*Joaquim Fanton

In the beginning of October 2016, I was at Santana do Acaraú, where I accepted another optical plant of Digital Cities project (Cidades Digitais, in Portuguese). It is a city of Ceará, with more than 30 thousand citizens, located at 267 km away from Fortaleza and 28 km away from Sobral.

The expectation of Santana do Aracaú population regarding the recently deployed optical cables was great. Greater than in many of the previously visited cities. And there's a good reason for it: the plant in this city is entirely out of sight. Cable installation was preceded by the construction of underground ducts, that required the use of tractors and large drilling machines. This work represented noise and smoke during long time. And, of course, the city's population, who accompanied and suffered with the works and became very curious about the network.

Unlike other optical networks currently existing in capitals and great Brazilian cities, the optical network of Santana do Acaraú was entirely invisible after installed.

The optical network plant implemented by Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC) in Santana do Acaraú accesses 24 places and provides three points of public service.

The inspection activities included visitation from all endpoints, covering local departments, hospital, health centers and schools. One of them is João Cordeiro school, included herein.

The establishment corresponds to PAG-02, a very important point of presence. We arrived early and headed directly to the equipment room. And we were surprised realizing that the equipment was installed in a classroom and that it was fully operational at that time. Through the glass window of door, we saw the equipment rack, full children's room and decided to leave the inspection to another time.

But, through the same window, the teacher saw us. She opened the door and invited us inside. We apologized for interrupting and said we would be back later, but teacher Sônia Carneiro asked us to enter. Once inside, she said our visit was very opportune. She was teaching about Moral Social and Civic Education and their students were asking about the box recently installed at the class wall. That was a third-grade class, with about 20 nine years old students. The photography shows only half of them.

In a few minutes, I told them that communication always was important for life in society and that, since thousands of years ago, men used to communicate with neighbors. They used smoke signals, drums and flags. Media have been improved along the times, until reaching the phone, that is being replaced by that box on the wall, that was very important and that they need helping us, taking care of it.

I don’t know if they understood all I have said, but it was possible to notice through their smiles that they were glad to help.

I’d like to congratulate Sônia. She is helping kids living in society when they grow up. She is planting solidarity and justice seeds in fertile soil. In ten or fifteen years, Santana do Acaraú will reap the fruits of this plant.

Then, I remembered the teachings I received from Linda, my teacher of the third grade in Grupo Escolar Paulo Thomaz da Silva, located in Itatinga, countryside of São Paulo.

Modest primary schools located in small towns need to teach not only the ABC, history, geography and arithmetic. They also need to invest in the moral education of students. By doing so, they are building a better future for all Brazilian citizens.

A good example to be followed!

*Joaquim Fanton is an electrical engineer from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), with 38 years of experience in optical networks. He worked as an outside plant engineer and manager for Telepar, Telesp, Telebrás and CPqD (Telebrás Research and Development Center). Today, he acts as RNP consultant and takes place in planning, designing, construction and acceptance of optical networks, including the Digital Cities Program. Travelling around the country, he accumulates stories that have been shared in this website.

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