So I’m going with WiMax for now. WiMax is a technology that, like its name kind of implies, is like WiFi, but for much longer ranges. There are actually a few companies in Mombasa that do this. I went with Zuku mostly because of the price (same as the super-slow Zain unlimited Internet package) and the better business-hours Internet speed (their biggest competitor limits daytime speed to 32down/32up, which is downright offensive). Well, today I was a bit annoyed because the installation team came with no warning and I had to skip a class to watch them do the install, which includes running cable through my home. Anyhow, this is no small deal—it’s kind of like a DirecTV installation, where they need to get on the roof and set stuff up and run cables all over the place. It took four people three hours to do it! Of course, their arrival was hardly discreet—they drove right through the campus instead of parking in the lot—and the children and school staff immensely enjoyed watching the process. My neighbor also convinced one of the installation men to fix her patio light, although I’m not sure how, because she’s deaf and he couldn’t sign. I think her “Kenyan Momma”-ness is simply not bound by language. So here’s the installation wagon and the kids starting to trickle in:
And here’s my spiffy new WiMax antennae, apparently with a nice line-of-sign to the broadcast antennae at the local university. The cable runs down into my bedroom window.
You might have noticed only one cable for both power and data. It uses “Power Over Ethernet” to send power from my home back up through the Ethernet cable. Kind of cool. I ran a speed test and I’m getting what I paid for: 256kbps download (pretty much on the nose) and miserable unadvertised upload: 20kbps. For what I’m paying, these speeds would be unacceptable in the US, but I’m happy with it here.
Of course, the moment that I started the speed test, the power went out, and stayed out for hours, so I had to wait until just recently for it to come back on to test this whole thing. The recommended I buy a UPS, but maybe I finally found a use for my solar panel. 🙂
In other news, I’ve been pretty busy in the library the last few days, as the line (actually mob) of children waiting to use the computers has no end. It’s been a great opportunity to take a lot of notes about what works and what doesn’t. It’s also completely exhausting. I’ve been staying until around 9PM, which is when the kids go to bed.
I also started teaching English and Math this week, 8-9:10AM every day with the woodshop students. Friday afternoons I’m also supposed to test them in Math, which is what I missed today due to Zuku. Teaching the older students has been interesting, but I’ll probably wait to comment until I have more time to reflect. Probably this weekend, because I can use the Internet all I want now! Haha!