Technology and Communication

Today's lesson in gratitude follows yesterday's attempt at returning my cell phone.
They wouldn't let me. So now I'm in Cape Town with a smart phone.
Great.
When I go out to bars, I'm going to take a pencil and pad of paper, a traveling "little black book" if you will.

I take my communication abilities for granted.
I find it relaxing to sit in front of computer and type for an hour.
I love that I can send you emails whenever I like it.

I never knew (or never quite realized) how difficult that is for some people.
We're not just talking no internet connection, no access, we're talking inability to type. To operate a computer. To move a mouse.

Today, the language barrier as well as the technology barrier barred me from assisting someone. He wasn't from the Fit for Life program, but he came in and asked in broken English to send a message.
And so I set him up with a Gmail account (because I am all about Gmail, all the time) and then I set him up with a blank message.
Talk of Mecca and of a Sheik and of stars and moonlight and other things I couldn't catch.
He was trying to send a message to Mecca.
I was trying to explain email.
There was a barrier there that could not be breached.

One of the ex-learners who had come to check his email leaned over to me and said, "He's not playing with all his cards."

Still, I was determined to ascertain his message, his purpose. But alas, it did not happen.
I still believe that he was trying to send a Sheik that had changed his life in Mecca a message.
But he was trying to get the computer to act like a phone and I could not explain that it was an impossible task. And then I realized that explaining Google Voice and Skype weren't going to help and somehow the US got thrown in the mix and it was a mess.
A mess.

And so today, I am experiencing overwhelming gratitude for my ability to type, my ability to email and overall, my ability to communiate (even if it's only in English - which I just mistyped no less than four times - and broken Spanish).