Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Our computer at home is working!

Yesterday was a day of great joy in the Sawatsky home--the computer was hooked up and it works! Now we're just waiting for our high-speed internet connection to get hooked up (which should happen before Christmas) and all will be back to normal as far as communication with our friends and supporters goes.

Here's the story as to what has gone wrong. I bought this computer with the idea of saving lots of money. I got it on E-bay and the guy who owned it told me that the hard drive would be wiped clean so that everything would be legal. I ordered a copy of Windows XP from my mission, but it didn't come before we left Texas. When we got here, we tried to install Windows 98 until my copy of XP arrived, but the computer wouldn't read any CD's. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, so I gave it to the computer guys here at PACA to fix. They couldn't solve the problem, so they had it sent out to a computer repair shop. This is where things get interesting. What must have happened is that while testing my computer, the computer shop fried my processor chip, because when it came back the computer didn't work at all, and the shop said I needed a new processor and a new motherboard. I nearly freaked (note: nearly) and insisted that the repair shop make good for wrecking my computer. They agreed to give me another processor (which I'm told almost never happens here) and they sent my computer back with a "new" chip. Since the computer still wasn't working, the school sent my computer back to them to be fixed with an understanding that we won't be happy until it comes back with a functioning version of Windows on it. Well, it arrived yesterday, nearly one month after arriving, with a 900 megahertz processor (it had an AMD Athlon 2000 megahertz processor when we came) and a functioning version of Windows 2000. But we are just thrilled to have it.

P.S. We have already downloaded all 125 pictures that we've taken since we got here from the digital camera. Once we get that internet connection, we'll be flooding this blog with information.