Celebration!

11/19 10:10pm

Today was good. What would seem an insignificant event back home, becomes a monumental success in N’d.

We were able to send e-mail from our laptop, through the satellite modem, to Yuen-Lin in Palo Alto, CA. It was exciting! The champagne would have been flowing, if we had any.

Yuen-Lin, our tech guru and designer of our uploading process, came to us through my good friend Nini, whom I at Omidyar.net. One night, when I was working late at Rachel’s house, I received a call from the (650) area code, Palo Alto, CA, but the caller told me he was calling from Malaysia. It was Yuen-Lin. We spoke for a long time, me about my urgency to create meaningful action for Darfur, now, and he about wanting to do whatever it took to help. We connected.

We next spoke when he was back in Palo Alto. I described what the dream of i-ACT was, and he said that he would get to work on it. From the technical standpoint, I knew little about what the issues would be. I just told him what the final product should look like; he worked, together with some friends I am still to meet, tirelessly at it, while at the same time working his more than full time job, which was getting ready to launch a new product. Our phone conversations would mostly start after 1:30am. Yuen-Lin…thanks!

Send a photo of yourself to Michal Miller, so he can post it here on the blog.
Michael, our amazing web design Guru from San Diego (of whom I can talk later), you might as well put one up of yourself also. Or, thinking about it, you might want to put up a link from a blog entry to a picture page at our site, so that the blog does not take too long to load for those that do not have a high-speed connection. Sorry, I’m trying to direct things from Africa. You do what you think is best :)
This has definitely been a team effort. Chris and I are out here, but the whole team made it happen, and you’re with us.

Juan Carlos, my brother and web designer, the i-ACT calendar page is looking great! Thanks.

OK all…we’ll be in touch; that’s what this is all about. Let’s get as many people as possible “in touch” and then, all together, let’s yell at the top of our lungs that we will not accept standing by as an appropriate response to genocide.
We demand immediate protection of civilians.

We demand all the necessary aid, food, water, and health services for the people that have been displaced.

We demand meaningful and energetic support for a lasting peace.
We demand a safe return home for the people of Darfur and the necessary means to restart their lives.

Too much? Not barely enough…

Paz