Day 1 setup - Lower your expectations...

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
--Proverbs 3:6

What an absolutely fantastic few days we have had so far!  The good news is....  the cafe looks nothing like this picture!  :)


Doing work here in Zambia is like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life.  Besides the actual work of setting up the internet cafe, we have had a few "real African experiences" as Don puts it.  Simple things like getting air for a tire is an issue.  We had to change a tire on Don's X-Trail and the spare was low on air.  We were sitting in the parking of a gas station and there was no air available..!  We had to go to three different gas stations (count-em... THREE!) to find a working air machine to get air in the tire!


Over the last two days of setup, with the different wins, successes, failures and challenges, I have heard Don say "Lower your expectations" to John and I over a dozen times.  I am learning you can't rely on the Zambian basic city infrastructure..  I don't mean the tech infrastructure, I means things like air at a gas station, wood and screws at a hardware store, meat at the grocery store...  Even the restaurants don't have everything they have on the menu.  So we need to lower our expectations not to be disappointed or frustrated. 

I have one thing I want to say about that before I talk about the cafe.  (If all you care about is that...  jump down a little..)


I have no issue adapting to where I am.  I understand things are different here and I will do whatever I need to do.  It just got me thinking about my expectations from God.  For this trip, for my life in general.  Even though I am in Zambia, I will not lower my expectations for what God can do (and he has been pretty awesome in the last few days).  I will make sure I keep a very high expectation from God.  I will expect from Him exactly what he has promised! We can move mountains with our faith in Him! (Matthew 21:21-22)  I will expect from God as much as my faith will allow me to.

As for the stores in Zambia though....
:)










OK... now on to the cafe setup!


Internet Cafe setup Day 1

First I have to show you the nice job John did in actually putting a plug on the drill we were using.  When we got there, the drill just had two loose wires that they would stick into the outlet! (This is all 220V)  John took one of our adapter plugs and some duct tape (Thank God for duct tape!) and made a make-shift socket for the drill.

This picture shows both what the place looked like when we walked in and the "extension wires" for the drill! 

The below video is a small walk though of the place before we started.

And the work begins...  Finally unpacking all the stuff we brought.  Our day one goal was to get the connection working, the routers setup and start the wiring.

OUCH!!  Nasty surprise when we took the protective vinyl off the tables.  It had been left there to protect the tables while the painting was going on. The last thing to paint are the tables.  When Don took the vinyl off we found wood that was less then worthy to support computers.  (Remember... lower your expectations... sigh...)  One more thing to deal with...  More on that later..

We did find a great spot for the cell modem and the first open-mesh router.  Its a small locked room on the north side of the floor.  This is where the signal  strength was the best.  WIN!

 And by best.... what I mean is.. the best we can expect for Zambia...  By north american standards, this would totally blow!  But by Kitwe, Zambia standards, its the fastest they have ever had!!  I had read that Zambia ranked 185th out of 185 countries for internet speed.  It seems that I was wrong, Zambia is 167th out of 174 countries!!


Well...  it can only go up from here! 

 I am pretty happy with the progress of Day 1.  We have been able to completely wire the cafe.  John worked very hard at pulling and punching all the cables. (THANKS JOHN!) While I worked with the cell modem, routers and switches and got them all into place.  I think I ended up only crimping about 4 or 5 wire ends.  What you are looking at here is under the desk.  All the wires, switches and open mesh devices are under the desk along the wall.  




It makes for a very clean look, easy to get to for maintenance, but also out of the way.


Here is a different view...








Quick note...  I took all these pics, so I am not in any of them.  I know both John and Don took some that I will get and post soon.  I should be in those...  I really am here, honest..  :)


So in the mean time, here are  a couple of John and Don hard at work.

And lastly... no work day picture set would be complete without one..  This is what my desk looked like during the day...

Day 1 is done!!  And we are ahead of schedule.  All the open-mesh devices are configuring and working.  The cell modem is A-OK and ALL the wiring is done!


P.S.  I know if you look at at the actual day I am posting this (Tuesday night), we actually finished day 2 today so why am I posting all day 1 stuff and no day 2 stuff..?  well...  when I write about it, you will understand..  WHAT A DAY ITS BEEN!!!   :)