A slave to technology

29 July 2010

It never fails to amaze me that with every new country I visit, every new trip I undertake, I learn something new about myself.  Ok, so a lot of the things I already know and just choose to ignore for convenience reasons, but when the world wants to give you a message there is no ignoring what she has to say.

So here goes...I am a technology addict.  Funny saying that on a blog (the irony does not escape me).  It's not so much that I am an addict, more that I am a slave to technology.  Not a very good one mind you given that the extent of my ability on most computers is limited to internet surfing and typing up assignments.  However, this realisation came to me with sheer brute force this morning in a serious of mishaps which brought me to be sitting at my desk with a gormless and puzzled look on my face wondering how so many signs of the impact of technology could be thrown at me all at once.

Firstly, there was panic and worry when on my second day here, my computer decided that it did not wish to be turned on and went on 24 hr holiday.  Thankfully, for the sake of getting any work done in Rwanda, it decided to come back to life.  I had given it a strict talking to and refrained from doing what I do with most appliances that don't work, shaking it.

Then today, technology (though not new technology) burnt me...literally.  A nice burn on the palm of my hand whilst toasting bread in the oven.  Having had a power cut for 24hrs last week I have gained a real appreciation for the ability to put bread into the oven but today I took my burn as a sign that I shouldn't get too comfortable...this was also helped when for the first time since I've been here, I burnt the bread to a smouldering, smoking crisp.

Moving right along, listening to the news on my MP3 player as I always do in the mornings ended in tragedy when I turned on a tap I have never used in my bathroom before, thinking of course that the water would spray downwards like most taps (another assumption I lived to regret) only to have a torrent of water and what I am still hoping was clay, fly at me with great force and cover me, the entire bathroom and my poor MP3 player, in brown goop.  Unlike my cellphone which has survived two trips down the toilet, my MP3 player does not seem to have fared so well.  Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly fine MP3 player as long as you don't mind watching the little screen saying the songs are playing but not actually getting to listen to any of them.

Add to this the fact that MTN and my cell phone have a very love/hate relationship...mainly that my cellphone hates MTN and MTN loves to charge me for the 5 times my cellphone sends the same text message.

Not complaining or dwelling on what must be a hilarious situation for anyone reading this (I swear my dear Mammy had tears rolling down her cheeks as I told her this story), I have been forced to take stock of the amount of technology I am using.  I'm not going to lie, it is going to be a long process.  When I first arrived here, the lack of tv or the ability to sit at home and stream news and tv programmes, did send me into a crazed reading frenzy which ended in disaster when I had read every book, magazine and I am ashamed to admit, instruction manual from all of the pills and potions I brought with me to Rwanda, within the first week.  It has been great!  I have for the first time in a long time, been able to sit still and just listen.  In my last blog I mentioned that I was feeling anxious and irritable about the constant noise in my neighbourhood.  This hasn't changed but by sitting on my porch with a cup of tea in the early evening I have begun to hear the beauty that sits just beneath the noise of everyday life.  Last night there was an amazing bird flying around me house (I was hoping it didn't fly too high as it was also accompanied by the sound of the police helicopter above my house).  I also, after many weeks of wondering what the siren is that keeps going off, realised as I sat and just listened hard, that it was actually a bat which has taken residence in our yard somewhere.

This might all seem a little sappy and tree-hugging for those who aren't inside my head but believe me, the ability to sit still and not have to be doing something is a skill which I was not blessed with.  Slowly though, Rwanda is teaching me a lot of life lessons which I know will stick with me forever.

That being said, I will miss my morning dose of Network Africa and fighting my next door neighbours for one of my earphones as I come home at night bopping away to Meddy.  I guess I'll just have to groove to the sounds of the bars on my street from hereon in.