Many of you know that I've been helping Indians on a remote peninsula in Brazil to begin to have access to the Internet.
To facilitate contributions by members of DailyKos, we've dubbed this the "Brazilian Peninsula Project" and contributions can be made at BrazilianPeninsulaProject@Yahoo.Com through PayPal. (Thanks, DK members, for this excellent and practical suggestion.)
Now, I'm pleased to announce that, with the help of donations from DailyKos readers and members of the Indian community, I was able to pay for the installation of the Internet satellite service today. It should be installed within two weeks.
Three things happened that made this financially feasible: 1) The Indians showed that they desire this service by paying for it in advance; 2) Readers of DailyKos contributed half of the installation fee, and 3) the owner of a local bed and breakfast agreed to pay half of the monthly Internet access fee in exchange for access to the Internet.
I really appreciate DailyKos members who encouraged me to keep working on this even when I could not see precisely how it would be achieved. Once having personally assumed responsibility for trying to make this happen, actually contracting for the satellite service is a major milestone in my personal stress reduction. To illustrate how stressed I was after I bought a computer and announced that Internet access would be coming without knowing precisely how it would happen, let me recount a dream I had recently:
I dreamt that I had a new car motor, but it wasn't in a car. It was kicking around on the street. I didn't know it worked, but then I heard it running smoothly. It was in the middle of an intersection and cars were coming. I pushed and slid and heaved the motor onto a curb, protected behind the post of a traffic light. But then it slid back into the street and was hit with a glancing blow by a passing truck? Would my new motor still run? I just didn't know. Could I take it home in taxi, safe from the passing traffic? A taxi would be too expensive, and then I woke up.
So thank you, DailyKos members, for contributions that will permit the installation of a satellite dish for a people's Internet on a remote peninsula in Brazil inhabited primarily by Portuguese-speaking Indians. They may not have grid electricity or telephone lines, but at least now they will have Wikipedia, Google, MSN and Yahoo. This makes me want to cry when I report it to you, which shows you how important it is to me and to them.
Although the Indians' access point should eventually be self-supporting, if you would like to make a contribution to help with these access fees during the crucial initial months of operation, please go to PayPal and contribute to the BrazilianPeninsulaProject@Yahoo.Com. Let's open a door to education and give these kids at least one of the advantages that our own kids take for granted.
Parenthetically, it occurs to me that while the President makes foreign policy for the United States, each individual in our nation is empowered to make a foreign impression, by our individual acts of generosity.