Well it is hard to believe that my proxy has been going now for just over 12 months, considering it was just to see if I could set it up. Later I decided to make it available to other expats, to help with the maintenance costs.
What I didn’t expect was the number of new contacts I would make via the proxy. It has also surprised me with the varied backgrounds from students to corporate professionals and to pensioners. On top of this I have had requests from all parts of the world, even to find a Crystal Palace supporter out in Taiwan!
I suppose this is what makes it all worthwhile, in some way I feel I am offering a service that gives us expats a little bit of home when we are so far away. I even had one school teacher in Brazil who wanted it for the football during the English lesson, so they could pick up a bit of our language. I also have had a number of users doing missionary work; at times I was amazed they could even get an Internet connection.
At some stage in the future there may be no need of a proxy, but when that happens I hope there will still be a reason to keep in contact.