Communication and the Internets

We wish we could be better about communicating with everyone from over here, but it seems a few things are keeping our hands tied. As mentioned before there is a bit of a delay with our posting. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to upload photos that we have taken from our 6 & 10MP cameras, which is going to make this blog look pretty drab, but we will try our best.

But on a different side of things, there is also delays in our ability to use the internet. We connect on a separate, but parallel NGO (non governmental organization) network which brings us the internet via satellite at the blazing speed that I can only compare to 1440 speed dial-up. This is because, as we all know, the internet is "a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material." Thus navigating the internet or getting email is a bit tough, so please bare with us if we are slow to reply.

We do have phone access, again via satellite, but since our time zones are off by 7 hours and a day, there is a long waiting line and thus its difficult to talk.

So that leaves good ol' snail mail. I brought a photo-printer for some ridiculous reason (and gladly hauled the thing through New Zealand and Australia), and the ridiculous reason was to create photo-post-cards and send them off. Maybe not that ridiculous because getting on board I found that both the post office and the ship store don't carry or sell post cards. If you would like to send anything our way (before Sept 15th) you can reach us at:

Last, First: Civilian
Dept. DMS
USNS MERCY (T-AH-19)
FPO AP 96672-4090

Bon Voyage,
~Nic