom came over with a wireless access card for one of the new donated computers I brought down from the States. We installed it and were able to access the access point across the street with it. Then all we needed to do was setup Internet connection sharing. Ok, ok. For all you computer nerds out there, I am fully aware of this �old people way� of setting up Internet for multiple computers, but we don�t have the right equipment to do this correctly yet. Anywho, we couldn�t get ICS to work correctly, so we left it for the weekend� well, almost.

On Saturday I found myself in the computer lab desperately trying to setup ICS since my next lesion was over the Internet (which I was going to do all by myself in Spanish without the help of Antonio.) Since I failed miserably, I decided to leave it for Monday. That is, until I found myself in the computer lab on Sunday trying to setup ICS again. When I was unable to get it working, I asked Mark that night if he could leave with me earlier than normal. When I told him we need to leave the house by 5:45 (thirty minutes earlier than normal,) he gave me a weird smile and reluctantly said, �Oh� sure!� Me and Andrea laughed at his obvious hesitations.

When I got there early the next morning, the Internet was down so I was unable to try and setup ICS. I will never blast Alltel in Lexington again after seeing the conduct of broadband Internet from Telgua in Guatemala. Since I was unable to setup ICS, I went ahead and installed FireFox on all the computers to replace the very insecure Internet Explorer. So since the Internet was down, we had a little bit of an emergency, but nothing that hasn�t happened in Guatemala before. My lesson I had prepared was over the Internet and since there was no Internet we had to come up with something new and go by the seat of our pants. I think we talked a little about Excel.

The next morning I prayed that God would help me to setup the Internet for the room and He did. In fact, not only did He help me get it up, but we got it up before the first class that needed it! So I had my little outline that I had written and Antonio translated, and I taught the lesson by myself in Spanish. I relied pretty heavily on the outline, but each time I teach the class, I rely less and less on the outline. It helps me to learn vocab and grammar when I teach from an outline. I am going to try to do that from now on.

The new room for the computer lab is almost complete! They are finishing up the wiring and next is the paint on the walls and insulation for the top. But there is one crucial thing that the school does not have enough money to pay for. Right now in the current computer lab, the floors are unfinished cement floors. With floors like this, dust is a major issue. Whenever someone comes in to sweep the floors, it just throws all the dust up into the air, and it lands onto all of the computers. This is a bad thing for a computer lab. The school needs 11,000Q to tile the floors upstairs. That translates into $1,520 USD. If any of you all have wanted to donate to a construction project here in Guatemala, this is a great time to do it. Please email me if you are able to fund the floors upstairs.

The other thing that God has been laying on my heart to pray for is the $10,000 that this particular Rotary Club is discussing about donating to Shalom for 30 new computers. I have prayed long and hard about this and I just wanted to ask for your all�s prayers as well. I know that everything is already God�s and $10,000 is pocket lint to Him.

An interesting thing; this past Sunday the pastor was talking about how the church is working on building homes for homeless people. Then he asked the congregation something I wasn�t anticipating. He asked, �How many people here don�t have a house?� After about a two second delay, one guy raised his hand but when he looked around and saw no one else was raising their hands, he pulled his down. Then the pastor asked again, and after a few seconds of delay, two people raised their hands, then a few more, and then a few more. Then the pastor began to count the hands raised high and as he counted, more and more hands rose up into the air. When he was done counting, there were a total of 18 families without homes at church that Sunday morning. I was blown away! I know of what kind of conditions these people live in, but I had no idea that there were so many that just didn�t have a home at all. Then the pastor told them that they would all get a home. He said that it might take a while, but they were going to get a home.

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