Technology and Pork Rinds

I’m writing this from the farmhouse (no internet, just a Word document and half my laptop’s battery life.) It’s 6pm and dark outside, and the caretaker’s daughter who was chatting with me has gone back to their house (about 20 feet away) for dinner. I have no cell phone service and I probably won’t talk to anyone until 9am tomorrow morning when hike back up the library.

This trip has got me thinking about the role of technology in my life, especially in connecting to other people. I got an iPhone in January, and despite the convenience (especially for a person with no sense of direction like me) sometimes I don’t like how having the constant possibility of connection with other people makes me feel. Either it makes me feel anxious (did he text me back? did they get my email?) or it makes me feel dissatisfied with being alone.

When I got to Nicaragua and didn’t have constant access to the internet (and my friends and family) it made me feel like I wasn’t in control. When I finally had it, I acted like an addict who had been in withdrawal. I stayed up late and couldn’t make myself go to bed, and I woke up before my alarm wanting to check my email.

I think the sense of control I get from technology is false. I can’t control when or how often I will connect to other people (or even who those people will be.) No matter how many times I check my email, I’m still far away from my friends and family for another couple of months, and there are many interesting people around me here to interact with.

After all this philosophizing, I’m starting to panic a little that my computer is dying. I have a bed and a warm dinner and a howler monkey wake up call at 5am. I’m sure I’ll be fine.

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Obviously now I’m back in civilization, at Sally’s house. In other news Monday I got a ride from this guy Jac (of the couple who used to live in Philadelphia) to Granada where I wandered around for a couple of hours and got to see the volcano I had climbed on Sunday from the ground. It is very touristy and pretty, reminded me of Antigua in Guatemala. I tried vigoron, which is yucca, cabbage salad, and fried pork rinds. Yum. Tuesday, Wednesday, and today I was up at the library, I’ll give an update on that later.

Happy almost Friday everyone!