Nine years ago I got a PC to take to Bos Kralein village on my first trip to Cambodia. They didn't have electricity, so we powered it using a gas generator. A couple years later we set up a solar power unit in Mr. Sok's house as an alternative and it worked pretty well. Amazingly enough, that same PC kept chugging along all these years. The village now has utility power and kids still come by to study.
Today I replaced the PC with a much newer one. I was thrilled to finally make a true "end of life" replacement and not because of hardware failure. Even better, we're trying out some wireless Internet access. For just a couple bucks you can get nearly unlimited Internet via the cell phone network. It wasn't working too well when we tried it out, but we all agreed it could be the phone carrier. We'll try some others and see how it goes.
I find it simply amazing that we went from no electricity to Internet in less than 10 years. The pace of growth and learning here is incredible, but there is so much more to be done.
Another sign of growth: we booked tickets to go to Phnom Penh on Cambodian Angkor Air. I've flown them before, and it's the best way to get to the capital for a day trip. However, if we drove it would be about 5 or 6 hours on Highway 6. Nine years ago it would have taken twice that. Ah, how things are changing!
Today I replaced the PC with a much newer one. I was thrilled to finally make a true "end of life" replacement and not because of hardware failure. Even better, we're trying out some wireless Internet access. For just a couple bucks you can get nearly unlimited Internet via the cell phone network. It wasn't working too well when we tried it out, but we all agreed it could be the phone carrier. We'll try some others and see how it goes.
I find it simply amazing that we went from no electricity to Internet in less than 10 years. The pace of growth and learning here is incredible, but there is so much more to be done.
Another sign of growth: we booked tickets to go to Phnom Penh on Cambodian Angkor Air. I've flown them before, and it's the best way to get to the capital for a day trip. However, if we drove it would be about 5 or 6 hours on Highway 6. Nine years ago it would have taken twice that. Ah, how things are changing!
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| Bos Kralein village (bottom right) relative to Siem Reap |
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| Mr Sok's son trying out the new computer |
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