UK Blues

Woke up this morning in yet another unfamiliar bed. Befuddled brain took a good 10 secs to work out it was my own!

Long, grievous journey back, made worse by first my e-ticket being unacceptable for the first leg of the journey from Bolivia to Brazil. Had to unpack entire belongings next to check in to prove I had no other ticket that would serve, and ended up catching flight by skin of my teeth. That repacking meant that my Ipaq went in my hold baggage not my hand luggage in the rush, and is no more. So, that was the second bit of grief - various other items have also been nicked during the journey so now I have to sort out the insurance. Trouble is, some of what went is of no real monetary value to claim on (a few dollars literally) but were pressies for the girls that I had chosen and haggled over.

However, luckily I bought a lot of stuff and the girls now have ponchos, jumpers, hats, jewellery, hair braids, instruments etc. And the hammocks made it back too so Ant has a multi-coloured hammock to thank him for looking after two sprogs at a very busy time of the year for him.

The overwhelming feeling about the trip now I can almost look back on it (brain still very fuzzy - maybe it's the low altitude!) is that 1) there are plenty of opportunities out there that I am very interested in seeing happen and 2) there are lessons learnt that that apply strongly here with all I am involved in now eg CBN, carrier, CAN in a Box etc. The aim is to use today to tie up some work that needs finishing from before I went, plus writing my report for IICD, and getting some of the stuff in my head written down for CBN etc.

I think there are very valuable lessons learnt from the main aim of my visit which was to try to help the telecentres and the communities they support to achieve sustainability by extending their infrastructure, sharing costs, facilitating champions and evangelists within the community, adding services etc. In fact, we broke it down to
sustainability = improved infrastructure + working 'processes' + content

CANs in UK also require the same type of 'improvements', although in some cases now this is so external observers realise what is actually happening within them rather than for the networks themselves to improve. In Bolivia, telecoms are so poor, not only in coverage and availability but in the ludicrous and unnecessary complexity of the way they run, and regulation, that it is almost inevitable that what you build by improving the infrastructure is a Next Generation Network. And that is what CANs are generally doing in UK, and what new CANs will do this year and next, before BT roll out their 21CN. (See Marconi lost out on that one and are now in dire straits, anyone know who won into it? Bit behind on news on that front!)

So, now it's headlong into the fray again now I'm awake though a little groggy. I'm going to keep the Blog going as my own personal record of the months to come as my other Blogs have all been abandoned for this one anyway! Sadly, no more photos from that camera for now as I dropped it whilst uploading the final photos and it needs repairing. Sorry, Richard! Chau chau

Oh, and is there an election on or summat?! I don't think I'll be voting today because it all seems like they are talking the utmost crap from the little I have read in the 36 hour journey from British papers, and it all boils down to DIY and JFDI anyway, which I don't need an MP whose policies I don't agree (hardline Tories in rural areas) with to do!