Who would have thought....

Two years ago from this time, I received my invitation packet for Peace Corps. I still remember where I was when I made the phone call to accept this invitation to Senegal...Life University in Marrietta, Ga doing Red Cross Katrina work. At that time, I figured that I was heading into some remote African village where I would be wearing only a loin cloth for two years talking in clicks....well, that never happened.

One thing I was not expecting was to have wireless internet hooked up in my room. Finally, after a couple of months figuring it out, bringing a router from the US, going through two modems, and two wireless cards, I am now connected to the information superhighway from my roomhouse.

It is somewhat amazing how connected on can be here. Cell phones are everywhere (whether people have credit, even myself, to make a call, is another story). Cyber cafe's are fairly cheap and growing to the far edges of Senegal. Western music has infiltrated the soil here. It is kinda weird, but sometimes I feel more connected to the US and friends here, than I do when I am back home.

The reasons for the internet investment are twofold: 1.) To make communication back home easier and theoretically cheaper. In order to call Senegal, it is expensive from the States. With the marvels of the internet and skype, I can now call the States for about 2 cents a minute...even with my small pittance, I think I can afford it. 2.) I am hoping that it will make my upcoming job search a bit easier. Being able to do work from home versus an internet cafe is much easier. Hopefully it pays off.

With that being said, while I probably won't be signed on all the time due to erratic power surges and outages, I can be reached on Skype at: j.land