The Internet; Were Not Flying

Getting Internet Fixed

Yesterday I finally was able to get our Internet fixed. Our Internet is shared with a few other missionaries, and has been down since last week. So we contacted John in the hospital office to see if he could get someone to fix it. He told us that he talked to someone in the PTCL (Internet company) office and they were sending someone to fix it in a day. Well we waited a day, then two, then three, and so I decided that I would go and see what was happening. However, I was busy this last weekend so I could not go. Finally Tuesday I made my way there. Luc and Denise our neighbours came as well, which I was glad for since no one in the PTCL office could speak English. I had prepared an introduction and memorized what I would say in Urdu, and then from there it was picking out the different words in Urdu and trying to understand what they said back. I figured by the end of it with broken English and Urdu something would happen. Thankfully Luc has been here a bit longer then I have and he has more of a handle on the language, so together we were able to get them to fix the Internet. After going there, talking to them, and getting a positive reply the PTCL guys were really quick to fix it. We got home and less then an hour after talking to them the Internet was up and running again and this time faster then it has been in the past. Apparently, it was something on PTCL’s end that caused the problem.

 I find this a fascinating part of the culture here and it seems to be the case most of the time. If you want something done here you have to personally go to get it done. Relationship is such a key aspect in the Pakistani culture. This also means that it takes so much longer to get things done. It basically took us half a day just to get someone to fix our Internet problem. Back home I would have called my Internet provider up and if they could not fix it within their system they would send someone out, and worse case scenario, 24hrs my Internet would be working again. Here, it took a week to figure out no one was going to fix it and then half a day to go to the office and get someone to fix it.

Internet in Pakistan

Oh and when I say the Internet was going faster now that it is fixed I mean this in the context of Pakistan of course. Here in Shikarpur, the fastest speed you can get is 10 mbps, but to get that speed one must pay double or triple what they would pay in North America. Where I’m from 10 mb is the bare minimum that you can get and it goes up from there depending on how much your willing to pay. Here it starts at 1 mb per second for those who are on a budget (but actually its still probably high compared with what people make here. Then you can get 2mb and the most efficient cost effective for me is the 4mb per second. Its still in the range of being affordable, and is fast enough to get by. With four families sharing this connection 4 mb per second is a must to stay connected to the outside world. I am thankful that a lot of the time we are connected to the Internet. Also, I am thankful I can leave dial-up out of this conversation. No one should have to use dial-up.

Buying Airplane Tickets

On a rather similar note as getting the Internet fixed, the same day I went with Luc and Denise to try and get plane tickets to Karachi. Originally they were going to fly down to Karachi for the weekend to get a break from small-town Shikarpur and see the big city. Megan and I also wanted to go, but that was until we found out that the price of the plane ticket per person both ways would be over $200.  Especially after I found out that the bus ride there and back is only $30. But it looked like Luc and Denise who really wanted to go were still going to fly. However, in order to get plane tickets here you have to go into the airline office and purchase them with cash. There is no credit card, or bankcard service you have to deal with cash only, and when it comes to $200 that translates to a lot of rupees. Even when you order them online you have to pay cash when you pick the tickets up. This became a problem for Luc who did not quite have enough on hand. So he told them to hold the seats and he would have to come back with the money. But before we left, a man invited us to have tea with him. So tea was brought and we sat there talking to him in Urdu and broken English for an hour or so. It was a deep conversation and he offered to have us for dinner sometime. All this to say, when one gets plane tickets you have to build relationship as well and to get plane tickets here it also takes a long time. Yet I want to say that this is not a bad thing. To me, in my Canadian culture relationship is not a focal point, but rather efficiency is, and thus Canadians miss out a lot on this aspect of relationship building. So does the end justify the means? I’m personally leaning towards relationship building over efficiency. But I’m sure some would say you could have it both ways. Anyways, now a days there’s social media for building relationships; you can do it over the internet. And in Canada, if there is a problem with your Internet, you can just call and it will be fixed within 24hrs.

We're Going To Drive

In the end after a long day of visiting and trying to get things done, Luc and Denise decided that we would drive down to Karachi in their car and as such save money. So were going for a field trip to Karachi. If your reading this blog this weekend please pray that we have a safe journey and make it there and back without incident, and that God will go with us and guide us. Thankfully we do have a national coming with us as well. So it will be stuffy in the car, but we will find our way there with the help of our national friend.