I live in a place that until three years ago did not have electricity. There is no cell phone coverage and no landlines. Until last November there were only two or three computers in my town. Then the school installed 15 computers as part of a government program of the former president, Mel Zelaya, who was deposed by the coup back in 2009. (By the way, if you are doing the math, it took the school almost two years to get those computers out of the box and installed!) I am just now wrapping up computer classes to the teachers at my school, the majority of which had never touched a computer before. Ben, in El Dorado, and I have just started a new round of computer classes for the general public in our two towns.And now, thanks to now Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Alicia, a few people in her town, and my coffee co-op, an Internet company a few miles away just constructed two antennas, one of which is strapped to the roof of my coffee co-op, to bring in a Wi-Fi signal to our two towns. Now the library in El Dorado and my co-op are connected to the World Wide Web.
In other words, this community has gone from no electricity, no light bulbs, no TVs, no fridges three years ago, to having Internet and YouTube, Facebook, email, Skype, Google, news, Wikipedia and viruses, porno and conspiracy theories galore. The good and the bad is all here now. How do you think this will affect the people in my town? My prediction is that their minds will be blown out of their eyes...
Good news is that I personally don't have to travel 2.5 hours to check emails any more. My life also will be turned around now, making my PC service turn a corner. This is the 21st century and it's here to stay!
