Two weeks ago, Uganda prepared herself for the 2021 General Election. For 5 days around the election period, internet was completely switched off- and we remembered two things.
1. What life was like before the internet was invented
2. How reliant we have become on the worldwide web- this facet of modern daily life!
For those few days, we found ourselves back in the world of my childhood- the good old 1980s! Here are my musings from those few days of plunging back into a pre-internet world:
- no instant means to contact family or friends abroad- how did we communicate from overseas before Skype, What's app, Face-time or Zoom??
It reminded me of my back-packing days, when I used to buy a pre-paid phone card with the local currency, whichever country I was in, then phone the home landline, hoping that someone would be in and available to talk at the time I happened to call.
How times have changed for us all, whether in lockdown or far across the world, with internet giving us the means to easy communication!
I did give my mum a hurried call on the phone to reassure her that everyone here was doing well, but it was simply a few rushed sentences because of the expense of an overseas phone call. I won't be taking internet communication and video calls for granted again!
A photo sent by my sister-in-law last year, showing Mum talking to us on what's app video on her 80th birthday- what a gift the internet gives us for staying in touch!
- no more asking Google the inane questions that come to mind on an average day: a simple recipe for a homemade food, the name of a film we have forgotten, information about how to best care for our limping dog or what may be wrong with his leg.
I was surprised to note how impatient I have become, wanting instant answers to the questions that pop into my head! In my childhood, I would have been more patient- looking things up in a recipe book, finding that bulky encyclopedia and flicking through pages to find what I wanted to know, perhaps even going to the library to find information and accepting that this delayed response was perfectly normal.
- a strange sense of not knowing what was going on in the outside world or even within Uganda. I have become so used to having world news at my fingertips with the click of a computer key.
We don't have TV and don't miss it- but we missed it for those few days! Instead of knowing what was going on, we were dependent on the snippets of news in conversations with neighbours. We tried tuning in to local radio, but with very little Luganda, we could not understand most of the radio stations, so were reliant on our night-guard to translate for us.
-when the power went off for a few hours (a fairly normal occurrence) we could not send a what's app to the local electricity company like we normally do to inform them of our location and the outage.
Neither could we send the usual what's app messages to neighbours to ascertain who else had no power, to try and work out where the power-fault might be. We never know when power will come back, but being able to communicate with the electricity company does help me feel a little more in control, so I missed that wonderful service which they happily provide when internet is on!
- I missed access to YouTube music. I love to switch on energising music, choosing from the vast variety offered by this seemingly infinite online service. 💃
We dusted off our old CDs instead, but whilst I sang along to the good old songs, my teenagers looked on disparagingly!
This next point was a very positive one, as far as I was concerned :-) 😃
- no internet meant no access to much of my schoolwork, which is mostly online these days. This afforded me a few guilt-free days! I did not need to feel the usual pressure to work on Google-docs, Google-classroom updates, Google-sheets planning outlines.
Time with family and the odd cup of tea with a friend took precedence over the job. Wonderful!
Internet is now restored, as you can see if you're reading this blog-post. Work has resumed full-pelt and we are back in the 2020s, thankful for the gift of communication, information, local and international news, music and work tools, while also missing the slower pace of life and family time that no internet offers.
Although, as an extra nod to the past, Esther celebrated her 15th birthday with a 1980s theme! Great fun to dress up in 80s colours: a nostalgic throwback to my childhood!
I'm not sure if she or I had the most fun... :-)
Made up for the '80s... 😄
We felt the impact here too. Although we could follow BBC news we had no idea how you yourselves were. After 5 days of no communication I was thinking of ringing MAF but the email connection came back. Just imagine missionaries 100 years ago having to rely on snail mail or news from missionaries returning for furlough. So glad we are not in that position are back in touch with our lovely Parker family in Kampala. Xxxxxx
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