Friday, June 6, 2008

Life Line

Where would we be without email, blogs, and the Internet? I know there are negative and positive realities about the Internet. What if you are miles from the nearest cell phone tower and the Internet is not even in the region. That is the challenge of working at the end of the earth.

IFC has solved that with a modest Internet satellite system. It connects the base with the rest of the world. This is an amazing system because it can find a satellite somewhere over the Equator and make it possible for them to send and receive emails. It cannot access the web but it can do email.

That is a life line. We get regular reports at our office here in the U.S. about the status of the work in those remote Islands. We can stay in touch with the daily events and schedule teams without too much hassle. There is also a sat-phone for other emergencies and communications.

We can get email in the middle of the jungle in the far corner of Indonesia—what a time we are living.