Thieves destroyed our Internet Cafe...

Late Sunday Afternoon

Several hours ago, Clara received a phone call from Sr. Alba, who is responsible for Cyber Café. I overheard Clara telling her that I had borrowed the Dell computer for the weekend. I assumed Sr. Alba was panicking because she had gone to Cyber and saw the computer was missing.

Unfortunately that wasn’t why she called. Clara came to tell me that Sr. Alba was in fact at Cyber and that it had been vandalized. I couldn’t believe it. Clara headed out the gate, I followed and Karen was close behind.

I arrived to find the entire room ransacked. All the computers had been taken, along with the router, cables, power cords, and even two broken computers. The police arrived and among a crowd of twenty we accounted all that was taken from us.

It wasn’t much that we offered. We had a copy machine, two printers, a scanner, and several computers. In an attached room, we had about fifteen slowly, working desktop computers. The thieves had begun to disconnect them, but must have been startled and thankfully they were left. These computers are used for the courses we offer, as well as for general typing; we serve as offices to countless individuals and businesses.

To be honest, the past six weeks have been a run of bad luck.

The young woman who had been teaching our Microsoft and Excel courses for over a year quit without giving notice. This affected all those who were in the middle of the class and the countless individuals that come each week requesting the service. We haven’t been able to find a replacement; most of those in Aru who have computer knowledge already have jobs.

Two weeks ago our server broke down. This required us to unplug and carry one of our three working computers over to the printer or scanner. Karen and I have limited computer knowledge, though far more than almost everyone here. She has been working very hard to transfer and reestablish a server computer. Finally, Saturday evening she succeeded.

Karen and I always joke about our profession as personal secretaries. There are a handful of clients seeking our help everyday: creating Excel spreadsheets for their monthly reports, scanning government documents to be sent to Bunia or Kinshasa, and especially translating and typing English emails. We also type reports for university students and assist them with internet research. There are many students who have never used a search engine before. This is one of my favorite services…there are a lot of medical students who come in: I’ve learned so much!

Tomorrow morning, dozens of our clients who depend on our services will come to begin their work day. Most people here can’t afford computers of their own, let alone the generator or solar panels to support the electricity necessary.

The thieves have not stolen from us; they have robbed and essentially, crippled their own community. It will be the families of Aru that will suffer for their selfishness.

Tomorrow is the feast day of St. Isidore, patron saint of the internet. Sr. Alba printed decorative signs offering 5 free minutes of Internet for our clients to celebrate. Instead, we will be closed. Who knows if we will open again?