Back home now on the sometimes snowy plains of Illinois, I thought some behind the scenes information might be of interest to anyone that followed the IALP 98 South American Seminar.
I first discussed with Joyce the idea of an updated web site that would follow the activities of the class as we traveled for two weeks in South America in Nov. of 97. A group that I had traveled with to Mexico for a number of years, Intercambio Cultural de Maya, was planning to do daily web updates from a rural village in the Yucatan. I thought that if they could access the web from rural Mexico, we could surely access from South America (if it only had turned out to be that simple). Of course, to make this all happen, we needed several things.
| First we needed space on a server for the web site. Cheryl Wachenheim took on the responsibility of securing space on the Illinois State University system. |
| Second we needed laptops to do the e-mail and updating. Keith Soltwedel (with John Deere's permission) and I agreed to provide those. |
| Third we needed a digital camera to post pictures to the site. Tony Dunker took it upon herself to locate and secure a camera from John Wood Community College. |
The pieces really didn't fall into place until the last two weeks before we left. I met with Kate Plantholt at ISU. She told me the procedure we could use to create and update a web site. She also set up the space for our site on their server and put up with numerous calls and disruptions as I learned a new set of skills.
Tony was able to have John Wood Community College loan us a Kodak DC50 Digital camera to use on the trip. After a bit of experimenting with photo manipulation, we hoped we were ready for the world of digital photography.
Keith and I prepared our laptops for the trip, not sure that they (the laptops) would ever make it back to the states. Keith secured permission from John Deere to take his computer, as well as install additional software in the event we needed a back-up. I cleaned off my hard-drive to make room for all the data and pictures, and called my insurance company to see if I was covered for theft on foreign soil (I was).
All the pieces (we hoped) in place, I scanned a few pictures, and created the site using Microsoft FrontPage 98. The fact that I purchased the 98 version caused a few problems at the site, since the server was using the 97 version. After working out these minor conflicts, we were on our way.
As you know, we started the photos and journals in Chicago. We tried to update during our layover in Miami, but the connection at the airport phone was too slow, and we were unable to complete it.
We arrived at the hotel in Cusco hoping to do our update there. Unfortunately, the phones at this hotel all went through a common switchboard, and after much discussion with the front desk personnel and many many attempts, we decided that the hotel phones were not internet capable.
Later that day, as we wondered the streets of Cusco, we passed a calling center that advertised internet access. So later that evening, as the balance of our group headed off to dinner, Keith, Tony, and I went to the phone center for a quick update before we joined the group for the meal. A few hours, much frustration, and $55 later, the site was updated.
In order for us to update we finally, totally frustrated, made an international call to my local server in Assumption IL (from Cusco Peru), a call approximately 22 minutes long. Before leaving the U.S., I thought I had secured local access numbers in all the countries we would be in; Peru, Chile, and Brazil, through ATT Worldnet. I had even experimented and successfully dialed into and logged onto, the Lima Peru access number from Assumption Illinois before leaving home. But for whatever reason, I was never able to log onto any of these numbers. All updates were done with international calls to Assumption Illinois. Keith had international access numbers through CompuServe, and for a good part of the trip, he was able to use those numbers to gain internet access. If you are planning on using the internet internationally, I would recommend getting access through CompuServe (or possibly others).
We also downloaded our first e-mail of the trip that night. I think we had 16 messages. We read some of them on the train to Machu Pichu. In one unusual moment, Keith Poppy read out loud a message from his family, warning us to be careful of being robbed on the train to Machu Pichu (read as we rode the train to Machu Pichu). The locals on the train were very interested in our laptops. No one was robbed though :-)
We did our second update in Lima. Daryl Brehm was kind enough to take me to the U.S. Embassy and there, I was able to download our e-mail (about 30 this time) (An interesting side note here is that the Marines guarding the Embassy's are not fond of allowing laptops,and in some cases even cameras, into the Embassy). I had hoped to update the page at this time, but it wasn't quite ready to publish. So we did our second update late that night from our hotel in Lima (about $85 in toll calls this time).
It was at about this point in time that we discovered the other two challenges we were facing with this project: time and batteries (with our first challenge being phone connectivity). Our schedule was designed with very little free time, and when it did occur, the last place any of us wanted to be was in front of a laptop. After all, we were in South America! I had hoped we could use our time on buses and planes to work on the pages, but Murphy's Law prevailed, and my batteries failed miserably. This left late nights as our mode of operations. So for future reference, I would recommend new batteries, extra batteries, and or a mobile power supply. Surprisingly, the one problem we worried about, voltage differences, was a minor problem and was easily overcame. We used adapters and converters, and had no problems in this area.
The internet team next moved into the office at Tarapaca (Chile). After
much broken Spanish and some adjustments to system settings, we were able to bypass the
switchboards and dial direct to the United States. I believe we updated twice at
Tarapaca. It was at this point that the e-mail from home became a significant
factor. We had to use a sign-up system to arrange time for the class to read and
send e-mail to home. But even with the list, there never seemed to be enough time to
get it all done. 
Tony & Robb update the site while Greg, Jay and Ron complete the
daily ledger at Tarapaca.
Top of Page
Chile was our last update. We hoped to update in Brazil, but we were not successful. The phone system in Ribeirao Preto was not at all conducive to internet usage. In Brasilia, Keith was able to log on, but time did not allow us to make a final web update. But the photos and journals continued, and the site will be complete soon.
It was challenging and frustrating, but I would not trade a moment of the experience. I continue to hear from friends, family, classmates, strangers, and friends and family of classmates, telling us all how much they have appreciated and enjoyed the site.
P Corzine
Thanks to all of the people who made this dream a reality, and a special thanks to!
Tony Dunker
John Wood Community College-camera
Keith Soltwedel
John Deere-Keith's laptop
Kate Plantholt-web site set-up
Illinois State University-internet server
Robb Mullins
Mike Wilson and Deb Hammrick-editing
Joyce, Sally and Ginny
The Illinois Ag. Leadership Foundation and Board of Directors
The Class Of 98
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