Internet comes to Baboua, Central African Republic

Thanks to an ELCA grant, we just installed a VSAT system that allows us broadband internet access. This will make a tremendous difference in our work, allowing us access to information and websites that we could not access with our old system. Nowadays many forms can only be filled out on-line. Many resources are only available on-line. Deborah has already found information on the internet that has helped her students at the seminary.

 

Many people think that everyone has broadband, but this is not so. The Central African Republic is on the other side of the digital divide, and that divide has only broadened during our four years in this country. Most Central Africans do not even have electricity or running water, much less access to the internet.

 

The closest places to get similar broadband access are in Garoua Boulaï, Cameroon (an hour to the west) or in Bouar (two hours to the east). But improved internet access makes a tremendous difference in a country where the Post Office is nearly nonfunctional and many villages don't have land-line or cell phone service. Thanks ELCA for your help. And thanks to all of you who contribute to ELCA-Global Mission!

 

Joe and Deborah Troester

Baboua, Central African Republic

 

Please note: With our new satellite system, we have new ELCA e-mail addresses: Joe.Troester@elca.org and Deborah.Troester@elca.org  While our old e-mail addresses still work, you can use our new elca.org addresses for official correspondence.

 

Photo: New VSAT antenna, recently installed in our front yard in Baboua, C. A. R.

 

Joe and Deborah are ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua. Their daughter, Christa, attends ninth grade at Rain Forest International School in Yaoundé, Cameroon.