I'VE BEEN ORANGED!

If ya’ll remember, back in February I told the story on how I got a bill to get my phone line set up. Over the past two months there have been many tries to get everything fixed so I could get internet at my house. And if you wondering, the phone company here is called Orange, that’s why I’ve been “Oranged”.
I just want to share with you the African experience that I’ve just been through. In the middle of March I got the phone line installed. They came out and connected it to my house. The company told me everything should work and left, but I had no dial tone! I made a trip to the phone company, and after waiting an hour, I was able to tell them that my phone was not completely set up. A couple of days later my phone rings!! I pick it up and the guy tried to speak French. That didn’t work so I tried to speak Pular. Eventually I figured out that my phone was working and that I needed to go back to the phone company to get stuff set up for the Internet. I went, waited, and then was told they will call me when they “get everything worked out”. After some time, I realize that I can receive calls on my phone, but I’m not able to make calls. So I go back to the phone company, wait, and then tell them what’s going on with my phone. (Let me remind you this is going on in either my broken Pulaar or the worker’s broken English) They tell me they will check on it and let me know. Six more weeks pass and I get a call from the phone company telling me that there’s a problem somewhere in the city and they can’t find it. As soon as they find the problem, they will be able to fix it.
Finally, I got a call that they fixed it and soon after that I was able to call out on my phone. Now it was my boss’s turn. And after about a week of trying to contact people here and in the capital city, Scott got what we needed. I still wasn’t there yet since their program didn’t have the updates for Windows Vista yet. I don’t know what Scott did, but he got whatever was needed and shortly after that I was able to get the Internet set up in my home. It only took four and a half months, but now I am happy!
So now I have Internet and I don’t have to go to the cyber café. I’m able to take my time and get a lot more things organized. Now that I have Internet I will be able to do more things, but as of right now, I don’t know where I should start. If you have any ideas please let me know. What do you want to know about Senegal, the Fulakunda, and what pictures would you like me to get so I can show y’all? You can let me know by leaving a comment on this blog or emailing me at erk2p@hotmail.com Thanks again for all your prayers and support.
If you want to know, the coolest thing about having the internet at my house is being able to listen to some American radio. And yes, that means that I have been waking up at 2 in the morning and listening to the Spurs games on the radio. GO SPURS GO.