It's Saturday night in Brazil! I "should" be attending the Cajun-like Forró dance party next-door. In the Forró dance hall, pleated dresses are twirling in the darkness, men press the small of women's backs with the left hand while leading tem about with the right, to and fro, around and about the dance the floor, to the insistent beat of base drums, accordion and guitar. Laughing and gaeity reign. It's really not my scene. I feel more comfortable in my element, writing about . . . life.
I'm writing about two of my obsessions - the Internet and our "Brazilian Peninsula Project" that brings Internet access to people who had no access before. Since August, I've been working on a project to fund and provide Internet access on an isolated peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Brazil, inhabited primarily by indigenous Indians and Afro-Brazilians.
The challenges to bringing Internet access here have been daunting: There is access to the electrical grid, no telephone lines, no cable access. And the residents have little money. Over the last two months, I've spoken of these challenges in DailyKos diaries and the results have been tremendous. DailyKos readers and participants have contributed $526.00, which when combined with local contributions, has been enough to pay for the installation of a satellite Internet connection as well as the first month of Internet access.
On September 29, the Internet provider installed a satellite dish even as we urgently prepared our humble space to be our Internet access point.
Pelé fixes the concrete after tearing out an interior wall to make room for the Internet room.
Having construction skills in-house reduces the cost of starting an access point and brings down the price for customers.
Leóncio paints the walls. Although Internet access points are often white, like doctor's offices, this one will be orange and pink, like tropical architecture.
Thanks to the readers of DailyKos for your encouragement, financial participation and practical suggestions.
Challenges abound still. It costs $1.50 per hour to run the generator that provides electricity for the computers, and that limits the Project's hours as well as its ability to run promotions such as a free half-hour of computer training for those who have never access a computer before. In the coming months, this peninsula will receive grid electricity and then the price of electricity will be reduced considerably, enabling the Project to reach out to the community with greater generosity and coverage. Even now, we've opened a half dozen MSN accounts and those who have them are teaching others.
We've got much basis construction to go still, including installing a window, electrical outlets and lamps . . .
It's humbling to be trained to practice in courts and the halls of government, but instead to travel the unpaved roads of Latin America, far from the courts, suits and ties and legal clients that I once believed to be the essence of my future. Along the way, I've realized that although I have always wanted to be an important person, changing the world, I can accept being a catalyst for important things, changing a few people's lives and, in the process, discovering my own path.
Pele, family head, accesses the Internet for the first time, and also becomes owner of an Internet access point.
Pelé, Andressa, Leóncio and Joanna stand in the doorway of their new Internet access point.
Tomorrow, we'll be cutting a huge hole in this wall to install a window that I made by hand, so that community members can see their neighbors learning how to access the Internet. It's a labor of love.
To help the project cover its first four months of Internet access, please visit PayPay.Com and make a contribution to the BrazilianPeninsulaProject@Yahoo.Com.