(“I Want to Tell You” is a song written by George Harrison and originally released by the Beatles on their 1966 album Revolver)
In the rush to move our team out of harms way, I rapidly questioned any remaining ‘mercenaries’ of its whereabouts, but to no avail. At first recollection, I thought, ‘meh, *shrug* I’ll get some new pants in this foreign land’ and hopped aboard the vessel, smugly satisfied by the thought of a justified pants purchase. Upon arrival at the new base, I gravely discovered the most prize possession I carried for the world race was missing… my deodorant! I mean my 1 Terabyte Toshiba External Hardrive!!
Will the band of mercenaries help Rocky and Bullwinkle, err, our protagonist, in the quest for the holey grail? Will the axis of evil get a hold of all the digital photos she’s ever possessed, along with other significantly sensitive data?? Will she ever get that $2 Subway sammich???? Tune in next week for the epic answers to these and other questions you may have.”
(sidenote. I tried to post this yesterday… This is what I faced with my computer… the blue screen of death:
I want to tell you all about what’s going on while on The World Race (Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador), and am overjoyed I finally can. I’ve had some ‘technical difficulties,’ to say the least, since January 9th. I worked at my firm right up till 2 days before I left for the race, and thought it would be easier to blog when finally left and didn’t have ‘busy season’ at work to work around. I was gravely mistaken. Thank you to everyone who has been patiently awaiting my ‘first blog’.
Let me take you on the electronic journey…
JUST before leaving NY, the screen of my Droid 3 wouldn’t light up anymore, and I had to craigslist a phone to finish my last week’s tasks. I got an excellent deal on a Droid 2, however it doesn’t have the SIM card slot nor a working front camera, so to use it for my Logistics job on the race, or to Skype people etc, was out of the question. It still allows me to text (and now call!) when I have wifi though! Too bad my parents don’t use texting… and my dad still only uses their landline phone. (No worries though, I just spoke to him last week for the first time in 2.5 months and got the FORDcast Weather Report, so we’re good for another couple months).
In Honduras (January), this was my blogging life:
I was using my Tablet PC, bought in 2009, which had some kind of virus as well. This posed many problems in everyday use, let alone never having wireless internet. On two Sunday’s (free days) during January, we drove about an hour from La Ermita where our ministry site was, into Tegucigalpa (the main city of Honduras), to the mall on a search for wifi. My ‘little Intel Centrino engine that could‘… basically couldn’t. If any other computer wanted to access the wifi, my poor little guy got booted out, especially when others would Skype friends back home. Given that it was their only time to use internet too, finding someone to share their computer was like It was one of the most frustrating times as I tried to accomplish the important tasks left in order to ‘close up shop’ in the US. I went a good month and a half before I actually talked with anyone in my family. eeeesh. (Sorry mom). I was able to write (and later have to update) blogs in Word, so I had an artillery of verbiage ready if able to post.
In Guatemala (February), this was my blogging life:
Though we had pretty good internet during Debrief (rest/discipleship training week) in Antigua, my computer’s wireless driver decided not to work at all there (odd timing) and then I lost my phone when we took a day off to hike a volcano. I borrowed a teammates Mac one night to try to get all my banking etc done while everyone slept. It had 15% battery left, and of course, the charger was too finicky for the plug, so I got one major thing done, then it died.
That night, I shared with a few friends that I felt God was really trying to teach me a lesson in just letting go of financial control, loving when living in community (of other wifi users), making the most of when I have internet (time management), and seeking Him harder than I was seeking to talk with someone from home. I said I wouldn’t even question Him if my phone was sitting on my bed in the morning (since I still have NO IDEA how it came out of my zippered bag), and I’d submit to a ‘lesson learned’, then just not use it the rest of that week. Well, I woke up the next morning and that Mac was at 100%, I had a text on my old-school Logistics Coordinator (LC) phone saying the volcano travel company found my phone, and when I gave my laptop a try, the driver was finally able to be re-installed. Ha Ha haaaaa, God. *Shaking my head* I was so busy helping to run the debrief schedule (part of my job as LC), that it was easy to let go that last day and essentially ‘fast’ from the internet, but I was still like, “geez God, you got me.”
Once we got to Quiche to do ministry, I was finally able to sit down and restore my computer one night. I transferred everything onto my external hard drive and wiped the laptop clean. Upon restarting, there wasn’t enough space to bring all the files back onto the computer(?). Additionally, I lost my Microsoft Office. Without office, all those blogs I wrote couldn’t be opened on my computer, thus couldn’t be pasted onto my website when I walked into town to use an internet cafe. *facepalm* I spent my internet times trying to find Office alternatives… “186 minutes to download file? Sure. Oh, my internet buddy is done and ready to head home mid download? sure.” (We can’t go anywhere without at least 1 other person, sometimes 2 or more. You’re bound by other’s schedules and ‘Hey, I really gotta get home to use the bathroom, can we leave in 5 minutes?”). I also got word that the state of Texas now has a warrant out for my arrest for a ticket I got in 2011, of which I remember paying since it was while on assignment for work, and I was gainfully employed. If I could prove I paid it, then no worries and the ~$700 of charges would be dropped. Of course I was pretty sure I used my HSBC checking account, which was sold to 1st Niagara in 2012, and archived statements were not something my computer wanted to deal with. Any time I had internet, I searched through any kind of banking records I could get a hold of from out of country. *sigh* As of today, still no luck, so we’ll see if they grab me when I fly through Houston at the end of the month… yiiiikes.
In El Salvador (March), this was my blogging life:
Thankfully, I have access to decent internet this month as I have been spending quite a bit of time preparing the travel arrangements etc for our continent switch at the end of this month, as well as preparing fundraising efforts for my next financial deadline of $11,000 by April 1st. (Please help keep me here on the race and support me? or even better, through my US account ([email protected]) on Paypal).
All would have been excellent this month with regard to internet/computer use, however, I started the month with a couple more technical difficulties. This one I was most saddened by, and hopefully it will be the final issue.
“Hot and sweaty from a day of treacherous border skipping, I and the band of ‘Mercenaries’ (we might have incorrectly said missionaries in Spanish… repeatedly) arrived at our dark and sketchy bus stop destination in El Salvador, hungry for a $2 Subway 15cm sandwich. Upon arrival, Cody and I (the Logistic Coordinators) immediately broke away from the caravan of C-Squaders on a quest for communication devices necessary for their mission. While battling the traffic, language barriers, time and currency obstacles, they entrusted those back at the bus stop to close up shop and move ‘the goods’ (our backpacks etc) onto the next mode of transportation fluidly. At my return, I did a quick inventory of tha goodes, noting a piece was missing: The “Holey” Grail! *dun dun duuuun*
At first glance, this coveted container has deceptive characteristics. To the naked eye, it would appear to resemble a black grocery bag, most closely related to those seen in 21st century Central American dispensas; however, NO, tis a far greater possession. This bag contained 9 years of HISTORY (in the form of photos and documents), Bwizness secrets from the 1st world America (from my prior life as an entrepreneur), and banking information maps that could lead to great treasure if landed in the wrong hands… along with other random things like food, windpants, clothespins/line, lantern, phone charger, etc. from my hostel room, that I was too lazy to pack into my backpack.
In the rush to move our team out of harms way, I rapidly questioned any remaining ‘mercenaries’ of its whereabouts, but to no avail. At first recollection, I thought, ‘meh, *shrug* I’ll get some new pants in this foreign land’ and hopped aboard the vessel, smugly satisfied by the thought of a justified pants purchase. Upon arrival at the new base, I gravely discovered the most prize possession I carried for the world race was missing… my deodorant! I mean my 1 Terabyte Toshiba External Hardrive!!
Dun dun duuuuuuuunnnnnn
Will the band of mercenaries help Rocky and Bullwinkle, err, our protagonist, in the quest for the holey grail? Will the axis of evil get a hold of all the digital photos she’s ever possessed, along with other significantly sensitive data?? Will she ever get that $2 Subway sammich???? Tune in next week for the epic answers to these and other questions you may have.”
Having to trust my squadmates to move my belongings while I had to do LC work, and finding out they lost irreplaceable data was a bit tough at first. What better place to be than on the world race though? I mean, as I play domino’s with an 85 year old homeless man, I’m reminded that ~90% of the world will never even know technology like that, let alone a digital camera, or hard drive. They record their memories and ideas in their head… and some hate those memories so much, they spend their life trying to forget them. Hard drive or none, I’m Still Blessed. Beyond. Belief.
So there you have it my friends: 3 months of fighting with technology in a battle to blog. More blogs, likely shorter ones, will be posted soon to provide actual ministry updates etc. THANKS FOR READING!
(sidenote. I tried to post this yesterday… This is what I faced with my computer… the blue screen of death:
After rebooting safely, the internet didn’t work anymore. eesh. Luckily the host here is an IT expert and gave me a patch for my network security driver, which allowed me onto a new wireless network. Here’s hoping this posting goes through!!)
