Our First Entry

We have finally arrived in the year 2007 and figured out how to set up a blog and use it! After days of not being able to access the account, this is our first attempt to document something of our lives. This blog has been inspired by our friends Jason and Annalee, and Kyle and Amy. They have used our computer to do this "blogging" thing and we have become interested. Sara tried to start this in the Fall (Northern Hemisphere) but not having Internet at home proved to difficult.

We were able to get Internet access at home by going through some struggles.
The process started by purchasing the equipment on E-Bay in the States and having it brought over to Malawi by friends. The set-up cost here in Malawi would have cost us close to $900, thankfully we were able to do it for considerably less! Although the equipment made it here, it was not without difficulty to set up. There was a plug that was missing and an access code for the router that still has not been sent, but none the less, we have Internet at home and we are happy! The funny thing about getting Internet is that the satellite antenna(picture from our house with grain silo-has antenna on top) is visible from our home and we were assured that there would be no problem getting a great signal and great connection.

Three days, three technicians, their boss, and a small dish attached to our outside wall later we have a decent connection. It is better than nothing and again we are ecstatic!

We need to define decent apparently- we are "discussing" the definition. It is not dial up but not high speed Internet!-John. When it is at it's best I do think that our connection is comparable to a reasonable high speed connection in the U.S. However, there are many times when the system slows down (due to the number of users?) the power goes off or other various reasons and it is not nearly as fast... However, John assures me that I have just forgotten the true speed of U.S. Internet - Sara

However, one needs to keep in mind that regardless of how this speed compares to the U.S. thanks to Baylor's contract with the Internet provider this is virtually the fastest Internet available in Malawi and at a reasonable price and we are infinitely grateful.

This whole topic brings to mind an interesting caveat that anytime we use terms such as "good", "reasonable" and "decent" you should immediately add an implied "for Malawi" because everything is relative. A great example of this is last week when we took our friends, Jason and Annalee, to a local restaurant and told them it was "really good" cheesecake. John and I finished our pieces where as they each ate about 3 bites of theirs. Although we do think it is good cheesecake it is not certainly not Cheesecake Factory! This is not to imply that everything is sub par here - it is simply different. So should you read that we have "good" Internet and then come visit us expecting to be able to upload pictures with the same efficiency of high speed in the U.S. you would be disappointed.

So now you can read about these mundane happenings in our lives here in Lilongwe.